Ask Paul Flynn why he entered his cruising-friendly 63-foot carbon fibre offshore trimaran Paradox in the Rolex Fastnet Race and he barely hesitates. The Fastnet has been lodged in his head since childhood. The 1979 edition cast a long shadow for all the wrong reasons, yet the lore and the lessons stuck. He read the accounts, dreamed about the rock, and filed it under “one day”.
This season the stars aligned. A cruising summer grand tour saw Paradox fly down the Portuguese coast, dip briefly into Spain, before heading off on a blisteringly fast run out to the Azores for some spectacular island hopping. That put the boat in the right place at the right time for Flynn and the crew to sail the delivery trip back to the boat’s home port of Falmouth in race mode as training for the Fastnet Race.
The plan was never to turn Paradox into a strung-out grand-prix animal. Flynn is honest about the programme. Although last year Flynn and his crew took line honours in the Round Ireland Yacht Race, most of the time the boat is set up for fast, comfortable cruising.
