Form, Function, Fastnet: A 25 Year Love Affair with Dazcats at the Heart of the under 50ft MOCRA Fleets
Breaking Barriers: The Fastnet Ban is Lifted and a New Era for Dazcat Begins
As we’ve already shared in our earlier Fastnet write-ups, multihulls were barred from entering the Fastnet Race until 1997. Before that milestone, every Dazcat built was either under the minimum 30-foot length requirement (9.15m) or designed purely for cruising. That all changed as the ban was lifted – and with it, a new chapter in Dazcat and multihull racing began.
Enter Paradox – The First Dazcat in the Fastnet
At the time of the rule change allowing multihulls to participate, Paradox (a Dazcat D10RT trimaran) was already under construction. She was being custom-built for a paraplegic sailor, specifically for the two-handed Round Britain & Ireland Race. Not only did Paradox go on to win that race three times, but in 1999 she also became the first ever Dazcat to enter the Fastnet.
Paradox also marks the beginning of an era in more ways than one – it was the first Dazcat Simon Baker ever worked on, and later, the second one he owned, buying her together with his brother Matt.
Not long after, Multimarine Manufacturing was born, and Simon and Daz (Darren Newton) became co-directors. The rest, as they say, is history.
Cruisers at Heart, Racers by Choice
In Daz’s own words, Dazcats are “primarily fast cruising boats that enjoy racing.” And it’s true – every boat that has entered the Fastnet under the Dazcat name has spent more time cruising than racing.
Perhaps the only partial exception is Paradox, though even she has had her fair share of relaxed passages and family trips. These are not stripped-out racing machines; they’re well-loved, seaworthy multihulls that just happen to be very fast when asked.
🏁 Fastnet Race Results – Dazcats through the Years
As of 2025, we are proud to celebrate 25 years of Dazcats in the Fastnet – a milestone that happens to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the race itself. And what a celebration it will be, with seven Dazcats set to take part this year!
This article is a snapshot of our history in the MOCRA category (under 50ft). If you want to see who we were competing against, full RORC archive results can be found here.
1999 – First ever Dazcat Fastnet entry: Paradox D10RT
2001 – Unknown (anyone with info, please reach out!)
2003 – Dazzle (D12) takes 2nd
Photo with thanks Di Broadbent
Excerpt below from an interesting write up: “In the Company of Gentlemen” By Bilbo about the 2003 multihull entries. Original and Full Article here
…The two open sea legs typically give fast reaching and beating, accounting for half the distance. The other 300 miles involves negotiating up to a dozen big headlands and fast tidal gates – each of which can ‘park up’ the unwary for hours. Success in the Fastnet Race requires not only straight-line boat speed but also tidal analysis, met interpretation and tactical decision skills of a high order. Get more than a couple of such calls wrong and you are no longer a competitor, but a participant ……’Whitebait!’
As the high-profile battle in the ‘big boat’ Zero class developed, those in the know were watching another battle develop in the Multihulls class, where a ‘needle match’ was shaping up between Richard Roscoe’s 33-foot self-build Farrier 9AX trimaran ‘Triohe’ and Mike Butterfield’s 40-foot Dazcat catamaran ‘Dazzle’ – a development from his 50-footer design built for the RORC Around Britain 2000, and inverted/lost while cruising off the Azores. Both owners had been racing rivals on the UK circuit for many years, and ‘Triohe’ had been whipping ‘Dazzle’ by hours in the previous ‘Fastnet Qualifier’ races. With new high-spec deck gear and sails, a big carbon spar, serious investment in IT and weather-routing software, lots of pre-race practice – and just a little posturing – ‘Dazzle’ came to the start line looking for a showdown.
Also on the start line at Cowes, with more than 240 other Fastnet boats, were ‘Gleam’ and ‘Mollymawk’ – both fast 40-foot tris – and ‘Brigand’, a 52-foot cruising catamaran with corporate guests. Finally, in a class of his own, came the indestructible Tony Bullimore in his 110-foot cat ‘Team Pulmic’ – aka Formula Tag, ENZA, Royal & Sun Alliance, Team Legato – which has had more sponsors, facelifts and remakes than Michael Jackson!
‘Brigand’ and ‘Gleam’ later retired; ‘Pulmic’ reached round the course, with Tony entertaining his guests from his fund of stories, and ‘Mollymawk’ – probably the fastest boat – failed to save her time by several hours. So it came down to ‘Dazzle’ and ‘Triohe’…..
The multis were again the last class to start. All the monos were strung out ahead on a 16-mile brisk sea-breeze beat down the West Solent to the Needles Fairway seamark. ‘Triohe’ had a fast, clean start ahead of the other multis and, making the most of the 3-knot ebb tide, was quickly catching the back-markers ahead. It was soon noticed that the crew on ‘Dazzle’ were copying our every manoeuvre tack-for-tack, but from behind in a sort of ‘reverse covering’. Puzzling – but a compliment of sorts – and they managed, with clearly improved boat speed, to stay quite close until we split tacks and wiped them off among a gaggle of slow Sigmas. In clearer air, ‘Triohe’ started to extend her lead down into the Needles Channel and the open water beyond.
Dazzle’, ‘Gleam’, ‘Brigand’ and ‘Pulmic’, with 50-60 of the monos, dropped steadily behind as we headed southwest down Channel. ‘Molly’ had the more power in the now-dying breeze, and swiftly stretched ahead. Halfway to the big tidal-gate headland of Portland Bill, we sailed into a persistent ‘windhole’ and, as the tide turned foul, down went our kedge anchor – in 225 feet of water. That’s got to be a record! This old racing tactic of deep-water kedging was used successfully in the ’30s by RORC legend Adlard Coles in ‘Cohoe’ and has largely been forgotten – but not by crafty and well-prepared crews! Before long, ‘Molly’ and some others re-appeared, with bare steerage way, sailing past us again backwards into the gathering murk. This was where she lost her race…..
An expected light breeze slowly filled in and, after hauling back on board nearly 500 feet of line, chain and anchor, we were away again, under spi and full main. All that night ‘Triohe’ worked her way steadily west, using every nuance of breeze we could squeeze from wind-field predictions, pressure trend charts, cloud observations, barometer, Druid seaweed, and our in-depth briefings from specialist weather service WCS Marine. ‘Triohe’s wind instruments comprised a complete set of luff/leech telltales and some Dictaphone ribbon on the shrouds. Richard had fitted a luff spotlight under glass in the bow, and the F-18 guys Rob and Mark did their tweaking stuff all night. Morning found us kedged again off South Devon for a couple of hours in another wind hole – an avoidable one, for there were boats to north and south still moving – and it was here that ‘Dazzle’, unknown to us, apparently slipped by. This was where we nearly lost out……..
2005 – Dazzle 2nd, Paradox 3rd
2007 – A tough year: none of the 4 multis finished. Paradox didn’t start after being T-boned the day before!
2009 – Paradox returns to take 1st
It’s a scratchy video of its time but it’s part of our history!
2011 – Clean sweep:
→ 1st: Drama Queen (D1150)
→ 2nd: Paradox
→ 3rd: Dazzla (D1395)
Footage from onboard Drama Queen
2013 – Full fleet of Dazcats dominates:
→ 1st: Paradox
→ 2nd: Drama Queen
→ 3rd: Backlash II (built at Multihull Centre)
→ 4th: Sueños (D1195)
→ 5th: Dazzla
2015 – Hissy Fit (D1495) 4th, Bare Necessities (D1150 – ex Drama Queen) places 5th, in her first Fastnet with Bruce and Alison as co-owners & Dazzla
Interview with BBC Spotlight and Simon Baker on the newly launched D1495 Hissy Fit
2017 –
→ 1st: Hissy Fit (D1495)
→ 5th: Bare Necessities
Winning best rated under 50ft multihull on board D1495 Hissy Fit
2019 –
→ 2nd: Apollo (D1495)
→ 3rd: Hissy Fit
→ 4th: Slinky Malinki (D1295)
→ 6th: Sueños
→ 9th: Belladonna (D10)
Yachting World rendition of the 2019 Fastnet on board Hissy Fit
A full length video of this race and shorter episodes can be found on our YouTube Fastnet Playlist, including clips from the other Dazcats.
Below: RORC Write up on D1495 Apollo’s Race. Click the image for the full article.
And a RORC write up on the ‘rise of the 50 footers’, which includes the 43ft D1295 Slinky Malinki. Click for the full article
2021 – The race finish moved to Chrbourg and D1295 Slinky Malinki was the sole Dazcat entry, coming in 4th.
2023 – A pause in Dazcat Fastnet participation due to Brexit complications, COVID, and the finish line being moved from our home port of Plymouth to Cherbourg.
2025 – Watch this space!
📹 Relive the Action: Dazcats on YouTube
Footage of Dazcats in the Fastnet goes back as far as 2009. That’s a decade before my time here, so there may be more hidden gems out there! If you’ve got links, videos, or old race footage of Dazcats in action, we’d love to see it – please send it our way.
Explore the History:
Curious to dive deeper into the evolution of Dazcats and other legendary multihulls?
Check out our illustrated history of Multihull Centre designs here:
👉 Dazcat History (up to 2018 – it’s time for an update!)
And don’t forget to visit www.multihullcentre.com for more stories, updates, images of our boats.
Looking ahead to Fastnet 2025:
This year’s race promises to be something special. Eight Dazcats will line up, each with its own story. Some are Fastnet veterans; others never imagined they’d be here. In part four of our pre-race series, we’ll bring you the profiles of this year’s boats and crews.
For now, we raise a sail to 25 years of racing, cruising, and everything in between.
Got your own Dazcat story to share?
Drop us a line – we’d love to feature your photos or race memories in a future post.
Watch This Space!
We will be bringing you news and profiles of our boats as the countdown begins…
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