ROLEX FASTNET-READY: TIPS FROM THE PROS
Ellie Driver first competed in the Rolex Fastnet course in 2019, 18 years old and fresh from a 420 campaign – a multiday offshore race was a very different concept. She knew she could drive a boat around a race course fast, but could she drive her Sunfast 3300 fast in one of the world’s most famous offshore races for four-plus days non-stop?
Since her first Rolex Fastnet, Ellie has chalked up an impressive victory list, including;
⭐ Women’s EUROSAF Double-Handed Offshore European Champion (2023)
⭐ Vice Mixed Double-Handed World Sailing Offshore World Champion (2023)
⭐ Yachts & Yachting ‘Sailor of the Year’ (2022)
⭐ Youngest Skipper to Compete in the SEVENSTAR Round Britain and Ireland Race (2022)
⭐ Second Place in Défi Paprec (2024)
Ellie Driver
Ellie raced the Rolex Fastnet again in 2023 double-handed with her father, an 8 times race veteran at that point. Ellie will admit that in her first Rolex Fastnet, “she sailed the course”—soaking up all the hard-won knowledge her father had to give her. In 2023, they were back, and this time, Ellie said she “raced the course, even with the full-on weather”, finishing 10th Double Handed Boat and Ellie the 2nd Female Skipper and the 2nd Youth Skipper overall.
The 2023 Rolex Fastnet start was brutal, with the fleet setting off from the Solent into a south-westerly gale. And conditions didn’t improve greatly, with Ellie and her father experiencing “sailing through three squalls and a shutdown—it was 4 days of misery”. But Ellie and Jim didn’t retire, and that experience informs her five top tips to teams competing in this year’s 2025 Rolex Fastnet Race: “aside from a catastrophic boat failure, boats need to retire because either the boat or the crew is not ready to tackle the conditions.
ELLIE’S FIVE TOP TIPS
- Don’t delay any maintenance job on your boat; start now. Get all the servicing done. Work bow to stern, replacing anything that is showing signs of wear. Do this now, and then do it again in the month prior to the race. I’m constantly checking my boat over, ensuring nothing avoidable will fail during the race.
- Plan your spares; based on your inspections over these 4 months, if one area shows deterioration quicker than expected, carry those spares.
- It is just as important to build personal fitness as well as maintaining your boat. The stronger you are, the less likely you are to injure yourself and the more energy you’ll have throughout the race. Crucially, it means that you’ll also approach every task with 100% of your strength – making manoeuvres faster – minimizing chances of damage to the boat, lost or torn sails, and fewer personal injuries as tasks in dicey conditions are completed faster. Get swimming, get running, get to the gym – prioritize the fitness of the whole crew in this build-up phase.
- Pre-race watch planning: absolutely vital when racing double-handed but also essential with larger crews with varying capabilities. 7-days out from the race, start looking at the course, look at the weather fronts coming through, and align your watch plan to these. Start planning when it will be calmer so the crew can rest, when it will be all hands on deck, and when you’ll need the more experienced drivers on the helm. Keep reviewing the plan alongside the weather updates up until the race start.
- My last tip: sing! Despite the best planning, there will be moments when you’re exhausted but need to keep pushing – it’s at these moments my Dad and I sing to keep us awake and morale up. ABBA tunes are a boat favorite!
Following Ellie’s advice to ensure crews who are entered into this year’s Rolex Fastnet Race are adequately prepared, we caught up with Steve Coles, Royal Ocean Racing Club Race Manager.
Steve Coles, Royal Ocean Racing Club Race Manager.
We asked him what the boats with their race places confirmed should be prioritising over the next four months, and he advised:
APRIL
- Make sure that the boat details on your entry are correct; you can start to add crew to your crew locker on www.sailracehq.com. Your crew will need an account to fill in all of their details. Add your t-shirt size!
- Submit your mileage proposal. At least 50% of the boat’s crew (but not less than 2), including the person in charge, must have completed 300 nautical miles of RORC offshore racing on the boat entered into the race. The qualifying miles must be completed within 12 months prior to the start of the Rolex Fastnet Race.
- We will accept mileage qualification proposals from races other than RORC races, but typically, they should be at least 150 miles and include one night at sea. Races can be combined to get to the 300-mile requirement.
- The RFR is a Category 2 race; you must complete your checklist on the entry portal and complete the Category 3 checklist before the system will let you complete Category 2. Boats may be inspected for OSR compliance before the race starts.
MAY
- Check whether you need a plan review - A monohull with a series date after 2009 of less than 24 m (78’-9”) LH shall have been designed, built, and maintained in accordance with the requirements of ISO 12215 Category A and have a World Sailing/ISAF building plan review certificate issued from an organization recognized by World Sailing.
- Order your tracker; trackers are mandatory for the RFR and all RORC races. A subsidy is available upon application to racing@rorc.org.
JUNE
- If you have completed your mileage qualification, please let RORC know now
- Training—the days are getting longer; use the long daylight days as perfect training days
JULY
- Submit the final crew onto the race portal.
- All non-UK boats will need to complete the C1331 form before arriving, which can be done online here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/submit-a-pleasure-craft-report#submit-your-report-online.
- Ensure the rating is applied for; the deadline is the 4th of July.
- Read through Sailing Instructions!
