The 50th edition of the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s Rolex Fastnet Race sets sail from Cowes this Saturday 22 July.
The first start takes place from off the Royal Yacht Squadron line at 13:00 BST bound for Cherbourg-en-Cotentin, France via the Fastnet Rock off southwest Ireland.
With more than 450 entries, this special anniversary race will have a record-sized fleet, up from the previous record of 388 set in pre-COVID 2019.
The fleet is divided into nine classes: the bulk of the fleet race under the IRC rating system for the event’s overall prize – the Fastnet Challenge Cup.
Starts for the classes are separated by 20 minute intervals:
- 13:00 Multihulls;
- 13:20 IMOCA;
- 13:40 Class40;
- 14:00 IRC 4;
- 14:20 IRC 3;
- 14:40 IRC 2;
- 15:00 IRC 1;
- 15:20 IRC S/SZ
In addition there are two professional classes, the IMOCAs and Class40 and the Multihull class, which includes racing trimarans such as the Ultims and Ocean 50s, and the faster cruising multihulls.
There is also a doublehanded ranking for boats being sailed within the IRC fleet by two crew.
All the yachts are fitted with yb trackers enabling the 50th Rolex Fastnet Race to be followed in near real time from https://yb.tl/fastnet2023 Available online or via the yb app.
RSS – Posts