100th anniversary Rolex Fastnet Race - less than 48 hours to go
by James Boyd / RORC 24 Jul 22:03 BST
26 July 2025
The VO70 Tschüss 2 previously won as Wizard © Tim Wright / Photoaction.com
Battle lines are being drawn up for the RORC's centenary Rolex Fastnet Race. As the final day of Admiral's Cup inshore racing took place in the Solent, so several yachts due to take part in Saturday's main event were out training.
Among them was Christian Zugel's upgraded VO70 Tschüss 2. Remarkably with a crew led by Johnny Mordaunt, so far this year she was the overall winner of the RORC Transatlantic Race, the RORC Caribbean 600 and the Transatlantic Race (from Newport, RI to Cowes). This is only marginally less remarkable when considering that in 2019 her previous owners, the brothers Peter and David Askew achieved the C600 and Transatlantic Race victories before winning that year's Rolex Fastnet Race. The boat was originally Franck Cammas' 2011-12 Volvo Ocean Race winner Groupama 4 - the best of the final generation VO70s.
"The Rolex Fastnet Race would be the icing on the cake, but it will be very difficult," admits Zugel. "Very light airs are forecast and obviously a VO70 does especially well in stronger wind and reaching, which we won't have. My personal view is that probably a TP52 might be fastest, although the maxis could do really well, ie Pyewacket 70, Leopard 3 or the two 100 footers which will be very slippery too. It's going to be a tough race."
In fact this will be Zugel's first Rolex Fastnet Race: "As a kid, you read about it and heard about it, all the stories etc, so being able to do it now is marvellous. We're thinking we might take almost three days to complete it - hard to believe after we covered 3,000 nautical miles crossing the Atlantic in seven days and 16 hours."
Also out today was Kialoa II, the 1963 Sparkman & Stephens maxi. While originally skippered by Jim Kilroy, this will be the third time she has been campaigned in the Rolex Fastnet Race by Paddy Broughton. "We wanted to do the 50th Rolex Fastnet Race, and we've always wanted to do the 100th anniversary one," he explains. "We've got a mix of crew. Some did it last time like Lindsay May (3x Sydney Hobart winner). We've got some new people who've sailed the boat in various events, and some brilliant youngsters - hopefully this will help them with their professional careers."
This year's lighter forecast may not suit Kialoa II. "She's 45 tonnes whereas a more modern 70 footer would be 14 or 18. So upwind she is much calmer, much less noisy and doesn't slam, but downwind we don't plane. The game for us will be to get home before the wind shuts down." Broughton says he is looking forward to competing again with the 1961 Fastnet Race line honours winner Stormvogel.
From the old to the young, the RORC Griffin Sun Fast 3600 is gearing up to provide a first Rolex Fastnet Race for most of her seven crew, ranging in age from 21 to 27, joined by coach Hugh Brayshaw. Nicole Hemeryck will be skipper, joined by Abby Childerley, Barbara Guth, Emma McKnight, Hebe Hemming, Olivia Bracey-David and Rachael Cross.
"I applied to the Griffin project back in October and attended trials," explains Hemeryck. "Based on my experience and how I got on with the crew, I was chosen as the skipper for the season. We did a couple of JOG races, then Myth of Malham and the Morgan Cup and both went pretty well. We're happy with how we got on and what we learned."
Hemeryck grew up racing dinghies, such as Optimists, Toppers and Lasers out of the National Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire before moving into keelboats. She heard about the RORC's Griffin program, which, led by Jim Driver, aims to encourage young sailors into offshore racing, from some other Irish Griffin sailors. "It is a great opportunity to move my sailing to the next level, to get more coaching in big boats, to be part of a team and take responsibility for running a campaign."
Another female Irish sailor is getting prepared alongside the French grand prix and IRC fleets in Cherbourg. Fresh from Les Sables-Horta-Les Sables in which she finished 14th in a 27 boat fleet, Pamela Lee is campaigning her Class 40 #EMPOWHER and arrived in Cherbourg this morning for registration. "The Class 40 pontoon is pretty full. I can see all the Ocean Fiftys are here and the IMOCAs are trickling in," she said. "There are also quite a lot of IRC boats. We'll leave on Friday night and head over, dip the start line and go."
Her campaign aims to promote empowerment through sport, role models, leadership, storytelling, etc. "And empowering people to work together to make change, whether it's about equality or sustainable energy, etc." The ferry and logistics company DFDS, which is opening a new ferry route from St Malo to Jersey, is covering half of her campaign budget and she is still hunting backing for the other half. Her yacht is a Pogo S4, the former Team SNCF, in which Xavier Macaire twice won the Drheam Cup.
This will be Lee's fifth Rolex Fastnet Race and her first in a Class40 and as skipper having previously competed aboard Richard Matthews' Oystercatchers.
While many French competitors are starting their Rolex Fastnet Race from Cherbourg, others have made their way to Cowes already. Among them is Yann Jestin who's 2023 race ended dramatically after his Sun Fast 3600 Vari sank shortly after exiting the Solent. Fortunately they were rapidly rescued by the Yarmouth lifeboat. "It was a very strong experience...We passed the position where she sank when we came in from the La Trinité race. It was better it happened there than at 3am in 40 knots further offshore."
This time Jestin, who runs the Chateau Vari in Monbazillac et Bergerac, and his co-skipper Romain Baggio are back but with the JPK 1010 Papillon IV. "The race is looking a bit lighter this time, especially arriving in Cherbourg, which will be challenging. We are back and this time we want to finish the story," says Jestin. "The Fastnet is an outstanding race, and it's very interesting to sail along the English coast and to go to the Fastnet Rock and finish in France. The level of competition is incredible, especially when you realise how many champions are in it."
After winning IRC Four in their beloved Dehler 33 Sun Hill III in 2023 (and coming third in class twice before), François Charles and his crew return on Sun Hill IV, a substantially larger, faster J/133. She arrived on Tuesday from Charles' native Morlaix, where he is a rigger. Morlaix has produced several top French sailors including Solitaire du Figaro winners Jérémie Beyou, Armel le Cleac'h and Nicolas Troussel, who has been calling tactics on board this season, but has jumped ship to race on board the Sodebo Ultim. Despite only acquiring their boat this year, they have already notched up a second place in the Cervantes Trophy in IRC One to Dawn Treader.
As to their prospects this year, Charles says he is resigned to the tough challenge ahead racing the wily Géry Trentesaux and his now fully tricked-up Sydney GTS 43 Long Courrier. "We want to use this to discover the boat - it's much faster than our last one, which I'm very happy about," says Charles, who is being supported in his Rolex Fastnet Race campaign by the Cabinet Bourhis insurance company. "That's good because it allows us to buy more sails." Charles is racing with five crew ranging in age from 22 years to 65.
100 years ago
About this time prior to the start of the 'Ocean Race' (as the first Rolex Fastnet Race was called), the eventual winner and first Commodore of the RORC, Lt Cmdr E G Martin OBE, RNVR was roaming Cowes High Steet catering for Jolie Brise's imminent race.
Victualling included: six 4lb (1.8kg) pieces of salted beef silverside (typically slow cooked up in the galley in the fo'c'sle), 1lb pats of butter, 36 loaves of bread (which rapidly went mouldy), 140 green bananas (all turned ripe at once but were consumed), a box of apples, tinned sausages, Heinz baked beans and spaghetti and French tinned vegetables (petit pois, etc). Bath chaps were popular (the cheek and tongue of a pig tied/pressed into shape before being boiled, skinned and breaded). Plenty of cheese including Swiss gruyere (cut into segments and wrapped in lead paper), two pots of Maclaren's Imperial cheese and two 4lb round Dutch cheeses. Biscuits included a 9lb box of digestive biscuits and a tin of Bath Oliver biscuits (crackers). Terry's bitter chocolate and a wide array of pickles - Military and Pan Yan and Escoffier's piccalilli plus French mustard, anchovies, Gentleman's Relish (anchovy paste) and Shippam's potted meat.
Among Jolie Brise's crew of six (two crew were no-shows) was a cook, but the most popular meal was Martin's own onion soup.
Mealtimes:
0400 Watch change - Bovril
0800 Breakfast of eggs/potatoes and bacon/sausages
1200 Lunch
1600 Tea
1930 Dinner
While the crew suggested Jolie Brise be a dry ship for the race, this was not to EG Martin's liking. In addition to beer and wine, one crew brought whisky, rum and "a most excellent old brandy" but they also consumed copious amounts of coffee and Kia Ora lemon squash (launched in the UK in 1917).