Fastnet 2023

[dunedin]

Well done to the Sam’s in the IMOCA 60s, an amazing 3rd and 5th for Sam Goodchild and Sam Davies. This in one of the most competitive fleet of professional sailors and just two handed. And Pip Hare for persistence and finishing in spite of early gear failure (and it would appear an over eager start).
It must have been incredibly punishing taking these lightweight boats with their flat or even scow bows upwind at huge SPEED for hundreds of miles.
Huge credit to the designers, builders, preparators and sailors that the IMOCAs took overall monohull line honours (beating an 88foot IRC sled on the water) and in spite of the punishment hitting waves at 30 knots, there were just 2 retirements out of 29 boats. (Suspect this will be one of the highest percentage finishers of the entire fleet - who says modern boats don’t take tough upwind conditions.)

 

[jlavery]

Well done to the Sam’s in the IMOCA 60s, an amazing 3rd and 5th for Sam Goodchild and Sam Davies. This in one of the most competitive fleet of professional sailors and just two handed. And Pip Hare for persistence and finishing in spite of early gear failure (and it would appear an over eager start).
It must have been incredibly punishing taking these lightweight boats with their flat or even scow bows upwind at huge SPEED for hundreds of miles.
Huge credit to the designers, builders, preparators and sailors that the IMOCAs took overall monohull line honours (beating an 88foot IRC sled on the water) and in spite of the punishment hitting waves at 30 knots, there were just 2 retirements out of 29 boats. (Suspect this will be one of the highest percentage finishers of the entire fleet - who says modern boats don’t take tough upwind conditions.)

Agree.

There's some video of one of the IMOCA skippers being interviewed either shortly before or after the start, and his observation on the anticipated conditions was "We're ready for rough, confused conditions, the boat's designed for them."

 

[Chiara’s slave]

You’d think that all offshore racers are designed to take what’s thrown at them these days. It seems mostly that they are. Sail damage seems to be one of the big retirement problems.

 

[sailorman]

I would assume so, and submit the online equivalent to the C1331 for UK govt both going in and out of Cherbourg.
Suspect some boats will cross the finish line and head straight back across the channel without even getting a celebratory bier in France.
Another B-onus of our new statusyes wrexit just keeps giving

 

[jlavery]

You’d think that all offshore racers are designed to take what’s thrown at them these days. It seems mostly that they are. Sail damage seems to be one of the big retirement problems.

Yes, think sail damage the main cause. Slightly surprising number of rig failures. One picture indicates compression failure in a keel-stepped mast (mast being braced below deck with ropes).

Interesting to realise (mentioned further up) that 50 retired in 2019, which was also described as "brutal".

 

[Mudisox]

An awful lot of retirements. And some big names too. Oystercatcher is in Portland and retired, Black pearl has gone back…

The bits I’ve seen on FB suggest a lot of wind. Several of the “we’ve retired” posts talk of 50 kt gusts.

Every now and again I get a slight itch to go do a fastnet. This should cure it for a decade or so…

I first did it in 1965 and 67, again in 79 and was persuaded to do it again in 2019. Has put me off, never again. Push button navigation and instant weather forecasting, and too many french boats ending in Cherbourg.

Not for me although interesting to follow.

 

[Sandy]

Interesting to see a number of competitors 'drift' past us in Brittany in very light airs.

 

[yoda]

I expect all the sponsors of the big boats are happy.

Just because all the boats conform to the regulations for the race they are not the same. Some are designed to be sailed hard in punishing conditions in races across the globe, others are coastal racers fitted with the equipment required. There is a huge difference.

 

[adamstjohn]

The little Fulmar- little by todays standards, still 2 ft bigger than mine - is going well with only 100 miles to go. He has shown some really good speeds. Maybe i need to upgrade to one of these. Well done Fulmar.

 

[dunedin]

The little Fulmar- little by todays standards, still 2 ft bigger than mine - is going well with only 100 miles to go. He has shown some really good speeds. Maybe i need to upgrade to one of these. Well done Fulmar.

Great job by the Fulmar in tough conditions.
But it isn’t particularly small by Fastnet standards - loads of Sun Fast 3200 arrived a couple of days previously, and the diminutive J99 and J97 also arrived a long while back. I know which might have had the more sedate ride, but the seamanship necessary on the lighter weight boats to nurse them upwind so much faster was impressive

 

[mrming]

Great job by the Fulmar in tough conditions.
But it isn’t particularly small by Fastnet standards - loads of Sun Fast 3200 arrived a couple of days previously, and the diminutive J99 and J97 also arrived a long while back. I know which might have had the more sedate ride, but the seamanship necessary on the lighter weight boats to nurse them upwind so much faster was impressive

I own a Fulmar and race on some other boats. I regularly race against J/97s and a J/99. They are much bigger boats than a Fulmar by volume, have longer waterlines and good ballast ratios. The J/97 in particular likes a blow upwind.

 

[dunedin]

So it looks like they have done it again - with the exception of IRC overall / big class and the MOCRA multihulls (both Swiss), the French sailors seem to have again done a clean sweep of the prizes
- winners of IRC Classes 1, 2, 3 & 4
- winners of IRC two handed
- winners of IMOCA 60, Open 40
- winners of Ultim and Ocean 50 trimarans
- winners of both multihull/overall and monohull line honours
Also a lot of the winning boats were French built

Are there any UK prize winners at all? Why are they so strong and GBR teams so much less so (again) in what was our premier offshore race. Perhaps that’s why the prize giving is presumably in Cherbourg

 

[mrming]

So it looks like they have done it again - with the exception of IRC overall / big class and the MOCRA multihulls (both Swiss), the French sailors seem to have again done a clean sweep of the prizes
- winners of IRC Classes 1, 2, 3 & 4
- winners of IRC two handed
- winners of IMOCA 60, Open 40
- winners of Ultim and Ocean 50 trimarans
- winners of both multihull/overall and monohull line honours
Also a lot of the winning boats were French built

Are there any UK prize winners at all? Why are they so strong and GBR teams so much less so (again) in what was our premier offshore race. Perhaps that’s why the prize giving is presumably in Cherbourg

The answer to this probably belongs in The Lounge, a place which I believe exists, although I’ve never been there.

 

[Sybarite]

So it looks like they have done it again - with the exception of IRC overall / big class and the MOCRA multihulls (both Swiss), the French sailors seem to have again done a clean sweep of the prizes
- winners of IRC Classes 1, 2, 3 & 4
- winners of IRC two handed
- winners of IMOCA 60, Open 40
- winners of Ultim and Ocean 50 trimarans
- winners of both multihull/overall and monohull line honours
Also a lot of the winning boats were French built

Are there any UK prize winners at all? Why are they so strong and GBR teams so much less so (again) in what was our premier offshore race. Perhaps that’s why the prize giving is presumably in Cherbourg

I have just had my boat re-rigged. The rigger was on the winning French boat, a J120 which is 20 years old.

 

[Birdseye]

So it looks like they have done it again - with the exception of IRC overall / big class and the MOCRA multihulls (both Swiss), the French sailors seem to have again done a clean sweep of the prizes
- winners of IRC Classes 1, 2, 3 & 4
- winners of IRC two handed
- winners of IMOCA 60, Open 40
- winners of Ultim and Ocean 50 trimarans
- winners of both multihull/overall and monohull line honours
Also a lot of the winning boats were French built

Are there any UK prize winners at all? Why are they so strong and GBR teams so much less so (again) in what was our premier offshore race. Perhaps that’s why the prize giving is presumably in Cherbourg

I guess the reason the French win "our " yachting races is the same reason we beat the French at cricket. To them, ocean racing is a national sport not just a few unsponsored guys as here. Same reason they build all the boats or at least most of them whilst our industry has died.

 

[dunedin]

I guess the reason the French win "our " yachting races is the same reason we beat the French at cricket. To them, ocean racing is a national sport not just a few unsponsored guys as here. Same reason they build all the boats or at least most of them whilst our industry has died.

Suspect there were a lot of professional UK sailors in the fleet, along with the French pros. So there seems to be something more than that. But clearly we are now in a different league in terms of offshore yacht racing.

 

[Birdseye]

Great job by the Fulmar in tough conditions.
But it isn’t particularly small by Fastnet standards - loads of Sun Fast 3200 arrived a couple of days previously, and the diminutive J99 and J97 also arrived a long while back. I know which might have had the more sedate ride, but the seamanship necessary on the lighter weight boats to nurse them upwind so much faster was impressive

To me the fascinating aspect of this race is not the hot shots in expensive imoca 60s but the numbers oif really quite small boats like the Fular who finished the race in trying conditions.

 

[prestomg27]

So it looks like they have done it again - with the exception of IRC overall / big class and the MOCRA multihulls (both Swiss), the French sailors seem to have again done a clean sweep of the prizes
- winners of IRC Classes 1, 2, 3 & 4
- winners of IRC two handed
- winners of IMOCA 60, Open 40
- winners of Ultim and Ocean 50 trimarans
- winners of both multihull/overall and monohull line honours
Also a lot of the winning boats were French built

Are there any UK prize winners at all? Why are they so strong and GBR teams so much less so (again) in what was our premier offshore race. Perhaps that’s why the prize giving is presumably in Cherbourg

So it looks like they have done it again - with the exception of IRC overall / big class and the MOCRA multihulls (both Swiss), the French sailors seem to have again done a clean sweep of the prizes
- winners of IRC Classes 1, 2, 3 & 4
- winners of IRC two handed
- winners of IMOCA 60, Open 40
- winners of Ultim and Ocean 50 trimarans
- winners of both multihull/overall and monohull line honours
Also a lot of the winning boats were French built

Are there any UK prize winners at all? Why are they so strong and GBR teams so much less so (again) in what was our premier offshore race. Perhaps that’s why the prize giving is presumably in Cherbourg

I think that you only need to go around a french marina to see why. The variety of new sailing boats, the large number of them, their use throughout the year is a huge contrast to the UK. My local marina La Trinité is stuffed full of sunfasts, pogos, etc etc and they are used all year.