#rorcrfr – What a difference a day makes. Yesterday morning boats were pulling out of a largely windless Fastnet Race, claiming that their time was running out. Quite what anyone thinks they're doing, going off in the Fastnet Race without putting a clear week aside, makes such retirals a matter for unfavourable speculation. But whatever, today there's a great breeze from the sou'west, the sport is on top burner, and for one Irish boat, the situation is transformed. W M Nixon comments.

In yesterday evening's up-date, it was mentioned that Anthony O'Leary's Ker 40 Antix had experienced a miserable time getting past the Isles of Scilly through Tuesday's small hours – she'd been way down in double figures in terms of placing in Class 1, and was languishing in the treble figures overall.

But it was noted that with every mile the O'Leary family and their friends sailed towards the familiar waters of West Cork, their boat's performance seemed to be improving disproportionately as she caught the first effects of the new wind spreading in from the Atlantic. Indeed, it was cheering to report that, even as our words were being put together, the Antix speed went up from 4 to 8.4 knots.

Admittedly we're excruciatingly slow writers out here in the Sailing on Saturday ivory tower. But even in our wildest dreams we wouldn't have hoped that the Munster red boat would engineer such a reversal of fortune in less than a day, But the lads have done it so well that as of Wednesday afternoon, Antix is coming in again at those pesky Isle of Scilly, but now she's approaching from the northwest and she's going like a train and is now in line for a podium position in Class 1, and maybe into single figures in the overall rankings.

If you find the whole business of analysing the Rolex Fastnet Race 205 as it unfolds in all its infinite permutations bewildering, then welcome to the club. Even the organisers themselves – as evidenced in this vid of 17th August – are confused, as they seemed to think that the 370-odd boats of the fleet were heading eastward along the south coast of England.

Some indeed were heading east. But that was unwillingly owing to total flat calm. Those still seriously racing were undoubtedly going west as is traditional. Yet even the course itself can no longer be described as "traditional", as the separation zones – particularly in the Land's End-Isles of Scilly area – are distorting things no end.

Promulgating images of the traditional course for the Fastnet Race is a snare and a delusion – the Exclusion Zones now distort it to a marked degree

Time of pain. The situation for Antix in the small hours of Tuesday morning. In the end she went north of the Isles of Scilly

Antix found herself suffering from the enforced routing the Zones create while outward bound for the Rock, but coming back in this afternoon, she has used the huge Exclusion Zone west of the Bihsop Rock to advantage. The way the wind was weaving at the time she was there meant it made better speed sense to come in on the islands from north of northwest, so the Munster men took this option with gusto as it became clear that their rival, the French boat Teasing Machine, was going south of the zone.

If she wasn't eating her rivals for breakfast, then she was consuming them for lunch. The situation as Antix (furthest north) closes in on the Scillies this afternoon, while closest rival Teasing Machine is to the south (with crown) with Tokoloshe ahead between the Exclusion Zone and the Scillies.

The numbers say it all. Antix is making hay...

.....while class leader on the water Tokoloshe has slowed back......

....and class handicap leader Teasing Machine is even slower

The outcome has been Antix was sitting on 12 and 13 knots, but Teasing Machine was back on 11, and the class leader on the water, Mike Bartholomew's 42ft Tokoloshe, was getting into even softer winds up ahead, yet it seems Antix might just carry fresher breezes up with her.

The computer numbers continue to show that the great Gery Trentesaux's JPK 10.80 is going to get in ahead of Dieter Schoen's already-finished Maxi 72 Momo to take the overall prize, but today's rain belt has gone through so quickly that the new wind is as confused and exhausted as the rest of us, and might just have to take a nap.

Meanwhile, there are some great two boat, and three boat, and four boat races taking place in every section of the fleet. But in highlighting last Saturday the presence of the 1931-vintage Dorade and the 1935-vintage Stormy Weather in the Rolex Fastnet Race 2015, I never would have though that these two Olin Stephens-designed classics would be fighting it out neck-and-neck for third or even second place in Class 4. But that's the way it is with these ever-young troupers.

Raising the wind? Comanche takes line honours at first light this morning. But having been short of wind in both the Sydney-Hobart Race and now the Fastnet, this new hundred footer may have to go to the Great Southern Ocean to find the breezes she needs.