Rolex Fastnet Race

Crew member on 399BC Phaedo

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 15:16:51 +0100

Team Phaedo has finished its biggest challenge to date and completed the Rolex Fastnet Race 2011

Finishing in a fantastic 5th place with only the world's fastest yacht "Banque Populaire" and 3 MOD 70's in front of them...

They worked hard, sailed well and came home fast...

Congratulations, Lloyd Thornburg, Paul Hand, Nick Crespi, Ian Moore, Andy Beadsworth, Brain Sharp, Jeff Condell, Ben Bungartz and Sam Bason.

Check out the final video showing the whole race, including some onboard footage from the boat, filmed by the Captain Paul Hand:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XwqvbTFfms

Still to come, TV coverage and some more high resolution photographs..

Rachel Jaspersen

2011-frog/frog-1314112807

Crew member on GBR979R Malice

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 14:45:38 +0100

Photo of malice minus rudder, on the wall in Hugh Town, and sailing to

Plymouth on Saturday with transom mounted jury rigged J24 Rudder. Parted

company 0330 on Thursday 45m west of the scillies.

We rigged a drogue and continued on to the Scillies where we were towed in

by the RNLI. The J24 rudder was then modified in Plymouth and sent out to

us in Hugh Town

(More pictures and commentary available)

Rgds

Mike Moxley

2011-frog/frog-1314097108

Crew member on USA21847 Dawn Star

Sat, 20 Aug 2011 12:03:10 +0100

Dawn Star Sails Home -Final

It is 2 AM, and Dawn Star finished her race in style, pulling ahead of a crowded fleet. But like every other day in the race, there was an alternation of fast and slow. Her trip homeward, after leaving Fastnet light, was fast, but as she neared Plymouth, the whole fleet in the area fell into a vast hole of windless calm. After hours of barely moving, the wind returned and Dawn Star flew home. The finish line was a madhouse, with over fifty boats bunched together in darkness trying to find wind and room to cross the line. But now it is done. Finishing places will come later. Thanks for following our adventure. Bugs

Rolex Fastnet Race lives up to its reputation

Sat, 20 Aug 2011 12:00:56 +0100

Records tumbled in the 2011 Rolex Fastnet Race, this year's event living up to its reputation as the most gruelling and tactically challenging of the classic offshore races. As usual the 608 mile long course took the boats from the start line off Cowes, Isles of Wight towards the Fastnet Rock off southwest Ireland, back around the outside of the Scilly Isles off southwest England to the finish line in Plymouth.

On Sunday 14 August, 314 boats set sail - the largest ever Rolex Fastnet Race fleet - up from the previous record of 303. This was due to a new initiative from race's organisers, the Royal Ocean Racing Club, to invite 'professional' offshore classes, able to compete under their own class rules, over and above the IRC fleet, that was capped at a maximum of 300 entries. The result was the most diverse selection of yachts ever assembled in a single offshore yacht race with the new initiative attracting many high-profile international racing teams. Thus in the same race some of the world's fastest multihulls such as the 140-foot long trimaran, Maxi Banque Populaire were lining up with Contessa 32s and pilot cutters with the complete pantheon of racing yachts in between.

A coup for the event was the participation of three Volvo Open 70s, the only occasion these boats would race together prior to this autumn's start of the fully crewed round the world race. The 'pro' classes also saw the race debut of the two Multi One Design 70 foot trimarans, and attracted six IMOCA 60s, best known for competing in...

Rolex Fastnet Winners Reap Rewards

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 22:22:31 +0100

The prizegiving for the Rolex Fastnet Race took place this evening at the historic Royal Citadel on Plymouth's famous Hoe. Dating back to 1660s and standing on the site of the fort built in the time of Sir Francis Drake, the Royal Citadel over the centuries has been one of Britain's most important defences and today is the base for the 29 Commando Regiment of the Royal Artillery.

The main trophy for overall victory in the Rolex Fastnet Race, the Fastnet Challenge Cup, was awarded this year to Niklas Zennström's Rán and this was presented along with a Rolex Yachtmaster Chronometer. The Judel-Vrolijk designed 72-footer also won the Rolex Fastnet Race in 2009, making her the first back-to-back winner since Carina II in 1955/1957. In addition, Rán won the Joe Powder Trophy for best corrected time at the Fastnet Rock, the Hong Kong Cup for first in IRC Zero, Erroll Bruce Cup for the first yacht home in IRC Zero. Rán navigator Steve Hayles also won the Alf Loomis Trophy as the navigator of the yacht that wins IRC overall.

Mike Slade's 100 foot maxi ICAP Leopard picked up a large quantity of silverware including the Erivale Trophy for first yacht home in IRC Canting Keel; the Gesture Trophy for first overall in IRC Canting Keel; the Clarion Cup for the first British yacht home; the Kees van Dam Memorial Trophy for second in IRC Overall and the Royal Thames Yacht Club Spirit Cup for the first Royal Thames yacht...

French Domination

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 14:47:38 +0100

A shut-down of the wind and a foul tide just short of the finish line made for a challenging few hours for the Royal Ocean Racing Club race team as an armada of Rolex Fastnet Race competitors descended on the finish line. Between 0000 and 0200 this morning 105 boats, or just over one third of the record-sized fleet, crossed the finish line.

Patrick van de Ven, sailing doublehanded with Igor Quik on the X-43 Lady of Avalon (NED) in IRC 2, arrived at 00:54 BST this morning. Yesterday, while lying 20 miles shy of the finish line, they had been forced to anchor, along with two other boats, for ten frustrating hours. To manage this involved their tying together all their available warps, sheets and guys in order for their anchor to set in the 70 metres of water.

"When we put up the sails and got running, we looked behind and there was this massive fleet of smaller boats coming in with the wind," recalled van de Ven. "It was beautiful - there was this big cloud of red and green lights behind us. We were happy we were in front of them."

Another Dutch doublehanded pair, John van der Starre and Robin Verhoef, on the newly-launched J/111 J-Xcentric (NED), racing in IRC 2, had less dramatic, but no less a frustrating finish yesterday afternoon. Finishing just one minute behind a fully crewed J/111, they were forced to anchor 200 metres from the finish line for one-and-a-half hours.

Van der Starre and Verhoef led the 36-strong double-handed division...

Class and Honour

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 12:38:07 +0100

IRC Two winner Carina II is skippered by Rives Potts. The Rear Commodore of the New York Yacht Club raced the 1969 48' sloop in last month's Transatlantic Race to take part in the Rolex Fastnet Race. Carina II is a family affair: Rives Potts has his son William working the bow, navigator Dirk Johnson has his 16 year old son Dirk Jr. on board and Watch Captain, Richard du Moulin's son, Edward works on trim.

The three families represent a dynasty of sailors for Newport Rhode Island. Rives Potts has competed in several America's Cup campaigns. Potts sailing Carina is a veteran of 20 Newport Bermuda Races and has won the coveted St. David's Lighthouse Trophy on three occasions.

"I think the Rolex Fastnet Race is one of the most fabulous races in the world," exclaimed Potts dockside in Plymouth. "I think it's probably filled with more passion than any other race that I know of. I think the Bermuda Race rivals it, but the Fastnet Race has probably been greater. The second thing is I wanted to sail with my son and some of my best friends' sons. So we had a bunch of fathers and sons on the boat and we had a great time."

Carina had a wonderful battle with Scarlet Oyster, although Potts had never met Scarlet Oyster skipper Ross Appleby before, they ended up tying up next to each other after the race and the two skippers...

The ape speaks!

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 12:03:05 +0100

Joe Powder is one of the main-stay crew on Richard Loftus' Swan 65, Desperado, whether its hammering away at a winch or climbing the pole to spike a kite, Joe is an an all action monkey with a cheeky nature. Joe is a long standing RORC member, (overseas as Joe lives in the Jungle).This year, due to the inaugral presentation of the Joe Powder Trophy, Joe has stayed on in Plymouth after the Rolex Fastnet Race to help the race team and be available at the Prizegiving Ceremony. During his time in the Race Office, Joe has especially enjoyed reading the 'story of the race' and here are his favourite blogs from the boats.

"As a veteran of the Rolex Fastnet Race I know what agonies and ecstasies it takes to round the Rock when people start pilfering my secret banana stash." Chattered Joe. "This year I preferred to follow from the comfort of the jungle and with such a choice of ways to keep up with the crews I found myself drawn to reading the blogs. Swinging from my tree, I sympathised with the grim tales of malfunctioning heads, equipment breakdown and the inevitable repercussions of choppy seas. It seems the preoccupation with food has not changed since my day, but dried food, vats of chilli and 'come dine with me sailor' - what happened to a good old-fashioned banana and monkey nuts?

I read tales of endurance, initiative...

Fastnet Soul

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 11:57:31 +0100

Arguably the heart and soul of the Rolex Fastnet Race are the sailors racing in Class IRC Three and IRC Four. Sutton Harbour Marina in Plymouth is now ram-packed with finishing yachts and 135 of them have been racing in Class Three and Four. The boats come in all shapes and sizes and fly the flags of nine different countries; Belgium, Britain, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Ireland, Sweden and the United States.

Noel Racine's Foggy Dew, repeating their success in 2007, won IRC Class Three. The 33' JPK built in Morbihon Brittany, France is a real pocket rocket, which enjoys fast downwind conditions, however this year, the race for Foggy Dew was mainly upwind.

"It was a very hard battle with the other JPK Wasabi, we were neck and neck all the way to the Fastnet Rock and then the wind died and shifted unexpectedly and Wasabi got there before us by about 40 minutes. So after that we really had to do a lot of hard work," said Racine.

"We had good strategy in the Celtic Sea and as we reached Bishop's Rock, we were just a few metres ahead of Wasabi but still behind on corrected time. 90-miles from the finish, we were beating into light wind and it was there that we made up our time, tacking on every wind shift. This year was very different to 2007, it was a like a 600 mile regatta with several races. The Rolex Fastnet Race is a very interesting race, there are many different parts, you...

Crew member on GBR8408 Festina Lente

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 10:09:08 +0100

Slow boats to plymouth

Did I say that the finish team would have problems as 50 boats came to the line? Surely that was the understatement of the year.

Team WAFL had their hearts in their mouths. Our met information suggested zero wind by midnight and we fully expected to have to spend the night at anchor but some little thundery cells powered us ( and everbody else!) across the bay. Our ETA at Rame head was tantalising - 2345 hrs - although the breeze was dying for the last two hours as we closed the land and it slipped ominously into the predicted calm period. Astern of us the night filled with green and red lights - unbelievable numbers of them - whilst ahead the big class one boats who had overtaken us appeared to have stopped in yet another line abreast under the cliff.

We opted to go outside the first group and it seemed to pay , but as more and more boats piled in , what little wind there was ( and by this stage we were excited if we had 2 knots of it) was swallowed up . What is more , the fair tide that had helped us all east was now replaced by an ebb past the breakwater, and the reach that was powering the boats from astern turned into a beat against the tide . Then the piece de la resistance - you couldn't cross the line on starboard ! So there we were , surrounded by 200 of the 350 boat fleet in the pitch dark just about to cross when yet another large boat joined the party on starboard , scattering the next bunch of port tackers in a bizarre slow motion ballet.

The radio was going mad...

Video: Ran: First Back to Back Victory in 50 Years

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 21:29:42 +0100

Niklas Zennström's Rán (GBR) is once again the overall winner of the Rolex Fastnet Race and the prestigious Fastnet Challenge Cup.

Video: Rolex Fastnet Race 2011 - For the Record Books

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 21:29:42 +0100

The 2011 edition set new record: number of entries, multihull and monohull race records.

Video: Breaking the record

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 21:25:50 +0100

Rolex Fastnet Race course record history since 1925

Crew member on GBR1509R Jibe

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 20:00:01 +0100

Pink kite; gold kite; White sails; purple kite....and so on. The senior bowman has given up and gone below to make his trademark Fastnet fruit crumble and custard. Mmm, lovely.

Robin Taunt

Sent from my iPhone

Crew member on GBR1509R Jibe

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 18:54:01 +0100

The crew of JIBE were too busy on the wet and windy run up to the Rock to worry about the developing leak on the inlet circuit to the heads. The boat was wet anyway.

On the reach back across the Celtic Sea the problem was addressed with determination and vigour. A blanking plug was found to be leaking.

No problem: the cork from the Rock Rounding champagne was still on board. Nifty whittling with a penknife and the problem was solved. Dry heads: bliss.

Robin Taunt

Sent from my iPhone

Crew member on GBR8408 Festina Lente

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 18:08:49 +0100

Reptilian delights

Did we have fun at the Lizard!

We took our NW wind most of the way to Mullion Cove and tacked up the back eddy whilst a line of boats parked up offshore. There was a light Southerly (team WAFL think it was a local sea breeze) at the Lizard itself and it was the transition between this and the NW wind that was holding up the fleet. All the best bits of fun have moments of terror and ours came when the wind switched off just as we were negotiating the rocks at the point. We had about .5 of a knot of fair eddy and no steerage ( its always rough here)and there was no knowing if this would deposit us on the rocks , so we had the unmentionable device (k----) out and ready to go . Chris managed to get the merest hint of steerage and we were clear ,with the kite up and seemingly hundreds of boats parked the other side of the headland.

The next half hour was frantic as we gybed and wriggled and trimmed our way between about 4 conflicting sets of zephyrs ( 4 diffent local sea breezes vying for supremacy- Ok I admit I made that up!) but now a NW wind has filled in across the bay and we are off with hordes of boats chasing mile astern.

Chris spends a lot of time on the AIS , and from the speed and vectors we can deduce what the wind is doing on varying parts of the course. It may have been designed for collision avoidance but he uses it as a local meteorological tool. What with me sending e-mails and Chris glued to the chartplotter it's a good thing Festina is used to sailing herself for long periods of...

Rán First Back to Back Victory in 50 Years

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 17:08:43 +0100

For the first time in more than 50 years, the Rolex Fastnet Race has a back-to-back handicap winner. Following on from her victory under IRC in 2009, this afternoon the Royal Ocean Race Club has confirmed that Niklas Zennström's Rán (GBR) is once again the overall winner of the Rolex Fastnet Race and the prestigious Fastnet Challenge Cup.

Past double winners of the race include Jolie Brise (1929 and 1930), yacht designer Olin Stephens' Dorade (1931 and 1933), John Ilingworth's Myth of Malham (1947 and 1949) and most recently Richard Nye's Carina II (1955 and 1957). It should be noted that Carina II is not the same boat as the one of this same name being campaigned in this year's Rolex Fastnet Race by American Rives Potts.

The Judel-Vrolijk designed 72ft Rán finished in Plymouth on Tuesday at 12:53:44 and even then she was looking like a strong contender for the overall prize, but this afternoon her win was officially confirmed by the Royal Ocean Racing Club.

Under IRC, Rán's time corrected out so that she beat ICAP Leopard (GBR) by 4 hours, 38 minutes and 18 seconds, and Mike Slade's 100 foot supermaxi in turn a massive 10 hours, 40 minutes ahead of third placed Vanquish (USA), the Oakcliff All American Offshore Team's STP65.

"It's fantastic. It's still hard to believe almost. Everyone on the team is very, very happy and very pleased," said Zennström of his second consecutive Rolex Fastnet Race victory,...

Crew member on GBR1702T Scarlet Oyster

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 15:23:46 +0100

Beginners Blog - Star Date: Thursday, 18 August 2011. Time: 1500

The best of all worlds

Its over. We finished. Ive finished. Were tied up in Sutton Harbour.

Handshakes all around, champagne, beer, its all happening. Weve lost class

2 by a whisker of 30 minutes, but it does not matter. A bunch of blokes have

raced a 48 foot yacht around the Rolex Fastnet course and done so

respectably. There was plenty of bad language, but none of it in anger. No

one came to blows, even though Clinch was rudely awakened by a bottle of

water to the midriff - his return salvo missed the initiator and went

through the wheel, narrowly missing Matt. We can laugh about it now.

Girlfriends of the crew show up, phone calls home are made. It is a

satisfying moment. Sutton Harbour has plenty of boats in it - we think we

are the first non-carbon rig and there are plenty more to come. Weve done

well, but that is not the half of it. Last night and this morning were

something else.

I miss an off watch from 6 9 pm to watch the sun set over the receding

outline of the Scillies. Some hours later at 0300 I get below, out of the

damp and cold. A quick brew for the forthcoming watch and then Ill be in

bed. Suddenly, come on, everyone on the rail shatters my illusions of a

warm and comfy sleeping bag. Ross has got to be joking, but hes not. Were

in fighting mode. He wants one last push to the finish and whilst theres

wind we need a flat boat. I had forgotten one could sleep on the rail.

Gradually, though the wind peters out. It is all about the tide at the

Lizard now. There is a small gate and a small advantage for a

well-positioned boat. We need that position. We are hunting for minutes and

seconds...

Crew member on NED118 Winsome

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 15:18:05 +0100

After nearly 600Nm sailing we were very close to Plymouth when all of a sudden the wind refused to do any more work. It happened some 20Nm outside of the entrance to the port.

We could not avoid thinking a little bit about our likely 1st price in IRC4 Class, since it appeared that Pinta-M did not manage to get any closer, that Iromiquy could not possibly cover 70Nm at a speed of 8,7 knots and that Elmarlien was so far away from us, approximately 120Nm that she would need the all the luck in the world to beat Winsome. And finally there was the iPad waiting for the winner of the Blog writing.

All this was completely miscalculated once the wind went on strike.

We are now already two hours drifting on the water, 20Nm outside of Plymouth.

Find it funny or not, but just before it happened we emptied the reserve water Jerrycans, so we may be soon without water for the kitchen. Drinking water we have still plenty.

There is not any indication when the wind will return. May God have his soul. Our sails are down but not our resilience.

I may be back to you with another hundred of Blogs if this continues.

Crew member on USA21847 Dawn Star

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 14:40:06 +0100

Thursday Noon. All the bad things of Wednesday turned to good things over the next 24 hours. Dawn Star spent hours drifting in the lightest possible wind Wenesday while rounding Fastnet light while her competition sped 50 miles ahead. As though Dawn Star had won a huge coin toss, everything reversed.Good winds in the high teens -- strong but not too strong -- drove us at top speed toward the finish. And at the same time, the boats ahead saw their wind fade to almost nothing. Our morning report told us that our 50-mile deficit had been chopped dramatically to 18 miles. We were fifth in our class, almost into the prize circle. Dawn Star loves the heavier winds. Beating upwind in strong winds is great for our competitive result, but is,as always, pretty miserable below.. You have to hang onto the grabrails, floors become wet and slippery. plates slide off tables, you fall out of seats, clothing is difficult to put on or take off, and things just fall apart. After Dawn Star hit some rock-hard waves this morning, a seven-foot long ceiling panel, together with its installed lighting fixtures tore loose from its Velcro attachments and fell on Mark, who was asleep in his bunk; the panel was not damaged.. But spirits are high. Stacey's watch, with Paul C, Paul J, and Rob held a raucous joke-telling contest. And the food continues to inspire. Robin Hubbard's chicken blend was consumed eagerly at dinner time, with three portions extra set aside for later. Will ate them all. And last, we should finish our 608 mile adventure late today. Bugs