#Rambler88 - Last weekend’s RORC Channel Race has clearly demonstrated two things writes W M Nixon. Firstly, the way that George David’s hugely impressive Rambler 88 won the Volvo Round Ireland race 2016 every which way was no flash in the pan. Until Rambler 88 came along, line honours and the Corrected Time overall win were thought well-nigh impossible of achievement. Yet now the big silver bullet has done it in Wicklow’s Round Ireland, in the RORC’s Cowes-Dinard/St Malo race, and now she’s done it yet again in the RORC Channel Race.
The second Big Thing which has been demonstrated is that in RORC racing, the IRC is working mighty well. On Corrected Time, Rambler 88 was first, Piet Vroon’s Ker 51 Tonnere 4 was second, and the French two-handed JPK 10.10 Night & Day (Pascal Loison) was third. Night & Day incidentally also won out in the 2013 Rolex Fastnet Race in the same two-handed configuration, so she’s some boat and some crew. But as we read on through tho official report, what emerges most obviously is the incredible spread of successful boats, and the tiny time margins between them. There’s life in the IRC yet……
Days after winning the King Edward VII Cup in this year’s Cowes-Dinard-St Malo Race, David’s Rambler 88 has made it two in a row with victory in the 2017 RORC Channel Race.
The American Maxi took line honours and was the overall winner in the 160nm, 109-boat race at the weekend — the last stage in the RORC Season's Points Championship before the Rolex Fastnet Race from Sunday 6 August.
“We wanted to race in good breeze, and we certainly got that in this race,” said Rambler 88’s project manager Mick Harvey, who added that the race around the Isle of Wight “has been a good build up to the Fastnet, which is the big event for us.”
Former Fastnet podium finishers have shared their secrets for success in the world’s biggest offshore race, as previously reported on Afloat.ies previously reported on Afloat.ie.
