With nine JPK 10.10s in action in IRC Four, the smart money was on a fifth in a row win for the highly successful model from Jean-Pierre Kelbert’s boatyard. However, this year’s IRC Four podium did not contain a single JPK 10.10. A ridge rolled over the fleet south of the Scilly Isles on Wednesday night forcing a race restart and, partly as a result of this, the 2021 Rolex Fastnet Race podium is filled with boats of 20 years old or more, and raced by passionate amateur sailors from France and Ireland. Overall honours were claimed by Alain Guelennoc’s X-332 Trading-advices.com.

The early part of the 49^th Rolex Fastnet Race was dominated by JPK 10.10s. Ludovic Menahes and David le Goff on the former’s Raphael, competing in their first Rolex Fastnet Race (after the Cap Martinique transatlantic race was cancelled), slowly ground out a lead doing a better job of playing tides along the Cornish coast. She passed up the west side of the Traffic Separation Scheme off Land’s End and remained ahead on the Celtic Sea Cross. At the Fastnet Rock Raphael was ahead on the water and held a lead of 52 minutes under corrected time from Emmanuel & Etienne Pinteaux’s JPK 10.10 Gioia.

Tom Kneen’s JPK 11.80 Sunrise has been crowned overall winner of the Rolex Fastnet Race. After being confirmed as runaway winner of the IRC Two division yesterday, no other boat still racing on the 695 nautical mile course can catch the British boat for overall honours in this, the 49th edition of the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s offshore classic. Kneen is the first British winner of the race since Charles Dunstone and his maxi Nokia Enigma in 2003.

Reunited this morning with his two-year old son Sam, Kneen couldn’t hide the emotion of winning a race that has come to mean so much to him:

“I’ve had 24 hours to reflect on the race after we finished yesterday, and it really is all about the people, the amazing team that sailed with me, and my incredible partner Francesca who has done so much to make this happen.”

One of the most intense battles, both on the water and under IRC corrected time, in this year’s Rolex Fastnet Race played out in IRC Three. Here the scratch boat was unquestionably the JPK 1030 Léon, skippered by the defending IRC Three and Two-Handed champion and former overall winner of the Rolex Fastnet Race, Alexis Loison, racing yet again doublehanded, but this time with Guillaume Pirouelle.

Interesting was the diversity of crew make-ups: Fully crewed, doublehanded or mixed doublehanded, it seemed to make no difference to the competitiveness of the top boats. While the lead doublehanders in IRC Four were occasionally in the mix, it was mainly the doublehanded crews in IRC Three that held the top places in the IRC Two-Handed ranking.

Tom Kneen’s JPK 11.80 Sunrise has sewn up IRC Two in this 49^th Rolex Fastnet Race. The Devonshire team crossed the Cherbourg finish line at 1004 BST this morning. Sunrise’s corrected time of 4 days, 6 hours, 45 minutes 4 seconds has given Kneen IRC Two victory by a huge margin. As Sunrise finished, her closest rival was just past the Lizard with more than 120 nautical miles still to sail.

After a hideous outbound beat down the Channel, when they never seemed to be in phase with the tide, Sunrise’s first break came after making the last minute call to go up the eastern side of the traffic separation scheme at Land’s End with Il Corvo as the majority of the frontrunners chose to go up the TSS’s west side.

1500 BST 12 August 

At 15:00 BST on Day 5 of the Rolex Fastnet Race, five boats form a leading pack on the water in IRC Four. 140 miles from the finish in Cherbourg the leaders are expected to cross the finish line tonight. All of the teams racing in IRC Four are experiencing an increase in wind speed from the southwest, especially the back markers who are experiencing a Force 7 at the Fastnet Rock.

Making good progress, reaching east in a building south westerly breeze, Harry Heijst’s S&S 41 Winsome will see an opportunity to make gains. Winsome has by far the longest waterline length in the leading pack around them. To the north of Winsome and the rhumb line is Vincent & Jacques Rigalleau racing Sun Fast 3200 Enedis, Emmanuel & Etienne Pinteaux’s JPK 10.10 Gioia and Patrick Molitor & Alexis Schenker’s JPK 10.10 Fleur Du Sud. Ludovic Menahes & David le Goff, racing JPK 10.10 Raphael is the most southerly of the leaders.

1300 BST Thursday 12 August

Louis-Marie Dussere’s JPK 10.80 Raging Bee² still leads on the water in IRC Three for the Rolex Fastnet Race. Raging Bee² passed the Isles of Scilly for the second time at 20:37 on 11th August. JPK 10.30 Léon, sailed, Two-Handed by Alexis Loison & Guillaume Pirouelle was 18 minutes behind. Since rounding the Fastnet Rock Raging Bee² has extended their lead on the water by 11 minutes, posting the quickest stage time in IRC Three. Philippe Girardin’s J/120 Hey Jude continues to impress against the modern designs, passing the Scillies just nine minutes after the JPK 10.30 Léon. Olivier Burgaud & Sylvain Pontu’s JPK 10.80 Aileau is also in the leading pack bound for Cherbourg and placed third in IRC Two-Handed.

Royal Ocean Racing Club top brass, including former Commodore Michael Boyd, out-going and in-coming CEOs Eddie Warden Owen and Jeremy Wilton, Race Director Chris Stone and former Race Director Janet Grosvenor turned out en masse on Cherbourg’s Port Chantereyne last night to welcome in the present RORC Commodore James Neville whose Judel/Vrolijk-designed HH42 finished the Rolex Fastnet Race leader of IRC One, both on the water and under IRC corrected time.

Ino XXX crossed the finish line at 22:34 BST last night with a race time of 3 days 10 hours 39 minutes and 58 seconds. At that point second placed Swede Jonas Granders’ Elliot 44 CR Matador was still north of Alderney with more than 20 miles to go. While this morning Ino XXX has yet to seal the deal in IRC One, her position is looking reasonably secure with, for example, boats like Richard Loftus' Swan 65 ketch Desperado and Chris Schram and Patrick ten Brinke's Corby 38 Double Edge having to finish by 12:23 to topple Neville’s team.

After the exceptional IMOCA win for Apivia early Wednesday morning, so there was yet more compression in the fleet astern of the race winner as the already compacted Vendée Globe 60 footers fell foul of the Alderney Race. Nonetheless the defending Rolex Fastnet Race IMOCA champions Jérémie Beyou and Christopher Pratt on Charal managed to hang on to second.

In 2019 there was some embarrassment for the rest of the world with France ‘owning’ the Rolex Fastnet Race, winning nine of the 10 classes, albeit with the American Wizard team breaking the French run of overall wins in the race that had lasted since 2013.

Ironic now with the 2021 race finishing in Cherbourg, French boats may have lost their grip on several key territories within the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s premier event. Yes, there is no chance that British or international teams will make an impression on French grand prix classes with Cammas and Caudrelier aboard Maxi Edmond de Rothschild having sewn up the Ultime/Open Multihull class in a similarly dominant way to Dalin and Meilhat on Apivia this morning in the IMOCA class.

But at present in the IRC fleet there are two British boats and one German looking good for the IRC Zero podium, and two Brits and one Swede for the top three spots in IRC One. IRC Two sees another Brit holding a comfortable lead over a Dutch boat, with a French boat third. Significantly a British boat is looking strong to win the coveted Fastnet Challenge Cup for the overall IRC win, but at this stage, no lead is insurmountable.

The 84ft Nigel Irens designed catamaran Allegra, sailed by Switzerland’s Adrian Keller, finished the 695-mile Rolex Fastnet Race course in an elapsed time of 3 days 18 mins and 38 secs and looks set to win the MOCRA Class. This follows Allegra's multihull class victory in the last RORC Caribbean 600.

1200 BST Wednesday 11 August

Just before 4 am BST on the fourth day of the Rolex Fastnet Race, Ludovic Menahes & David le Goff, racing JPK 10.10 Raphael Two-Handed, rounded the Fastnet Lighthouse - the first boat to do so in IRC Four. Raphael also led the class after time correction by over two hours. Racing a 10-metre boat in the Rolex Fastnet Race is an arduous task, coupled with the brutal conditions experienced in the first 24 hours, their performance so far has been nothing short of breath-taking.

1000 BST Wednesday 11 August

Beating up towards the Fastnet Rock is making for slow going for the back half of the IRC Two fleet as the wind is blowing from an inconvenient north-westerly direction off the southern tip of Ireland. Once they're round, at least the boats will be able to free up their sails and pick up some pace.

Meanwhile the frontrunners in this division are making good ground back towards the Scilly Isles, the wind blowing from a south-west-southerly direction. While Minnie the Minx (Philip Cook’s First 40) and J’Ouvert (Simon Harris’s J/122e) are bringing up the rear of IRC Two, Tom Kneen’s JPK 11.80 Sunrise is coming the other way, strengthening her hold on the lead.