Fastnet, 52ft Caro unbeatable in IRC Zero

Max Klink's Botin 52 Caro has won IRC Zero and is looking like a solid contender for overall victory in the Rolex Fastnet Race. The Swiss boat crossed the finish line at 07:25 hours local time this morning, covering the course in 2 days, 16 hours, 40 minutes, 2 seconds.

Caro finished just over two and a half hours ahead of arch-rival Warrior Won on corrected time, and no other boat still racing in IRC Zero has a realistic chance of bettering Caro's performance.

While others were keen to pin overall victory on Caro, with so much of the fleet still at sea, Klink was understandably reluctant to celebrate success too soon. "Winning the Rolex Fastnet Race is any sailor's dream, so to win would be beyond words, something we never expected," he smiled.

Running the tactics on Caro was British professional Adrian Stead - a veteran of eight Rolex Fastnet Races and winner of two. He was swaying with physical fatigue and lack of sleep.

"We've worked hard, we didn't leave anything out on the race track and after that difficult start to the race we have really, really come back into it. The breeze filled in just at the end and we were able to come into Cherbourg at pace. We saw the VO65s and Lucky slow down on the way in yesterday afternoon, so we got out a few chocolate bars and worked extra hard for the last few miles."

Arriving in Cherbourg two and a half hours after their rivals, owner of Warrior Won Chris Sheehan paid tribute to Caro's victory in IRC Zero. "Congratulations to them, they sailed a great race," said the American who continues to enjoy his time in offshore competition and is already looking ahead to the Rolex Middle Sea Race starting out of Malta in a few months' time. "We sailed the boat really hard, pedal to the metal all the way to the finish. We know we weren't able to beat Caro in the end, but we're still looking for a great result against the rest of the fleet."

Sheehan admitted that Caro had the legs on Warrior Won in most upwind conditions, including the first 12 hours of survival out of the start in Cowes. "I've got ultimate confidence in our drivers and trimmers," said Sheehan of his crew, which includes offshore veterans like Stu Bannatyne and Richard Clarke, "so I think it's something to do with the boat and the sails, maybe the design or the way we're setting them up. We have some work to do to close the gap to Caro."

Navigator on Warrior Won was Will Oxley, the hugely experienced Australian who estimates he grabbed a total of six hours of sleep since the start on Saturday. The opening 12 hours were tough on bodies and on equipment. Three carbon stanchions broke simultaneously.

"That was when we crashed down off one particularly nasty wave and it's the combined crew weight coming down and breaking the stanchions," explained Oxley. "The watermaker broke, we think the engine got shifted off its mounting and we lost our wind vane off the top of the mast, but the boat captain did a great job of keeping the boat going, rebuilding it along the way. It's what you expect in a race like this really," he said, matter of factly.

Oxley was relieved that Warrior Won had made it to Cherbourg before a shutdown in the wind, which sees very few boats arriving during the course of Tuesday day time as the whole race course falls relatively quiet compared with recent days. "We were fortunate to hold on to the back end of a weather system which had Caro pretty much in the sweet spot, with Lucky just ahead of the sweet spot and slowing down in the final stages, and the VO65s just behind her."

While the vast majority of the Fastnet fleet is still out on the race course in softer breeze, the waiting game begins for Caro. Klink and his crew will be wondering if any of the slower boats will find a way of tipping them from the top of the overall rankings.

In Super Zero, Wind Whisper skippered by Pablo Arrarte came out on top on corrected time after beating fellow VO65 Team Jajo into Cherbourg by around 25 minutes. Subsequently, however, class victory for Wind Whisper slipped through the VO65 team's fingers when the jury for the Rolex Fastnet Race imposed a 5% time penalty on the Polish team. This involved a misunderstanding over the use of a jockey pole, an item which was not declared on their IRC Rating certificate. In the interests of good sportsmanship the error was reported to the race committee by the team themselves prior to crossing the finish line. This drops them to second place with Team Jajo now winners of IRC Super Zero.

Both boats ended up ahead of the 88-footer Lucky on corrected time. Even before he was aware of his IRC Super Zero victory, Clarke Murphy was delighted with his ride on Team Jajo, having chartered the boat for the race and with some seasoned professionals on board as well as three of his children. It was a fast finish for the American boat into Cherbourg.

"Twenty knots of boat speed and the visibility was so bad you couldn't see a hundred metres in front of you," he laughed. "A bit sketchy, a little bouncy, a little bumpy, but all in, it was an epic, classic Rolex Fastnet Race."

Having chartered another VO65, Ambersail, in last summer's RORC Baltic Race, Murphy was very pleased to be back on board such a belt-and-braces boat as Team Jajo.

"The night before the race in Cowes, with that big forecast, people were coming up to me and asking 'can I hitch a ride with you?' This was the right boat for this race, and we had the right sailors on board. Micky Broughton [navigator] who I have sailed with for best part of 30 years, Budgie [professional sailor Ian Budgen] who I've raced with for 20 years, and we had Dee Caffari along too, so the right people on the right boat."

Murphy also had three of his children on board: Liam aged 21, Morgan aged 24, and Devon aged 26, now adding a Rolex Fastnet Race to their CVs along with pretty much every other major offshore race completed over the past number of years. "They were absolutely pumped to do the Fastnet, they're great sailors and this was one was not for the faint of heart," said Clarke of his children.

Team Jajo's perfectly executed start off the Cowes line last Saturday afternoon was not for the faint of heart either.

"Fastnets don't get won on the start line, and we decided to be very low key, staying upwind and near the middle of the start line. But when we saw there was no one down at the pin end and it was kind of empty, we looped around and jumped on the opportunity. It was a 35-degree advantage, and it gave us an eight or nine boat length advantage as we crossed tacks with Wind Whisper down the coast. I think we gave some of the spectator boats a bit of a scare at the start, but it gave them something to talk about in the pub that night!"

Murphy enjoyed the battle with fellow VO65 Wind Whisper all the way around the course. "There's a lot of respect and a lot of friendship with those guys, and congratulations to them for a race really well sailed."

Bryon Ehrhart's Lucky finished at 21:16:26 on Monday night after a close battle with the leading IMOCAs. The 88-footer narrowly missed out on claiming line honours by just 15 minutes after she was beaten by the IMOCA Macif Santé Prévoyance sailed by Charlie Dalin and Pascal Bidegorry.

Lucky's crew, led by America's Cup legend Brad Butterworth had thrown everything at it, including gybing their way east to the north of the Channel Islands as the IMOCAs hugged the south side of the Casquets TSS.

"It was really impressive to see the IMOCAs up close and watch what they're capable of," said Ehrhart. "It's a great race course with a lot of challenges. The new course [to Cherbourg] is fantastic. What a great place and I hope to bring my wife over from the USA for the prize-giving later this week. This race has been an incredible experience. The conditions soon after the start were heinous and this boat has never raced with a J6 headsail and three reefs in the mainsail before. It took every ounce of seamanship we had to keep the boat in one piece but eventually we got out of the survival phase and into true racing. And I have to say the racing was really, really good. Rounding the Fastnet Rock again was very special and some of the conditions after that were so exhilarating."