16:00 Sunday 27 July
Life at the front of IRC Super Zero is very close indeed. It’s a slow-motion game of chess on the Celtic Sea, as the big Maxi yachts try to eke out every ounce of speed in the light, sub-10 knot breezes that are wafting them bit by bit towards the Fastnet Rock.
David Witt’s SHK Scallywag is leading the small but exclusive IRC Super Zero fleet on the water, although the Hong Kong boat finds itself in a close tussle with Black Jack 100 just to leeward, and Leopard 3 not far behind. Scallywag’s veteran navigator, Australian Will Oxley, says the competition with their fellow 100-footers has been intense at times. “We’re very close to Black Jack at the moment, and we got into a small tacking duel with them for a short time, although things have calmed down a bit now.”
With so much wide-open space to play with on the Celtic Sea, it seems strange that the two giant monohulls would engage in a potentially speed-sapping match race, but it wasn’t just for laughs. “It was about trying to establish the side that we wanted,” Oxley explained. “It was just to clarify where they were trying to get to, but Black Jack are a little quicker in these conditions. In these 10-knot conditions we’re right between our J0 and J2 so it’s quite tricky working out what to use.
Black Jack 100 is owned by Remon Vos, with Tristan Le Brun skippering © ROLEX/Kurt Arrigo
“We’ve been through quite a few sail changes and with every weather model change, it’s getting a little slower. We can see that the Ultims aren’t exactly setting the world on fire.” So much so that at one point Scallywag even managed to cross ahead of two of the massive multihulls who in stronger breeze would have been long over the horizon. “Yeah, it was quite good, just before we went past Start Point we crossed ahead of Banque Populaire and Sodebo.” The moment of triumph was not to last. “They still made short work of us,” he laughed.
A little bit further behind, another Antipodean navigator, Campbell Field, was trying to make sense of the fickle conditions on board Tschüss 2. Christian Zugel’s Volvo Open 70 is doing a good job of just about hanging on to the coat tails of the 100-footers ahead. “We were pretty happy how it all panned out at the start,” said Field. “We had a plan to start up near the Squadron [on the Isle of Wight side of the start line]. We were able to take advantage of the current at the start, but then 30 seconds later had to tack away to keep away from the exclusion zone.”
As they exited the Solent, Tschüss 2 made a move towards the mainland shore which paid off nicely. “We held off a bit from Hurst,” said Field. “It would have been nice to get a bit closer to wave to all the fans, but then we made our way up the North Channel because we were always anticipating a bit of a right shift. We ended up ahead of the 100-footers so we made some nice gains.”
Tschüss 2 is enjoying strong rivalry with fellow 70-footer Pyewacket 70 © ROLEX/Carlo Borlenghi
Since then Tschüss 2 has enjoyed some close-quarters skirmishes with Pyewacket 70, an American Volvo Open 70 skippered by Roy P Disney. “I’d say they were a mile in front of us and we basically ground them down and it was actually quite satisfying to manage to outpace them,” said Field. “We had the whole team on full focus, treating it as a bit of an inshore race. It’s actually really, really good to have another boat of a very similar pace because you really end up sharpening your pencil. I think you never sail a boat as fast as you do as when you’ve got someone right next to you; someone who is very similar because you can see immediately any subtle changes or adjustments between the mode and in terms of metres gained or lost to the other boat.”
Back on SHK Scallywag, Oxley estimates they’ll round the Fastnet Lighthouse around midnight. For Field and his teammates on Tschüss 2 it’s likely to be an hour or two after that. “We’ll most likely go round in the small hours of the morning,” said Field. “I’ve done four or five Fastnet Races and I think I’ve only seen the Rock once in daylight. At night time I think you end up getting closer because you don’t get nervous staring at those rocks. Once we’ve rounded, we’ll have a small toast to celebrate, then off we go for the trip back to Cherbourg.”
IRC Super Zero Entries and Results
By Andy Rice