(Cowes, Isle of Wight, England)- Coming up in less than a fortnight is
one of those "bucket list" offshore challenges that is on many sailor's
wish list to conquer, vanquish the enemy and go home- the infamous Rolex
Fastnet Race-- a simple 608 nm jaunt from Cowes westabout to a
lighthouse on a rock and back to Plymouth. Not to surprisingly,
thousands have dreamt the dream, only to survive yet another 608nm
journey again, then return for more punishment at the hands of the great
Lord Neptune. For many, it's part of that movie, "Never ending story,
part XXXX, chapter XVXLV". How many chapters later does one have to
tell the story of nearly winning it all, but having to anchor yet again
just yards off the Plymouth finish line within stone's throw (literally)
of the race committee? Like that famous British mountain climber once
said about scaling Mt Everest in the Hindu Kush-- they keep coming back
for more "because it's there". Remarkably, a record numbers of boats
signed up this year (mostly in 48 hours!), so plenty of sailors will be
telling their version of the story sometime soon!While the Rolex Fastnet Race's top prize is the Fastnet Challenge Cup and a Rolex watch/ chronometer for the first of the 302 boats winning under the IRC Rating rule, everyone has their fair shot at it all from the start on Sunday, August 11th off the Royal Yacht Squadron starting line in front of Cowes. There will be forty-two J/Teams sailing- 14% of the total fleet-- easily the largest sailing brand represented within this famous British and European event. Next closest brand is Beneteau with 12% followed by Sigma at 7% and a host of other major brands at less than 5% each-- like Swan, Jeanneau, X-Yachts, JPK, Grand Soleil, Archambault, Ker, Dehler, Bavaria and so forth.
Given any kind of a fetch or reaching race, the fleet of five J/111s will be quite formidable in the overall IRC handicap standings. Look for these teams amongst the leaders, including two English teams- BRITISH SOLDIER (Army Sailing Association) and OJE (Andre Hill); the French team on ALPHALINK/ XTREME YACHTING (Benjamin Diouris); the Belgian team on DJINN (Just 4 Sailing Team), and the famous and highly successful Netherlands team on XCENTRIC RIPPER (John van der Starre & Robin Verhoef- also sailing Doublehanded Class).
It should be a fascinating Fastnet Race to watch given the enormous cross-section of J/Teams participating in this 2013 edition! Live YellowBrick.com tracking will be available, so cheer on your favorite team to the finish! Sailing photo credits- ROLEX/ Kurt Arrigo. For more Rolex Fastnet Race sailing information
