Wednesday 13:30hrs - Guy Gillon’s Botin 56 Khumbu took line honours at Wicklow in the 2026 Round Ireland Race with extraordinary precision at 09:26 hrs, xtraordinary” as our 07:30 update had reported that she was right on target with 23 miles to go, and sailing at 12 knots. Better than a Dublin Bus any day……
However, as the second on corrected time, Gery Trentesaux’s Courrier Pogo, was up off the north Antrim coast and increasingly slowed in the developing ebb swirling westward from Rathlin, for a glorious hour or so, Johnny and Suzie Murphy’s J/109 Outrajeous, at Malin Head and making 5.5 knots, was the overall leader on corrected time, with Khumbu second and Courrier Pogo first.
However, Ireland’s northeast corner is one thrawn place for sailing as for everything else, so as the roaring northwest-going ebb went into top gear throughout the rest of the morning and since, Khumbu’s time saw her remorselessly moving to the top of the CT leaderboard, with Outrajeous second and Courrier Pogo third.
Hour Of Glory — Johnny and Suzie Murphy's J/109 Outrajeous races along the Irish coast during the 2026 Round Ireland Race. The Royal Irish Yacht Club entry briefly topped the IRC corrected-time standings before settling into a closely fought battle for overall honours.
The latter had made the best of things by going inshore in search of breeze and slacker water along past Portrush of golf fame, and as the tide was beginning to turn she was close off Ballintoy (it’s the harbour place in Game of Thrones) with 5.2 knots being made good, quite a bit faster than larger boats further offshore in the worst of the now dwindling ebb.
East of Rathlin, the Class40 VSF is second on line honours, but when logged she was still waiting for the “real ebb” to start making significant ground. With the flukey winds, a favorable tide in North Channel mode is something to be used with care, and frankly it’s a bit of a lottery with these conditions.
Indeed, the nearest we have to reality is the posited placing as per rating, and these give us 1st Khumbu, 2nd Outrajeous, 3rd Courrier Pogo, 4th Bellino, 5th Loinnir Girl and 6th The Big Picture.
