12:30hrs: Tuesday: When you've more than 450 boats with a total of thousands of crew racing the same 695-mile Fastnet course, impressions of the experience are bound to vary.

Those accustomed to sailing in these latitudes and across the eastern North Atlantic ocean, through what used to be known as the Western Approaches but has long since been politically corrected to the Celtic Sea in a nautical anticipation of the Wild Atlantic Way, realise that on the whole conditions have been reasonably clement.

But those accustomed to warm Mediterranean nights and headlands which don't inevitably come with a nasty tide race as part of the package, these sons and daughter of the sunny south have been recorded as giving thanks to the Almighty that the storm-tossed freezing night is over.

Certainly it's a fact that the great American owner-skipper Carleton Mitchell, winner of three Bermuda Races on the trot with the ground-breaking 39ft S&S yawl Finisterre, made it clear after doing the 1953 Fastnet with the 54ft Caribbee that he would never again sail offshore north of the latitude of the Azores.

VARYING EXPECTATIONS

This variation of ways of seeing the weather is reflected in the varying expectations of the amount of time it should take. The best multihulls (and isn't it good to see the "old" MOD70s, holders of the Round Ireland multi-hull record since 2016, getting a new lease of life) will reckon they're not at the races at all if their Fastnet takes more than a day and a half.

But their outlook is balanced by club sailors in veteran but able little boats who hope to get round in less than five days. Are these people in the same race? In the final analysis, they certainly are, but it could be argued that after each staging, there are as many Fastnet Races as there are people taking part.

AUSTRALIA'S GODDARD CLAN HIT THE SCENE

Be that as it may, one really interesting outcome of the current ongoing event is that we're getting to know the Australian bundle of energy known as Linda Goddard, whose largely family-sailed classic Swan 53 CB Bedouin keeps popping up at the top of the leaderboard in IRC 1 and overall.

A remarkable boat. The German Frers-designed Swan 53 CB Bedouin from Australia - currently among the leaders in the Centenary Fastnet Race - is a real all-rounder. Her centreboard greatly increases her cruising options, her state-of-the-art in-boom mainsail furling/reefing system is a boon, and her twin rudder configuration greatly improves the helming experience Photo: Kurt Arrigo

They're currently south of the Isles of Scilly, heading east at 9 knots plus, and writing themselves into the history books with a story which is partly revealed in this Bow Caddy vid:

At the other end of the fleet, we have Robert Marchant's veteran Dubois-designed Fulmar 32 Fulmar Fever from Dunmore East. She may be the lowest rated boat in the fleet on an IRC of .873, and she still has quite a way to go to get to the Fastnet Rock, but her crew of just three have done this race before, and round Ireland races too, so they just keep going until they get there.

FULMAR FEVER TAKES TIME

Robert Marchant's three-crewed very yellow Fulmar Fever from Dunmore East emerges from the Solent in the Centenary Fasnet Race

Not tough at all….Fulmar Fever's crew of Robert Marchant of Tramore (left) Con O'Regan (Limerick) and Fergal Bonner (Tramore) passing the Isles of Scilly outward bound for the Fastnet Rock.

Meanwhile in the body of the fleet, our best-placed boats are Mike O'Donnell's J/121 Darkwood at 7th in IRC 1, and Peter Dunlop & Vicky Cox's J/122 Mojito at 10th in IRC 2.

Pamela Lee in the Class40 #Empowher is 14th in a class of 24, and Nicole Hemeryck skippering RORC Griffin is 26th in IRC3, where 86 boats started.

ADMIRAL'S CUP

In the re-born Admiral's Cup, it's now possible that in navigating the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron's AC2 boat Callisto (Jim Murray), Carrickfergus's Ian Moore will have guided the overall winner of both the Channel Race and the Fastnet Race in this RORC Centenary year. But Jolt 6 for Monaco and Beau Ideal for Hong Kong are doing their damnedest to make sure he doesn't as the hot threesome race close together into the final eighty miles with Jolt 6 carrying the vital Jo Richards factor.

We remember this from when Jo Richards was the main man in preparing the Dubois 40 Irish Independent for the 1987 Admiral's Cup, and he made sure that she had a rating a point or two lower than her rivals. This meant that all the top 40-footers – may half a dozen of them – finished in a truly neck-and-neck line at Plymouth, but thanks to having the lowest rating by just a point or two, Irish Independent won the Fastnet Race overall, and emerged as top scoring boat in the series.

This year, Callisto is on 1.268, Jolt 6 is on 1.265, and Beau Ideal is on a punishing 1.276, with Amp-Lifi for the RORC nine miles astern on 1.269. There's still a lot of racing in 80 miles in the western English Channel with a challenging closing in on Cherbourg, but this is an intriguing situation in the making.

Royal Irish YC's Privateer has shot up to 2nd on CT with 70 miles to race Photo: Kurt Arrigo

Meanwhile, Class 1's current placings have resulted in dancing in the streets of Dun Laoghaire, as the Royal Irish YC's Privateer has shot up to 2nd on CT with 70 miles to race, and a current speed of 8.6 knots. But no boat of the AC fleet has as yet finished, and the swiftest, the Botin 56 Black Pearl, still has 66 miles to go.

This slowing down of the fleet raises the prospect that our adopted Volvo 70 Tschuss might yet hang onto the overall IRC lead, but there's a lot of waiting around before that might happen. That said, we can correct the notion that the great Caro – overall winner in 2023 – was out of contention. It was an electronic glitch, she's in there racing well, but not likely to trouble the leaderboard unless things get very flukey indeed this afternoon and evening.