Fastnet Race Day Five 1900 - France's Presidential Department of Protocol or some such secretive yet high-powered bureaucracy seems to have taken over dark world control of the Western Approaches weather system for the latter part of the Cherbourg-finishing 50th Rolex Fastnet Race, as the last one or two hundred miles of the 695 miles of the new-look course are at times having more wind than's needed, but the cunning Powers That Be ensure it will be very favourable in direction. Yet either way, anyone who isn't in port in a timely manner for the finish and Friday's gala prize-giving must either (a) have had their rig fall down around them, (b) prefer sailing with one and possibly both hands tied behind their backs or (c) think that towing three wheelie bins greatly improves performance.

 The mighty IRC Fastnet Race overall winner Max Klink and his TP52 Caro from Switzerland Photo: Paul Wyeth

Already some winners - and indeed the overall winner - have been confirmed, as no one still at sea can now better them unless they can make the global clock go back. This is surely even more unlikely in a major event sponsored by internationally prestigious horologists than it would be otherwise. But whatever, as we salute the mighty IRC Overall win by Max Klink and his TP52 Caro from Switzerland, which will have pensioners dancing sedately in the streets of Geneva (but maybe not Zurich, where it probably contravenes the civic by-laws), like many screen sailors we continue to be kept on the edge of our seat by the final act of the days-long drama between the Fournier family's J/133 Pintia and defending champ Tom Kneen's JPK 11.80 Sunrise III for the "real" win - victory in IRC I.

Tom Kneen's JPK 11.80 Sunrise III Photo: Kurt Arrigo

The Fournier family's J/133 Pintia Photo: Kurt Arrigo

END GAME FOR IRC 1

We're in at the end game, with ten or so miles to go to the finish, and Pintia now three miles ahead after a tremendous challenge that the resourceful Kneen has maintained day and night. He may have looked and seemed for all the world like a jolly English publican when he was the key speaker at the ICRA Annual Conference in Dun Laoghaire, but that name "Kneen" should be a red alert, as it probably stems from the Isle of Man which is not a part of earth at all. On the contrary, it's the relic of an asteroid which was spun off from the Planet Zog only a couple of million years ago, which means that some - though not all - sailors of Manx descent have supernatural powers.

IRISH KEPT IN ORDER

The various placings of the Irish boats still in the race were given here this morning, and they remain much the same, with Mike O'Donnell's J/121 Darkwood moved slightly up the overall rankings to be even better placed to be the 2023 recipient of the Gull Salver for the best-placed Irish boat. You'd think the existence of the Gull Salver since 1972 would be a fact of life, yet it seems to be the case that when some certified obsessive Fastnet racer sails on from this world, his or her will often reveal a bequest to the RORC to provide a special cup for the best-placed Irish boat in the Fastnet Race.

Apparently, the Irish coastline of West Cork, seen from the deck of a pounding offshore racer, can make it all seem to a passing matelot as an utterly charming place inhabited by lovely people. By now, the RORC must have a cellar full of trophies for the best-placed Irish boat, but the Gull Salver is the real McCoy, as it's named for Harry Donegan of Cork's boat, which was one of the seven in the First Fleet of 2025.

ORIGINS OF THE GULL SALVER

It came about because after a good and successful Irish involvement in the 1971 race, Fastnet aficionados Reggie Walsh of Dun Laoghaire and Bob Fannin of Howth decided that it would soon be no longer possible to host a manageable dinner for everyone who had taken part in the Fastnet race in an Irish boat. So a monumental bash took place in the Royal St George YC in March 1972, with the only survivor of Gull's 1925 Fastnet crew, Captain Jim Kelly, as Guest of Honour.

The Fastnet Rock and the Irish coastline of West Cork as seen from an offshore racer Photo: Kurt Arrigo

His appearance kept a secret until the night, was an incredible surprise. But an almost greater surprise was that the event turned a modest profit. That profit became the Gull Salver and anyone who tries to displace it or redirect it to other purposes, or make pernickety arguments about who is actually entitled or not to be awarded it, would do well to remember that those who were at the Fastneteers Dinner of March 1972 have access to extra-terrestrial powers beyond all comprehension.