WoW Aug01 ROLEX FASTNET RACE SPECIAL. Preview-Start-Winners plus much more

This is the World on Water 2025 Rolex Fastnet Race special for August first. Spectators in their thousands swarmed Cowes Green and the shores of the western Solent to witness the starts of the 51st Rolex Fastnet Race. This year’s event marks the centenary of the first Fastnet Race that saw seven boats set sail from Ryde and finish in Plymouth in 1925. Fittingly the start saw a new record entry of 444 competitors, up from the previous largest of 430 in 2023, confirming the event as the world’s largest offshore race. With Cowes and the Solent overcast thanks to an occluded front, the starts took place beneath an overcast sky in a 10-12 knot southwesterly and a building ebb tide.  Our report starts with a race preview and then the race start. As dawn was showing its first rays off Cherbourg-en-Cotentin, so the sleek light blue triple-hulled form of the Ultim trimaran SVR Lazartigue sped across the finish line of the 51st Rolex Fastnet Race to collect overall line honours. Given this year’s relatively light winds, her time of 1 day 17 hours 18 minutes 4 seconds was well outside the 1 day 8 hours 38 minutes 27 seconds record time she set in 2023’s gale-force conditions. Skipper Tom Laperche commented: “The race was different, more strategic and tactical. The windiest part was 20 knots, whereas last year it was 35. Versus Banque Populaire, early on we made a good decision to go close into the English coast and managed to cross them coming back on starboard. We got in front. It was difficult returning from Fastnet to Scilly, because the wind was stronger behind, so they reduced their deficit. Since yesterday afternoon we knew that it will be tactical between the gybes when they have a good speed.” While little known outside of France, the Ocean Fiftys (ex-Multi 50s) are a trimaran class on the ascent with nine boats competing in the centennial Rolex Fastnet Race, as part of their annual calendar. Despite being a speedy box rule class they enjoyed some of the closest racing across the fleet. Highly surprising was just how competitive the doublehanded Ocean Fiftys demonstrated themselves to be in the Rolex Fastnet Race, with the leader reaching the Fastnet Rock on the transom of the MOD70 Argo and even the Ultims not fully shaking them off until they had passed Plymouth.  Exiting the Solent, Matthieu Perraut, and Jean-Baptiste Gellée, on the Neyhousser-designed Inter Invest led Erwan le Roux, and Audrey Ogereau, on the VPLP-penned Koesio out of the Solent alongside Banque Populaire, the mighty Ultim literally twice their length. That evening they passed Portland Bill, hanging on to the coattails of Actual Ultim 4, with Koesio now out in front heading deep into Lyme Bay. Inter Invest timed their tack back out of Lyme Bay better than the others, overtaking Koesio, but the whole class remained tightly grouped.  The French sailor Elodie Bonafous’ spectacular start to her career in the IMOCA Class continued today as she followed up second place in the Course des Caps earlier this month with her first victory in the Class in the Rolex Fastnet Race. Racing with French veteran Yann Eliès, alongside Basile Bourgnon and Gaston Morvan of France, Bonafous, 29, reached the finish line off Cherbourg in the early hours of the morning just eight minutes ahead of second-placed Jérémie Beyou and his team on Charal. Bonafous’ crew on board Association Petits Princes-Quéguiner had taken two days, 14 hours and 7 minutes to complete the highly technical 695-nautical mile classic course from Cowes on the English south coast to Cherbourg, via the Fastnet Rock off the southwest tip of Ireland. This year’s course was mainly upwind to the Rock and then downwind on the way back, as the six IMOCAs that completed the race sparkled close to the front of a Fastnet fleet of 444 boats.' Another heavyweight is currently prevailing in IRC One. In a truly impressive performance, the team on Australian Linda Goddard's Swan 53 cruiser Bedouin continues to hang on to first place in IRC One, ahead of several class favourites. These include past overall Rolex Fastnet Race winner Géry Trentesaux’s Sydney 43 GTS Long Courrier, who this year has been leading the RORC Season’s Points Championship, and Ed Bell and the Mark Spearman-led crew on the JPK 1180 Dawn Treader. Skippered by Linda Goddard, the Swan 53, Bedouin, representing Australia, has taken the top spot in IRC One, outperforming a highly competitive fleet in the 50–60 foot range. Racing with her daughters and close crew, Goddard’s campaign combined Corinthian spirit with impressive offshore performance to deliver a memorable class win in the centenary edition of the race. It was a truly impressive performance, for the team on Australian Linda Goddard's, Swan 53, cruiser, Bedouin.