Day  1 2350hrs: The longest beach in Ireland runs south along the Wexford coast from Cahore Point all the way down to Wexford harbour itself writes W M Nixon. It’s pushing towards twenty miles and more in length, but through the late evening and early part of tonight, it has seemed considerably longer for the main part of the fleet in the Volvo Round Ireland Yacht Race.

They’ve struggled with sometimes fickle wind and a foul tide, and the mood has not been improved by a belt of rain from the west which is only just clearing the last of the fleet. Nevertheless those who held in close along the shore inside the banks down as far as Blackwater Head before allowing their course to shape itself towards the Tuskar undoubtedly did better than those who went seaward in search of a better breeze. Thus in the overall placings at 2330, one notable slippage through keeping east has been with Dave Cullen’s J/109 Euro Car Parks, which in our previous report at 1815hrs was lying third overall in IRC – now she’s lying 26th as she passes the Tuskar.

The biggies up at the front of the fleet – the three MOD 70s and Ramber 88 – elected to hold on starboard tack far out into the middle of nowhere, with the MOD 70s sharpening each other all the time by being only a couple of miles apart, though Team Concise continues to hold a narrow lead. But even as we’re putting this report together, they’ve tacked in unison, and are just about laying the Fastnet Rock, though speeds are nothing great by MOD 70 standards - we’re talking “only” 12 knots or so.

To the northeast of them, now about 35 miles astern, Rambler 88 is still on starboard and making 12.9 knots, but she has slipped to 17th overall in IRC, whereas Eric de Turckheim’s wonderful Teasing Machine – likewise ploughing along on starboard well off the Irish coast – continues to stay narrowly ahead of a trio of Open 40s, and is hanging in there and then some on IRC, as she is leading IRC I and Overall.

Noel Butler (on helm) and Peter Hall and crew on the Beneteau 34.5, Adelie are top Irish boat as the first day of Round Ireland 2016 draws to a close

The J/109 Mojito (Peter Dunlop & Vicky Cox) from Pwllheli is currently second overall, and in third are Peter Hall and Noel Butler with the First 34.7 Adelie, currently tops of the Irish boats with Stephen Quinn and his J/97 Lambay Rules in fifth. Or rather, that was the situation five minutes ago – now Lambay Rule lies second overall, which will have them dancing in the streets out in Howth. She seems to be doing well by taking a little tack in towards Carnsore Point after clearing the Tuskar.

Soon the new ebb tide will be giving a mighty boost to the smaller boats back in the Tuskar-Carnsore area, and that will probably provide us with another significant shakeup of the placings for the morning. But for now, Teasing Machine is marching along hard on the wind at 6.6 knots over the ground, with quite a good comfort margin between her and the next boat.

See Round Ireland tracker here and keep to up to date with the fleet's progress with Afloat's regular Round Ireland 2016 updates here