Day3 2030 Today has seen surfeit of drama at Wicklow writes W M Nixon, and all of it with a happy ending. The new day dawned to find the three MOD 70s had finished the Volvo Round Ireland Race 2016 in record time within minutes of each other. And then in mid-afternoon there came the almost clinical arrival of Rambler 88, with another new record and a chance of the monohull treble.

In the circumstances, the casual observer could be forgiven for thinking the steam has gone out of the Volvo Round Ireland Race 2016. But a casual observer has never experienced the true enthusiasm which racing round Ireland in any boat large or small, famous or unknown, can engender in its addicts.

For sure, the many boats now racing along our magnificent Atlantic seaboard will be well aware that the MOD 70s and Rambler 88 are home and dry. Yet far from seeing these as the central stage events, with themselves on the periphery, they see it absolutely the other way around. For them, today’s events at Wicklow are interesting but incidental. The real scene of the action is aboard their own boat, and any other closely competing boats in the same area. What really matters is when they get to Wicklow, not who is already there.

With a fleet of this size, there are races a-plenty, and one of the most interesting is off the coast of Donegal at the front of the main portion of the fleet. There, Eric de Turckheim’s A13 Teasing Machine continues to stave off the challenge to lead the fleet against the larger Open 50 Pegasus of Northumberland (Ross Hobson) pictured above, a canting-keel machine of enormous potential, but she needs an awful lot of sailing.

So too does Teasing Machine, but her crew know her inside out, and they have major trophies from events as diverse as the Fastnet and Sydney-Hobart to prove it. Thus they have been at peak performance since the very start of the race, whereas with other crews it has been evident that it is only as the race progresses that they get to grips with their boat’s true potential.

One of the boats which has emerged from the pack as this process continues is Alan Hannon’s Reichel-Pugh 45 Katsu, which has a strong Lough Swilly YC element in her crew, so maybe it was the prospect of nearing home waters in Donegal which has spurred them on. But whatever it is, through today Katsu has been notably lengthening away from boats with which she had been merely pacing in the early stages of the race.

Another boat improving by leaps and bounds is Paul O’Higgins’ brand new JPK 10.80 Rockabill VI pictured above. She’s barely out of the wrappers, but with a fresh crew of such talents as Mark Pettit and Brian Mathews aboard, Rockabill VI is a boat whose performance is being transformed before our very eyes, and she is giving her classmates a hard time.

In fact, there’s quite a battle developing off the coast of Connacht tonight, as the talent aboard Rockabill VI has been taking it out to the extent of 12 miles on Dave Cullen’s J/109 Euro Car Parks, where the rock stars include Mark Mansfield and Maurice “Prof” O’Connell (pictured above). For true Round Ireland aficionados, this duel for the honour of Class 3 is every bit as absorbing as the likes of Rambler 88 and Musandam-Oman doing their thing.

With the bulk of the fleet now sailing with sheets freed, boats of downwind renown are starting to put their heads above the parapet, and Conor Fogerty’s Sunfast 3600 Bam!, (above) class winner in the RORC Caribbean back in February, is figuring more frequently towards the top of the leaderboards.

As for remarkable perfornances, one of the most startling of all is being put in by Belgium’s Michael Kleinjans with his Open 40 Roaring Forty 2 pictured above. Quite a few years ago now, he set the round Ireland single-handed record. Today, however, that achievement is only talked of furtively, for it was barely legal at the time, and isn’t at all legal now. But with Ian Witteverongel as crew, he’s on the right side of the law, and Roaring Forty 2 seems to be on the right side of everything else, for even with just the two of them on board, they’re third overall on IRC, and of course they’re out of sight at the head of the Two-handed Division, while also leading the Open 40s.

As of 2030 hours this Monday night, this Mid-summer Night, Roaring Forty 2 and her gallant duo still have 290 miles to race to Wicklow. But they’re keeping at it, snapping at the heels of Teasing Machine and Pegasus as they close in on Tory Island.

They’re racing as though getting Roaring Forty 2 to Wicklow just as quickly as possible is currently the most important thing in the world.

Which, for her crew of two, it is.

See Round Ireland tracker here and keep to up to date with the fleet's progress with Afloat's regular Round Ireland 2016 updates here