CHERBOURG-EN-CONTENTIN, FRANCE 28 July 2025, 21:00: Alex Trehin and Douguet Corentin on Faites un don sur SNSM.org pulled out an impressive 26 minutes to round the Fastnet Rock in first place ahead of Milan Kolacek’s Inland Roots Ocean Soul early this afternoon. Pep Costa and Pablo Santurde Del Arco on VSF Sports took third place seven minutes later.
Les Invisibles holds on to fourth position in the Class40s © James Tomlinson/RORC
However, the next three boats were separated by less than four minutes. Hugo Picard and Pietro Luciani on Les Invincibles slipped from the second place they held yesterday to round in fourth, just 78 seconds ahead of Aina Bauza and Axelle Pillain on Engie - Dessine-Moi La High-Tech.
The bulk of the fleet is now gybing downwind through big angles en route to the Isles of Scilly. Trehin and Corentin led the way gybing immediately to the south of the Fastnet TSS in around 12 knots of true breeze, before holding a north-easterly course for more than 20 miles and consistently extending further away from second placed Milan Kolacek on Inland Roots Ocean Soul, and Pep Costa and Pablo Santurde Del Arco on VSF Sports.
Engie-Dessine-Moi La High-Tech challenges the newer generation boats © Rick Tomlinson/RORC
Engie - Dessine-Moi La High-Tech was one of three boats to gybe south earlier than Trehin and Corentin. They are racing this season with funding from the Transat Cafe d’Or’s Cap pour Elles programme that’s designed to give up and coming women sailors an opportunity to compete on the circuit with their own campaign.
“This is only our second race in this boat and we didn’t expect to be fighting with newer generation boats, so it's very nice for us,” Bauza said after rounding the Rock. “It’s so close that we have to try to gain every metre, with very close roundings. Now we are just trying to go as fast as possible downwind, gybing all the time to stay with the best wind shifts.”
Jose Guilherme Cladas’ Barco Brasil
Further back in the fleet the older sharp bow designs were still approaching the Rock, led by Angolan-Brazilian Jose Guilherme Cladas’ Barco Brasil – Mussulo. Cladas is a hugely experienced offshore racer with 18 Atlantic crossings to his name, yet this is his first Rolex Fastnet Race.
“The best thing is to be participating,” he says. “This has been a dream for me since I was a young boy and young sailor. And in May we came here to sail the course, to understand the tides and everything else.”
Around 15 miles behind Cladas, another sharp bow boat, Nicolas Guibal’s Moonpalace, had been keeping pace close to the newer scow bow Gambit until mid-afternoon. However Moonpalace slowed as the result of some water ingress.
“This is the most difficult time in the race for us,” Guibal said, speaking a couple of hours before reaching the Fastnet Rock, “because we have to pay attention to this water.” Nevertheless, Class40s have enough foam buoyancy to be unsinkable as well as watertight bulkheads, but even minor leaks can be a discomfort and inconvenience.
By contrast, his most memorable period in the race so far was “in the Solent – there are so many boats there that it’s always a very beautiful time.”
The thrill of the Class40 start in the Solent © Paul Wyeth/PW Pictures/RORC
