SAILING:NOT SINCE the tragic year of 1979 has a fleet so large massed for one of the oldest offshore yacht races in the world. Yesterday 314 boats started the Rolex Fastnet Race off Cowes, beating the previous record turnout of 303 entries.
The ultimate destination is Plymouth where the 608-mile race ends but the course passes Land’s End before turning north-north-west and across the Celtic Sea to West Cork and the famous lighthouse three miles off Cape Clear island.
Although the majority of the crews participating are amateur and club racers competing under the IRC-handicapping system, an offshore race of this kind is a magnet for exotic racing machines.
More than adequately fulfilling this role is Banque Populaire, the giant French trimaran that tore away from The Solent and had sailed 100 miles within five hours of starting as skipper Loick Peyron extended its on-the-water lead at speeds of close to 30 knots.
And this was upwind sailing.
Overnight, “Bank Pop” is expected to free-off once past Cornwall and Royal Ocean Racing Club officials were last night predicting that the 40-metre multihull could reach the Fastnet Rock by 4am today.
Astern, other unusual boats include the first competitive outing of the latest generation of boats for this year’s Volvo Ocean Race. Former Green Dragon skipper Ian Walker on Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing was leading the “grand-fathered” Team Sanya skippered by former race-winner Mike Sanderson.
Franck Cammas’s Groupama 4 was third but all three were closely grouped at this early stage.
In the overall IRC standings, Paul Adamson’s Intuition from the Sailing West school in Dun Laoghaire was the overall leader in Class 3 and in the top three overall on unofficial IRC standings.
Meanwhile, yesterday saw a mix of conditions for the 46 boats in the restart of La Solitaire du Figaro from Dun Laoghaire to Les Sables des Olonnes when light winds died on Dublin Bay leaving back-markers in the fleet struggling in the young-ebb tide off Dalkey Island.
Fresher winds blew through after torrential rain showers gave the French-dominated fleet a traditional send-off. Leg 2 winner and overall leader Jérémie Beyou was holding third place on the water last night, half a mile behind Matthieu Girrolet in first place as the fleet passed the Wexford coast.
The smaller 10-metre boats with their solo skippers can expect to meet the front-runners of the Fastnet Race as both fleet intersect somewhere off the Scilly Island during the course of today.
