Monaco's Black Jack 100 played perfectly on Tuesday, taking monohull line honors in the 100th anniversary Rolex Fastnet Race. This rounded off a fiercely-contested few days, which saw record fleets and tight margins. Underdogs pushed giants across 695 nautical mile of testing waters.

Remon Vos’s Black Jack, helmed by Tristan Le Brun crossed the finish in Cherbourg, after two days of racing.

Monaco's Leopard 3, followed by Hong Kong's SHK Scallywag, finished second in monohull division.

Pyewacket and Tschuss 2, both from the United States, rounded out the top 5 in the finish on Tuesday. This highlights the international nature of the race which has grown in size since 1925.

The monohull honors came after France's SVR Lazartigue claimed overall line honours. The sleek blue 32-metre Ultim triaran cut through the darkness on Monday to become the first to reach Cherbourg - a gentle reminder that line honours are given to the first boat to arrive, which is usually the fastest and technologically most advanced yacht in a fleet.

The Ocean Fifty race was perhaps the most exciting of the 100th edition.

Inter Invest, a French company, won the category in just two days, eighteen hours, 38 minute and thirteen seconds, as the dusk fell on Monday. Koesio was only 31 minutes, 16 seconds behind, and Viabilis Oceans 20 minutes further back.

The close competition was evident across the entire Ocean Fifty Fleet - the seven top trimarans were all within two hours of one another despite the epic distance.

Even the larger classes were challenged by these double-handed boats. Inter Invest reached Fastnet Rock from the stern a MOD70 Argo while the mighty Ultims could not shake off the Ocean Fiftys until they rounded Plymouth.

The Ocean Fifty (formerly Multi50 class) is growing in popularity outside France. Nine boats will be taking part in the centennial edition of this annual race calendar.

The course of the biennial contest takes sailors from Cowes, England's Isle of Wight, around Ireland's Fastnet Rock and finishes in Cherbourg. This test has been challenging sailors' endurance and skill for over a century.

The Fastnet Race is won by the boat that finishes first. However, the winner of the Fastnet Race overall receives the Fastnet Challenge Cup, based on corrected times under the International Rating Certificate handicap system. This means a 12-metre sailing yacht can still win a 30-metre racing car once handicaps have been applied.

IRC is administered jointly by the Royal Ocean Racing Club in Britain and the Union Nationale pour la Course au Large in France. It assigns a rating to a boat based on its measurements and predicted performance. This produces a time-correction factor that can be used to calculate the results of a race. (Reporting and editing by Ken Ferris; Ossian shine)

(source: Reuters)