Passing Blackrock Island on the County Mayo coast, a mark on the course of the SSE Renewables Round Ireland Race, leading skipper Michael Boyd has paid a moving tribute to the four air crew of Rescue 116 Irish Coast Guard helicopter who died at Blackrock in March 2017 during a rescue mission.

Boyd, who is the skipper of the J121 Darkwood, is a former Commodore of the Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) in London and a member of the Royal Irish Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire Harbour.

In the onboard tribute, Boyd says his crew pay a great thanks to them [Rescue 116] and all rescue personnel and to everyone who worked so hard to try and find them".

In day three of the race, the Darkwood crew are lying fourth overall in the race for handicap honours. 

(Above and below) The 2022 Round Ireland crew of the J121 Darkwood (Kenny Rumball not pictured) Photo: Afloat

Enda O'Coineen, the (non-sailing) Round Ireland co-skipper of Green Dragon, writes this year's Volvo 70 entry marks the tenth anniversary of the Volvo Ocean Race coming to Ireland.

I am sorry to see the SSE Renewables Round Ireland Race leader for line-honours retiring; my heart goes out to the team. Though on the other hand, I am pleased for the Green Dragon. I say this as a non-sailing Skipper with Conor Ferguson, also non-sailing, who has done a fantastic job helping pull the team together.

We have a great team on the Green Dragon from a select group of 15 from Dublin, Donegal and Belfast. Cathal Mahon is playing a blinder as Sailing Master. Indeed a successful team works without you!!!

Green Dragon racing in the Round Ireland Race to mark a Volvo Ocean Race anniversary Photo: Afloat

Heading around the top of Ireland tonight, I am delighted with the guys' performance. They are having a ball ...

We brought the Green Dragon back to Ireland to Mark the 10th anniversary of the Volvo Ocean Race in Ireland. And also to mark the arrival of the new Grace O'Malley youth development ship - a legacy from the Volvo and NCB Ireland.

The new Grace O'Malley youth development tall ship

This 10th Volvo anniversary will be celebrated the weekend of 15 July in Galway, and the 35th anniversary of the NCB Ireland launch around 20 August in Dublin.

Marie Tabarly's French 60ft alloy ketch Pen Duick VI has retired less than 48 hours into the 2022 SSE Renewables Round Ireland Yacht Race.

As Afloat reported, fifty years after France's legendary Eric Tabarly was winning "just about everything" with his 60ft alloy ketch, his daughter Marie was racing the yacht again in Irish waters but has now retired from the Round Ireland circuit.

According to the race tracker, the yacht retired off the Kerry coast this morning and is currently heading back across the Celtic Sea in the direction of her home port in France.

French yachtswoman Marie Tabarly retired from the 2022 Round Ireland Race Photo: Afloat

It is the seventh yacht to retire from the race, with the race favourite Ino XXX among the withdrawals on Sunday afternoon in some testing northerly conditions in the Atlantic. 

See tracker below

Round Ireland Race day three (Monday) 0830 - The northerly winds have been easing through the night as the bulk of the fleet in the SSE Renewables Round Ireland Race make varying rates of progress northwards off the coast of North Kerry and far to the west of Clare. With less hectic sailing, the steady, fully-crewed and relatively low-rated boats have been moving up the overall rankings.

That said, the spectacular two-handed performance of the Sunfast 3300 Cinnamon Girl (Cian McCarthy & Sam Hunt, Kinsale YC) has kept her well in the hunt.

The Sunfast 3300 Cinnamon Girl (Cian McCarthy & Sam Hunt, Kinsale YC) Photo: Bob Bateman

And though the top three placings in IRC Overall are now held by the Grand Soleil 40 Nieulargo (Denis & Annamarie Murphy, Royal Cork YC), the JPK 10.80 Rockabill VI (Paul O’Higgins, Royal Irish YC) and the J/99 Snapshot (Mike & Richie Evans, Howth YC), Cinnamon Girl is still very much in contention in a close fourth.

The Grand Soleil 40 Nieulargo crew before the start (Denis & Annamarie Murphy, Royal Cork YC) Photo: Bob Bateman

Nieulargo (closest to shore partially covered with grey spinnaker) to leeward of the Class 40 Influence (yellow hull), the Cookson 50 Kuka 3 and (on right) the Howth J/99 Snapshot all hugging the Wicklow shore after Saturday's Round Ireland start Photo: Afloat

With further easing of the wind and a backing to the west expected as the day progresses, there will be continuing adjustments of placings on down the fleet, and after the various dramas of yesterday’s more rugged sailing, there’ll be a sense of stock-taking as the leaders approach the halfway stage of this 704-mile race.

The Volvo 70 Green Dragon skippered by Conor Ferguson Photo: Afloat

Class40 Kite (Greg Leonard, USA) Photo: Afloat

Class 40 Influence (Andrea Fornaro, Italy) Photo: Afloat

In fact, the leader on the water, the Swiss Cookson 50 Kuka 3, is already there, as she is passing the mid-point of Inishbofin in County Galway as this report is filed at 0800hrs, a good twenty miles ahead of the Volvo 70 Green Dragon. Next in line and just seven miles astern of the big Volvo are the two Class40s Kite (Greg Leonard, USA) and Influence (Andrea Fornaro, Italy), who have been level-pegging – often with superb boat-for-boat racing - for virtually the entire race.

Michael Boyd's J121 Darkwood passes Wicklow Head Photo: Afloat

The leading “orthodox IRC” boat on the water is currently the J/121 Darkwood skippered by the 1996 overall winner, former RORC Commodore Michael Boyd (RIYC) – Darkwood is shown as having six miles in hand on Robert Rendell’s Grand Soleil 44 Samatom (HYC).

Robert Rendell’s Grand Soleil 44 Samatom (HYC) Photo: Afloat

Race Tracker and Full Data below

Round Ireland Day Two 2030 hrs - At 06:30 this morning, came sweeping past the Fastnet Rock, and hardened sheets for the long and rugged slug to windward up the coasts of West Cork and Kerry, fired up to maintain her on-water lead in the SSE Renewables Round Ireland Race. The day’s sailing was inevitably going to take her through what we anticipated in our Breakfast Bulletin as “crew-testing, boat-breaking” conditions, but this - at several stages - is inevitably what racing round Ireland is all about.

Twelve hours later, at 18:30 hrs this (Sunday) evening, the gallant old war horse Kuka3 was still battling along, now on port tack and punching her way at 9 knots over and through confused seas, but still in the lead and comfortably due north of Smerwick Harbour, with the Blasket Islands and the Dingle Peninsula and all southwest Ireland put well astern.

The Swiss Cookson 50 Kuka3 crew skippered by Franco Niggeler Photo: Bob Bateman

It had been an impressive day’s sailing, put into even sharper perspective with the news that three boats had been forced to retire in face of the conditions, most notably Kuka3’s most direct rival, the HH42 InoXXX, which found conditions beyond the Skelligs so tough that her hull started to de-laminate.

Pre-race favourite the HH42 InoXXX is out of the Round Ireland race due to hull delamination Photo: Afloat

Yet now Kuka 3 is closing in toward Loop Head on the north side of the Shannon Estuary. She is out of the strongest area of the northerly wind which has been dominating the race. And by tomorrow the signs are that she and the rest of the fleet still racing will be dealing with much lighter winds, conditions in which InoXXX would have been in her element.

But that scenario is not to be. This is not a sport or a race course for the faint-hearted. There’s something all-or-nothing about the Round Ireland Race. So we have to put aside thoughts of what-might-have-been, and instead look in a coldly analytical way at those boats which are now coming up the rankings through the effects of the changing weather conditions and the permutations of the handicap system.

It’s all there in the data with the Race Tracker. And at the moment, the little Sunfast 3300 Cinnamon Girl, just two-handed with Cian McCarthy and Sam Hunt from Kinsale, continues to hang onto the overall lead which she grabbed early today.

Sunfast 3300 Cinnamon Girl leads and is just two-handed with Cian McCarthy and Sam Hunt from Kinsale Photo: Bob Bateman

But to keep it, she and her crew have to overcome the extra pressure of being two-handed, and the knowledge that there are some very tough boats, fully-manned and with tough crews, racing hard with all the remorseless logic of expectation on their side. It has been quite a tough race already. Yet there’s still a long way to go, and the winds and weather remain perversely volatile. The conditions may change, but the challenge is as great as ever

The Oyster 37 Blue Oyster(Noel Coleman) off the Stags on the West Cork coast Photo: Gavin Minihane

Race Tracker is below

Donall Ryan's Sunfast 3600 Fujitsu British Soldier has retired from the SSE Renewables Round Ireland Yacht Race this afternoon, according to Wicklow Sailing Club organisers. 

The yacht retired due to 'gear problems' just 30 hours into the race and while on the south coast of the 700-mile course. The wind was strong, with 25-knot northerlies.

The yacht tracker currently does not list the yacht as retired and the yacht is heading east past Kinsale.

Update 2000: Tracker shows Fujitsu British Soldier in Crosshaven at Cork Harbour.

The fleet tracker is below

The Sailing School entry 'Sherkin Irish Offshore Sailing' has retired from the SSE Renewables Round Ireland Race this evening with a 'mechanical issue'. 

Winds were strong northerlies around 25 knots at the time.

The Sunfast 37 yacht skippered by David Hanks is recorded by the race tracker as retired and has pulled into Kinsale in West Cork.

British race favourite James Neville – the Commodore of the Royal Ocean Racing Club – and skipper of INO XXX is out of the SSE Renewables Round Ireland Yacht Race this evening after suffering 'hull delamination' off the County Kerry coast. 

The yacht produced early gains on the east coast right off the Wicklow startline on Saturday and was in the leading pack as the 47-boat fleet made the Fastnet Rock off West Cork on Sunday morning. 

All Sunday, the she had been vying with the Swiss canting keel Cookson 50 Kuka 3 as the leaders headed north into strong headwinds.

INO XXX was victorious earlier this month in the RORC Myth of Malham Race but while Neville may have been unbeatable in the Cowes-Eddystone-Solent 230-miler, the tough pounding Atlantic conditions this afternoon appear to have been too much for the HH42.

The Hudson/Hakes built 42’, a Judel/Vrolijk design, took line honours and first place in the 2021 Rolex Fastnet Race IRC One Class so she is no stranger to Irish waters. 

Race organisers Wicklow Sailing Club have confirmed the retirement of the Grand Prix yacht. INOXX42 is currently heading back along its track. See tracker below.

Round Ireland Race Day Two (Sunday) 1300hrs - The majestic coast of West Kerry is a tumbling undulation of unexpected peaks and sudden steep cliffs, a seaboard for heroes. And when the wind is fresh to strong or worse from the north, and you’re trying to get north, the seas off West Kerry are a tumbling undulation of unexpected peaks and sudden steep cliffs, a seascape for heroes.

It may be because the North Atlantic Drift divides at Mizen Head, and sends a distinct stream against any northerly wind which makes conditions markedly more hostile than beating against a southerly in the same area. Whatever, the seas have an added steepness, but to make matters worse, they’re all fronts and no backs.

You may well helm your boat up the approaching face at just the right angle to maintain optimum progress and the expectation – or the hope at least - of a reasonably non-stopping continuation on down the other side. But then you crash through the breaking top, and lo and behold - there is no other side. You’re airborne.

That’s what it’s like right now down off the coast of West Kerry, when the wind is full of vim and vigour and the waves are all fronts and no backs. No backs at all. So although we should be marvelling at the fact that – just 24 hours on from the start at Wicklow – fourteen of the Round Ireland fleet have already passed the Fastnet Rock, it’s difficult not to refocus again and again on the on-water leader, the Swiss-owned Cookson 50 Kuka3.

She has already put the Skelligs astern and is now in the full throes of serious windward in very open water to get herself past the Blaskets, and has found some easing in the going by tacking onto port and finding a more comfortable angle on the generally quite confused sea.

Kuka 3 on port gybe and INO HH42 InoXXX on starboard, duelling after Saturday's race start Photo: Bob Bateman

But as it is, with the leverage of her canting keel she had been powering along at 9 knots, almost a clear knot faster than her closest challenger, the HH42 InoXXX, which is still close to the Skelligs. There is no way that 9 knots dead to windward in these conditions is anything other than extremely rugged, yet over their many years in the forefront of international offshore racing success, the Cookson 50s have shown they’re able for it provided their crew can stick the pace, which is what Ger O’Rourke of Kilrush and his team achieved in 2007 when they won the Fastnet Race overall in the Cookson 50 Chieftain.

Whether or not all the fleet has to contend with a windward slugfest off Kerry remains to be seen, as some weather gurus suggest that tomorrow (Monday) will see the winds all over the place, sometimes with complete calms in between.

That’s as may be, but as the great Denis Doyle was wont to observe, you have to sail and race with the wind you’ve got, and in truth it’s like watching a gladiatorial contest to trace Kuka 3 and InoXXX as they punch their way north.

With the bulk of the fleet starting to feel the reality of the Western Ocean this afternoon and evening, we’ll undoubtedly see changes in the positions as the old “horses for courses” truism comes into play.

Chris Power Smith's Royal St George Yacht Club J122, Aurelia has made her second trip past Inishtearaght Island this season Photo: Afloat

The French entry J111 Fastwave Photo: Afloat

But meanwhile after an absolute blinder of drag racing along the south coast during the night, the two-handed Kinsale Sunfast 3300 Cinnamon Girl (Cian McCarthy & Sam Hunt) has zapped into the overall handicap lead and IRC 3 with it, Rockabill VI is right there with her.

ISORA champion Paul O'Higgins's JPK 10.80 Rockabill VI is well placed on IRC overall 24 hours into the race at lunchtime on Sunday Photo: Afloat

Kuka lead IRC Z, Darkwoood and Samatom are battling it for IRC1, Aurelia is fighting SL Energies for IRC 2, and Shindig stays in front in IRC 4.

Robert Rendell’s Grand Soleil 44 Samatom powering along the Wicklow coast on Saturday after the Round Ireland Race start Photo: Afloat

Race tracker below

Round Ireland Race Day 2 (Sunday) 0900 - Conditions have been ideal for swift and steady progress by the fleet in the SSE Renewables Round Ireland Race since they cleared Wicklow Head and passed Arklow. An area of light breezes off the East Wexford coast had filled in with the very favourable northwest to north wind by the time the leaders had reached that part of the course, and with the full ebb giving them a mighty push, there was still plenty of useful tide in their favour as they shaped their sailing round the Tuskar Rock and on southwestwards for the Coningbeg.

Becalmed at the Tuskar Rock last night (Saturday) at 8 pm. Photo from Maurice O'Connell on Sunfast 3600 YoYo

The powerful Cookson 50 Kuko 3 (Franco Niggeler, Switzerland) and the nimble HH42 InoXXX (James Neville. Commodore RORC) were firmly in the lead as they swept past Arklow, and have stayed mainly in front ever since with the solid northerly (“the wind is off the grass” as the appreciative buoyage-working staff of Irish Lights would put it in offshore breezes) giving them a drag race all the way along the south coast.

James Neville's HH42 InoXXX at Wicklow Head after the Round Ireland race start Photo: Afloat

The breeze seldom reached sufficient strength in the night for the third-placed Class 40 Influence (Andrea Fornaro, Italy) to develop her full potential and challenge their position, but she did briefly pass InoXXX well to sea off Courtmacsherry, as did the Volvo 70 Green Dragon which has been taking some time to show her full performance abilities.

But Kuka 3 stayed firmly in charge of the prime position, and was past the Fastnet Rock by 0620 this morning, with Green Dragon now second though quite a few miles astern, InoXXX back ahead of Influence in third, and the American Class40 Kite fourth of the water.

Greg Leonard's Class 40 Kite from the USA Photo: Afloat

At 0900 Kuka 3 was closing in on Dursey Head and the Bull Rock beyond with InoXXX again in second on the water, heading into much more rugged conditions of a fresh and sometimes strong northerly to seaward off the West Kerry coast to provide all the conditions for a crew-testing, boat-breaking day.

A screenshot of the race tracker just before 0900 on day two shows the fleet along the south coast. see live tracker below

Meanwhile astern, all along the South Coast back as far back as Cork Harbour, the bulk of the fleet are continuing to enjoy the benefits of having “the wind off the grass”, and though InoXXX and Kuko 3 are currently first and second overall on IRC, Samataom (Robert Rendell, HYC) is second in IRC1 with Darkwood (Michael Boyd) third, the French J111 SL Energies Groupe Fastwave leads IRC 2 with the J/122 Aurelia (Chris & Patanne Power Smith, RStGYC) third.

Cinnamon Girl (Sunfast 3300, Cian McCarthy & Sam Hunt Photo: Bob Bateman

Cinnamon Girl (Sunfast 3300, Cian McCarthy & Sam Hunt, KYC) leads Rockabill IV (Paul O’Higgins, RIYC) and Snapshot (Mike & Richie Evans, HYC) in IRC3, and Tony Kingston’s classic Swan 40 Shindig (KYC) leads IRC 4 from Ian Hickey’s Cavatina (RCYC).

Tony Kingston’s classic Swan 40 Shindig from Kinsale Photo: Bob Bateman

The Race Tracker is below