The 50th edition of the Rolex Fastnet Race starts from Cowes, Isle of Wight on Saturday 22nd July – Cowes to Cherbourg-en-Cotentin via the Fastnet Rock.
In one month’s time, on 22 July, yet another record-sized fleet will depart from Cowes to tackle the 50th edition of the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s premier event: the Rolex Fastnet Race.
At present from across the globe 491 yachts of all shapes and sizes, ranging from 9m to 30m, are on the race’s provisional entry list.
This is 26% more than the previous record entry of 388 that participated in 2019’s pre-COVID edition – the largest leap in entries in the event’s recent history.
Given this is more than twice that of any of the other classic international 600 mile offshore races, the Rolex Fastnet Race is soundly the biggest offshore yacht race in the world.
In 98 years, the Rolex Fastnet Race, boat design and the sport of ocean racing have together come an unimaginable way.
The first Fastnet Race, originally called ‘The Ocean Race’ was held in 1925 on a course from the Solent, where the start was from the Royal Victoria Yacht Club in Ryde, before the boats exited the Solent to east, then headed to the Fastnet Rock, finishing in Plymouth.
With the start moving to Cowes the following year, the race going biennial in 1931, gaining Bishop Rock as a turning mark, and, as a one-off, finishing back in Cowes in 1933, the course remained largely fixed until the fleet outgrew Plymouth and was moved to Cherbourg-en-Cotentin in offshore racing-friendly France for the first time in 2021.
The Rolex Fastnet Race:
- Race website: www.rolexfastnetrace.com – #rolexfastnetrace
- 50th edition of the biennial Rolex Fastnet Race will start from the Royal Yacht Squadron line in Cowes, UK on Saturday 22nd July 2023
- The 695nm course takes the fleet via the Fastnet Rock off the southern tip of Ireland, to the finish in Cherbourg-en-Cotentin at the head of the Normandy peninsula, France
- In the 2021 edition, 337 boats took the start in what is the world’s largest offshore yacht race
- The international fleet attracts both enthusiastic amateur, the seasoned offshore racer, as well as out-and-out professionals from all corners of the world
- The Fastnet Challenge Cup is awarded to the overall IRC winner on corrected time
- Boats of all shapes, sizes and age take part in this historic race, from 9m-34m (30-110ft) – and everything in between
- Monohull record for the new course was set in 2021 by Skorpios: 2 days 8 hours 33 minutes and 55 seconds
- Multihull course record is: 1 day 4 hours 2 minutes and 26 seconds (2019, Ultime Maxi Edmond de Rothschild, Franck Cammas / Charles Caudrelier)
- Tom Kneen’s JPK 11.80 Sunrise (GBR) won the overall prize in the 2021 Rolex Fastnet Race – the Fastnet Challenge Cup
- Rolex SA has been a longstanding sponsor of the race since 2001
- The first race was in 1925 with 7 boats. The Royal Ocean Racing Club was set up as a result
