Sailing...

Not so fastnet

From Sailing Anarchy

There were so many divisions in the just-completed Fastnet Race that the results sheet reads more like the chorus of Hot Chocolate’s 1978 disco hit: “Everyone’s a winner, baby, that’s the truth”. Between them, the place-getters alone collected a total of 69 trophies.

Three clear themes emerged from the event. 

The first was the dominance of French boats and sailors at the pointy end of the fleet. The second was that the Royal Ocean Racing Club still accepts entries from yachts and crews who are not up to the challenge of the demanding 695nm race. The third is that many of the two-handers struggled in the tough conditions of the first day. 

A review of the raw numbers is instructive.

There were 495 entries in this 50th running of the biennial Fastnet, the event its organizers describe as “the world’s largest offshore race”. What they are less willing to publicize is that this year there were 170 retirements – more than a third of the fleet. 

The first 24 hours were certainly challenging but not severe enough to justify that high attrition rate. Some of those retirements were boats that had elected not to start. 

Offshore racing in the Channel and the Irish Sea is rarely a jolly outing. Clearly, the event attracts plenty of un-credentialed bucket list wannabes. If a crew doesn’t have genuine confidence in their boat, and their own experience and abilities, then they shouldn’t be out there. Perhaps the RORC needs to set the entry bar a lot higher. 

Among the two-handers, only 45 finished from 100 starters. Had the bad weather hit just a day later – with that fleet of under-manned lightweights already out in open water – then the club might well have been confronting a crisis to rival the 1979 Fastnet tragedy. 

By contrast, of the 29 IMOCA class yachts that started only two retired. They are boats built to take punishment, sailed by seasoned offshore crews.

French sailors dominated the event to a remarkable degree. We’ve grown to assume their primacy in the multihull divisions where they scored eight of the top ten positions. But now add to that seven of the top ten places in monohulls and a picture of true superiority emerges. The tricoleur rules!    

The overall IRC winner was the TP52 Caro underling the continued success of that class in offshore events. 

Caro was unlucky not to win the last Sydney-Hobart race. She was edged out by another TP52, Celestial, which finished 40 minutes behind but enjoyed a better handicap. It’s now likely that Swiss owner Max Klink will take his boat South again this December for another crack at the Hobart trophy. 

And finally, what of little Maluka, the 90-year-old 28-foot gaffer from Australia skippered by Sean Langman? She finished as the 230th-placed monohull with an elapsed time of 6 days, 3 hours, 40 minutes – and won her division. Slow, but earnest.

 – anarchist David