Alfa Romeo rounds first

Leading maxis now on their way back from the Fastnet Rock

At 1733 BST on Monday New Zealand-born Neville Crichton on board his super maxi Alfa Romeo was first round the Fastnet Rock. Alfa Romeo was followed at 18:58 by second placed Zephyrus V.

Rounding the Rock after just 31 hours at sea puts Alfa Romeo in with a chance of breaking the Rolex Fastnet Race record for monohulls, which currently stands at 53 hours and 8 minutes.

Alfa Romeo has led the fleet on the water since passing Portland Bill just over 24 hours ago when she took over the lead from the American maxi Zephyrus V. Alfa Romeo has enjoyed a relatively
straight forward passage across the Celtic Sea and has managed to average a
speed of 11.2 knots over the 348 miles from Cowes to the Fastnet Rock.

The current race record is held by another New Zealander and was set in 1999 by Ross Field sailing the Bruce Farr-designed Maxi RF Yachting. Crichton and his multinational crew now have until 1518 Tuesday afternoon to cross the finish line in Plymouth if they are to claim the Rolex Fastnet Race record.

To achieve this the 258 miles back to Plymouth must be covered at an average speed of 11.8 knots, 0.5 knots better than the speed sailed so far. The conditions at the Rock at the time of rounding were 10 knots from the northwest. This will mean a long downwind run to the Bishop Rock lighthouse to the south of the Scilly Isles before the final section via the Lizard and in to Plymouth.

"We've had a big day today," commented owner Neville Crichton. "We left the English coast in a lot of breeze - we even had a reef in for a while. It was fast sailing close reaching, fantastic. But as we got further from the land the wind started to drop and
for the last 50 miles to the Rock we have been on the wind in 10 knots of
wind.

"We haven't seen our closest rival Zephyrus V since this morning. We have
absolutely no idea where they have got to.

"The leg home to the finish will see us sail away from the Irish coast and into the high pressure zone that we have sailed out of today. We're not sure where the centre of it is and this will affect how we get back to Plymouth.

Crichton said that prior to the start of the Rolex Fastnet Race they had left six of the crew on the dock in Cowes, deciding to sail with just 18 on board to keep the weight on board as light as possible. "We always knew that the return leg would be the hardest. We only have one spinnaker left as we destroyed one on the way down the Solent."

Of the conditions the crew were experiencing on board he commented: "If you were out fishing it would be a beautiful day here on the Irish Sea Flat seas, calm, beautiful sun, warm, we can¹t complain."