Yoann Richomme returns to competition in the Rolex Fastnet Race
by Ed Gorman / IMOCA Globe Series 24 Jul 16:12 BST
24 July 2025
Yoann Richomme, Paprec Arkéa © Jean-Louis Carli / IMOCA
This weekend's biennial Rolex Fastnet Race - one of the oldest classics in sailing - sees the IMOCA Class return to the racetrack, with eight boats on the startline at Cowes on Saturday for what is the second round of this year's IMOCA Globe Series Championship.
For this contest the boats are racing with mixed male and female four-strong crews for the 695-nautical mile sprint from the Solent on the English south coast, out to the Fastnet Rock off the southwest tip of Ireland and then back to the finish at Cherbourg-en-Cotentin.
With nearly 450 boats on the racecourse, headlands to get round, tide gates and exclusion zones to negotiate, plus changeable coastal weather, the Fastnet is never less than challenging.
The IMOCA entry may be smaller than the last race two years ago, but it includes some of the top teams in the Class, among them Jérémie Beyou and his crew on Charal, Justine Mettraux leading her team on Teamwork-Team SNEF, Sam Davies skippering Initiatives-Cœur and Elodie Bonafous embarking on her second race in the Class on board Association Petits Princes-Quéguiner.
Also on the startline will be the formidable presence of Yoann Richomme at the helm of Paprec Arkéa. This will be Richomme's first return to competition since coming second in the Vendée Globe behind Charlie Dalin, which followed an impressive series of races in the build-up to the round-the-world marathon, including victory in the 2024 Transat CIC.
Richomme knows many followers of the Class will regard him as the favourite for the Rolex Fastnet Race, but he is expecting tough competition from Bonafous who kicked off her IMOCA career with an impressive second place in last month's season-opening Course des Caps. "Association Petits Princes - Quéguiner is going to be there, so we know it's probably going to be the boat to beat because the conditions are going to suit it," said Richommme.
But the Frenchman is looking forward to testing his own boat in race trim after conducting a thorough re-fit and making changes. These include the introduction of bigger headsails to improve performance in light-to-medium conditions that he can expect to find not only on the Rolex Fastnet Race but in The Ocean Race Europe which follows it.
"We had a very clean boat coming back from the Vendée Globe so that was pretty amazing," said the two-time Solitaire du Figaro and Route du Rhum winner. "It gave us time to make improvements on the performance side of the boat, losing weight and optimising a few systems. We are sailing now on a boat that feels like an evolution of the one we went to the Vendée Globe with. So it's very cool and more suited to the programme we are going to race this season - a bit more aggressive."
For Richomme the Rolex Fastnet feels like a new beginning after sitting out the Course de Caps. "It does feel like starting a new cycle," he said. "I feel myself sometimes a little bit stressed with the races coming up because I like the format of short offshore crewed racing. So I put a lot of pressure on the team and myself to perform again this year which we always try to do anyway. It feels like we are in a new cycle and it's a long time from today to the end of The Ocean Race Europe."
For him, there is unfinished business on the Rolex Fastnet Race after finishing four minutes behind Dalin last time in second place. Sailing alongside an all-French crew - Corentin Horeau, Pascal Bidégorry and Estelle Greck - Richomme is expecting a fairly typical weather scenario this time in light-to-medium conditions.
"It looks pretty much upwind to the Fastnet and then downwind back, which is a classic scenario," he said. "It looks a bit tricky with quite a few soft patches and stuff. It's usually not our kind of weather - we are more of an up-the-range kind of boat - but it's good for us if it's around 10-15 knots because this is where we have tried to improve the boat, so it will be nice to get some answers performance-wise."
Among Richomme's first goals will be to exit the Solent at the Needles Channel in the lead on waters he knows well from his days as a student at Southampton University.
Less familiar with this course will be the Canadian skipper Scott Shawyer for whom the Rolex Fastnet Race is also a new beginning as he skippers a crew for the first time in the IMOCA Class. The Fastnet will also be his first outing in his new boat - Canada Ocean Racing-Be Water Positive, the former Groupe Dubreuil that finished third in the Vendée Globe, and before that 11th Hour Racing Malama that won the last Ocean Race.
Shawyer is sailing with Britain's Pip Hare and Frenchmen Sébastien Marsset and Nicolas Andrieu. "We've got a new team for the race and we've been training a handful of times," said Shawyer, 53, a successful businessman and philanthropist whose goal is the 2028 Vendée Globe. "Everybody's learning the boat, learning how to sail with one another and learning how to do the manoeuvres and things. The team is coming together really well. We're looking forward to the race and looking forward to making the boat go like we know it can consistently in race format."
For Shawyer, whose last boat was an older generation hull in daggerboard configuration, the step up to an almost state-of-the-art foiler is a big change, especially for a sailor who has struggled with sea sickness in the past. "It's an entirely new world for me," he said. "It's amazing when it gets up on a foil and goes - it's not just a 10% increase in speed, it's almost 50% on some points of sail. It's completely different than a daggerboard boat in that respect - just how quickly you can get places and just how cracking off a little bit lets you get on foils and makes such a difference."
In the Fastnet, Shawyer will be looking to complete the course in good shape ready for the Ocean Race Europe which follows it. In the long run, this fully-crewed season is all about preparing him for the Vendée Globe. "The learning curve for me is steep and we are putting a lot of resources into making sure that I am climbing that curve. But I am still the most junior person on the boat in this crewed format," he explained. "But I'm happy to be in that role because I am learning tons and everybody sails differently and you take from people what resonates and you throw the rest in the garbage and, hopefully, you are becoming a better sailor yourself in the process."
Back on Paprec Arkéa, Richomme will also be looking to make his mark on this year's IMOCA Globe Series Championship, having missed the Course des Caps. The British skipper and Course des Caps winner Sam Goodchild is currently at the top of the ranking, with Bonafous in second place and ready to follow up with a strong performance in the Fastnet.
Richomme feels he is playing catch-up right now. But he is also aware that there are no skippers that are doing every race this season, so things should even out over the months ahead, with The Ocean Race Europe, the Défi Azimut and the Transat Cafe L'Or to come. "Yeah, it would be nice to get some points on the board for the Championship with the Rolex Fastnet," he said.
Class website: www.imoca.org