Thursday 19:30hrs – Superficially, Gery Trentesaux’s Pogo RC Courrier Pogo may seem like one of the smaller boats in the Round Ireland Race 2026 from Wicklow. Yet her IRC rating of 1.082 (as against, for instance, the 1.002 of the J/109 Outrajeous) suggests something a little bigger, and in terms of performance in this particularly difficult staging of a challenging race, she’s the Mighty Atom, a giant.
Or perhaps her formidable crew and exceptional skipper have allowed her to be so. When she crossed the line off Wicklow Harbour at 18:26hrs this Thursday evening, she had managed to overtake the Sydney 43 El Syd and the Lombard 46 Pata Negra (both definitely bigger boats) on the home straight from Dublin Bay to Wicklow Pierhead.
Afterguard Focus — Courrier Pogo RC skipper Gery Trentesaux (left) and Irish offshore sailor Tom Dolan at the start of the 2026 Round Ireland Race. The Franco-Irish crew went on to deliver one of the standout performances of the race, finishing second overall behind Khumbu. Photo: Afloat.
COURRIER JUST GOT BETTER AND BETTER
They’re only just in, all of an hour later. And relatively speaking the rest of the fleet, well north in the Irish Sea, are nowhere. Indeed, some highly-regarded boats have retired into Bangor. But somehow, as the race went on, Courrier Pogo just got better and better. And though Khumbu beats her on corrected time by nearly three hours, these corrected times are not being calculated in anything approaching normal times. For the weather is ultra-weird, and the current flat patch will probably end with a bang.
But for now, amidst the fleet frustration, let’s hear it for Trentesaux and Courrier and their remarkable second overall. And La France too, for that matter. Khumbu has certainly had a fine win. But doing what has been done with Courrier Pogo is all of a piece with the wins by French boats in the Fastnet Race and the Sydney-Hobart. The heritage of Eric Tabarly has never been so gloriously alive.
