| COWES, UK-(7-8-2005) Two of the likely contenders for line honours in this year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race will have a preliminary bout in the Rolex Fastnet Race, which starts on the Solent off Cowes, England, this evening (AEST).
Victorian yachtsman Grant Wharington will be skippering his rebuilt 30-metre super maxi Skandia against the similar-sized, recently launched ICAP Maximus, skippered by New Zealander Charles St Clair Brow, in the classic offshore race.
The Rolex Fastnet Race, over a course of 608 nautical miles takes the huge fleet of 285 boats down the English Channel and across the Irish Sea to the famous Fastnet Rock off the southern tip of Ireland before returning to the finish off Plymouth.
Both super maxis have been competing in the Skandia Cowes Week regatta over the past week but with inconclusive results although IACP Maximus, designed by New Zealander Greg Elliott, has already shown her potential by finishing second across the line and winning on handicap the Rolex Atlantic Challenge earlier this year.
The Fastnet will be Skandia’s first ocean race since her major rebuilding that followed the dramatic incident in last year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race which saw her lose her canting keel, then capsize and break her mast. Apart from a re-engineered new keel and other refinements, designer Don Jones has given the Australian yacht a much taller mast and more sail area.
The two super maxis will face competition for line honours in the Fastnet Race from the Australian-built, Spanish Volvo 70 Movistar which set a world monohull speed record during her voyage to England. Also in the same division and a strong contender for IRC handicap honours is Aera, the Ker 55 that was the overall IRC winner of last year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart Race.
Following the Fastnet Race, both Skandia and ICAP Maximum will be shipped to Australia for the 2005 Rolex Sydney Hobart Race where they will join three other maximum-size 30-metre yachts in the 628 nautical mile Tasman Sea classic, including the just launched Alfa Romeo.
Alfa Romeo is due to leave Sydney tomorrow for its opening campaign at the Hahn Premium Race Week at Hamilton Island in Queensland, starting on 20 August.
Three Australian yachts, Skandia, Strewth and Berrimilla, and many Australian sailors are competing in this year’s Rolex Fastnet Race. Sydney yachtsman Geoff Hill is skippering his Lyons 49 Strewth with a crew that includes Bruce Gould, a veteran of 35 Hobart Races.
No boat has sailed further to compete in the Rolex Fastnet Race than Berrimilla, a little Brolga 33 whose owner/skipper Alex Whitworth and crew member Peter Crozier sailed from Hobart around Cape Horn to England. They are racing Berimilla two-handed in the Rolex Fastnet and then plan to sail the boat back to Sydney for this year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart.
Movistar’s crew for the Fastnet Race, and the Volvo Ocean Challenge, includes Australians Andrew Cape, Chris Nicholson, Peter Doriean and Noel Drennan.
Competing in the Open 60 class is another Australian, solo sailor Nick Maloney, skippering his yacht named Skandia, but with a crew for the Fastnet Race, as are the other seven Open 60s in the fleet.
Rolex Fastnet Race information can be found at: www.rorc.org
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