Members of the Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club (RHADC) took to the start line for the 49th edition of the Rolex Fastnet Race.
Kyle Burgess, Jason Saints, Ellie Wollmann, Will Scott, Ceci Wollmann, Jordan Saints, Mike Wollmann, and Paul Wollmann are involved in the 96-year-old offshore racing classic.
The race, which is roughly 695 nautical miles long, started in Cowes on the Isle of Wight, rounds the Fastnet Rock off the coast of Ireland, and finishes in Cherbourg, France.
An impressive turn-out of 337 boats from 24 nations including Bermuda, Japan, Mexico, and eight from the USA, but the majority from Europe, including the largest ever turn-out from France.
Almost 10 hours after the lead Ultime trimaran, Russian Dmitry Rybolovlev’s brand new ClubSwan 125 Skorpios became the first monohull to round southwest Ireland’s most famous rock this evening. Due to this year’s mostly upwind conditions being more ‘typically Rolex Fastnet Race’, even the massively fast Skorpios, was unable to better the record monohull time to the Fastnet Rock of 26 hours 45 minutes 47 seconds, set in 2019 by George David’s Rambler 88. Skorpios’ time was 30 hours 38 minutes 43 seconds.
In the MOCRA multihull class, American Jason Carroll, aided by his all-star onboard cast of round the world and Olympic heroes on Argo, was leading on the water and this evening was on her return journey from the Fastnet Rock, halfway to the next turning mark at Bishop Rock, broad-reaching at 22 knots. However nearby and going in the opposite direction towards the Fastnet Rock was the MOCRA class leader, Adrian Keller’s 84ft Nigel Irens-designed racer-cruiser catamaran Allegra.
In the Class40s, there was a disaster this afternoon when one of the favorites, Axel Trehin’s Project Rescue Ocean dismasted on the approach to Land’s End. No one was hurt and she has successfully put into Penzance to effect repairs. This has left Luke Berry's 2019 winner, Lamotte-Module Création leading the class from Tales 2, the sole Botin-designed Class40, now campaigned by Italian Andrea Fornaro, albeit with Antoine Carpentier’s Courrier Redman on the ascent.
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