If you wanted an object lesson in why it is sometimes very difficult to explain sailing – and particularly offshore racing – to some goodwill-filled stranger to the sport, then the current state of play in the Volvo Round Ireland Race is as good as you’ll get, writes W M Nixon.

For the news is that, as far as current placings are concerned, the fleet has closed up. Yet even the most casual glance at the Tracker Chart reveals they’re all over the place.

Somewhere off the north coast of far Mayo is the fleet leader Baraka GP. To the south, off the coast of Galway, is the J/109 Joker II, driven on by the formidable talents of skipper Barry Byrne and Mick Liddy as navigator, and she has been away out on her own to the west.

Futisu/British Soldier to weather and Rockabill VI on the reach down the Wicklow coast on Saturday Photo: Afloat.ie

Yet close inshore off Clifden are three boats short tacking against each other, notably including Aurelia with The Prof on board, and Rockabill VI with Mono on the strength, which makes this definitely a battle to watch.

Then, spread out over a wide swathe of ocean to the southwest and south of them, are boats apparently heading every which way, and making no sense at all to the casual observer. Yet tracker addicts click a button or two, look at a heap of lists and figures, and sagely observe: “Ah yes, the fleet has been closing up...”

It’s the wonders of Corrected Time at work. Corrected Time sounds like something with which only the likes of Einstein or Hawking should be grappling. Yet your roughest toughest, saltiest, scantily educated offshore sailor can take it in his stride without for a moment realizing that the whole thing sounds utterly crazy to everyone else.

Anyway with this seventh update – and God help us, but they’re only halfway round – we’ll assume you’ve been following the story so far, and we’ll take it from there.

Former race winner Michael Boyd on Jedi reported a Man Overboard who was “immediately and efficiently” recovered. Photo: David Branigan

Just as was gloomily predicted, when Niall Dowling’s leader on the water, the very zippy Ker 43 Baraka GP, got up to the Mayo turning point at Eagle Island at 4pm this afternoon, sure enough the wind veered to arrange that she had yet another dead beat, this time to Tory Island off Donegal, beyond Bloody Foreland – or Utterly Bloody Foreland, as it’s known to old Round Ireland hands.

Meanwhile, down off the coast of Connemara, the other big beasts on Aurelia and Rockabill found themselves drawn into a short-tacking duel around Slyne Head, a singularly rocky place with lumpy seas and more lobster pot lines in the area than you’d know what to do with. But they’ve managed to keep themselves clear and continued along that lovely coast, slugging to windward every inch of the way in a persistent north to northeast breeze.

Howth Yacht Club's Lambay Rules still leads Photo: Afloat.ie

So in order to make sense of it all, we resort to the IRC Overall Leaderboard, and see that according to calculations issuing from some secret headquarters in some bunker somewhere, Stephen Quinn’s gallant little J/97 Lambay Rules from Howth is still first, while Nicolas Pasternak’s JPK 10.10 Jaasap from France is second (which is quite something, as she is being sailed two-handed).

Ian Hickey’s veteran Cavatina from Cork continues in third, another two-hander, the classic Swan 44 CoOperation Ireland (Paul Kavanagh) is fourth, then another JPK 10.10, Jangada, this time from England (Richard Palmer) is fifth, and the French-based Sunfast 3200 SNSP Hakuna Matata (don’t ask) is sixth.

Yet there are now just two hours between Lambay Rules and SNSP Hakuna Matata. It’s a time gap which can disappear in a flash with a slight switch in wind strength and direction, and it explains why the pundits have been talking about the fleet closing up.

But closed up or opening out, the reality is that tonight there’s much windward work to be done.

And with the reversals of fortune which are the way with this unusual edition of an already highly individual race, we might well see Rockabill VI move up from her current placing of eighth overall, and Joker II improve from 10th, while for Aurelia at 18th, the only way is up.

That such improvements are possible is being demonstrated by Niall Dowling and his highly-qualified crew in Baraka GP. Everything has seemed to be stacked against them in terms of wind patterns. Yet they’ve kept at it with the highest level of dedication, and despite endless windward work, they’ve climbed up from 24th overall to their present placing of 16th.

Given the slightest chance, perhaps just let there be the slightest swing of the weather in their favour, and we could be looking at an extraordinary outcome off the Wicklow pierheads on Wednesday.

As for the unluckier competitors, several boats have been forced out of the race, mostly due to gear failure in the testing conditions, while one boat retired for a precautionary medical check for a crew-member who received a minor shoulder injury after a fall on board.

Early this morning, former race winner Michael Boyd on Jedi reported a Man Overboard who was “immediately and efficiently” recovered on board. The Irish Coast Guard was informed but no further action was required and the team is continuing with the race.

Race tracker HERE

Afloat.ie Round Ireland updates in this one handy link HERE.