Tiny gains and big frustrations on David Griffith's Whisper © James Tomlinson/RORC
Cherbourg-en-Contentin, France 29 July 2025, 22:00: Whisper has been chipping away all race, David Griffith’s Judel/ Vrolijk 62 eking out every small advantage on the race course. But then the wind dies on the final approach to Cherbourg while the breeze fills in further behind in the English Channel, bringing the 52-footers trickling down from behind.
“That’s ocean racing, as we say,” observed Griffith with a wry smile. “I’ve been racing offshore since the 1970s, so we’ve been here before. I think everyone has seen these situations where you're in a great position, then you sit there with no wind, and you just see all these boats coming at you from 30 miles behind, all doing 15 knots while you're doing three or five or so.
“It's heartbreaking because the crew had done such a superb job. No major errors, lots of sail changes, and you’re putting together all these tiny gains along the way until everything gets thrown up in the air. But with all that said, RORC have put on an absolutely superb event. We loved the scene in Cowes and it’s been a great experience, a first Fastnet for me and a lot of the crew.”
Second on the Line Honours podium for Varuna 6 © James Tomlinson/RORC
Varuna 6 came across the finish line about two hours after Whisper in the late afternoon of Tuesday. For owner Jens Kellinghusen this was his second Rolex Fastnet Race. “Four years ago it was a heavy air start and then it turned light,” he recalled. “This year it has been an interesting race but we are not good on windward-leewards, up and down, which some of the other boats are designed for. And our boat prefers the heavier air, more than we have had.”
Similar to Whisper, Varuna 6 fell victim to the drop in breeze, according to veteran professional Robert Bermudez Castro, aka Chuny. “The breeze died in the middle of the Channel – the big boats finished and we got the light air and the fleet behind caught us. We went from 20th in the overall standings down to 70th. But it was an interesting fun race – all these corners with different winds and currents. And it was great to spend some of the time sailing in among the TP52s in the Admiral’s Cup.”
There will doubtless be more shuffling of the pack in the coming hours, but by mid-evening on Tuesday the top three were showing as Enderpearl, La Loevie and Boudragon.
VO60 Boudragon's young team get a taste of race course conditions © Boudragon
As the previous leaders had just related, the boats further back seemed to have experienced more wind, and that’s what the skipper of the VO60 Boudragon confirmed. “It’s been windy,” said Hans Bouscholte. “I think we've had up to 25-27 knots. We had two warm fronts and it was not a lot of visibility, but excellent sailing with the A3 and later the A5. So the youngsters on our boat are doing very well. It's a youth crew.
“The goal of our project is to bring youth sailors to a higher level, so that they can participate eventually in the Ocean Race. So we have up to 10 youngsters now on the boat between 16 and 30 years old. We hope to get in this evening in time for a hamburger and a beer. The young crew are looking forward to it!”
Amateurs and seasoned sailors crew Le Cigare Rouge © James Tomlinson/RORC
Another offshore veteran, Sidney Gavignet, is enjoying putting the old lady, Le Cigare Rouge, through her paces. “We’re going well, sailing pretty low, that is the speciality of Le Cigare. She is narrow, no stability, so we run very very low! The crew is doing well and we have Laurent Risterucci, Commodore of a München Yacht Club, who is 73 years old. It is quite an adventure for our amateurs and for me as well.”
Mixed conditions and DSS foiling on Tulikettu © ROLEX/Carlo Borlenghi
Arto Linnervuo has been craving the stronger breeze so as to be able to get his Infiniti 52 Tulikettu really ripping. The DSS foil can be devastatingly quick, but only when the boat is really moving.
“I thought that it would be a light wind race until the end, as it was last time, when we were not able to foil at all after the Fastnet,” said Linnervuo from Finland. “We had breeze during the night and then we saw that we were gradually catching other boats in front of us and concluded that our navigation was perfect and we were able to stay in the breeze the whole night.
“Then towards the morning hours the breeze got obviously stronger and then we did our second right tactical move, which was to sail south from the Scilly Isles, closer to the coast of France, where we actually found really good breeze. That's when we were able to deploy our DSS foil for the first time.”
Linnervuo is steeling himself for the final tricky phase into the finish. “Through the whole race the weather models haven't been correct, so it's been quite difficult to make tactical decisions when the weather model is not happening or it happens too late. According to our understanding there is a possibility that the winds will get lighter towards the evening, which makes obviously this final stretch very interesting with the Alderney Race waiting for us.”
by Andy Rice
