Day 5 2000 While last night may have been eminently forgettable for racing, with its frustratingly light airs in the Irish Sea writes W M Nixon, today has brought a southerly breeze which freshened through midday. In combination with the ebb tide running from early afternoon from Skerries down past Wicklow, the new wind provided some lively sailing and even some bright sunshine for the lower-rated and smaller craft still racing in the Volvo Round Ireland 2016.

Welcome this breeze certainly was, but it would have been much more welcome a few hours earlier, when it might have saved some of the good overall placings which Class 4 boats had built up in four days of concentrated and arduous racing round one of Europe’s great offshore courses,

However, the chances of one of them being on the podium in the overall placings evaporated through yesterday evening and last night, and the final set of overall results shows a preponderance of larger boats in the choice slots all the way down to sixth place, where Dave Cullen’s J/109 Euro Car Parks is the first of the medium-sized boats.

Finishing just before noon today made her winner of Class 3, having come best out of the race-long duel between Euro Car Parks and Paul O’Higgins’ JPK 10.80 Rockabill, a duel which was under way with a certain edge when it became clear that Euro Car Parks had done badly on Day 1 by tending to the east in the beat down to the Tuskar Rock.

As the race progressed, Rockabill VI had then worked out a very substantial lead of forty miles when the north coast was reached. But a local calm which affected only her and two or three other boats beside her at Inishtrahull stopped her completely for three hours, and having taken 20 miles off Rockabill’s lead thanks to it, Euro Car Parks’ very able crew led by Mark Mansfield just weren’t going to let the gap open out again. They sailed with such determination that other J/109s were simply nowhere as the Cullen crew raced on in hot pursuit of the significantly higher-rated Rockabill VI, which finished 50 minutes earlier today, but slipped back to second in Class 3 and 8th overall.

Class 3 has finished as very much an Irish preserve, as Euro Car Parks is first, Rockabill VI is second, Conor Fogerty’s Sunfast 3600 Bam is third, and the Irish National Sailing School’s Reflex 38 Lynx is fourth, suggesting that skipper and teacher Kenneth Rumball was providing some very effective lessons during the course of the race, as her place at the finish was her best at any stage.

The successful schoolship. The Irish National Sailing School’s Reflex 38 Lynx – seen here today at Wicklow outside Class 3 winner Euro Car Parks – was better placed at the end of the Volvo Round Ireland race 2016, at 4th in Class 3, than she’d been at any earlier stage of the race. Photo: W M Nixon

We’ll be giving the race a complete overview in Sailing on Saturday on June 24th, meanwhile we finish this evening’s update with the news that one of the most remarkable campaigns in the race, the two-handed challenge by Patrice Carpentier in the attractive little Sunfast 3200 GROUPE 5, concluded at 1650hrs today when she crossed the line to take first in Class 4. But here again a good lead at mid-race had evaporated in Wednesday night’s calm, in the IRC Two-handed Division the little GROUPE 5 has to be content with second to Belgian Michael Kleinjans majestic Open 40 Roaring Forty 2.

A very businesslike cockpit. The control centre on Michael Kleinjans’ Open 40 Roaring Forty 2 at Wicklow today shortly before she was confirmed as overall winner of the IRC Two-Handed division. Photo: W M Nixon

See Round Ireland tracker here and Afloat's Round Ireland 2016 coverage here