Rolex Fastnet Race 2023 - A Brutal Start

48 hours before the start of the Rolex Fastnet race, the Solent looked like this. It could not be better and it was full of teens out here practicing for the start of the big race. But come the start, it looked like this. This is the 50th edition of the race. With a record entry of more than 450 boats, 3,000 competitors and 49 countries represented, this is the biggest Fastnet race ever. A day before the start and on shore, teams have been putting on a brave face. Underneath, with the prospect of 450 boats threading their way out of a narrow gap at the end of the Solent, many were very apprehensive and with good reason. I am. I mean, I'm really nervous for so many reasons, obviously the forecast. But before that, it's the first time that we get to actually line up against any of the other boats. You know, what we've done looks great and it feels great. But, you know, we don't really know until we start racing with other boats and there's a lot to learn and a lot to find out. How important is this for you and what are your goals? So it was important for us to be here because it's the 50th anniversary of the race and I just felt as a British team I really wanted to be on the start line. We're ready to do the race kind of in an exploratory mode. You know, we're going into it understanding that I've never sailed the boat in 30 knots in this configuration. You know, we've only got six days of sailing post refit. Nick's only done three days of solo training, double-handed training with me. So, you know, all of that caveats how we're going to sail the boat because this is a long game and we absolutely cannot afford to make stupid mistakes. We want to finish. It would be amazing to be in the top half of the fleet. Absolutely amazing. But more than anything this is about Nick and I building the miles, learning about the foils and it's our qualification for the Transat Jacques Vabre later in the year. The forecast was for 20 to 25 knots at the start with gusts of up to 30 knots. By the time the first wave of multi-hulls got down to hearse, conditions had already taken a bit of a turn for the worst. Relatively speaking, compared to what it would be like later on, the sea state was still pretty flat. But you could see already just how hard it was getting out through the narrows. The old team tries were the first to exit the Solent with Armel Le Cleac'h's Banque Populaire leading Francois Gabart's SVR La Zatigue. Behind them the second wave of multi-hulls flew through the narrow and boisterous gap. The forecast also said the breeze would then increase to 30 to 35 knots with gusts of 40. This, along with a west-going tide, made life very hard going with waves of up to two and a half meters. There were some who were looking forward to the punchy conditions. Paddy Broughton's crew on the 72-foot classic offshore racer Kea Loa II were looking forward to it. This is a boat that has sailed up from Australia twice to do this event and a boat that loves these conditions. Paul Larson, the world's fastest man under sail, had arrived at the start of the Rolex Fastnet race hot foot from the Round Gotland race where conditions have been pretty tough too. This boat was designed to be a Mediterranean day sailor and as we were punching out into similar conditions 30 to 40 knots around Gotland a few weeks ago I said to Adrian, the owner, how's that program going as we leapt off another mountain. So we're pushing the boat quite hard and harder each year and we're all enjoying the program and it's proving to be a very strong boat so we're quite looking forward to these conditions. So you were saying you did the Round Gotland race, you had quite a lot of breeze there. Just give us an idea of the breeze and how the boat performed in that. Well that ended up beating up wind to the southern tip of Gotland. It was 30 to 40 knots by the time we got to the top and directly into the sea state. I think we had 85 percent fleet retirement in that race and you do not sail to the boat's polars, you just manage the asset all the way around it and get the boat configured nicely for it. It's never the wind, it's a sea state and so that's the main thing I'm looking at. Hopefully it's a band that sweeps through relatively quickly and doesn't enable any horrible cross seas. It seems at this stage to favour going up the south coast of England rather than bolting across the channel. We'll keep our eyes on that but if that's the case then the sea state on the headlands with the state of the tides, that's going to be interesting. You're always trying to get that in this race to make the tide gates but in this case it's going to be clashing with the wind and that'll be interesting. In our case we'll be going out on almost a slack tide starting first on the mouldy holes. It'll be the boat starting behind us that could be going out through some real nasty sea state so it's always faster to ride that tide train and get it to pull you out but you've just got to be careful. It's not every wave, it's that one wave in 50 that really drops the cutlery drawer. It's the start of the race and you've just got to manage it through that bit. Others had their eyes on the race record. Lucky's navigator Andrew Cape reckoned that the 88 foot Canton Kilmaxy, formerly Rambler 88 and multiple offshore record holder, stood a 75% chance of setting a new record. His best guess for their time was two days and two hours for 695 mile course. The 29 boat fleet of Imocas made for a spectacular sight as they came flying through Hearst Narrows. Chirral was the first of the Imocas through Hearst but Jeremy Beo's team have been over the line at the start and we're going to have to carry a two-hour penalty. For Bip Hair there was added stress just where she and Nick Bubb didn't need it after their accidentally unfurled, forcing them to turn down wind to sort things out. Then came the class 40s. With such extraordinary hull shapes you would have thought that they would struggle in these conditions. Not so it seems and so the fleet kept coming. Three and a half hours after the first start things have got pretty lively out here in the Hearst Narrows. The tide is now pressing hard up against a solid 25 knot breeze with gusts well into the 30s down here. Some very steep seasons and quite challenging conditions for their fleet as they go through. In the double-handed fleet 21 year old Ellie Driver was drawing on her experience in the previous race where she and her dad Jim Driver had faced similar conditions at the start. So before the race the max time I'd spent doing a race is about 35-40 hours. So last time it was a massive step, a massive jump from what I had done before and just the time on the water and the sleep deprivation that you have was the biggest thing that we had to overcome and just managing ourselves and last time it was very much about if we finish this race it's going to be the massive achievement and we managed to do it and it was brilliant and hopefully we can do that again and you know put into a little bit more racing tactics than we did last time and yeah looking forward to dealing with the conditions that come along and just trying to push as hard as we can but understanding that we need to keep ourselves fairly topped up with sleep and how we're doing otherwise we're not going to be able to race as hard as we would like because your body is not going to let you. With this heavy wind that's coming in at the start we'll be judging at the right point that starts going to watch system obviously the earlier you go into it the better because you're going to get sleep but if you're still 35 knots and battling quite tight conditions between other boats it's not it's not a good idea. So normally do about 45 minutes at night just to keep make sure people are awake and keep the boat driving and then a little bit longer maybe to an hour and a half during the day but we split the race up so when we know we've got to do something when there's a sail change coming up we'll know that okay we've got three hours of sleep that we can get in we're both going to bank an hour and a half so it's not just a strict hour and a half hour and a half hour and a half like it might be on a fully crewed boat. But that's still a very I mean when you talk I think a lot of people will be surprised to hear that the watch is as short as 45 minutes I mean that's great if you're on helm and now it's time to go off but it's not a lot of time to actually get any rest in. No it's not but I sleep quite well offshore and and dad does too and your body gets used to it as soon as your head hits the pillow that that is you sleeping. So we work around each other and how we're feeling but yeah it's it's short but you can you can make up with it with the hour and a half during the day when everything's a bit simpler and calmer and you can you can see what you're doing. The punishing conditions through Hearst Narrows and beyond took their toll on the fleet. High winds, driving rain and big seas made life extremely uncomfortable. 24 hours after the start there'd been 88 retirements. At the other end of the scale and with those that still had their foot pressed to the floor the two giant Altym tri's had not only rounded the fast net rock but had made their return crossing of the Celtic Sea as they scorched downhill at over 30 knots. SVR Lazartig had notched up over 495 miles in 24 hours and had just 198 to go. Banque Populaire was 18 miles behind. Meanwhile in the monohull fleet Lucky was 260 miles into the race and leading the monohull fleet. Just alongside Paperek Arkea was leading the Amokas. Behind them Allegre was the front runner in the multihulls and in the IRC two-handed fleet it was the Sunfast 3200 Cora that was leading the class. So from blown out sails to dismastings along with a boat that had sunk the start of the 50th edition of the Rolex fast net race and the 24 hours that followed had been brutal.