Whole lot of nothing

Drifting match for boats trying to make it to the Rolex Fastnet Race finish as Dunstone's Nokia appears favourite for handicap win

See our audio interviews with yesterday's finishers and today's finishers .

Charles Dunstone's maxi Nokia Connecting People is currently favourite to become handicap winner in the Rolex Fastnet Race.

After the thrilling duel between Alfa Romeo and Zephyrus V, that resulted in the Australian maxi snatching first place in sight of the finish line at 19:00 on Tuesday, it was another two hours before Charles Dunstone's Nokia slid across the line setting the IRC reference time to beat for the Fastnet Challenge Cup.

The fourth day of the race has been marked by light winds, strong tides and slow progress across the fleet. Although six boats have made it to the finish line in Plymouth, at 16:00 this afternoon 90 boats had still not rounded the Fastnet Rock lighthouse 260 miles up the track.

First of the Open 60s, Sebastian Josse's VMI, found the line off Plymouth Breakwater at 01:30 this morning having done a horizon job on the rest of the Open 60 fleet. At the time of his finish VMI (formerly Thomas Coville's Sodebo) was some 70 miles ahead of the next Open 60. It was not until 15 hours later that Vincent Riou's Calais Round Britain Race winner PRB finished.

Josse stamped his authority on the Open 60 class at Portland Bill on Sunday late afternoon. Grouped together with the other boats in his class at the time, by being just 500 metres to weather he had miraculously found a vein of wind that missed the other boats, allowing him to get to the other side of the tidal gate and sail off, literally, over the horizon. A one hour advantage at the Fastnet Rock turned into a 65 mile lead by the time VMI reached the Bishop Rock Lighthouse. From there the tidal gates and wind stayed in the Frenchman's favour turning a small advantage on Sunday into a rout by the finish on Wednesday.

"We are amazed at how far ahead we got," commented Josse, who after crossing the line about-turned and headed across to France. "It was all due to being a bit further inshore at Portland Bill on Sunday. A few boat lengths, a few hundred metres and another vein of wind. That is all it took."

Today sailing conditions for the fleet have been precious more than drifting. Light and patchy winds have dogged the fleet and many boats have used their anchors to hold progress against the strong spring tides.

Since Josse there were no more finishers until late this afternoon today when
the orange-hulled PRB drifted past the last hurdle to finish second in the Open 60 class, the only boat today to arrive in daylight hours. Their distance behind VMI might not have been so large had Riou read the race instructions correctly to round the Pantaenius Buoy, a spreader mark set eight miles to the southwest of the Fastnet Rock.

Mike Golding on board Ecover noticed the mistake made by PRB and gentlemanly phoned up the skipper on the satellite phone. PRB turned around and sailed upwind to the Pantaneuis Buoy correctly rounding it four hours later and two hours behind Ecover. On the leg back to the Bishop Rock this pair split again and the more southerly route taken by PRB gave them a better wind angle allowing Riou and his crew to move back into second place by the finish.

"I am buying the first round of beers! I didn't notice in the race instructions that there was a buoy near the Fastnet Rock to round. Embarrassing for me, but very sporting of Mike Golding on Ecover to call us up on the phone to let us know about our mistake," commented Riou.

Ironicially in the IRM standings for the supposed grand prix boats, the current leader is Mike Slade's cruiser racer maxi Leopard on which the crew were regularly sitting down to proper (and very un-IRM) cooked dinners.

Class update:

Super Zero
Although the two line honours contenders stole much of the limelight yesterday afternoon, the real glory for Class Super Zero has gone to Charles Dunstone's Nokia that finished in Plymouth just over two hours later, under a shower of fireworks ­ Plymouth is also hosting the UK National Fireworks Championship this week. The slightly smaller 76-foot Reichel/Pugh designed maxi skippered by David Bedford and navigated by Jules Salter, won class by more than six hours on corrected time.

Dunstone's grey-hulled boat is also now a serious contender for overall honours in the IRC category. Several boats are still theoretically able to beat the British boat, but realistically will be unable to get near the finish line before their corrected time advantage runs out.

Class Zero
In the lead on corrected time at the Fastnet Rock in Class Zero, Chris Bull's J/145 continues to maintain control of this class and is likely to finish tonight after sunset. The crew will be desperately waiting to see the lights of Plymouth and the Queen Anne's Battery Marina as they have not had anything to eat for more than 24 hours.

Class One
All but two boats in Class One are now on the way back from the Fastnet Rock enjoying sometimes fast and sometimes light and fickle winds, depending on where along the leg they find themselves. At the Rock the class was being led by the Dutch Grand Soleil 44 Holmatro, owned by JM Horrevoets. Leading around the Rock on the water Holmatro also had a four hour lead on corrected time over Robert Gateshill¹s Prima 38 Bare Knuckles. Holmatro must finish in Plymouth by 22:30 on Wednesday evening to beat the Super Zero Maxi Nokia for the overall honours in IRC and the Fastnet Challenge Cup. The current conditions on the race course are however not conducive to fast sailing at all.

Class Two
59 Class Two boats had rounded the Fastnet Rock this afternoon, leaving 16 stragglers still to pass the mythical ocean milestone. Jonathan & Lisa Goring's J'109 Jeronimo rounded the Rock at 04:00 this morning and lead by two hours on the water and corrected time from Philippe Bourgeois' First 36.7 Energies. Jeronimo has until 02:30 on Thursday morning to cross the finish line in Plymouth if she is to beat Nokia for the Fastnet Challenge Cup.

Class Three
Mark Jephcott's Contessa 33 Spirit of Defiance rounded the Fastnet Rock at noon today in the lead on corrected time but with a tricky 250-mile long leg back to the finish in Plymouth ahead of them.

Multihull Class
All the multihulls have rounded the Fastnet Rock and are sailing back to the Bishop Rock and the finish in Plymouth. After Tony Bullimore 100ft Team Pimsic that rounded yesterday, it was the 40 foot Mollymawk, skippered by Ross Hobson, that lead the small boats, rounding 12 hours ahead of Mike Butterfield's Dazzle.

The weather forecast is not promising for an improvement in the fleet's speed. High pressure zones continue to dominate the Western Approaches, making sailing slow, cerebral and sometimes frustrating.

Present IRC standings

Pos	Boat	Type	Owner	Elapsed	Handicap	Corrected	% To Win
1	NOKIA - Connecting People	Reichel/Pugh 76	Charles Dunstone	2 - 11:19:30	1.49	3 - 16:23:39
2	Alfa Romeo	Reichel/Pugh maxi	Neville Crichton	2 - 09:02:00	1.664	3 - 22:54:12	6.90%
3	Zephyrus V	maxZ86	Robert McNeil	2 - 09:12:10	1.693	4 - 00:50:39	8.70%
4	Leopard	Reichel/Pugh maxi	Mike Slade	2 - 14:20:17	1.605	4 - 04:03:09	11.70%
5	Jazz	J/145	Chris Bull	3 - 14:42:22	1.216	4 - 09:26:05	16.20%
6	Anthem	Tripp One-off	Thomas Gill Jr	3 - 15:00:40	1.243	4 - 12:09:17	18.30%
7	Volvo For Life Team Tonic	Farr 52	Nick Hewson	3 - 11:16:34	1.31	4 - 13:05:30	19%
8	Snow Lion	Nelson Marek 50	Lawrence Huntington	3 - 15:04:21	1.258	4 - 13:32:14	19.30%
9	Tonnerre de Breskens	Lutra 52	Piet Vroon	3 - 13:18:58	1.289	4 - 13:58:21	19.60%
10	Hugo Boss	Farr 65	Formula 1 Sailing	3 - 14:23:50	1.276	4 - 14:14:34	19.80%
11	Aera	Ker 55	Nick Lykiardopulo	3 - 12:08:04	1.326	4 - 15:33:44	20.80%
12	Solune	Nacira 60	Jean-Philippe Chomette	3 - 10:45:50	1.426	4 - 22:01:17	25.10%
13	Hellomoto	Volvo Ocean 60	Pure Sailing	3 - 10:50:03	1.45	5 - 00:06:34	26.40%
14	Nicorette	Whitbread Maxi	Gary Keegan	3 - 14:17:15	1.422	5 - 02:42:03	28%
15	Venom	Volvo Ocean 60	Windward Sailing	3 - 11:38:07	1.477	5 - 03:31:45	28.40%

Present IRM standings

Pos	Boat	Type	Owner	Elapsed	Handicap	Corrected	% To Win
1	Leopard	Reichel/Pugh maxi	Mike Slade	2 - 14:20:17	1.519	3 - 22:41:29
2	Tonnerre de Breskens	Lutra 52	Piet Vroon	3 - 13:18:58	1.153	4 - 02:22:10	3.70%
3	Volvo For Life Team Tonic	Farr 52	Nick Hewson	3 - 11:16:34	1.189	4 - 03:00:55	4.40%
4	Aera	Kerr 55	Nick Lykiardopulo	3 - 12:08:04	1.235	4 - 07:54:22	8.90%
5	Hellomoto	Volvo 60	Pure Sailing	3 - 10:50:03	1.318	4 - 13:10:32	13.30%
6	Venom	Volvo 60	Windward Sailing	3 - 11:38:07	1.372	4 - 18:44:51	17.50%

Open 60 results

Pos	Boat	Owner	Time
1	VMI	Sebastien Josse	2d - 15:25:52
2	PRB	Vincent Riou	3d - 06:20:23
3	Chaman 3	Dominique Wavre	3d - 10:17:18
4	Ecover	Mike Golding	3d - 10:32:43
5	Skandia Set Sail	Offshore Challenges	3d - 10:38:12