Finishers in Fastnet Driftfest

The year 2015 will be remembered as a slow one for the Rolex Fastnet Race, which started on Sunday afternoon in Cowes, UK, but the first finishers arrived in Plymouth last night and early this morning.

Yann Guichard and Dona Bertarelli’s VPLP 131 trimaran Spindrift 2 battled two-time Route du Rhum winner Lionel Lemonchois’ 80-ft trimaran Prince de Bretagne to the Lizard before Spindrift’s sizable waterline length advantage prevailed. The giant trimaran crossed the line at 22:57:41 BST for an elapsed time of 2 days 10 hours 57 minutes and 41 seconds, more than a day slower than her own record set in the 2011 race.

Bertarelli described the race as "quite difficult from the start to the end. The wind was quite light and not really made for this type of boat," she said. "We are the biggest, but we are also the heaviest. All day we were neck and neck with Prince de Bretagne, which kept on coming back into us."

But ultimately Lloyd Thornburg’s Phaedo3 finished second, having overtaken Prince de Bretagne some five miles from the line. But wait — not so fast! The American MOD70 was then becalmed less than a mile from the line, allowing the French boat to close to within a third of a mile. Finally Phaedo3 ghosted across the line, finishing 20 minutes ahead of Prince de Bretagne, which had in turn become stuck in a wind hole.

Thornburg was ecstatic after this, his first Rolex Fastnet Race, despite the soft conditions. "This is the most exciting race I’ve ever done!" he enthused. "The finish was the only time we went backwards."

Jim Clark’s 100-ft Comanche, with Ken Read skippering, fought a close duel with George David’s Rambler 88. Their race went down to the wire with Comanche finishing just four and a half minutes ahead — putting Rambler six hours ahead on corrected time. "It was honestly one of the most bizarre races I’ve ever been in in my life — starts and stops and people being left behind for dead and then all of a sudden they are sailing around you," said Read. Arriving in Plymouth at 5:22 BST this morning, Comanche completed the 603-mile offshore race in 2 days, 15 hours, 42 minutes and 26 seconds.

One of the most eloquent descriptions of the race comes from one of the smallest boats, the current IRC leader on corrected time, Géry Trentesaux’s JPK 10.80 Courrier Du Leon. "We have passed the Fastnet Rock at 05:30 cold and wet but surrounded by Irish dolphins! We are now going south. A beautiful descent under spinnaker, smoking at 19 knots… a heavenly load of pressure under the clouds. We are catching big boats in a surfer’s madness."

San Francisco’s Ashley Perrin is sailing doublehanded with yacht designer Merf Owen on the smallest boat in the fleet, Santana, a Carl Schumacher-designed Capo 30 (a precursor of the Olson 911S). The weather took a turn for the worse on their approach to Fastnet Rock. "It’s not that comfortable on port tack," she described. "The water finds its way in and the nav station is wet with a bin bag protecting the laptop. Using the head would result in the contents emptying into your trousers so bucket and chuck it is the way to go."

For more tales from the front and to follow the rest of the race go to www.rolexfastnetrace.com.