D2D Thursday, 12.30 pm -  It’s not often that the steep but serene Atlantic island of Madeira is assaulted by a tropical storm. But a nasty one called Oscar has been doing that in recent days, and while evil Oscar’s main force is now spreading towards the Canaries, Portugal and Spain, distant northern fringe offshoots of his considerable vigour have been building the mainly easterly winds down in the Fastnet area to speed the bulk of the fleet who continue to stick the pace in the 2023 NYC Volvo Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race.

We use the phrase “continue to stick the pace” advisedly, as a dozen boats out of the starting fleet of 43 have now pulled out for reasons of varying seriousness, including the defending champion Nieulargo (Denis Murphy, RCYC), which popped into Baltimore this morning.

Defending Dun Laoghaire to Dingle champion, Nieulargo (Denis Murphy, RCYC) has retired into Baltimore Photo: Afloat

But out on the waters off West Cork and Kerry, there are still those who nurture a wild hope of sailing like crazy and toppling the already-finished Cookson 50 Privateer (Ron O’Hanley, New York Yacht Club) from her seemingly unassailable position in Dingle. There, Privateer has knocked more than five hours off the course record while setting a very potent corrected time of 1 day 2 hours 49 minutes and 40 seconds, which is cooking with gas and then some on a 270-mile non-straight-line course

Any toppling won’t be done by the biggies; however, as of 12:15 hrs today (Thursday), Frank Whelan’s Elliott 57 Opal from Greystones still had ten miles to the finish, and she was making only 9 knots. And though Robert Rendell’s Grand Soleil Samatom from Howth and clubmate Checkmate XX, Dave Cullen & Nigel Biggs’ First 50, are more in contention, Samatom in front still has 48 miles to sail.

Robert Rendell’s Grand Soleil Samatom from Howth Photo: Afloat

The First 50 Checkmate XX of Dave Cullen & Nigel Biggs from Howth Photo: Afloat

But right there with Checkmate in the mouth of Bantry Bay is the cheeky trio of Paul O’Higgins’ JPK 10.80 Rockabill VI (RIYC), Pete Smyth’s Sunfast 3600 Searcher (NYC), and Cian McCarthy’s Sunfast 3300 Cinnamon Girl (Kinsale YC), which he’s racing two-handed with Sam Hunt.

Paul O’Higgins’ JPK 10.80 Rockabill VI Photo: Afloat

Pete Smyth’s Sunfast 3600 Searcher (NYC) Photo: Afloat

They really have been sailing like crazy, and this morning Cinnamon Girl logged a sustained speed burst of 14.3 knots. If there’s much more of that sort of thing, there might be some re-calculations needed at Dingle, where Oscar’s Offshoots look like being extremely obliging for a change, as they’re even setting up a local veering of the wind to provide freed sheets up Dingle Bay for easy sailing over that often obtuse final leg from Skellig Michael to Dingle Harbour.

It may be the 16th staging of the 30-year-old Volvo Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race. But there has never been one quite like this – or indeed remotely like this – before.