Record MOCRA multihull turn-out for centenary Rolex Fastnet Race
by James Boyd / RORC 21 Jul 18:34 UTC
26 July 2025
The turboed MOD70s Argo and Zoulou are expecting to have a race-long match race © Paul Wyeth
While the four Ultims maxi-trimarans and nine Ocean Fiftys have their own classes in this Saturday's centenary Rolex Fastnet Race, the remaining multihulls convene in the MOCRA class. This year there is a record turn-out of 20 participants racing for the ancient MOCRA offshore prize, the Crystal Trophy.
Stars of the show will be the pair of former MOD70s, Jason Carroll's Argo from the USA and Erik Maris' Zoulou from France. Both are packed with top sailors including Loick Peyron on Zoulou and Brian Thompson on Argo and for two extreme boats capable of hitting almost 40 knots, their racing is exceptionally close. They spent this weekend's Channel Race swapping positions, blasting back into the Solent at 30+ knots, Argo finishing just over three minutes ahead.
Brian Thompson was partly responsible for multihulls being permitted into the Fastnet Race for the first time in 1997 after he sailed alongside the 1993 race as an unofficial entry aboard Steve Fossett's ORMA 60 trimaran Lakota. Four ORMAs competed in 1999 when Loick Peyron skippered Fujicolor to a race record of 1 day 16 hours 27 minutes. After it replaced the ORMA class in the end of the 2000s, several one design MOD70s took part with the Sidney Gavignet-skippered Oman Air-Musandam winning the MOCRA class under corrected time in 2013 while Tony Lawson's Concise 10, skippered by Ned Collier-Wakefield, claimed line honours in 2017 (both Peyron and Collier-Wakefied are racing on Zoulou this year).
The present day MOD70s are now all out of class and have upgraded foil packages, which provide extra buoyancy to leeward. Brian Thompson explains: "We only lift our leeward hull but then the main hull goes more in the water. So the foils make us safer, especially longitudinally and make for a much nicer boat."
But the bulk of the MOCRA fleet are a mix of less extreme catamarans and trimarans.
Great things are expected of the ORC 50 catamaran GDD entered by round the world sailors Halvard Mabire and Vendée Globe skipper Miranda Merron, whose crew includes other old salts such as former Jules Verne Trophy record holder and Vendée Globe race director Jacques Caraës.
Mabire, who comes with one of the longest, most diverse sailing CVs in offshore racing, sailed his first Fastnet Race in 1977 on a She 36 ¾-Tonner, followed by the Whitbread maxi Gauloises III in 1979. He has returned several times as part of Belgium and French Admiral's Cup teams and with Whitbread winner Ross Field on the Maxi One Design Banque Internationale à Luxembourg (BIL) in 1997 won the Fastnet Race outright on CHS corrected time as well as line honours - the last occasion the 'double' was achieved.
1977, Mabire remembers "was in very very light wind. On the She 36, it was a long, long Fastnet. It took six or seven days." He feels fortunate to have raced the maxi in 1979 avoiding the severe storm that struck the small yachts competing.
Mabire raced the 2024 Route du Rhum on board his present 50ft catamaran steed, finishing fourth behind other French offshore legends Marc Guillemot and Roland Jourdain but ahead of Gwen Chapalain (who joins them on board GDD for the Rolex Fastnet Race). "This kind of boat is a cruiser-racer like we used to sail in the past, when there were plenty of owners who wanted to race and cruise. This catamaran is very nice for that. And we can 'work' with a boat like this - we can take passengers which is hard to do on a pure racing boat. In the last Route du Rhum there was a really interesting race between our catamarans."
Another reason is that the latest generation catamarans such as these are well built and perform well. "They have carbon to make the boat stronger and stiffer and use infusion not prepreg - so a good compromise in terms of building technology - and the sails are better," says Mabire of his ORC 50.
?But the largest gathering of fast cruising catamarans in the MOCRA fleet are the Dazcats, built at the Multihull Centre in Millbrook on the Cornwall side of the Tamar River.
Multihull Centre Director Simon Baker is competing on the biggest, the 2015 Dazcat 1495 Hissy Fit with a Multihull Centre works crew. Hissy Fit is Baker's fourth Dazcat and was MOCRA class winner in 2017. He is back for his eighth Rolex Fastnet Race (his fourth in Hissy Fit). He has enjoyed podium finishes in the Armen Race, Round the Island, Two Handed Round Britain & Ireland, Round Ireland and the MOCRA Nationals.
The Dazcat line-up also includes the oldest, the 2003 vintage 12m Dazzle, originally campaigned by the late Mike Butterfield, now by Dominic Gooding, following a major performance-enhancing refit recently. At 33ft the smallest Dazcat, a D995R, Easy Tiger from 2007, is making her Rolex Fastnet Race debut under Neil Broughton having already raced Round Britan & Ireland and Round Ireland. Similarly Bruce Sutherland's Dazcat 1150 from 2009, Bare Necessities, has strong racing credentials having won the Rolex Fastnet Race MOCRA class in 2011 plus victories in the 2023 AZAB and 2024 Round Ireland Race.
Built in 2010, Sueños is a Dazcat 1196 belonging to MOCRA Commodore and multihull racing veteran Rupert Kidd, who over some 40+ years has competed in seven Round Britain & Ireland races, the OSTAR and other major offshore racing events including the 2013 and 2019 Rolex Fastnet Races. Sueños on the one hand comes with a washing machine and well stocked freezer but one of the MOCRA fleet's most highly experienced crews.
Peter Coote's Dazcat 1295 Slinky Malinki is a well-known RORC racer having, under her previous owner, won the multihull class within the RORC Season's Points Championship in 2021, a season that included the Rolex Fastnet Race.
The newest Dazcat competing is another 1295, Frenchman Didier Bouillard's Minor Swing launched in 2023, the 2024 RORC Season's Points Championship winner and this year's winner of the Cervantes Trophy and Cowes-St Malo-Dinard races. Bouillard spent eight seasons competing in the Figaro circuit and among his crew is highly accomplished Tour Voile and maxi yacht tactician Cédric Pouligny.
Another catamaran racing is Gary Taylor's Excess 14 cruiser Dogzhouse, the lowest rated in the MOCRA fleet.
Following the MOD70s in terms of performance are a few other trimarans. Nearest in terms of size is the 63ft Nigel Irens-designed Paradox, a past Rolex Fastnet and Caribbean 600 competitor under original owner Peter Aschenbrenner, but now being campaigned by a new owner.
Highest rated trimaran after the MOD70s is the Martin Fisher-Benoit Cabaret-designed Suerte, a fully grand prix 40ft trimaran, launched in 2012 and recently acquired by Frédéric Jaouen, Founder & CEO of JFA Yachts in Concarneau. Her crew will include Vendée Globe skipper Maxime Sorel.
The 2018 all-carbon fibre 39ft John Shuttleworth-designed trimaran Morpheus is another past Rolex Fastnet Race competitor, campaigned by Andy Fennell, previous owner of the trimaran Strontium Dog. Meanwhile Slinky Malinki's previous owner James Holder has graduated up, in terms of performance, to the carbon fibre Grainger 36ft trimaran Uno, whose crew includes Simon Baker's son Matt.
Rayon Vert is a Pulsar 50 trimaran designed by Erik Lerouge and now owned by Oren Nataf. She has twice competed in the Route du Rhum and in 2021 she won line honours in the RORC Transatlantic Race. Her crew will include former Vendée Globe winner Vincent Riou.
Newest boat in the MOCRA fleet is Tan 3, the Danish-built and designed Dragonfly 40 trimaran of Xavier Bouin. Already this season she was won the multihull division of the La Trinité-Cowes race and came third in the ArMen Race. Adamas is the carbon fibre Rapido 40 fast cruising trimaran being raced by RORC regular Belgian Vincent Willemart, who has previously campaigned the TS42 catamaran Banzai, the MC34 Patton Azawakh and the JPK 10.10 Wasabi.
The oldest design in the MOCRA class is also a classic in multihull circles. Perros Guirec (also known as Black Cap) has the familiar curves hull and cross beam and bright yellow hull of a Dick Newick-designed trimaran and strongly resembles Mike Birch's famous 44ft Olympus Photo, the trimaran in which the Canadian multihull legend pipped the giant 69ft monohull Kriter V to the post in the first Route du Rhum in 1978. She is being raced by Thierry Roger and Alice Caracchioli. Laurent Etheimer is campaigning another Newick trimaran: Aile Bleue was built in 1982 and raced extensively that year as CGA Assurances by Yves Gallot-Lavallee.
Simon Baker, Vice Commodore of MOCRA explains the strong multihull turn-out: "The centenary edition was an attraction. There are the Grand Prix multihull fleets and that's one of the beauties of the Fastnet Race for us as normal sailors - to be on the same start line alongside those boats. When else do you get that chance? Then you set off down the Solent, with all the IMOCA and maxis shooting past us. It's absolutely awesome."
For further information, please go to the race website: rolexfastnetrace.com
Multi entries here