News of the Western fleet's attendance comes in a week that has been dominated by other Galway Bay news, with the success in the TP52 Global championships in Miami last weekend.
Ger O'Rourke's Chieftain, the Cookson 50 and class winner of this years Sydney-Hobart race from the Shannon estuary will be sailing for national championship honours.
ICRA Commodore Fintan Cairns is expecting at least another six west coast boats to make the sea journey to Dun Laoghaire.
Patches skipper Eamonn Conneelly, fresh from global championship victory over in Florida, will not be sailing however.
Conneelly is a supporter of the Irish event and sailed the inaugural championships in Howth in Dark Angel and he sailed Patches last year in Kinsale at Sovereign's Week.
This year the Irish TP52 is going straight from Miami to Palma for a warm up regatta in Mid-April as part of the TP52 European circuit.
In a separate development for the Saab sponsored event Tim Goodbody has entered his Sigma 33 in IRC class 2 division. It's a welcome development for the one design sailor to join the ranks of the handicap class and with 23 other Sigmas on Dublin Bay he may not be the last one design to seek an IRC handicap.
Entries from the south coast are topped by Commodore's Cup boats from Royal Cork that includes Anthony O'Leary's Antix (Corby 35) and Conor and Denis Phelan's new Ker 37 Jump.
A minimum entry of 100 boats is expected.
Staying with cruiser racing news, the Round Ireland race will again feature La Rochelle's Jean Phillipe Chomette who returns this July in his Nacira 60, again under City-jet sponsorship colours, as one of the starters in the BMW Round Ireland race and with a race record – as unfinished business – very much in mind.
Chomette confirmed his intention for the circuit when he was in Dublin last week to pick up his international award for his round Ireland speed record set last May.
The 704 mile offshore has also attracted the Southampton's Mike Golding into the double handed division.
The fact that the race has attracted an international sailor of the stature of Golding (second in Jacques Vabre transat in 2003 and third in the Vendee Globe, 2004/5) is a feather in the cap of Wicklow organiser Dennis Noonan who rolled out the double handed division as a trial for the 2004 race.
This will be Golding's first event starting in Irish waters and he will sail Ecover, an Open 60, a boat that he sailed round the world in 2004, with Graham Tourell on board for the Round Ireland.
In a refreshing uplift in dinghy sailing fortunes the Laser Pico could get a run for it's money as the fast selling boat in Ireland with a flurry of activity in other junior boat sales.
Orders and enquiries for the double-handed RS Feva far exceeded the manufacturer's expectations following an Open Day to promote the RS Feva dinghy held in the Royal Irish Yacht Club, Dun Laoghaire on March 11th that resulted in excess of 25 boat orders, according to class secretary James Morrissey.
The first set of Feva Nationals will take place on August 25th to 27th, and will be held at the Royal Irish.
Tomorrow (Saturday 18th March) the single-handed Zoom8 is being launched for demonstration sails at the National YC in Dun Laoghaire at 2pm.
Weighing 38kg with a sail area of 4.8m2, it gives a lively performance for those graduating from the Optimist class, according to Irish promoter Will Moody.
There is a certain irony that yacht clubs – which on the face of it have potentially the most to gain – can be among the objectors to marina developments happening on their doorsteps.
It happened in Dun Laoghaire when there were waterfront objections to the planning of the 500 berth marina in 2000.
This week Greystones Sailing Club lodged an objection to the development planned for the front of it's North beach premises.
The objection is on the basis of a compulsory purchase order served on the club and the fact, say Greystones Sailing Club, that Wicklow County Council will give no guarantees regarding terms under which new premises will be supplied, access to the sea during construction and a number of other issues.
There will be an oral hearing on the Greystones development on 30th March.
