IRC Three
Competitors enjoyed spirited sailing in a period of stronger winds on their return from the Rock that saw Gareth Edmondson’s JPK 1030 Insert Coin hit a new boat speed record of 20.4 knots.
Zeb Fellows, sailing the Sun Fast 3300 Orbit two handed with his father Dan, reported hitting speeds above 15 knots on the long run back down the Celtic Sea yesterday afternoon.
Zeb and Dan Fellows on Orbit © Paul Wyeth/PW Pictures/RORC
By sunset the wind had eased considerably and they were ghosting along under asymmetric spinnaker at less than 4 knots boat speed. ‘We’re near the front of our fleet which is quite good, but we’re waiting for the wind to fill in,” Zeb reported.
At the time they were within a group that included Ian Hoddle and Nikki Curwen on the Sunfast 3300 GameOn!, Sam White and Sam North on the JPK 1080 Mzungu! and RORC Commodore Deb Fish and Rob Craigie on the Sun Fast 3600 Bellino. Yet within 15 hours that group had spread out across more than 30 miles north to south across the English Channel as they set up for the approach to the finish.
The lead boats were making 8-10 knots towards the east this morning, but there’s a risk of patches of calmer weather in the English Channel, and early this afternoon most had slowed to 6.5 knots.
Hey Jude enjoyed a stay at the top of the leaderboard © ROLEX/Carlo Borlenghi
Philippe Girardin’s J/120 Hey Jude led the fleet for almost 24 hours, at one time both on the water and after IRC time correction. However, she slipped down the field to seventh by 1330BST and Jean Cruse’s A35 Crew’s Control took the lead. At this time RORC Commodore Deb Fish and Rob Craigie were in second place, sailing doublehanded on the Sun Fast 3600 Bellino, followed by Simon Tom’s Sun Fast 3300 Zephyr in third.
Simon Tom’s Sun Fast 3300 Zephyr © Paul Wyeth/PW Pictures/RORC
However the reality is competition is so tight, and conditions sufficiently unpredictable, that any of the top 10 per cent of the fleet could emerge victorious when they reach the finish around midnight tonight.
The last boat on the racecourse is Simon Harris’ J/112E J’Ouvert, which rounded the Fastnet Rock just before 1400 today. “We went into Falmouth to check and repair our furling system,” Harris explains. “The foil sections had come apart, so we couldn’t drop or change headsails, which made it imprudent to cross the Celtic Sea. We arranged a local rigger in Falmouth as soon as they opened Monday morning.”
IRC FourIRC Four's Raphael holds a strong position © Paul Wyeth/PW Pictures/RORC
Seven of the leading 10 boats in IRC Four are now JPK 1010s. Alban Mesnil and Romain Gibon’s Abracadabra 2 consistently made marginally faster progress on the way back from the Rock than the rest of the leaders. She therefore currently holds a narrow lead, but as with IRC Three, there are still several boats in contention for a class win when they finish in the early hours of tomorrow morning.
Returning from the Rock yesterday, Tim Tolcher from the J/99 Raging Bull reported surfing at 15 knots, without using a spinnaker, in winds gusting to 30 knots. “We just caught the top of a wave, ran down it and clocked 15 knots,”he says, “so we're very happy with that. Compared to the last two races it's been fantastic, other than a bit windy up round the rock and coming back.
“We didn’t use our kites on this leg mostly because we're two handed and need to rely on the autopilot, but that wasn’t holding a steady course,” he reported, speaking via Starlink while passing the Isles of Scilly. “The wind’s getting a bit light now, so we’re trying to work out the best route home. All the models are saying go a little bit south of the rhumb line, but we’ve spotted several boats drifting up northwards, so we're running through the options now.”
Raging Bull was not the only boat to report pilot problems. Richard Palmer from the JPK 1010 Jangada, for instance, reported a “temperamental pilot” that meant using spinnakers risked being unsafe in more than 20 knots of wind, and instead he and daughter Sophie were sailing more sedately under Code 0 as they approached Bishop’s Rock this morning. “It probably cost us around 10 places,” Palmer adds, “but at least we’ve had plenty of sleep and are looking forward to the final run into Cherbourg.”
Rachel Burgess & Oliver Rofix enjoy the sun on IRC Four's Verve
The back markers in the class, Rachel Burgess’ Oceanis 393 Verve, and Nicolas Granovsky’s classic Nicholson 33 Seabird, rounded the Rock at 12:17 and 13:24 respectively and are now heading towards the finish at around 6.5 knots.