The front of the IRC One fleet has a bit more than 150 miles of race course remaining as the leading contenders jostle for position near the Isles of Scilly. It was around this part of the race course that Sunrise III made the race-winning breakaway in the 2021 edition of the Rolex Fastnet Race.
This year, Tom Kneen’s JPK 1180 has had the opportunity to get out its joker card on the downwind, a brand new six-metre carbon spinnaker pole. Along with some flat-cut conventional spinnakers, the aim is to plug a hole in Sunrise’s armoury, VMG downwind in light conditions. “It’s a bit of an interesting experiment,” said navigator Tom Cheney on the British boat. “We’re in a good battle with Pintia and a few miles ahead of Dawn Treader so we’ll see how we go.”
Tom Kneen's JPK 1180 Sunrise III is the 2021 IRC Overall winner of the Rolex Fastnet Race © Paul Wyeth/pwpictures.com
As things stand on Tuesday afternoon, Pintia - a French J/133 co-skippered by Gilles Fournier and his daughter Corinne Migraine - has moved ahead to slightly more than a two-hour lead on corrected time ahead of Sunrise III. Ed Bell’s JPK 1180 Dawn Treader has slipped back to fourth in class behind Ginkgo, a Humphreys 39 with a German crew skippered by Dirk Clasen.
With around 24 hours of racing still to be completed before the finish in Cherbourg, the door is closing for others teams like Cocody, Codiam and Garm to make their play for the podium. Increasingly the fight for IRC One looks like a battle between the front three teams respectively from France, Britain and Germany.
Four minutes apart
After more than 400 miles of race course covered, and the gap on corrected time at the front of IRC Two is just four minutes. The doublehanded J/99 Axe Sail sailed by Maxime Mesnil and Hugo Feydit has moved to the top of the standings and is now four minutes in front of the fully crewed J/120 Hey Jude skippered by Philippe Girardin.
There’s a similarly close battle for third between two JPK 1080s, the British boat Mzungu! marginally ahead of French boat Karavel. However, with the IRC 2 frontrunnners not long past the Fastnet Rock, there’s well over two days of sailing between now and the finish in Cherbourg. Plenty of opportunity for change on the leaderboard.
For others in the fleet, it’s been about keeping the wheels on the wagon, improvising and inventing ways of being able to keep on racing when nature is doing its best to stop progress. Keith Miller, skipper of the Irish entry Prime Suspect, explained how they’ve managed to keep their Mills 36 Custom on the race track.
“We tore our mainsail in 35 knots but managed to sew it back together and use a part of a Dacron bunk to stick over the tear using Evostick and then sew the edges. When it happened we thought our race was over but we were determined to come up with a solution to finish. We are now nearing the Fastnet Rock.”
Ludovic Gerard, sailing on board Solenn for Pure Ocean, is anticipating a daylight rounding of the Fastnet Rock © Rick Tomlinson/www.rick-tomlinson.com
Sailors have been encountering every kind of weather condition in the Celtic Sea, as Ludovic Gerard reports from on board the JPK 1080 Solenn for Pure Océan.
“We have been welcomed by a strong and brutal wind from the North, gusts up to 35kts, tough seas and waves … luckily we enjoyed a calmer and sunny afternoon heading to the Fastnet lighthouse. We should be there early in the morning tomorrow, I will finally be able to take a selfie of myself with the lighthouse! Last time we rounded at night in the rain. So I can retire in peace from offshore racing after tomorrow!”
However, a few hours later from Gerard: “Lovely sunrise on board Solenn for Pure Océan. We are still not done with Fastnet! And the light winds will not help much. It reminds how beautiful the ocean is, after such rough seas since Saturday, the calm seas reminds all of us how much we have to look after their preservation.”
If Gerard’s dream of rounding the Fastnet Rock in daylight took a couple of years of patience, it’s been a lot longer coming for Jim Driver, racing Sun Fast 3300 Chilli Pepper with his daughter Ellie. Currently they’re 12th out of 90 boats entered in IRC Two. This is Jim’s ninth edition of the race yet the first time he’s clearly seen the rock, according to Ellie who has been recording progress along the route.
“After the pretty horrendous first night, we got into a rhythm catching up on sleep and food as well as checking the boat and tidying up the mess which had become the boat.
“It was around 15 knots and we were happily sailing the boat as fast as we could trying and slowly catching up the boats in front of us. We had a lovely visit from two boats - one from my friend Paddy and another guy whom I don’t know. It was really special for us that people had spent the time to come and say hi and wish us luck on the race around.
“Getting around Land’s End was as tricky as before with little wind and a lot of tide. We nearly missed a mark of the course! After downloading another weather GRIB we knew that more wind was coming…it had originally said a max of 25 knots but no…27 gusting 35 knots, again from 6am till 2pm. To be honest, we would have preferred a little less. This time the waves were longer but bigger than before being in the Irish Sea and some of them breaking at the top making them all the more powerful. In the afternoon it softened down to 10 to 15 knots. Yayyy!”
Father and daughter doublehanded team Jim and Ellie Driver have been drifting round the Fastnet Rock - to Jim's delight, in the daylight!
By Andy Rice
