Rolex Fastnet Race 2021

This was my second Fastnet Campaign, and it was hugely more successful than my first.

This time around I was racing onboard Phosphorus 2. A one off Archambault 13 which competed in IRC 1 for the RORC season in 2021. For the entire campaign I was the sole bowman which was an interesting challenge for me to have to get used to not being in a watch system.

On the day of the start, we had some very intense conditions, with wind over tide leaving the Solent making for a very lumpy start. This coupled with the 30+ knots of breeze for the first 36 hours of the race meant this was an absolute beasting of a race.

We rounded the rock in a solid placement on the leader board sitting in the top 3 overall. Our leg back to the finish, at Cherbourg was a big breeze reach. This made for some great sailing fully powered up with our FRO (Fractional 0).

After getting near Cherbourg however we found ourselves running against the tide in light airs which allowed the smaller boats behind to gain a lot of ground on us. It was in these last few hours that we sadly fell off the podium and finishing 6th overall. A great result none the less in a very tough and very competitive race.