The Rolex Fastnet Race has a reputation for the severe weather that it can throw at its competitors. The start of the Rolex Fastnet Race 2021 was no different, with wind speeds at 20-30 knots, the conditions at sea were horrendous. Even the most seasoned sailors were pushed to the limit.
COVID and international travel restrictions, have resulted in this year’s Rolex Fastnet Race being a little different to the usual. This along with the forecast for the race’s first 24 hours, caused entries to drop as start day approached. Despite this the fleet was still a highly impressive turn-out of 337 boats from 24 nations including Japan, Mexico and eight from the USA, but the majority from Europe, including the largest ever turn-out from France.
On board the TS5 catamaran, Addictive Sailing we had Cecilia Wollmann, 23. After just concluding her economics degree at the University of Southampton, she started the Fastnet with her father plus elder sister Ellie and younger brother Mike.
After a few days of strong south-westerly winds (with gusts of 35kts) all competitors faced a lumpy Solent as the tide turned off The Needles, and over 40 yachts had already retired from racing for a variety of reasons. Unfortunately, due to a damaged main sail, Addictive Sailing is one of those. At this point our Russian team on Zada were at 15th in IRC 2, Pata Negra 1st in overall with Sailplane in 2nd.
After 34 hours, news of the first finisher Maxi Edmond de Rothschild, on the maxi trimaran Gitana 17 reached, setting a new record for the race’s new longer 695 mile course to Cherbourg of 1 days 9 hours 15 minutes and 54 seconds. Meanwhile Zada, Pata Negra, and Sailplane had under 400nm to go till Cherbourg. The strong winds at the start of the race and gruelling conditions meant that around 80 yachts had retired at this point.
The lead in IRC 1 on the 4th day was hotly contested. As the fleet was rounding the Fastnet Rock, on IRC corrected time it was Sailplane holding a 10 minute advantage over Matador, but the two were continuously switching between 1st and 2nd with Pata Negra not far behind! Towards the finish conditions dropped significantly and with tides against them it proved difficult to get the the finish line. The breeze lightened to around 10 knots, meaning teams have a very different race to the one they started in, with just over 250nm to go the teams did all they could to fight to the finish.
What a race for Pata Negra! The team, with owner Andrew Hall on-board, were not only first to the Fastnet Rock in IRC1A, they finished 2nd in IRC1 and 3rd IRC Overall!
Her owner Andrew Hall told us they “had a great race, boat and crew worked really hard from start to finish, very tough first 24 hours but everything went well for us, we had fun!”
Sailplane finished 4th in IRC1 and 5th IRC Overall!
The crew on Zada have shown amazing dedication to want to compete in the 2021 Rolex Fastnet race. They flew in from Russia and quarantined for a week before the race. They sailed a great race but unfortunately nipped the corner of the Fastnet TSS which meant they got a 10% time penalty so, unfortunately, finished 33rd in IRC2. Without this penalty they would have likely been 1st First 40, 9th in IRC 2 and 4th in IRC2B. A painful mistake but they are not the only ones to have made it.
They will have to come back in 2 years time and try again but we are very glad they enjoyed themselves nonetheless!
Dmitry Rybolovlev’s ClubSwan 125 Skorpios took line honours in the Rolex Fastnet Race
RORC Commodore James Neville whose Judel/Vrolijk-designed HH42 finished the Rolex Fastnet Race leader of IRC One, both on the water and under IRC corrected time.
Tom Kneen’s JPK 11.80 Sunrise has sewn up IRC Two in this 49th Rolex Fastnet Race. The Devonshire team crossed the Cherbourg finish line with Sunrise’s corrected time of 4 days, 6 hours, 45 minutes 4 seconds has given Kneen IRC Two victory by a huge margin. As Sunrise finished, her closest rival was just past the Lizard with more than 120 nautical miles still to sail. Congratulation to Sunrise, who has also been crowned overall winner of the 49th Rolex Fastnet Race.
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