Offshore racing with the Royal Ocean Racing Club returns to Europe for the early May Bank Holiday. The Cervantes Trophy Race starts on Saturday, 2nd of May. The course takes the fleet west off the RYS line Cowes to finish in Le Havre, Normandy. A warm welcome awaits at the Société des Régates du Havre, founded in 1838, it is the oldest yacht club in France.
The Cervantes Trophy will be won by the boat with the best corrected time under IRC and there are trophies for every IRC class, as well as points towards the 2026 RORC Season’s Points Championship—the world’s largest offshore racing series.
The Cervantes Trophy Race is also the first race of the 2026 RORC Cowes Offshore Series which counts the best five from seven races, all starting from Cowes, IOW.

Early entries for the RORC Cervantes Trophy Race include last year’s IRC Zero Class winner, Graeme Lewis’ CM60 Venomous. In IRC One, Trevor Middleton will skipper his new charge, the JPK 1180 Django for the first time in a RORC race. IRC Two will also Roland Claeys’ Belgian Elan 400 NRJ-Ball skippered by Emile Jacobs. Rob Craigie and RORC Commodore Deb Fish start their 2026 RORC campaign with Sun Fast 3600 Bellino. As overall RORC Season’s Points Champions for three years in a row, the doublehanded duo on Bellino will bring a competitive spirit to the race course. Sam White & Sam North will be racing JPK 1080 Mzungu! to Le Havre, having pipped to the 2025 IRC Two-handed title by Bellino. In IRC Four, Mark Brown’s JPK 1010 Jetpack will be racing in defence of their class win last season.

Diversity has always been at the heart of the Royal Ocean Racing Club for over 100 years and two boats racing in IRC Three continue that trait. Andrew Tseng’s Classic 1971 Nicholson 55 Quailo III and RORC’s modern 2013 Sun Fast 3600 RORC Griffin. The two boats are radically different but under the IRC rating system, Quailo III is given just two minutes every 24 hours by RORC Griffin.

Nuala Sellwood will skipper the Sun Fast 3600 RORC Griffin for the Cervantes Trophy Race with a team of eight all under 25. Five of the team raced together last season as the Griffin Pathway development squad. For 2026 the ultimate race for the RORC Griffin Pathway team is the 1800-mile Round Britain & Ireland this August.

“The Cervantes Trophy is the first real opportunity to put all of our Griffin training into practice,” commented skipper Nuala Sellwood. “A building block towards the Round Britain and Ireland Race, which is a key goal for us this year. The Cervantes gives us a chance to test ourselves, refine our processes and start to get a clearer picture of what we can achieve as a team.

Preparation has been really positive. We’ve focused on defining roles and how we want to operate and then working on performance and boat speed. We’ve been fortunate to have excellent coaching support from North Sails and Nikki Curwen but it’s also been about learning from each other and building that shared understanding on board. We all come from different sailing backgrounds, which is a real strength, but the focus has been on working as one team and playing to each individual’s strengths.

Personally, I’m really excited to see how the team comes together offshore. My role as skipper is to get the best out of the group and make sure we perform consistently. If we can do that, and come away having learned and improved, then that’s a really strong start to the season.”

Andrew Tseng reflected on the contrast between Quailo III and the Griffin Pathway youth team’s Sun Fast 3600, while also stressing how much the two boats still share at their core.

“Quailo III and RORC Griffin are separated by more than 40 years of yacht design, and you feel that straight away offshore,” said Tseng. “Quailo is a 20 tonne Nicholson 55 with a longer keel and skeg hung rudder, whereas the Sun Fast 3600 is a five tonne modern boat with a bulb keel. In light airs, weight counts against us because it takes more breeze to get Quailo going, while the lighter, newer boats can just glide by. The same applies in manoeuvres, especially short tacking, where our penalty is much greater. But in 30 knots upwind, I know which boat I would rather be on.

Quailo’s weight and waterline length really come into their own. What is striking, though, is that the fundamentals have not changed. Optimum sail shape is still optimum sail shape. The control lines may be arranged differently, but the principles remain the same. Good offshore racing still comes down to sailing skill, knowing your boat and working brilliantly as a team. That is why it is so impressive that IRC can produce such close racing between boats from completely different eras.”