For a long time, no German boat has come as close to the Fastnet podium in the overall standings as Tilmar Hansen's "Outsider", which was heavily remodelled over the winter, in this 48th edition. The Judel/Vrolijk design in its new look has only been in the water for three weeks, and the crew only had two training days together before the start of the British long-distance classic to prepare for the test in the Irish Sea. This was followed by an extremely successful lightning start premiere with fourth place in the IRC overall standings, which was officially confirmed today. Although there are still a few small boats on the way, none of them can jeopardise the top boats any more. The IRC victory by calculated time and thus also the coveted Fastnet Challenge Cup finally went to David and Peter Askew's American "Wizard" with Volvo Ocean Race skipper Charlie Enright, whose crew thus secured the twelfth US triumph in the 94-year history of the British 605-nautical-mile long-distance classic. The record winners remain the host Brits with a historic 19 victories, with the French in third place with seven wins. Despite the strong "outsider" performance, German sailing still has to wait for its first victory in the overall handicap ranking. (*)
The American "Wizard" won the race for Fastnet Rock in the overall IRC standings
YACHT online has already reported on the duel between the trimaran giants, prominent class winners and new records over the past few days. But there were many other remarkable boats and teams in the 2019 Fastnet record fleet with a total of 388 boats that may not have caught the eye at first glance, but have achieved outstanding things at second glance. For example, designer and boat builder Jean-Pierre Kelbert with Alexis Loison, overall Fastnet winner in 2013 with the JPK 10.10 "Night and Day" and experienced Figaro sailor, on Kelbert's new JPK 10.30. Among 64 IRC double-handed crews, Kelbert and Loison were not just the fastest this year. The duo on "Léon" even made their most persistent pursuers, the young Ocean Race sailors Henry Bomby and Hannah Diamond on the British Jeanneau Sun Fast 3300 "Fastrak XII", look almost slow after 3 days, 3 hours, 21 minutes and 2 seconds at sea with a lead of more than four hours by sailed time and almost five hours by calculated time. Kelbert/Loison thus won the IRC two-handed classification, the IRC 3 classification and were even able to move up to sixth place in the overall IRC classification. This was the fourth consecutive division win for JPK yachts in IRC 3.
Jean-Pierre Kelbert and Alexis Loison confidently won the Fastnet double-handed classification on their Kelbert-built JPK 10.30 "Léon". Here, shortly after crossing the finish line, Kelbert talks about the fascination of the Fastnet and the successful regatta they successfully contested together
The other German boats in the field achieved varying degrees of success, depending on the division. For many crews, the Fastnet challenge marked a high point in their sailing careers, the rounding of the Fastnet Rock in the Irish Sea a magical moment. In the battle for the fastest sailed times for monohulls, Boris Herrmann and Will Harris on their German-flagged Imoca "Malizia 2 - Yacht Club de Monaco" came in 13th (8th in the Imoca field) after 2 days, 3 hours, 12 minutes and 24 seconds. Skipper Robert Stanjek and his international crew sailed to 16th place in the pure time classification on the Imoca "Einstein", which took around a quarter of an hour longer.
For Offshore Team Germany, the regatta premiere with the "Einstein" brought a whole series of valuable insights. "We are super satisfied and have learnt an incredible amount," said the team after crossing the finish line off Plymouth. Before the Fastnet race, the team had made a conscious decision to start with a crew of five and team manager Jens Kuphal as on-board reporter in the IRC handicap classification and against starting in the Imoca class classification with double-handed crews in order to gain as much knowledge as possible on their Ocean Race course. They also lacked the right sailing gear to compete on equal terms with the leading Imoca yachts. "We are working step by step to join the Imoca fleet," Kuphal explained before the race. Including Fastnet races, the team has now completed more than 3000 nautical miles with the "Einstein". In the overall IRC rankings, the "Einstein" was the second best German boat after "Outsider" in 40th place. 62nd place in the fleet of all 333 IRC boats was achieved by the "Broader View Hamburg" from the Hamburgischer Verein Seefahrt with skipper Erik Nicolaysen, 77th place by the Swan 56 R "Latona" with skipper Benjamin Hub and 91st place by the Hamburg Swan 48 "Elan" skippered by Daniel Baum (according to the interim results on Wednesday afternoon).
Here to go to the currently active tracker and the overall results. If you click on "Leaderboard", you will be taken to the results lists in the desired ranking groups.
(*) Correction: Contrary to our reporting, German sailing does not have to wait any longer for the first victory in the overall handicap ranking, because it has already happened. However, this victory was and is not correctly recorded in many lists. In 1997, Hasso Plattner's "Morning Glory" won the Fastnet race in the overall IMS classification and thus the Fastnet Challenge Cup. In some publicly accessible lists, however, the Swedish "Royal Blue" with skipper Gunnar Ekdahl is listed as the handicap winner, but as a new water ballast tank yacht it was only out of competition at the time. Here the "Morning Glory" success can also be found in the history of the organising R>oyal Ocean Racing Club.
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
