The American VO70 Wizard has continued its phenomenal winning streak to claim the Fastnet Challenge Cup, the overall prize for the 2019 Rolex Fastnet Race.
David and Peter Askew, aboard Wizard, came out on top under IRC corrected time, beating French boat builder Nicolas Groleau’s perennial entry on their canting keel Mach 45 Bretagne Telecom by 45 minutes.
This was despite the 2019 race being the Askew’s first attempt at the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s pinnacle 600 mile offshore.
“To win the race is unbelievable,” said David Askew upon hearing of their latest victory. “Obviously the Rolex Fastnet Race is one of the premier ocean racing events in the world and has a magnificent history going back way before I was born, and I’m an old guy!”
Significantly, Wizard’s success brings to an end the string of Rolex Fastnet Race overall victories by French teams that started in 2013 with Pascal and Alexis Loison and concluded in the last race with Didier Gaudoux’s JND39 Lann Ael 2.
Compared to the previous events they have competed in, David says the Rolex Fastnet Race is one of the most difficult, if not the most difficult, to win.
“Just to win IRC Zero – that exceeded my expectations, just because of the sheer amount of competition. We come over here from the States to have one go at it, but other people (from New York for example…) are doing this race year in, year out and have a lot of experience.”
From here Wizard heads for the Rolex Middle Sea Race to see if she can apply her winning formula to that race.
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