The race leaders used the strong breeze of an advancing low pressure system to power across the Celtic Sea and round the Fastnet Rock early evening on Tuesday.
With the race leaders heading home, the bulk of the Rolex Fastnet Race fleet still racing is midway between Land's End and the Fastnet Rock sailing in southwesterly winds of 25-30 knots.
After a 25-hour weather delay, 271 boats set off on Monday from the Squadron line in Cowes for the start of 46th edition of the Rolex Fastnet Race. It was a picture-perfect day with blue skies and puffy cumulus clouds, and little sign of the severe weather that was to follow.
Little more than 24 hours into the race and the super-maxis were neck and neck reaching up to the Rock at 14 knots in bright sunshine, rounding nearly together and then going on the wind to round the Pantaenius Buoy to port, some fives miles to the southwest of the Rock. The 90-foot Reichel Pugh-designed Rambler went past at 18:00:35 followed by the Farr-designed 100-foot canting keeled ICAP Leopard at 18:00:38. Subsequently, PRB, Delta Dore and Cheminees Poujoulat from the Open 60 Class have rounded. From the buoy, the distance to the race finish in Plymouth is 251 nautical miles.
After midnight the breeze was expected to drop and by the early hours of Wednesday the breeze will shift to the northwest and settle in around Force 6/7 (22-33 knots). As they past the Fastnet Rock, the leading boats are on track to break the race record, which would require a yacht to finish by Wednesday before 17:48 BST - but this has been said before in previous races and there is plenty of racing left before the finish. The existing monohull record of 2 days, 5 hours and 8 minutes (average speed 11.13 knots) was set by RF Yachting in 1999.
Behind the front runners, strong winds and short steep seas have taken their toll on the 271-boat Rolex Fastnet fleet, with 161 yachts having retired from the race as of 18:00 BST. Boats have been streaming into Plymouth - the race finish - and other ports along the Devon and Cornwall coastline after they elected or were forced to retire and head for shelter. For some boats it was not so much the wind, but the accompanying sea state that was proving exhausting for the crews.