Two of the top entries in this year's Round Ireland race showed their form during the 230-mile Myth of Malham race at the weekend, with class wins for both Piet Vroon's Tonnerre de Breskens III and John Loden's HOD 35, Psipina. Loden joins half of the winning double-handed crew from the last Round Ireland, Paddy Cronin, for this year's race.

Tonnerre showed her pace, taking the overall IRC gong, while Psipina won the double-handed category of the race.

The 2010 Myth of Malham Race was a tough one. The challenging course around the Eddystone lighthouse was subject to two gale warnings and, as expected, there was a lumpy sea.

The race started in bright sunny conditions with a beat out of the Solent in a force four South Westerly breeze; but the fleet knew that it would get tough later. IRC classes Two and Three started first with Mark Tracey's J 109, Jamira, hitting the line on port right on time. However she soon had to tack because of starboard boats and John Loden's HOD 35, Psipsina, led the fleet down the Solent.

The second start saw the bigger boats fully powered up as they hit the line. With a strong tide running four boats were over the line early; three came back quickly but Steven Anderson's Encore took a long time to return and start correctly. Jonny Vincent's TP 52, Pace, powered away taking an early lead but Piet Vroon's Ker 46, Tonnerre de Breskens 3, managed to get in front of the other TP 52s and keep them behind.

Pace took line honours completing the 230 mile course in less than 23 hours but did not do enough to stop Piet Vroon and Tonnerre wining Class Zero and IRC Overall on handicap. After the race Mike Broughton, the navigator, explained their strategy. "The wind was remarkably stable and behaved as predicted so we worked the tides aggressively. We knew that, with half of the race being hard on the wind, Tonnerre would be hard to beat and she proved as fast as a TP 52 in the upwind conditions". Mike said that they were too fast to get perfect tides which he thought were well suited to a 40-footer. The only problem they had was a broken D1 which prevented them from tacking after the finish.

Tonnerre managed to keep Apollo and John Merricks II, the two other two TPs, behind her for the first three hours of the race and crossed the finishing line fourth, an hour and a half after Pace. Back in Cowes Piet joked that he was disappointed not to have finished in under 24 hours (they were 25 seconds over) as he waited for lower rated boats to finish. Piet considered that Erivale III, Mike Greville's Ker 39, was the most likely to beat him but in the event it was Marc de St Denis and Géry Trenteseaux's First 40, Courier de Coeur, which posed the threat. The Class One boat came second overall by just two and a half minutes on corrected time. "It was wet, cold and uncomfortable," said Piet. "We did a long leg out to sea to avoid the adverse tide at Portland and rounded the Eddystone at 0340. It was too close for a kite so we reached back under jib top and managed 18 knots on occasions. With the wind increasing it was a rough, uncomfortable and wet ride to the finish".

The overall results reflected the strength of IRC with boats from IRC Super Zero to IRC Two in the top six. Super Zero was won by Pace, Courier de Coeur took IRC One, Noel Racine's JPK 10.10, Foggy Dew, triumphed in IRC Two and IRC Three saw Jean Yves Chateau's Fastnet winning Nicholson 33, Iromiguy, take handicap honours. John Loden capitalised on his great start to win the Two-Handed Division in his HOD 35, Psipsina.

Alan Thornewill's MG 346, Spirit of Daedalus, was the last boat to finish nearly 24 hours after Pace. The race was toughest for the smaller boats which raced for twice as long as the big boats and they deserve credit for staying the course. The RORC would like to thank the volunteers and Brian Stewart, the owner, who kept Zulu the committee boat on station for a long watch. They were close to the lee shore and dragged the anchor as well as rolling heavily for the whole time.

More on the Round Ireland Yacht Race:

Round Ireland Yacht Race 2010 Review

Round Ireland Yacht Race, Ireland's top offshore fixture