Fastnet Yacht Race heading for home

Day four of the Rolex Fastnet yacht race sees a big bunch of boats heading east south of the Scillys and the Lizard making slow progress on their way to the finish line at Plymouth..

all the competitors in this classic race can be followed individually by visiting the tracking page of the race website...

which shows just how busy the shipping lanes were - though as can be seen from this image all of the competitors (apart from a couple who ignored the TSS off Land's End completely) heeded the race instructions and kept well clear of the TSS, traffic separation schemes that exist off Land's End and the Scillys.

Rolex Fastnet Yacht Race is on as they head round the corner.

Picked up on VesselTracker's AIS screen, nearly 300 race yachts make their way past Land's End on the outward leg of this year's Rolex Fastnet Yacht Race. This year's record entry saw the big French multihull Maxi Banque Populaire first to the Fastnet Rock at around 0930 this morning. At a more sedate pace, the bulk of the fleet hit the edges of Mount's Bay on their way to Land's End late in the afternoon with the wind conveniently backing SSW from the NW breeze earlier in the day.

Plenty of yachts pass Land's End.

The VesselTracker AIS system picked up a huge number of yachts making their way past Land's End, a sort of Monday morning get away!

In fact, the fleet are on their way to Dún Laoghaire on the second leg of the Le Figaro - La Solitaire race that takes in France and Irleand.