George David’s Rambler 88 won monohull line honours Monday morning, after crossing the Plymouth finish line at 09:55:02, some four hours later at 14:02:28 Charal of Jérémie Beyou and Christopher Pratt led home the Twenty IMOCA 60s.
American Owner George David and his all-star crew were delighted to have beaten their rivals on the 100-footer SHK Scallywag to the punch, but class act of this year’s Rolex Fastnet Race was Solitaire du Figaro winner Beyou and Pratt on the new generation VPLP design Charal, who took line honours in the IMOCA 60 class.
Through judicious covering, Charal kept herself between those chasing and the Plymouth breakwater finish line where she arrived in an elapsed time of 2d 1h 32m 28s (outside of the PRB’s 2011 record of 1d 23h 21m 27s).
As usual, all the IMOCA 60s were being sailed doublehanded in preparation for this autumn’s Transat Jacques Vabre.
More delighted than Beyou was Kevin Escoffier and Solitaire du Figaro winner Nicolas Lunven on board PRB, who finished second. Second place came despite being on a boat with a 2010 vintage hull, albeit fitted with Juan K-designed foils for last year’s Route de Rhum.
This season Escoffier, who was in Dongfeng Sailing Team’s Volvo Ocean Race-winning crew, has been bequeathed the IMOCA 60 sponsorship of Vendée-based house cladding company PRB.
The Rolex Fastnet Race was good for its female skippers with Clarisse Cremer on Banque Populaire third and Sam Davies on Initiatives Coeur fifth, behind Bureau Vallée 2.
At the time of writing Pip Hare and Paul Larsen were lying in 14th and Miranda Merron and Halvard Mabire 17th on Campagne de France.
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