J/99 claims Rolex Fastnet Race’s IRC Three

20:00 Thursday 31 July 2025

Five days into the centenary Rolex Fastnet Race, more than 280 of the 380 strong IRC fleet have finished, and of the remainder just 17 have retired. Two of the MOCRA multihull fleet have still to finish.

As the deluge of arrivals has increased, so has traffic through the race village - perched on the dockside at Cherbourg-en-Cotentin’s giant Port Chantereyne - which has grown from a trickle to a torrent to a deluge. Many are heading for the giant bar and food area as beer and fast food are well known antidotes to days of salt water spray, fatigue, general discomfort and heightened emotions.

Léon sails across the finish line to overall victory © Armel Vrac

As finisher numbers have built so more winners and podium placers have been established. So it was this morning that boatbuilder Jean-Pierre Kelbert and serial IRC Two-Handed class winner and Cherbourg’s own son Alexis Loison were announced as the centenary Rolex Fastnet Race’s IRC overall winners. The haul of silverware for Kelbert’s JPK 1050 Léon is impressive this year: not just victory in IRC Two but IRC Two-Handed, where Kelbert notched up his second class win (his first in 2019).

Loison, incredibly, secured his sixth IRC Two-Handed win and this was out of only 11 editions since 2005 (his first) when the race first featured a doublehanded class. But most significant was Loison scoring his second doublehanded outright victory in the race - only the second occasion ever, following his win with his father Pascal onboard their JPK 1010 Night And Day in 2013, that a doublehanded team has won the historic Fastnet Challenge Cup.

Hey Jude took line honours in IRC Three © ROLEX/Carlo Borlenghi

IRC Three line honours went to Philippe Girardin’s J/120 Hey Jude, one of the highest rated boats in the fleet. She had held the lead not just on the water but under IRC too for much of the race. She was slowed more by the adverse tide, around Alderney and the Cotentin peninsula, than the lower-rated boats which arrived at that point later.

Eventually she took sixth place after IRC time correction, less than four minutes behind Mzungu! “We were pleased with the weather this year, because Philip has a problem with his back - we are now old men,” mused crewman and much capped doublehanded sailor Louis-Marie Dussiere, who has been a friend of Girardin’s since they were at dental school 40 years ago. “We had a very bad start, but were able to come back towards the head of the IRC Three fleet leaving the Solent. We had a very good exit at the Shingles and we were back at the head of the IRC Three fleet at Portland.

“At the Rock there was a little rain and very low cloud. We could see nothing – not even the light of the Fastnet Rock until we were one mile away – and we did a very late tack for Fujitsu British Soldier.

The crew of Whimjy celebrate IRC3 victory © Paul Wyeth/pwpictures/RORC

Ultimately it was Julien Bentz’s J/99 Whimjy 99 that crossed the Cherbourg-en-Cotentin finish line at 00:42 local time to take victory after IRC time correction by 19 minutes. “It changed a lot and was really difficult over the last 24 hours, because the conditions were shifty and the current challenging,” Bentz commented. “It was a rollercoaster of emotions, but we fought until the end and it paid off.

“For most of the crew it’s our first Fastnet, so it's a great achievement. We have been working on this project for two years and, while it was a mix of intense racing and adventure, there was also a lot of discovery for us along the way.

What was their winning formula? “A mix of many things of course and we prepared very well for two years. The crew and the atmosphere also – we’ve been sailing together for a very long time – maybe 45 years with Romain Troublé.”

“It was a very good race for this boat – upwind and downwind, with no reaching – it was perfect,” added Troublé, son of former America’s Cup skipper and supporter Bruno. “The Fastnet Rock two days ago in the fog and in the dark at two o'clock in the morning was quite an amazing memory for us.”

Bellino reaches the finish © Paul Wyeth/pwpictures/RORC

RORC Commodore Deb Fish and Rob Craigie on the Sun Fast 3600 Bellino took second place on corrected time and were also the first doublehanded boat in IRC Three. “It was a lovely race – so much nicer than the last edition, with much more gentle conditions,” said Fish. “We had a pretty good race, though we made a few mistakes. We could have done better at the TSS at the Isles of Scilly going out and could have routed more to the west.

“But the way back was a dream. We got that all right, went the right way and the finish was really interesting. Cheating the tide at the Channel Islands, getting close inshore at Alderney to get out of the really strong tides – it was fascinating stuff, really interesting from start to finish and good sailing.”

RORC Commodore Deb Fish and Rob Craigie were doublehanded on Bellino © Paul Wyeth/pwpictures/RORC

Wearing her RORC Commodore’s hat Fish added: “It's also a very special moment for the Club, with a record-sized fleet in the Rolex Fastnet Race’s centenary year. It’s 100 years since seven boats set off on the first Ocean Race, as they called it then. I think the people who sailed those boats and went on to form the Ocean Racing Club would be astounded now, with almost 450 boats and such a big buzz around it. I think they'd be really pleased with what they started.”

Luc Fourichon and Gerard Quenot’s JPK 1030 Blue Skies rounded out the podium, a mere 5 minutes 20 seconds behind Bellino under IRC. “For us, it's a good result,” says Quenot, who is president of La Rochelle Nautique, one of the major sailing clubs on the Atlantic coast of France. “I have sailed together with Luc my co-skipper for a long time – we won the Transquadra together in 2012.

“It took a very, very long time to get to the Fastnet because the wind was in front of us, but coming back with speed and a spinnaker all the way was fantastic.”

Meanwhile many yachts are settling into their sixth night at sea or bracing themselves for the cultural shock of arriving back on terra ferma after their lengthy passages to Ireland and back. This afternoon Will and Jenny Taylor-Jones’s Sunstone was negotiating the Alderney Race en route to the Cotentin peninsula and the finish line where they were due to arrive this evening. Celebrating her 60th birthday Sunstone is the varnished wooden-hulled S&S 39 made famous through the considerable and successful racing and global cruising exploits of previous owners Tom and Vicky Jackson.

This Rolex Fastnet Race for the Ipswich-based Taylor-Joneses has been highly significant, as Jenny Taylor-Jones explains. “Will's father died last September. One of the things that we had really wanted to do was to finish a Fastnet while he was still alive. That was one of the reasons we were so frustrated by not finishing last time.

“This time it has been pretty emotional for us all, as we took some of his ashes with us and launched them off the inward side of the Fastnet Rock. We've left a little bit of him there, as it was one of his favourite places.” Mike Taylor-Jones was a keen RORC racer in the 1980s and 1990s, first aboard his S&S 34 Deerstalker (he finished second overall on one occasion) and then on a Mount Gay 30.

So this year’s race has been very much a family affair. Jenny continues: “We've got both our kids Issy and Sam on board, which is really nice, and my brother-in-law Tom and two very old family friends. So we have a lovely crew.”

The return journey back from the Rock was blessed with Sunstone being surrounded by dolphins and her crew even spotted a whale. After much studying of tidal atlases and observing what the other boats are doing, this afternoon Sunstone was making 7.5-8 knots through the water in 13 knots apparent. “Everything's wet – wet sleeping bags, wet mattresses, wet clothes. It wouldn't be an offshore race without that, would it?”