Start of the 2015 Rolex Fastnet Race (35297303)
HUGE crowds packed the Cowes and Western Solent shoreline as a record-sized fleet of 356 vessels set off on the 90th anniversary Rolex Fastnet Race.
With a complete lack of wind in the Solent, the boats ghosted across the start line starting their 600 miles voyage to the Fastnet Rock and on to Plymouth.
The multihull line-up included the world’s fastest offshore race boat, Dona Bertarelli and Yann Guichard’s 40m trimaran Spindrift 2.
It was American Lloyd Thornburg’s MOD70 Phaedo3 that made the best of it but it still took her two and a half hours to cover the 10 miles to the Needles.
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