Cowes - Lorient Race

17 augustus 2024 - Cowes, GBR - Lorient, FRA

While races from Cowes past Ushant ending up somewhere on France’s Atlantic coast are not new in the RORC calendar, one finishing in Lorient is a first. The RORC’s Lorient Race is designed to provide a mid-season offshore course that is slightly longer than average in a non-Rolex Fastnet Race year. It also fills a large hole in the calendar in August, with nothing otherwise taking place between the Channel Race in July and the Cherbourg Race in September.

The course from Cowes to Lorient is approximately 330 miles and is a well-trodden route for many from the Solent to Ushant. Here competitors will negotiate the Chenal du Four in the otherwise rock-strewn passage between Ushant and the northwesternmost tip of France.
However swiftly following comes the passing of two major headlands, the Pointe du Raz (and its off-lying Ile de Sein) and then Pointe de Penmarch, with all their tidal complications and overfalls, etc. Competitors can then wave as they pass Port-La-Forêt, home to some of France’s most successful offshore racers - Desjoyeaux, le Cam, Jourdain - and continue, avoiding Iles des Glenan, on to Lorient.
Today Lorient is offshore racing’s undisputed mecca. The top French offshore race teams that are not based in Port-La-Forêt or La Trinité-sur-Mer are located here in their own purpose-built compounds or in or around the Nazi-built reinforced concrete submarine silos.
The complete pantheon and latest creations of French offshore racing are to be found in the giant marina here along with Cite de la Voile Eric Tabarly (where all of the great man’s six Pen Duicks are moored) and the local hot-spot La Base. Here competitors can celebrate or commiserate, while rubbing shoulders with heroes of the French offshore world.

Meer informatie: Cowes - Lorient