Wicklow, Co. Wicklow, 20 June 2026: Classe 40 entry VSF (France) became the second boat to complete the 704-mile Round Ireland race, winning its division but with the overall race still to be decided. Photograph: David Branigan/Oceansport
After five days at sea in the Round Ireland Race, the dearth of finishers at Wicklow was finally ended on Thursday morning when Pep Costa’s VSF Sports completed the 704 nautical mile race that started last Saturday.
The French entry secured victory amongst the eight Classe 40 entries who were in close pursuit with first to sixth place in this group separated by less than five hours.
The main Classe 40 boats were accompanied to the finishing-line by the bigger contenders in the overall race that is decided using the IRC rating system to correct times to determine the overall winner.
Included in this first wave of finishers was Gery Trentesaux’s Courrier Pogo who narrowly missed dislodging the provisional overall winner, Guy Gillon’s Khumbu who finished more than 30 hours earlier and remains the clubhouse leader.
However, a flood tide building at Wicklow added to the very light breeze on the coast delayed the first batch of finishers from arriving, ending the race as they had spent much of it – watching for signs of wind coming on the water.
A substantial portion of the fleet remains at sea, mostly located from St. John’s Point on the north Irish Sea around to Rathlin Island where wind conditions have improved.
There remains some theoretical winning candidates still racing and it will be Friday morning before a definitive overall winner can be declared.
After days of frequent and extended calms at sea on all coasts, the balmy weather is giving way to likely thunder storms ahead of fresher weather on the Irish Sea that will see Near Gale force gusts at times.
As the calm weather has delayed the race to near record duration, nine crews out of 53 starters have been obliged to retire from racing and are back to various ports. By Thursday evening, at least 16 crews still had around 150 nautical miles left to sail and with headwinds expected, arrival before Friday evening seemed unlikely.
However, an overall result appears certain to be clearer by early on Friday with several individual classes also decided by then.