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Fastnet Race 2017

I wasn't sure if it would be worthwhile given the distance, but I took a camera* with my best telephoto lens to Calshot to see if I could get some photos of the start of the races.

The photos of the MOD 70 trimaran Concise 10" and the large IMOCA 60 yachts were taken from near Houston House on calshot Spit. The rest were taken from inside the Ops. Room in Calshot Tower. There were only two of us on watch so I couldn't go outside onto the balcony and the photo times were somewhat random since watch keeping took priority! Still, by luck I managed to photo the start of the IRC 2 race. Note the smoke from the start gun in the photos!

* the camera was a Sony Alpha 65 with a 200-500mm F/5.6-6.3 Tamron lens (35mm equiv: 300 to 750mm).


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Multihulls: Concise 10 flying her hull
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IMOCA 60, Class 40: 4 mins to start
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IMOCA 60: 9 minutes after start
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IRC 2: 30 secs before start
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IRC 2: start gun
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IRC 2: start (note smoke)
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IRC 1: 8 secs before start
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IRC 1: start + 38 seconds
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IRC 1: start + 47 seconds
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IRC Z & VO65: 4 mins to start
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IRC Z & VO65: 20 secs to start
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IRC Z & VO65: start + 40 secs
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