Rolex Fastnet Race - Latest Tales of Preparation
by James Boyd 30 Jul 2017 16:22 BST
6 August 2017
The Rolex Fastnet Race 2017 will see 34 Class40s compete, including the newest, Louis Duc's Carac © Christophe Breschi /
www.breschi-photo-video.com
Ocean racing's big guns in the Rolex Fastnet Race
Among the 400 boat fleet setting off from the Solent on 6 August in the Rolex Fastnet Race will be three of offshore racing's most prestigious classes.
Grabbing the headlines will be the one design VO65s as the Rolex Fastnet Race serves as Leg Zero of the Volvo Ocean Race and it will be the first occasion the teams will have lined up in anger. Among the seven, three teams competed in the 2014-15 Volvo Ocean Race: 2nd placed Team Brunel; the Chinese Dongfeng Race Team, third last time and the Spanish MAPFRE team, which finished fourth. In one designs, experience is everything so these teams will have the edge, but crew from other boats in the last race have been distributed across the new teams too.
Dongfeng Race Team benefitted from being first to get sailing this time, picked their boat up post-refit late January. They have several of the same crew and have focussed more on the competition this time, says skipper Charles Caudrelier. "Last time we spent the first five months in China doing crew selection. We put 30% of our time into performance. This time we put in 70%."
This year's Rolex Fastnet Race will be Caudrelier's third. In 2011, on the VO70 Groupama, they finished just behind Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing, whose time of 32 hours and 39 minutes remains the monohull record. "I like the race because it is interesting - short and complicated with lots of transitions," says Caudrelier.
While Dongfeng is a favourite, late to the party is Turn the Tide on Plastic, skippered by Dee Caffari, their campaign was only announced mid-June.
Caffari is a big fan of the Rolex Fastnet having completed her first on a Challenge boat in 2001. She was on Team SCA two years ago: "It is an ocean classic everyone wants to do. It covers such a range of boats and sailors, it is like an oceanic version of Round the Island Race."
Former Team SCA skipper Sam Davies has returned to the IMOCA 60 class. She has taken over the Initiatives Coeur campaign from Tanguy de Lamotte but the two are sailing together for the rest of 2017.
"Everyone is happy Sam's in the driving seat. It is a great continuation for the project," says de Lamotte. Davies, who also raced with de Lamotte in 2015, said: "I am very excited Tanguy gave me this opportunity. It is a project that I know every well - a cool boat, a cool team and cool charity project to be involved." It supports Mécénat Chirurgie Cardiaque, which funds operations on children born with heart defects. They are sailing the foil-assisted IMOCA 60 that finished the last Vendée Globe in third.
As with the other eight IMOCA 60s competing, they are racing the Rolex Fastnet Race doublehanded. Before sailing the race together in 2015, de Lamotte won it twice in the Class40, while Davies' first race was in 1995 on a Sun Legend 41 and she has done it countless times since.
They are up against the boats which finished first and second in the Vendée Globe: Bureau Vallée 2 (ex-Banque Populaire) campaigned by Louis Burton and Servane Escoffier, and Alex Thomson and Irish sailor Nicholas O'Leary on Hugo Boss.
For Thomson, the Rolex Fastnet Race has played a huge part in his sailing career. "My first was in 1995 on a Sigma 36 called British Eagle - it took just over seven days - but in that race I found my love for offshore racing. That's the great thing about the Fastnet - it introduces people to proper offshore racing." The 2003 race was the first occasion Thomson sailed under the colours of Hugo Boss, preluding a 14 year sponsorship deal.
This time, Thomson who is sailing with Nicholas O'Leary is hoping to beat the other IMOCA 60s but is bullish about taking on the larger boats in his foil-assisted weapon. "Downwind we're quicker than a VO65 and if you give us the right conditions (22-25 knots, broad reaching) we can beat Rambler, but in the Fastnet you don't get to choose the weather you sail in."
Most significant in the Rolex Fastnet Race's non-IRC line-up is the 34 boat Class40 fleet. In this are a mix of pro sailors and enthusiastic amateurs and boats ranging from state of the art reaching machines to old production boats. It is also one of the most international line-ups including Russia and Japan, Sweden, Norway, Austria, the Netherlands, South Africa and Oman.
The Rolex Fastnet Race will be the first event for the newest, most radical Class40. Louis Duc's Carac (150) is a Marc Lombard design and has the highest volume bow permitted under the Class40 rule. The latest models from all the leading Class40 designers are competing such as Brieuc Maisonneuve's Cap Des Palmes, a Guillaume Verdier Tizh 40; Norwegian Henrik Bergesen's Hydra, a brand new Owen Clarke design; two new Sam Manuard-designed Mach 40 Mk3s, Maxime Sorel's V And B and Catherine Pourre's Eärendil.
President of the Class40, Halvard Mabire, is racing Campagne de France, a new boat to his own design, with his English partner Miranda Merron. Mabire's first Fastnet was in 1977. "It was on a small plywood boat with hard chines. It was one of the slowest Fastnets in history - very very light all the way. I did it again in 1979, which was not the same story." He has since done the race as part of the Admiral's Cup and on a Maxi One Design. "The Fastnet is one of the oldest races. It is very nice to have this race - we know it will happen every two years. It is good that the RORC opened it to multihulls, IMOCA 60s and Class40s."
As to the form, the favourite is, for once, not French, but from the Channel Islands. Following his 2006 Route du Rhum victory, Phil Sharp has returned to the Class 40. His yacht Imerys currently leads the 2017 Class40 championship, following their second place in the recent Les Sables-Horta-Les Sables race.
The Rolex Fastnet Race starts from off Cowes at 1100 on 6 August.
www.rolexfastnetrace.com
Super maxi CQS is back in the water by John Roberson
CQS is ready for the Rolex Fastnet Race after a week of maintenance and upgrades in Gosport, on the south coast of England. After sailing to and from the Baltic Sea, and contesting events in Finland and Sweden, owner Ludde Ingvall said the boat needed to be thoroughly checked over before taking on the rigours of the Fastnet Race.
"The team have put in a hard week of work, checking her from the top of the mast to the bottom of the keel," commented Ludde, "and we have done some upgrades, including a new rudder. We're looking for slight improvement to the balance of the boat with the upgraded rudder."
"We are still learning about this boat," he said about the ground breaking super maxi, "we believe we are approaching 90% of her potential, and are working continuously to improve the boat and the way we sail her."
The CQS crew will be putting in a full day of training in the Solent off Gosport on Sunday and then sailing in the Triple Crown Series in Lendy Cowes Week on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. This is all part of their training for the Rolex Fastnet race, which starts from Cowes on Sunday 6th August.
The Triple Crown is a three race series within Lendy Cowes Week, specially created for the super maxis that are too big to sail safely in the regular Cowes Week races. The boats will be sailing for a trophy donated by HRH the Duke of Edinburgh.
Ludde Ingvall has previously taken line honours in the Rolex Fastnet race, and has sailed in Cowes Week many times before, but this is the first time that CQS has contested these events.
Students ready to take on the Rolex Fastnet 2017 by Lou Johnson
They have had tea with HRH Prince Philip at Buckingham Palace, talked at some of the most
prestigious Yacht Club's across the country to raise money, they have sailed with their sailing hero Lawrie Smith and covered in excess of 1500 offshore sailing miles each. Now eight students from Greig City Academy (GCA) along with teachers Jon Holt and Paul Letford and their training skippers Simon Weeks and David Pitchard, are ready to take on their toughest challenge yet: the Rolex Fastnet Race 2017.
On Sunday 6th August, just over two years after purchasing Yacht Scaramouche, Camilo
Orobio, Montel Fagan-Jordan (Team Captain), Espoir Mazambi, Shabazz Patterson, Adrian
Samuel-Maragh, Karim Ming, Nardar Soltan and Ionnis Stamate, all students from Greig City
Academy in Haringey will set off on the 603 nautical miles iconic race, with the aim to be the first student led team to compete in the race.
"We have had some fantastic support from the industry," comments Jon Holt, Head of
Outdoor Education at GCA. "Ocean Yacht Systems have provided up with new standing rigging
and fittings, North Sails has supplied a new genoa and mainsail. Spinlock have provided us
with new lifejackets and lifelines and service these for us, English Braids and Marlow Ropes
have supplied our sheets on board. Without this support the project would not have got as
far as it has, as safety and doing this properly is very much as at the forefront of this project."
The project began back in 2013 when GCA set up a school sailing club to allow inner-city
London students access to the sport of sailing. To put things into perspective, 73.1% of
students who attend GCA are deemed disadvantaged, and 62.4% of students have English as
an additional language. Over the last three years nearly 1,000 students have taken to the
water for the first time. Today GCA Sailing has bases in King George V Reservoir in London
with a fleet of 6 dinghies and Poole Harbour, Dorset with the McGregor 22, and Intro 22 as
well as the former Admirals Cup racing yacht Scaramouche.
The students' passion for sailing has grown and their ambitions for sailing have increased. "I have never learnt so much so quickly. One year ago was the first time I sailed. Today, our team won our first race. Our hard work paid off and I love it!" Commented Shabazz, crewmember on board Scaramouche and a student at GCA on winning their first race, the ASTO Small Ships race back in 2016.
"If you are ever fortunate enough to have five minutes with the crew of Scaramouche,
determination and crew work are two core traits that come across. Having been told that they
could not enter a regatta because they were not a fee-paying school has not deterred them,
they found a race they could enter, and they went and won it!" Comments Lawrie Smith a
project advisor and supporter. "Project Scaramouche breaks new ground and is creating a
new model for youth sailing."
Earlier in 2017, was the next game-changer for the project as Pioneering Underwriters came
on board. "At GCA we want to see our students develop academically as well as help them to
achieve their personal goals." Comments Paul Sutton, Principal at GCA. "Darren Doherty and
his team at Pioneering Underwriters are offering the project so much more than financial
support, through supporting our students within the classroom. We are proud to have their
livery on Scaramouche for the Fastnet 2017."
See more at www.facebook.com/ProjectScaramouche