Bellino wins RORC Myth of Malham Race 2026
by Louay Habib / RORC 26 May 16:25 BST
23 May 2026
2026 RORC Myth of Malham Race © Rick Tomlinson / RORC
Rob Craigie's Sun Fast 3600 Bellino, racing two handed with RORC Commodore Deb Fish, won the 2026 RORC Myth of Malham Race overall after IRC time correction.
Bellino also won IRC Three and IRC Double Handed, completing a standout performance in one of the most tactical and mentally demanding editions of the race in recent years. The 2026 edition was a light airs chess match in blistering air temperature, with difficult navigational choices, compression zones and tidal gates.
Line Honours went to Botin 56 Khumbu, skippered by Guy Gillon. RORC Vice Commodore Derek Shakespeare's J/122 Bulldog was second overall under IRC and winner of IRC One, while Rob Cotterill's J/109 Mojo Risin completed the overall podium, finishing third overall and winning IRC Four. The podium for IRC One was separated by just one hour after IRC time correction. Jaques Pelletier's L'Ange de Milon taking the win from Nick & Jacquetta Edmonds' J/45 Stickleback. Third was Manuel da Rocha's Endless Summer.
James Holder's Uno won a close multihull battle for line honours after a final duel with Adamas. After MOCRA time correction, Didier Bouillard's Dazcat 1295 Minor Swing was the class winner.
For Bellino, the key to victory was avoiding the worst of the holes in the breeze and staying mentally switched on until the finish. The race rewarded crews who could keep the boat moving when the wind softened, then reset quickly when pressure returned.
"There were so many little gains and losses," commented Bellino's Deb Fish. "Between Start Point and Eddystone it got really interesting with a big light patch. Those of us who went south gained a lot. The thinking was that you can always come up in light airs, but you cannot come down if you are already stuck in no wind."
Craigie and Fish did not rely on the tracker to judge their position and new performance software on board is still at the experimental stage. "It was pretty much back to old school," commented Rob Craigie. " We sailed the race from the water around us, using rival boats as reference points and reacting to wind speed and shifts. Seeing a competitor slow down or accelerate was more valuable than any forecast."
The closing stages were especially intense as Bellino kept a close eye on Sam White's JPK 1080 Mzungu!, one of the boats regularly a match for Bellino. In a light airs race, match racing a close rival while also protecting an overall IRC position demanded discipline.
"We had a cracking race with Mzungu!," commented Deb Fish. "They kept us on it all the time. Towards the end we knew it was close, so it was a case of not sleeping much anymore and making sure we got every decision right. It absolutely was not over until it was over."
RORC Vice Commodore Derek Shakespeare's Bulldog team produced a superb performance to win IRC One and take second overall, making it a one-two for RORC Flag Officers. Derek Shakespeare's team found important speed around Eddystone and stayed in touch in a race where concentration was as important as horsepower. Bulldog was part of the overall corrected time fight deep into the race, showing that the podium was not confined to one class or one type of boat.
Mojo Risin came within striking distance of the overall win on corrected time and finished third overall. The result was also good enough to win IRC Four, a major performance for Rob Cotterill's J/109, a 25-year old boat with an amateur crew. The final miles were a live calculation, with the crew counting speed, distance and time as they pushed for the overall result.
"We were counting down the distance in fractions of a mile and the time in fractions of a minute. At the finish, in very light winds, we had to tack, which messed it all up, it was very exciting at the end but a race that long is not won in the last couple of miles. There were a couple of things that cost us five or ten minutes, but it was a great race. We are chuffed with our result." Commented Rob Cotterill.
Cotterill said Mojo Risin's crew knew where time had been lost, but also where they had sailed well. The result reflected the pressure felt across the fleet. In a race of nearly two days, small losses of five or ten minutes could still decide the overall podium.
At the front of the monohull fleet, Khumbu took Line Honours after using the race as both a competitive test and a valuable offshore training exercise for the forthcoming Round Ireland Race. Navigator Suzy Peters said Khumbu's entry was deliberately low key, but the race turned into a far bigger offshore exercise than expected.
"It was a very last minute decision to do the race,: commented Peters. "We did the first day of the Poole IRC European Championship, then motored to Cowes on Saturday morning to get the offshore kit and do the race. We got more than we bargained for, with it turning into two nights at sea but we have 300 miles of valuable offshore data."
"It was always going to be more wind to the south, but you did not want to stray too far from the rhumb line when there was still a degree of uncertainty. "commented Khumbu's Rob Greenhalgh. "On the way back we tried to minimise risk, but we still did not really know whether the wind would come off the land or from the south east. It was not straightforward."
In the multihulls, James Holder's Grainger 36 Uno won a dramatic fight for Multihull Line Honours with Vincent Willemart's Rapido 40 Adamas. The result only being settled in the final few miles with the boats overlapped in sight of the finish line.
"It was an amazing end to a great race," commented Uno's James Holder. "We got ourselves in the wrong spot a couple of times and had to fight back. Near Eddystone it was horrendous. We were ten miles ahead, then parked up and everybody sailed into the back of us. Adamas did really well coming back, but in the last couple of miles we had a bit more breeze near the land, got a shift that worked, and squeezed around them. It was really close boat on boat racing and huge fun."
After MOCRA time correction, the Multihull Class winner was Didier Bouillard's Dazcat 1295 Minor Swing ahead of Brendan Seward & Pete Goss with Dazcat 1495 DMS Vinyl.
The Myth of Malham is often described as a Fastnet warm-up, but this edition was also a fleet race in the purest sense. The front of the fleet, the IRC podium and the IRC class battles were all alive until the closing stages. For many crews, the hardest part was not the distance itself, but the concentration required to stay engaged when the boat was moving slowly. Light airs offshore racing tempts tired crews into accepting the pace they have, when the race is really being decided by the search for the next lane of pressure. In the 2026 Myth of Malham, the best teams stayed alert, kept trimming, kept navigating and kept racing the boats around them.
Limelight is also richly deserved for Kit Rogers & David King who were the double-handed team on Contessa 32 Assent. She has a long history of RORC racing and extreme expedition cruising. The Myth of Malham was a mixture of those two disciplines with the team diligently sticking to the task of finishing the race in 2 Days 13 Hrs 53 Mins & 23 Secs
From Cowes to Eddystone and back, the Myth of Malham once again showed why it remains a proper offshore classic. In 2026, the winning formula was not simply to sail fast. It was to stay focused, make calm decisions and above all keep the boat moving.
The RORC Season's Points Championship and Cowes Offshore Series continues with the De Guingand Bowl Race starting from Cowes on May 30.