Fastnet And Back In A Day!

The Rolex Fastnet Race is one of those rare events where weekend sailors can truly take on the pros. This year’s race saw legendary performances right across the 388-boat fleet. Helen Fretter reports

- Helen Fretter

They say you should never meet your heroes, lest they be found to be merely mortal. Yet one of sailing’s rarest qualities is that there are a handful of events where the ordinary weekend racer can line up against their yachting idols, even if they don’t expect to meet them after.

For few events is this truer than the biennial Rolex Fastnet Race. The time frames may vary hugely – this year the fastest boat completed the course in just 28 hours, the slowest took over six days – and so the weather experienced by the line honours yachts and small boats may be wildly different, but the course – 605 miles from Cowes to Plymouth around the Fastnet Rock – is identical.

First timers and school crews set off from the same start line as sailors like François Gabart, Dean Barker, Sam Davies and Jimmy Spithill on Saturday 3 August. This is no small part of the race’s huge appeal – entries sold out in four minutes and 13 seconds this year, with a record fleet of 388 boats starting.

The other big draws include the course itself, a famously tactical route dodging tidal gates along the south coast of England, and slaloming around Traffic Separation Schemes (TSS) zones before – usually – beating into the Celtic Sea to round the iconic Fastnet Rock lighthouse and turn for home.

There is also the respect that this true blue riband event earns, and demands. This year, 2019, was the 40th anniversary of the 1979 tragedy. While the race may be held in August (and a week earlier than usual this year) competitors were never more keenly aware that beyond Land’s End there is no guarantee of balmy summer conditions and very few places to hide. To compete in the Fastnet is to test yourself, and your yacht.

Pinch yourself

This year’s race was a heady experience for Pip Hare, sailing her IMOCA 60