Fastnet race tomorrow
Discussion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOg6L1afTsw
The biggest one ever.
Have never watched the fastnet race before. I expect it's more of a Lemans style slog followed by a rally style stage update than a nail biting series of dramatic overtakes.
The biggest one ever.
Have never watched the fastnet race before. I expect it's more of a Lemans style slog followed by a rally style stage update than a nail biting series of dramatic overtakes.
Looking at the forecast, it's going to be properly unpleasant in a small boat.
Could be a record number of 'Did Not Finish' scores.
Which is not great for the people who've invested a lot of time and cash doing the qualifying races etc.
A few people I've sailed with are taking part, on various boats.
Race Tracking here:
https://www.rolexfastnetrace.com/en/
Could be a record number of 'Did Not Finish' scores.
Which is not great for the people who've invested a lot of time and cash doing the qualifying races etc.
A few people I've sailed with are taking part, on various boats.
Race Tracking here:
https://www.rolexfastnetrace.com/en/
glazbagun said:
Looking miserable now. 
Fascinating how some classes got so many starts wrong with the current.
Easily done. Fascinating how some classes got so many starts wrong with the current.Boats upwind need to keep clear of the boats below them, so it's easy for the current to take you over the line if you get close to another boat.
In most races you have to go back and re-cross the line, for this race it's a 2 hr time penalty I think.
The pre-start is the worst, boats going all directions.
https://www.facebook.com/RoyalOceanRacingClub/vide...
Of the boats I'm following due to knowing people on them, one looks to be heading for the pub in Poole, one has just retired off Swanage.
It looks like a few are parked up waiting for the worst of the weather to pass and may carry on tomorrow.
The fast boats are mostly getting towards Torbay.
It looks like a few are parked up waiting for the worst of the weather to pass and may carry on tomorrow.
The fast boats are mostly getting towards Torbay.
Yeah I wouldn't have fancied heading into the night in that with so many boats around! Even retiring would make a good pub story, though those who made it must be loving the better weather.
Incredible that the lead boats are almost back when most are still leaving England! They were dwarfing everything at the start.
Incredible that the lead boats are almost back when most are still leaving England! They were dwarfing everything at the start.
RORC should have delayed the start by 24hrs. Many will argue that it's an offshore race and if you're not prepared to take a battering, don't enter, but that's not much of a consolation to the scores of boats that have been preparing all year, the hundreds of sailors that have had their Fastnet dream squashed, the countless equipment failures, the sunk boat and the numerous medical emergencies.
glazbagun said:
Yeah I wouldn't have fancied heading into the night in that with so many boats around! Even retiring would make a good pub story, though those who made it must be loving the better weather.
Incredible that the lead boats are almost back when most are still leaving England! They were dwarfing everything at the start.
Two cats are so far ahead, I missed them on the tracker, looking at Zoulou rounding 3rd about 40 minutes ago.Incredible that the lead boats are almost back when most are still leaving England! They were dwarfing everything at the start.
Hard to see who's actually still racing in some cases, but a lot of the two-handed teams are doing well.
Race tracker:
https://cf.yb.tl/fastnet2023
I think it's amazing that most of the boats are coping, with just a few ripped sails and electrical failures reported as reasons for retirement.
Edited by OutInTheShed on Sunday 23 July 18:11
Before the music stops said:
RORC should have delayed the start by 24hrs. Many will argue that it's an offshore race and if you're not prepared to take a battering, don't enter, but that's not much of a consolation to the scores of boats that have been preparing all year, the hundreds of sailors that have had their Fastnet dream squashed, the countless equipment failures, the sunk boat and the numerous medical emergencies.
Anybody can organise a race around the Rock on whatever terms they like.If you want to run a race which won't happen above Force 5, then maybe you'll get some punters.
Smaller boats, if they started today, they'd be looking at some frustrating light winds for a couple of days, then coming home into some fairly serious breeze on Wednesday.
Personally, I think 'big boat' racing in the UK has become too much about short inshore races.
Which gives you lightweight boats and lightweight sailors.
There's also a lot of money in the Fastnet, bucketlisters in charter boats who have their 'dream' and are happy to pay for the experience.
At the other end, you've got big money ocean-capable professional boats like the French cats, if you dilute the Fastnet ethic, they'd probably run a proper version of it on the other side of the Channel.
OutInTheShed said:
Anybody can organise a race around the Rock on whatever terms they like.
If you want to run a race which won't happen above Force 5, then maybe you'll get some punters.
Smaller boats, if they started today, they'd be looking at some frustrating light winds for a couple of days, then coming home into some fairly serious breeze on Wednesday.
Personally, I think 'big boat' racing in the UK has become too much about short inshore races.
Which gives you lightweight boats and lightweight sailors.
There's also a lot of money in the Fastnet, bucketlisters in charter boats who have their 'dream' and are happy to pay for the experience.
At the other end, you've got big money ocean-capable professional boats like the French cats, if you dilute the Fastnet ethic, they'd probably run a proper version of it on the other side of the Channel.
Agree with you. The Fastnet, like other offshore races need the interest which the Big Boys with their astonishingly fast multi-hulls provide. Simply having 10/12 metre yachts competing, whilst an interesting race for the competitors, won't attract the media and sponsor money to pay for the event.If you want to run a race which won't happen above Force 5, then maybe you'll get some punters.
Smaller boats, if they started today, they'd be looking at some frustrating light winds for a couple of days, then coming home into some fairly serious breeze on Wednesday.
Personally, I think 'big boat' racing in the UK has become too much about short inshore races.
Which gives you lightweight boats and lightweight sailors.
There's also a lot of money in the Fastnet, bucketlisters in charter boats who have their 'dream' and are happy to pay for the experience.
At the other end, you've got big money ocean-capable professional boats like the French cats, if you dilute the Fastnet ethic, they'd probably run a proper version of it on the other side of the Channel.
Simples...
popeyewhite said:
I was out on a twenty four foot yacht (half-rater) during the storm that wrecked the Fastnet race many years ago. We were about a mile off the coast near Holyhead when things got hairy. Never been out in seas like that before or since.
The chap that founded the syndicate running my old Yak - and who very sadly passed away in 2009 - was flying one of the Nimrods that were providing search and rescue support during the 1979 Fastnet disaster - he had spent a lot of his career as a Vulcan pilot, so when the time came to drop the survival dinghies - which I think was a pretty rare thing - I gather he managed to place them pretty much bang on top of, but *slightly* missing, the crews in distress.pequod said:
glazbagun said:
I wonder what the story of the lost boat is. A sunfast 3600 is modern and far from fragile I'd have thought.
I have no idea, other than a SF 3600 is not best suited to offshore sailing in stiff conditions? Maybe I'm being a bit too picky?This particular one appears to have done 3 'transquaddra' events, which I think is Transatlantic.
Its track on Vessel finder ends a bit over a mile from the Needles.
I've been further offshore in a dinghy.
That area is particularly rough in wind against tide conditions.
The report is the boat 'Vari' was taking on water, the crew abandoned it and the tracker is no longer working, so it's presumed sunk, or it may be upside down with the keel having fallen off.
There is another boat of the same design dismasted, but what racing sailor hasn't lost a mast or two?
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