Rolex Fastnet Race Day 2 - Australian first timers in the chocolates
by James Boyd / RORC 27 Jul 17:08 BST
27 July 2025
Centenary Rolex Fastnet Race © Rolex / Carlo Borlenghi
Compared to the morning after the start of the last two Rolex Fastnet Races, this year's special centenary edition has seen just a tiny number of retirements as the frontrunners fan out across the Celtic Sea and the bulk of the fleet negotiates the famous headlands of the Cornish and Devonshire coasts.
So far the most high profile retirements have been former class winner Noel Racine's JPK 1030 Foggy Dew with a damaged mainsail (now arrived in Cherbourg), while Scott Shawyer's IMOCA Canada Ocean Racing - Be Water Positive pulled out just before midnight due to an issue with their hydraulics and are also heading for Cherbourg. Former RORC Commodore James Neville's Ino Noir, part of the RORC Red Admiral's Cup team, has also been forced to pull out with electrical charging problems.
Track the fleet here.
At the front of the fleet the raw power of the 32m long flying Ultim trimarans has finally prevailed after Jason Carroll's MOD70 Argo led the fleet out of the Solent yesterday. Exiting Lyme Bay yesterday evening the tables turned and it was Argo's direct rival Erik Maris' Zoulou that took the lead only to have the Tom Laperche-skippered SVR Lazartigue and Anthony Marchand's Actual Ultim 4 thunder past at Start Point. Late yesterday evening the multihull leaders tacked to pass up the left side of the Land's End TSS and then spent the morning making progress to weather, to the east of the rhumb line with the lead Ultims extending away with SVR Lazartigue, the present multihull race record holder, out in front.
While from the tracker it appeared the lead multihulls were roaring across the Celtic Sea, on board Zoulou, Ned Collier Wakefield reported that they were making just 10 knots (virtual standstill on a foiling trimaran). "It's been a game of snakes and ladders across the Celtic Sea, but we're having a nice duel with Actual and Sodebo at the moment. It was a tricky start, but we managed to use Portland Bill and protect the right and get into the northwesterly. We had a fantastic kind of launched fetch, up around Start Point with the two foiling Ultims just behind, hunting us down, which was quite fun. We were doing 30s and they must have been doing 40s...!"
Surprisingly the nine Ocean Fifty trimarans were also half way across the Celtic Sea mid-morning, nipping at the heels of the speeding MOD70s with Matthieu Perraut/Jean-Baptiste Gellée on Inter Invest and Tanguy le Turquais/Erwan Le Draoulec on Lazare having pulled out a small lead.
Similarly, in the IMOCA class Elodie Bonafous' Association Petits Princes-Queguiner and Jérémie Beyou's Charal were just in front of their group as they pulled out into the Celtic Sea.
Like Zoulou, after a disappointing start, Sam Davies and her crew on board Initiatives Coeur turned this around by going inshore in Lyme Bay. "We weren't so good going out of the Solent, but then we dared to go where we believed was right, which was to the right and we were quite happy because we made it round Start Point in first place. That was a big milestone for us and we managed to hook up to the front of the fleet which is good because they are slightly faster than us."
Davies continued: "We had some good stages yesterday and last night, foiling, because there were a couple of moments where we weren't fully upwind. Upwind, we kind of managed to get up on the foils doing 15-16 knots."
The sizeable Class40 fleet was boldly exploring the central Channel overnight, passing Start Point late yesterday evening and the Lizard at around 0500 this morning, around 14 miles offshore. At around 0930 the front runners tacked north to lay the west side of the Land's End TSS. Consistently ahead have been Axel Trehin and Corentin Douguet's Faites un Don sur SNSM.org and William Mathelin-Moreaux's Les Invincibles.
Late morning the Admiral's Cup leaders had all headed up the west side of the Land's End TSS with the 52s Peter Harrison's Jolt 3, Karl Kwok's Beau Geste and Max Klink's 2023 Rolex Fastnet Race winner Caro jockeying for the lead in Admiral's Cup 1. Admiral's Cup 2 was an JPK 1180 bonanza with the Michele Ivaldi-skippered Django JPK leading ahead of Per Roman's Garm, and Sunrise, the new JPK 11.80 of 2021 Rolex Fastnet Race winner Tom Kneen. While most of the Admiral's Cuppers were heading west up the Land's End TSS, Sean Langman and John Alexander's GP42 Back 2 Black in the CYCA team from Australia were the first to go east.
Full report on the Admiral's Cup fleet here.
While it means little at this early stage of the race, leading the giant 380 boat IRC fleet this morning was Linda Goddard's Swan 53 Bedouin, and her crew of largely family all the way from Australia, in IRC One.
"We had a good night. We've been trucking along here, pretty close to Lizard Point," Goddard reported this morning. "We're sitting at the moment at about 10 knots with current a little bit against us, and we're looking to make a decision soon about which direction to go past the exclusion zone [Land's End TSS].
"We had a really good start and when we left the Needles, we had some really good shifts towards St Albans, and we went over those overfalls there and really took advantage of the currents. And the team's just been really doing a good job all night."
This morning Bedouin was leading the more familiar JPK 11.80s Eric Fries' Fastwave 6 and Ed Bell's Dawn Treader. Ermanno Traverso's classic 1961 line honours winner Stormvogel had gone north early to pass up the TSS' east side off Land's End, along with Conor Doyle's XP50 Freya from Ireland and subsequently Bedouin. Meanwhile 2015 winner Géry Trentesaux's Sydney GTS 43 Long Courrier was holding on starboard to go up the TSS' west side with Hanno Ziehm's Marten 49 Moana.
Ahead, as expected, Christian Zugel's Transatlantic Race and RORC Caribbean 600 winner Tschüss2 was putting in a command performance leading IRC SZ on corrected time, although the 100 footers - Seng Huang Lee's SHK Scallywag and Remon Vos' Black Jack 100 were neck and neck at the front of monohull fleet, just ahead of Joost Schuijff's Leopard 3 and the IMOCAs and just astern of the Ocean Fiftys.
In addition to Bedouin in IRC One, Australia was also doing well in IRC Zero. Here David Griffith's JV60 Whisper has been leading on the water since exiting the Solent and did well staying offshore while passing Portland Bill before diving into Lyme Bay, hugging Start Point at around 2130 last night and going offshore at the Lizard at around 0300 this morning. The IRC Zero entries left the decision about which side of the Land's End TSS to go until the last moment with Whisper eventually bailing from going east and heading west, followed as ever closely by Jens Kellinghusen's Ker 56 Varuna 6. The first yacht to head up the east side was Christophe Bachmann and his crew on Jean-Luc van den Heede's former round the world record breaker Adrien. Under corrected time Whisper was leading from Eric Defert and famous Vendée Globe and round the world skipper Jean-Pierre Dick aboard the Swan 76 La Loevie and former Class 40 Rolex Fastnet Race winner Antoine Magre aboard his brand new Sam Manuard-designed 50 footer Palanad 4.
IRC Three has remained offshore since the start but this morning the leaders in this giant class dived northwest in towards the Lizard. While Philippe Girardin's J/120 Hey Jude is ahead on the water, Julien Bentz's J/99 Whimjy 99 is ahead of Hey Jude under corrected time, with Jean Cruse's well-named A-35 Crew's Control third. There was a potent group to the north, aiming most closely into the Cornish headland, including the Sams White and North on the JPK 1080 Mzungu! and Rob Craigie and RORC Commodore Deb Fish on the 2024 RORC Season's Points Championship winner Sun Fast 3600 Bellino.
From on board Gareth Edmonson's JPK 1030 Insert Coin, Charles Darbyshire reported this morning: "We're about 30 miles from the Lizard. We have got nine knots of wind - although it doesn't feel like it - from 311°. We had a very exciting rounding of Portland Bill where we went right close in and then we had an okay three hours and then a really bad three hours - maybe we had something on the keel..."
In IRC Four it was a fest of JPK 1010s with Ludovic Menahes's Raphael ahead, both on the water and under corrected time, of Adrien Zucconi's Loiza and Yann Jestin's Papillon 4/Vari, enjoying a more successful race this year compared to 2023 when his previous Vari sank off the Needles. Past Sigma 38 winner Chris Choules, skipper of With Alacrity, commented on how his race was going: "an extremely frustrating five hours," in four knots of wind and an awkward sea state that "killed our speed stone dead. But you shouldn't go offshore racing if you don't have a good sense of humour!"
Late morning IRC Four was between Start Point and the Lizard. Bringing up the rear was Robert Marchant and his Irish crew on the Westerly Fulmar 32 Fulmar Fever.
For all the news, tracking, photos and latest information, please go to www.rolexfastnetrace.com