Vincent Riou (winner of the 2004 Vendee Globe) and Seb Josse have won the Open 60 class in the Rolex Fastnet Race. Sailing the year-old Farr-designed Open 60.

Riou and Josse crossed the Fastnet finish line here in Plymouth at 13:17:14 yesterday beating their nearest Open 60 rivals Cheminees Poujoulat (Bernard Stamm) and Hugo Boss (Alex Thomson) by over two hours.

Chatting about the race Seb Josse told yachtingworld.com: “It was fantastic racing. These new boats have great performance, we sailed 30 hours in less than 500 metres apart.

“It was good to finish first and very good for us for the future, it enabled us to prepare for the Barcelona World Race all the teams in the forthcoming Barcelona Race were here.

“It was also important for us to race in windy conditions because we never get the chance to train in windy conditions so this windy race was very important for us.”

Worst conditions? “Just before the Scilly Islands, the first night. The wind reached 45kts, not so long, about five hours, but we had to mangage a lot of sail change, to reduce the sail area, and that is really hard with just two people on board.”

Sleep? “Not so much, we sleep three or four hours a day, and for the first 24 hours we slept for just one hour.”

Riou and Josse are now heading back to Brittany for a short holiday before they begin preparations for the Barcelona World Race.