Light wind start

Rolex Fastnet Race gets under under blazing sun

The 245 boats taking part in the Rolex Fastnet Race got underway this morning under more of the perpetual sun and sweltering heat that has graced the whole Skandia Cowes Week. With a favourable tide the northeasterly wind of around 10 knots made for a glorious spinnaker start.

This year it was the big boats that got away first. The gun at 1000 saw the five Open 60s saet off, starting on the mainland side of the course. Vincent Riou's bright orange Calais Round Britain Race winner PRB got the best start. Mike Golding's Ecover also seemed to have hit the line at pace hard over on the mainland shore. Between them was Kingfisher/ Team 888 now racing under the name Skandia Set Sail for the Rolex Fastnet Race.

At 10:10 it was the sight we'd all been waiting for with the departure of the big boats in class SZ, most of them Reichel Pugh designed maxis. Alfa Romeo got off quickly in the middle of the line but her pace was being matched by the maxZ86 Zephyrus V. Charles Dunstone's Nokia - Connecting People began on the north island side where initially at least there seemed to be better pressure and clearer air.

The start was less successful for class Z where the wind died leaving a whole flotilla of boats including the Challenge Business' 67s and the Formula One corporate hospitality fleets drifting aimless their kites hanging limply. Again those sailing down the mainland shore seemed to do better.

Further down the western Solent, off Yarmouth, there was a dramatic wind shift as the northeasterly gradient wind was replaced by the sea breeze from the southwest causing spinnakers to be dowsed as the boats went hard on the wind.

Out beyond the Needles, the positions had competely changed with Sebastien Josse's VMI just ahead of PRB and Dominique Wavre's Chaman 3. There was no sign of Zephyrus but Alfa Romeo and Nokia - Connecting People were locked in battle in the flukey, patchy breeze. There was equally a variety of sails being tried from giant windseekers on the Open 60s to more rigid masthead blades on the Reichel Pugh maxis.

Some distance behind were Hellomoto, the former Volvo Ocean 60 Tyco, being campaigned by Conrad Humphreys, followed by the Open 60s Ecover and Skandia Set Sail ( Kingfisher) who had parked up in the wind transistion.