Shorthanded teams top Fastnet Race

Cherbourg-en-Cotentin (July 31, 2025) – Alexis Loison and Jean-Pierre Kelbert’s 34-foot JPK 1050 Léon has been crowned overall winner of the 2025 Rolex Fastnet Race. No other IRC entrant still racing on the 695 nautical mile course can catch the French doublehanded duo for overall honors in this, the 51st edition of the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s offshore classic.

Loison and Kelbert have won the event in its centenary year which attracted a record 444 boats, ranging from 30-foot keelboats up to the giant 105-foot Ultim foiling trimarans. They also prevailed in the 70-boat IRC Two fleet in what was a predominantly light-airs contest.

“We had a very good boat,” said Loison. “I was racing with Jean-Pierre, the builder of the JPK boats, which are now very well-known on the international offshore racing scene, and we had a great time. We were up against some very good boats, racing on a very challenging race course. It means a lot to win this.”

Loison becomes one of the few sailors to win overall the Rolex Fastnet Race more than once, having first won with his father Pascal aboard the JPK 1010 Night & Day. That was when the race was still being finished in Plymouth in the south-west of England, and they were the first doublehanded crew to beat all the fully-crewed boats to offshore racing’s biggest prize.

“It’s really the same feeling as 12 years ago,” he admitted. “An unexpected victory, but with just as much joy. Arriving in my home city, Cherbourg, the city of my heart.”

This is the third time the Rolex Fastnet Race has finished in Cherbourg, but only the first time that a French team has won overall in home waters. The first time into Cherbourg in 2021 it was the British boat Sunrise who took top honors. Two years ago in 2023 it was the Swiss entry Caro who prevailed.

Not only that, but it is the French doublehanded teams who dominate the podium. Behind Léon, in second place is Lann Ael 3, the Manuard Nivelt 35 sailed by Didier Gaudoux and Erwan Tabarly; in third place a Pogo RC, Amarris, sailed by Achille Nebout and Tanguy Bouroullec.

“It’s no coincidence that there are Figaro sailors on board each of the top three,” noted Loison. “There is myself, Erwan Tabarly and my coach Achille in third place. All of us have been through the best offshore racing school in the world, the Figaro.”

The JPK boats have dominated offshore competition in the past decade or more, so it was fitting that Mr JPK himself, Jean-Pierre Kelbert, was one half of the winning crew. He was proud of the leap in performance that the 34-foot JPK 1050 has brought. “Its reaching performance is just amazing because with this powerful hull, you can sail higher angles with the big kite even in 25 knots of wind. It’s so fast, it’s like a rocket.”

Event information – Race details – Tracking

The 2025 Rolex Fastnet Race set sail July 26 from the Royal Yacht Squadron line off Cowes, Isle of Wight, bound for Cherbourg-en-Cotentin, France via the Fastnet Rock off southwest Ireland and Bishop Rock off the Scilly Isles. The fleet was divided into 13 classes – six IRC classes, from IRC SZ to IRC Four, plus five non-IRC classes (Ultim, IMOCA, Ocean Fifty, Class40 and MOCRA), and two Admiral’s Cup classes.

Source: Andy Rice/RORC