Guy Gillon's Botin 56 footer Khumbu takes line honours in Round Ireland Race

Class 0 entry starting the 704 nautical mile Round Ireland Race is Khumbu skippered by Guy Gillon passes Wicklow Head lighthouse. Photograph: David Branigan/Oceansport Repro free for editorial use with credit byline

Unusually light winds throughout the Round Ireland Race saw the first finisher only reach Wicklow on Wednesday morning almost four days after starting the 704 nautical mile race.

Guy Gillon's Botin 56 footer Khumbu escaped the main pack shortly after passing the halfway mark on Monday by sailing deep into the Atlantic in search of wind and was duly rewarded.

The sleek, black hull and sails slipped out of the fog just a few miles from the finishing line as a small crowd lined Wicklow’s South Pier and the volunteers in the Sailing Club kitchen prepared the traditional full Irish for the weary crew.

Khumbu’s overall finishing time has a time correction factor applied now, a form of handicapping and the chasing boats will be aiming to beat this with their own corrected times.

Winds remain light from the North coast and into the Irish Sea, and especially around the “Dundoldrum Bay” off Dundalk (Dundrum Bay) where tricky tidal conditions require careful navigation.

On provisional standings, John Murphy’s Outrageous, a J109 type from Howth Yacht Club could be the best of possibly half a dozen entries capable of beating Gillon’s team.

If that happens, it will only be because of the brave decision to sail westwards, away from Ireland and the Mayo coast earlier in the race.

Otherwise, Gillon would certainly not have escaped being becalmed as the others have been on more than one occasion.

And so, the waiting game begins in Wicklow with the next batch of finishers likely to be the Classe 40 boats, a mixture of French, Italian, Belgian and US boats along with Ireland Pamela Lee on #EMPOWHER.

The Classe 40 boats have their own division within the race but also don’t have ratings under the IRC system used for the time correction to decide the overall winner.

That leaves attention on the smaller, slower boats where Murphy and others are, still battling through the tidal gate at Rathlin but on Wednesday evening had favourable wind and tide.

However, for the backmarkers, some of whom were banking on slightly better conditions that would have favoured older, smaller entries it now seems likely that they may not reach Wicklow until Saturday and a full week after the start.

For co-skipper on Bergins Katanca, the lowest rated boat in the fleet crawling up the Mayo coast, there was zero joy. “We haven’t had wind in 36 hours!” he admitted.

But for all the fleet, despite the slow pace the display of wildlife and scenery – when not foggy – has been a constant source of joy.

Gillon remarked that on Khumbu, dolphin were a constant presence even when off-watch and trying to get sleep as the mammals played around the fast moving boat.