Once again the Rolex Fastnet Race has proven the immense power of the grand prix multihull. The 32 metre (105 foot) French trimaran SVR Lazartigue crossed the line at 21:38:27 BST on 23 July beating Banque Populaireby just under an hour. Completing the 695nm race in a time of 1 day 8 hours 38 minutes 27 seconds, François Gabart’s crew set a new outright race record, beating the previous benchmark by just over 36 minutes.

Monohull Line Honours
At around the same time, the maxi trimarans were finishing, the leading monohulls, including Bryon Ehrhart’s 27m (88ft) American maxi, Lucky, were rounding the Fastnet Rock. Lucky was pursued by a pack of IMOCA 60s. The round the world racing yachts concede 10 metres in length to Lucky and have only two crew. Armed with advanced foiling technology they still posed a serious threat in the predominantly downwind conditions from the Fastnet Rock to the finish at Cherbourg.

Two-thirds of the way to the Scillies, first Paprec Arkea and then Macif overhauled Lucky. As they approached the Cotentin peninsula, the breeze presented some difficult tactical choices. Lucky headed further south and lost ground in the process, leaving the final dash to finish a nail-biting match race between French pair of Paprec and Macif. Charlie Dalin’s Macif managed to squeeze home first a mere four minutes ahead, finishing in a time of two days, seven hours, 16 minutes and 26 seconds to take monohull line honours at the 50th Rolex Fastnet Race. In doing so, Macif broke the previous monohull record by one hour 17 minutes.

Attention now turns to the destination of the Fastnet Challenge Cup, awarded to the overall winner of the race under IRC time correction. Elsewhere, the first 12 hours or so of the 2023 Rolex Fastnet Race took a heavy toll on the record fleet with 142 of the original 430 starters having retired.

First held in 1925, the Rolex Fastnet Race is organized by the Royal Ocean Racing Club. Rolex has partnered the event since 2001 and the biennial offshore race is one of the foundations of the Swiss Watchmaker’s six-decade-long association with the sport of yachting.

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