| Dorset Coast overnight
parking lot. |
| by the Rolex Fastnet Race 2009 Media Team |
 |
Photos
By Carlo
Borlenghi and Kurt Arrigo for Rolex.
Edited by Peter Andrews. |
10:45 GMT, August
10, 2009. |
|
| Overnight conditions in the Rolex Fastnet Race have ranged from tricky to impossible. At this morning’s 06:00 GMT update, Mike Slade’s ICAP Leopard was approaching Lizard Point. By this time, the bulk of the 300 strong fleet were now past Portland Bill, the headland to seaward of the 2012 Olympic sailing venue. They were now halfway across Lyme Bay, all bound for the next significant headland, Start Point. |
|
Mike Slade's ICAP
Leopard at dusk
heading for Fastnet Rock, during the Rolex Fastnet
Race 2009.
Photo © Rolex / Carlo Borlenghi.
|
 |
|
|
| For Slade’s mighty 100ft long supermaxi, the night has been one of mixed fortunes. Her speed ranging from relative standstill to 4 knots against the tide midway across Lyme Bay at 23:00 GMT; to considerable pace of 26.5 knots at 05:00 GMT. She is way behind her record pace from 2007 when in the early hours of the first morning she was already around Land’s End, halfway across the Celtic Sea to the Fastnet Rock. |
|
Vittorio Volonte's STP 65 Luna
Rossa, during the Rolex Fastnet Race 2009.
Photo © Rolex / Carlo Borlenghi.
|
 |
|
|
| The IMOCA 60s have been doing a good job to stay in contact with ICAP Leopard and this morning, the two female skippers hold the top spots. Dee Caffari on Aviva,
is 18 miles astern of the supermaxi. |
|
Hobart to Cowes, Cowes to Hobart and
back to Cowes. This little yacht just keeps on circling
the Earth!, Alex Whitworth's Brolga 33, Berrimilla
II from Australia, sailing
double-handed with Peter Corzier, during
Rolex Fastnet Race 2009.
Photo © Rolex / Kurt Arrigo.
|
 |
|
|
Sam Davies with Sidney Gavignet on Artemis Ocean Racing, reported conditions as being grey and murky.
"Artemis is crashing along upwind on port tack, I have just come off watch and Sidney and Gareth are on deck, trimming and driving. We can see four other boats off our leeward quarter, but the visibility is not too good." |
|
Roger Sturgeon's STP 65 Rosebud
Team DYT (overall winner of the Rolex Sydney
Hobart 2007), heading for Fastnet Rock during the
Rolex Fastnet Race 2009.
Photo © Rolex / Carlo Borlenghi.
|
 |
|
|
For the bulk of the fleet astern, last night they faced a classic Rolex Fastnet Race situation with a mighty eastbound current between Portland Bill and St Albans Head, combined with insufficient breeze to make headway against it.
The majority spent the evening at best at standstill while another group led by Cracklin’ Rosie, Roark and Jackdaw attempted to break south, only to be washed southeast with the help of the tide. |
|
Karl Kwok's newly-launched Blue Water
80 Beau
Geste (HKG) by Hurst Castle lighthouse, during
the Rolex Fastnet Race 2009.
Photo © Rolex / Carlo Borlenghi.
|
 |
|
|
| By the early hours of this morning, the tide had turned favourable but there were distinct winners and losers from the overnight waterborne game of snakes and ladders. In IRC Zero A for example, La Floresta del Mar and Sjambok had managed to sneak past Portland Bill and were away while Fraxious and Flicka IV, who had turned south early, had dropped back to 25 miles astern, no closer to the finish than they had been six hours earlier. |
|
Fastnet Race Fleet in the Solent,
during Rolex Fastnet Race 2009.
Photo © Rolex / Carlo Borlenghi.
|
 |
|
|
The progress of the fleet can be followed by the tracking system fitted to all of the boats racing at: http://fastnet.rorc.org/2009-fleet-tracking.html.
Further information about the RORC and the Rolex Fastnet Race including a provisional entry list may be found at: fastnet.rorc.org.
|
|
| Outimage and Rolex © 2009 |
