A record participation
The start of the Rolex Fastnet Race will take place on Saturday, August 3, 2019. Created in 1925 by the RORC (Royal Ocean Racing Club of Cowes), this 605-mile race - organised every 2 years - is one of the largest offshore races and links Cowes to Plymouth with a passage through the Irish Fastnet lighthouse.
On this 48th edition, there will be more than 400 participating boats, one record?! There will be 4 Ultimates, 20 IMOCA and 22 Class40, but above all several hundred participants in IRC.
To each his own objective
On this great race in August, everyone has their own objective. So, if the Rolex Fastnet Race is a personal challenge for some, it is also the goal of a lifetime for others. Still others support associations or defend causes.
If the race is played individually in each class, the Fastnet Challenge Club will reward the best IRC crew in compensated time (excluding the 64 competitors in the non-IRC fleet). Over the last three years, it has been exclusively French crews who have lifted the cup.
4 Ultimate
After the Armen Race, the Rolex Fastnet Race will be the 2 e race allowing the Ultimates to confront each other. We will find Macif (François Gabart), Sodebo Ultim 3 (Thomas Coville), Maxi Edmond de Rothschild (Sébastien Josse and Franck Cammas) and Actual Leader (Yves le Blévec).
This will be an opportunity for Macif to measure himself against the other three Ultimates who had already competed in the Armen Race. With the technological innovations and foils that now equip these flying boats, it is possible that the 2011 record, held by Loïck Peyron's trimaran Banque Populaire V (Spindrift) in 1 day, 8 hours and 48 minutes, will be broken.
"With the speeds we can reach and if the conditions are suitable for flight, we can certainly beat the record, but it depends entirely on the weather" explained François Gabart.
20 IMOCA
20 IMOCA boats, including 11 foilers, will start the legendary Anglo-Saxon race. This 608-mile event will allow the skippers to train in doubles three months before the start of the Transat Jacques Vabre. It will also be an opportunity to discover Sébastien Simon's brand new foiler, Arkéa-Paprec, whose confrontation with the other 60-foot monohulls is expected.
The reference time to beat is 2 days, 16 hours, 14 minutes and 02 seconds, and has been held since 2017 by Paul Meilhat and Gwénolé Gahinet on SMA.
22 Class40
The Rolex Fastnet Race is an integral part of the 2019 Official Class40 Championship. We will find recent boats, at the cutting edge of technology, but also older one-design boats, such as the 2007 Rogers plan, with which Tanguy de Lamotte won the 2009 and 2011 Rolex Fastnet. This year it will be led by Morgane Ursault-Poupon, Philippe Poupon's daughter. The most recent Class40 participant in the Rolex Fastnet Race 2019 is Imagine, skippered by Jörg Reichers, the German sailor who has sailed and shone on many circuits in France, including the Mini 6.50 (2nd in the Mini Transat 2017), the Imoca60 and the Class40.
Franco-British Luke Berry (Lamotte - Creation Module) estimates that about six or seven boats have a chance to win in the Class40.
The favourites
In monohull, the eyes were turned on George David's powerful Rambler 88, but he could be caught up with Sally Huang Lee and her much longer, but slimmer Dovell 100 SHK Scallywag. Will the conditions be sufficient for SHK Scallywag to beat the monohull race record held by VO70 Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing of 1 day 18 hours and 39 minutes?
In the 70-foot category, Peter Harrison's Sorcha, who has already won the race twice as Rán II of Niklas Zennström, will have to be watched.
Weather conditions
This Saturday, August 3, the start in the Solent will be made by an unusual southeast (usually southwestern) breeze. According to the weather service of the race organisation, the wind is expected to increase during the night in the south-east sector, with a more established wind in the east.
During the first night for the leaders, or later in the night for the rest of the fleet, crews will have to negotiate a "transition zone" that will see the wind drop from the southwest, a scenario that could be beneficial in the north (in search of the thermal breeze near the coast) or in the south (to achieve a new variation).
Faster boats will tend to sail further south towards the DST of Le Casquet. It will then be necessary to choose between an eastward or westward passage, which is an essential choice. If at the beginning of the week, only the Western route was to be preferred, finally, the slowest competitors could choose to go east.
Thereafter, it will be from reaching across the Celtic Sea to Fastnet Rock, then back to the Scilly Islands by southwest or southwest winds between 15 and 25 knots.
