Friday (Day 6) 08:15 hrs: Wicklow SC and the pierhead finish line for the Round Ireland were buzzing with activity yesterday (Thursday) evening, with strong to fresh southwest winds bringing in a steady stream of finishers.

High point of the evening's ceremonial was the official confirmation of Eric de Turckheim's NYMD 54 Teasing Machine (France) as overall winner. The award was presented to the enthusiastic owner-skipper by Race Organiser Kyran O'Grady, and the winner – who has finished well ahead two days earlier - commented:

HIGH NUMBER OF WEATHER PATTERNS

"The difficulty was with the number of weather patterns going through the course, then with the change of winds and then dropping to calm - it wasn't tough but still challenging," de Turckheim said. "The fascination of this race is that you're going round this big island - it isn't a speed test, tactics are essential.

"The 600 mile races are super-exciting for any sailor - we will always want to come back."

2024 Round Ireland IRC winner, Eric de Turckheim's NYMD 54 Teasing Machine of France Photo: Afloat

MANY BOATS SAILED MORE THAN 800 MILES

Although the course is 704 miles, many boats had raced more than 800 miles to get round Ireland. The windy second half of the race, when it was very much under the strong southwest to west wind effect of a deepening low pressure are moving northeast across Scotland, favoured some boats at certain locations of the course more than others.

Peter Smyth's Ker 46 Searcher Photo: Afloat

Thus although Teasing Machine, Peter Smyth's Ker 46 Searcher, and Irish Offshore Sailing's veteran Sun Fast 3700 Desert Star sailed by Ronan O Siochru filled the top three positions overall for much of the latter part of the race, boats which were in particularly favoured circumstances of wind and tide coming down the Irish Sea in the last thirty hours were able to displace longtime holders of the places from 4th to 9th.

REMOTE POSSIBILITY OF SNATCHING SECOND FROM SEARCHER

Up the listings, meanwhile, it had seemed remotely possible that the remarkable consistently excellent performance by Desert Star might even topple Searcher from her second overall, but this would have required Desert Star to finish by 01:00 hrs this (Friday) morning, and she missed that target by two hours.

As it is, the performance of Irish Offshore Sailing's vintage boat and her crew in taking third overall on IRC is one of the hot topics in Wicklow, as is the re-arranging of the leading IRC overall placings in the final 36 hours.

LEADING TWO HANDER

For much of the race, leading two-hander Bellino (Sunfast 3600), Rob Craigie & Deb Fish, had looked good to be in the top five or even better, as had Paul O'Higgins' JPK 10.80 Rockabill VI (RIYC).

Bellino retained the Round Ireland Two-Handed win Photo: Afloat

But in the end, although Bellino retained the Two-Handed win, she lost the IRC 4 win to Royal Cork YC Admiral Annamarie Fegan and the Murphy family crew aboard the Grand Soleil 40 Nieulargo, and slipped down the overall ranks, from third at one stage, to ninth at the finish.

Royal Cork's Nieulargo was 8th overall, also winning IRC 3 Photo: Afloat

As for Rockabill VI, while she took the IRC 2 win by a clear four hours and 15 minutes from defending overall champion SL Energies Groupe Fastwave (Laurent Charmy), a J/III, she slipped from being one of the boats fighting for third place overall back to 7th

Defending overall Round Ireland champion SL Energies Groupe Fastwave (Laurent Charmy) slipped from being one of the boats fighting for third place overall back to 7th Photo: Afloat

STEADILY IMPROVED

Fourth overall was taken by the Scottish A31 Toucan (Daniel Smith, which steadily improved her performance and position throughout. But the really impressive performances of the final 30 hours were put in by Simon Knowles' J/109 Indian (Howth), George Radley's classic Holland 39 Imp (Cove) and Nieulargo, which found the tough conditions towards the finish combining to suit them, such that Indian moved up to fifth overall, Imp became sixth, and Nieulargo was 8th overall (with Bellino at ninth), with Nieulargo also winning IRC 3.

George Radley's classic Holland 39 Imp Photo: Afloat

LEE BOW ON THE WICKLOW FLOOD TIDE

The smaller boats finishing in the early hours of this morning Friday had a tough time of it with very little if any easing of the blustery southwest wind, but at least it enabled them to lay high on starboard tack while struggling through the dark towards Wicklow, sailing circumstances which provided them with a beneficial lee bow tide effect.

DONEGAL GALE

Up in Donegal meanwhile, gallant tail-ender Fulmar Fever (Robert Marchant, Waterford Harbour SC) had managed to run past Tory Island despite ferociously rough conditions, but an updated gale warning for a 40 knots-plus westerly at Ireland's North Point of Mizen Head, already one of the roughest parts of the course, saw Fulmar prudently turn to starboard into the shelter of Rathmullen in Lough Swilly.

AN ALL-ABSORBING CLASSIC EVENT

Emerging mentally from the all-absorbing 22nd Biennial SSE Renewables Round Ireland Race from Wicklow is still a work in progress. But as ever we are left with the warmest admiration for the voluntary Wicklow Sailing Club team, headed by former WSC Commodore Kyran O'Grady, who keep this marvellous show on the road.