ROLEX FASTNET RACE

• Organiser: Royal Ocean Racing Club
• Fastnet Rock and Lighthouse: located 6 miles from the southern tip of Ireland
• Fastnet race run every 2 years.
• Route:
  start - Cowes’ Royal Yacht Squadron on the Isle of Wight - Solent, past the Needles and out into the English Channel - along the South Coast of England - Anvil Point, Portland Bill, Start Point, The Lizard, Lands End - open ocean - Fastnet Rock
• Monohull Record: 2 days 5 hours

INAUGURAL FASTNET RACE:

• 1925
• Royal Victorian Yacht Club at Ryde
• 7 boats
• race won by Jolie Brise, 56-foot pilot cutter

1957 - 1999 FASTNET

• Fastnet became the final race of the Admiral's Cup in 1957

1997 FASTNET TRAGEDY:

• biggest fleet of 303 boats
• 17 sailors died in storm

1999 FASTNET:

• Fastnet no longer a part of Admiral's Cup
• 1999 WINNERS:
  Boomerang - Fastest monohull without water ballast
  RF Yachting - Fastest monohull with water ballast
  Fujicolor - Fastest 60ft multihull
  Illbruck 2 - Fastest Volvo 60
  Whirlpool-Europe - Fastest Open 60

2001 FASTNET:

• 229 boats including Giovanni Agnelli’s Frers One-off Stealth and Ludde Ingvall’s Nicorette
• Overall winner:
  Piet Vroon (NED), Lutra 52, "Tonnerre de Breskens"
  3 days 2hrs 23mins 31sec