Plans are well underway at the Royal Cork Yacht Club to host the Irish Cruiser Racing Association’s National Championships in Cork Harbour on the 9th to 11th June. For the second consecutive year the nationals will be a three day event. However while the decision to reduce the event from historically being four days was hoped to suit boat owners and crews trying to juggle family time, work holidays and participation a busy cruiser racing schedule, it unfortunately doesn’t reduce the workload for a busy event organising committee under direction of Chairman Paul Tingle and including Tom Crosbie, Michael McCann and Julianne McDonnell.

With National Titles up for grabs the Royal Cork Yacht Club have put together a very experienced team of race officials across the various divisions and with a variety of division options available to ensure all racing enthusiasts are catered for. International Race Officer Peter Crowley will take charge of the Non-Spinnaker and the new Coastal division which has been introduced due to the renewed interest in longer leg type racing. While in the IRC fleets International Race Officer’s Jack Roy and Alan Crosbie are both lined up, with a mixture of windward leeward and Olympic type courses planned.

Enjoying the Social Side of Sailing at Royal Cork

On the shorefront craneage will be provided by Salve Marine, Castlepoint and Crosshaven Boatyards. Special cranes arrangements are available on request. 

While we will all be there for great racing the social side is not forgotten by the organising committee. There will be entertainment at the club on the Friday and Saturday nights with a BBQ after racing and a sit down dinner also available and it would be remiss to speak about going to Crosshaven and not to mention the many fabulous restaurants in the area.

To alleviate any accommodation headaches the Royal Cork Yacht Club have provided a very comprehensive accommodation list. There is limited camping facilities at the venue or perhaps an equally convenient but far more comfortable option, which has become increasingly popular in recent years, would be camper van rental. 

The early bird entry fee is available until May 12th but the Royal Cork Yacht Club and ICRA would ask competitors to enter early to facilitate planning and organising of the event.

Queries can be directed to the event office at the Royal Cork Yacht Club on 021 483023.

ICRA Ratings officer Denis Kiely from Cork will chair an open floor Q&A session on the topics of cruiser racer sailing in Ireland at the ICRA Conference on March 4. The aim of the session, according to Commodore Simon mcGibney, is that by sharing of information from the people on the ground will help us all find ways to encourage cruiser racing within the Irish club system.

Recent changes to the 2017 sailing programme of Dublin Bay Sailing Club, as described in this morning's Irish Times Sailing Column here, should therefore be food for thought at the Limerick-based conference.

The Dublin Bay Sailing Club season is to be enhanced by new races. Coastal contests are at the centre of the revamp of competitions held out of Dún Laoghaire but the country's biggest club has also cancelled its annual cruiser challenge because of an overcrowded calendar.

The capital’s racing fleet will also race to the Burford Bank and south to Shanganagh buoy in Killiney Bay as well as using DBSC’s own buoys as turning marks.

DBSC is an umbrella organisation representing all four Dún Laoghaire waterfront clubs and co-ordinates bay racing for a fleet of nearly 300 boats in 22 classes from 50-foot offshore yachts to 13-foot inshore dinghies.

The 2017 courses are a response by reforming Commodore Chris Moore to demand from sailors seeking variations to so-called “round-the-cans” races. Three coastal races are scheduled for May 27th, June 17th and August 5th. Read more in the Irish Times here.

ICRA conference agenda

TIME (APPROX.) ITEM

10:30 Registration & Welcome – Simon McGibney (ICRA Commodore)
10:35 Introductions – Simon McGibney
10:45 National Crew Training Project – Norbert Reilly
11:00 Review of Cruiser Racing – Denis Kiely
– Participation Level Trends
– Round Table Discussion
13:00 Training Grant Scheme – Colin Morehead / Denis Kiely
13:20 Crew Point – Simon McGibney
13:30 Lunch
14:30 Guest Presentation: Wining a World Championship – ‘Prof.’ O’Connell
15:10 Guest Presentation: IRC – Mike Urwin (Technical Consultant RORC Rating)
15:50 ICRA National Cruiser Championships 2017 – Paul Tingle (RCYC)
16:05 ICRA Association Update – Simon McGibney
16:15 ICRA Boat of the Year Presentation – Simon McGibney
16:30 Finish

Royal Cork Yacht Club in conjunction with ICRA and RORC will be running an IRC Measurement weekend on the 5th, 6th and 7th of May.

The aim of this weekend is two fold:

IRC Measurers:
• To train up new people on the south-coast to be qualified to measure boats. This will be done over the one evening and two day course, the cost of this will be €50 per person and will include lunch during the course.
Boat Measuring:
• While the course is on, RORC will be offering to measure boats at a substantial discount to normal cost, so if you are interested in getting your boat weighed and measured it will be done here in Crosshaven for a cost of €200 per boat. Spaces will be limited for this offer so it will be on a first come first served basis.

If you are interested in either of the two option planned for this weekend as places will be limited, so book early to ensure you get in. Further details here.

This year’s Irish Cruiser Racing Association Annual Conference will take place at the Castletroy Park Hotel in Limerick on Saturday 4th March from 10.30.

Under the heading ‘We Must Talk about Cruiser Racing’ this year’s conference promises to be an exciting discussion on the hot topics surrounding the world of Cruiser Racing in Ireland today.

The format of the discussion will be an open floor Q&A session chaired by Denis Kiely.

ICRA would like to hear your voice on the state of cruiser racing in your club. We hope that sharing of information from the people on the ground will help us all find ways to encourage and develop cruiser racing within our own clubs.

Commodore Simon McGibney also wants to take the opportunity to update on developments by ICRA including Crew Point and launching a grant scheme to assist clubs in providing approved Cruiser Racing Training Programmes.

The conference will include guest speaker Prof. O’Connell on ‘Winning a World Championship’ and Mike Urwin from RORC sharing his insights on the IRC world today.

The presentation of the ICRA Boat of the Year 2016 will take place towards the end of the conference and it’s not too late to have your say!

The ICRA Boat of the Year nomination form can be found along with the agenda and additional information on the conference on the Irish Cruiser Racing website 

ICRA is your national association and we want to hear your views on how ICRA is doing and how it should develop for the future – we would like to see and hear from you on March 4.

Next year's three big Irish sailing regattas have set out their stalls early. The race is on to attract entries for July's Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta but before that there will be a fortnight of action on the South Coast with the Sovereign's Cup at Kinsale and the ICRA Nationals at Royal Cork both taking place in June.

The ICRA Notice of Race is published here and the Dun Laoghaire NOR is published here. Details on the 2017 Sovereign's Cup are here.

As an extra incentive all fully paid entries for VDLR received by 31st December will be automatically entered into a draw and 10% of these crews will have their entry fee refunded. 

Organisers are expecting up to 31 Classes for the 2017 Regatta at Dun Laoghaire that also celebrates the bicentenary of its famous Harbour with a Classic Boat section. 

The final day of racing in the O’Leary Insurance Group Winter league at Royal Cork Yacht Club was shrouded in a thick blanket of fog. The Race Officer Clem McElligott postponed the start of the race by one hour in the hope that the fog would burn off and the fleet would get racing. With just 20 mines to go to the new start time the fleet made their way out through the thick fog to the start area. As the start approached the fog began to clear, but the fleet were now faced with a new problem there was little to no wind across Cork harbour, forcing the RO to again postpone the start. By two O'clock the RO made the call to fly N over A and the fleet made their way back home for some well-earned mulled wine and mince pies awaiting them in the Club bar.

The final prizegiving was then held to a packed bar of sailors in their Christmas jumpers and hats. Anthony O’Leary and his family were all present to award the winners with beautiful Nash19 Christmas hampers, sourced prepared by Sally O'Leary. But it was the final presentation which really stole the show, when the O’Leary family presented the best performing boat of the league under IRC with the Inaugural Irish Mist Trophy, as previously reported by Afloat.ie, in memory of (Anthony’s father and past Admiral of the Royal Cork Yacht Club) Archie O’Leary. This beautifully hand crafted trophy was won by Tom Durcan and Clive O'Shea sailing their 1720 T-Bone. It was a very fitting end to another great winter league at RCYC.

Both the Irish Cruiser Racing Association (ICRA) and the Royal Cork Yacht Club (RCYC) have just launched their respective websites for the ICRA National Championships which will take place at the Crosshaven club from Friday 9th to Sunday 11th June.

Online entry is now open and available at www.cruiserracing.ie and www.royalcork.com

Along with nine National IRC and ECHO Titles the event will also host the Corinthian Cup and for the first time a new ICRA Coastal Cup. A minimum of six races are scheduled but with the option to sail additional races at the discretion of the RO, determined by factors such as the weather. Racing is scheduled to start at 1400 on Friday 9th. Closing date for the early entry fee is 12th May, 2017. The Notice of Race can be downloaded below.

The Royal Cork Yacht Club have been working closely with Kinsale Yacht Club on scheduling of event dates with Sovereign’s Cup taking place two weeks later, boat storage in between events and even some delivery opportunities. The first 20 o line entries to the ICRA National Championships (non-Munster) will be offered the option of having their boat delivered after the ICRA event by sea from Crosshaven to Kinsale for Sovereigns Cup on June 21st to 24th. Further details to follow. To facilitate planning the organising committee would encourage all boat owners to enter early.

ICRA sailors will be able to compete for World Championship IRC rating honours from 2018. Today's Irish Times Sailing Column reports on a 'breakthough' at last week's World Sailing Conference in Barcelona that has led to rival rating systems, ORC and IRC, working together towards a ‘jointly scored championships’.

Up until now cruiser-racers could race for world honours but only under ORC because World Sailing blocked an IRC title event on the basis the rating relied on a “secret element”. This week’s breakthrough came after the rule was shared with the world governing body to confirm no 'human element' was used in its computation. Afloat.ie readers will recall claim and counter claim on both rating systems following an ORC presentation at the March ICRA Conference in Limerick.

Irish sailors are at the forefront of negotiations including Dublin Bay's own Michael Boyd, the Commodore of the RORC that administrates the IRC rule.  Read more in the Irish Times here.

The only non-elitist thing about the Olympic Games is the fact that all countries – however large or small – are treated equally. A small country like Ireland is entitled to exactly the same number of places in competition as the superstates like the US or China. But apart from that, if any country’s national authority in any Olympic discipline is not treating its selected athletes as a pampered elite as an Olympic year arrives, then it is wasting everyone’s time. That’s how it should be in an Olympic year. But things definitely aren’t the same in the three clear years between each Olympiad. W M Nixon looks ahead to a completely different type of season in 2017.

Irish sailing had a good 2016 Olympics. Our waterborne elite did well - they did us proud. And the Irish national sailing season of 2016 – as we saw in last weekend’s review here – was special in many ways, for on top of Olympic success we staged two major world dinghy championships, witnessed perhaps the best ever Volvo Round Ireland Race, and brought home both silver and bronze medals from world youth championships.

That was how it was in 2016. But for 2017, we look forward to a very different kind of sailing year, in which everyone has the chance to be a star at local level, and our Olympic achievers and international medallists will be sailing as ordinary competitors along with everyone else.

Olympic Silver Medallist Annalise Murphy racing her foiling Moth, with which she is expected to compete in the Cork Dinghy Fest at the end of June. Photo: VDLR

In these circumstances, it’s intriguing to look at some of the events which will set the tone for the coming year. And if by some chance you’re feeling jaded as we sink into the depths of winter, rest assured that it’s an absolute tonic to talk with the voluntary organisers who are heading up the groups which are putting together the various packages which will provide sailing happenings of all sizes from one end of the country to the other.

These people have a level of infectious enthusiasm which, if you could bottle it, would make you a fortune. Their zest in our sport, and their joy in boats and the sailing of them, is a wonder to behold. And they’re so keen on it that they’re prepared to put in so very many hours of their free time – hours beyond measure, in fact – in administrative effort, that it would put many professional organisers to shame.

Such enthusiasm can bring its own special problems. Every sailing centre round the coast and on the lakes will expect its share of the action. So inevitably there will be a clashing of dates which will make for difficult choices for crews who had specific programmes in mind. But this morning, we’re not in the mood to beat the drum about ruthlessly rationalising the national programme. Let’s just tell you what’s happening, and you can draw your own conclusions and plan out your own season.

That said, the big one is undoubtedly the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta from the 6th to 9th July. 2015’s staging of this biennial festival experienced a quantum leap in the scale and scope of the event. Somehow, it moved onto a new plane. Under the chairmanship of Tim Goodbody, the organising committee built on the efforts of previous years, and the resulting myriad of sailing became a wonder to behold, and a joy to take part in. The plan for 2017 is to make it even better.

This outline hints at the scale of the event which will take place in July:

Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta 2017

Racing open to 30 Classes.

Incorporating the following Championships:-

· Royal Dee Yacht Club Irish Sea Offshore Championship
· Sigma 33 and Wayfarer National Championships
· Beneteau 211 Irish Championship
· GP14 and 420 Leinster Championships
· SB20 Southern Championship
· J24 & Squib East Coast Championships

Celebrating 200 years of Dun Laoghaire Harbour:

The Kingstown 200 Trophy for the best classic keelboat/dinghy.

NOR and Online Entry will open mid November (Monday November 14th).

Super Early Bird Entry Prize Draw: All entries received and paid for in full by 31 December 2016 will automatically be entered into a Super Early Bird Prize Draw and 10% of these lucky people will have their Entry Fee refunded.

To get the flavour of it, a chat with Organising Chairman Tim Goodbody at mid-week brought everything to life. That said, he was in a thoughtful mood, as that morning he had sold his much-loved Sigma 33 White Mischief after seventeen very happy and successful years. This enthusiasm in talking about their boats was found to be a shared characteristic of all the voluntary organisers, something which those who think the future of sailing lies in group-owned professionally-maintained boats might like to ponder.

Be that as it may, the J/109 class in Ireland will be taking on board the fact that their newest star entrant Tim Goodbody is now a hundred per cent J/109 man. For until he was comfortable in the knowledge that his Sigma 33 White Mischief had gone to a good home (she has found a lucky owner in Arklow), you had the feeling that a tiny bit of his mind was elsewhere as he campaigned the new White Mischief, a J/109.

No longer a fleet owner…..Tim Goodbody’s J/109 White Mishcief is now his only racing steed. Photo: Afloat.ie
That said, he was frequently on the podium in the new class, but for Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta 2017 the rest of his crew will have to race as best they can without him, for he throws himself so thoroughly into heading up the large army of VDLR volunteers – with Ciara Dowling as an awesomely effective Executive Secretary – that there simply isn’t the time to think of campaigning in one of the hottest of the 30 classes as well.

A look at the heights of the 2017 programme shows how it is quite an achievement for the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta 2017 to be the peak event at home, and it also reveals the difficulty for planning a programme for your boat and crew which will keep everyone – including the Commodore of your home club – in a happy frame of mind.

Prize winners at the conclusion of Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta 2015. Adrian Yeates, CEO Volvo Car Ireland, is at centre, overall winner George Sisk is left centre, and Tim Goodbody, Chairman Organising Committee, is second right. Photo VDLR

This list is by no means complete, but if you haven’t firmed up your club or association schedule by November, you’re not going to be taken seriously, as November is traditionally the month when the next year’s Corinthian crewing programmes take shape.

2017 Preliminary Programme

March 25th Horizon Energy Group PY1000 in Owenabue River at Crosshaven (RCYC)

May 26th – May 29th Scottish Series (Clyde Cruising Club)

June 3rd Lambay Races (Howth)

June 9th- June 11th ICRA Nats (Royal Cork)

June 14th Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race (National YC)

June 21st to 24th Sovereigns Cup (Kinsale)

June 30th – July 2nd Cork Dinghy Fest 2017

July 6th to 9th Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta

July 6th to 8th WIORA Championship, Aran Islands

July 23rd to 28th Glandore Classics

August 1st to 4th Calves Week (Schull)

August 6th 2017 Rolex Fastnet Race

August 14th – 18th Half Ton Classic Worlds (Kinsale)

October 21st Rolex Middle Sea Race

We happen to know about the first rather esoteric major event on the programme, the PY 1000 dinghy race in the Owenabue River at Crosshaven on March 25th, thanks to the enthusiasm of Nicholas O’Leary of Royal Cork. He’s back on home ground and busy with being the third generation of his family in the energetic and imaginative organisation and promotion of sailing.

The Horizon Energy Group PY 1000 is a come-all-ye for dinghies using the Portsmouth Yardstick handicap. And they don’t mess about with prizes – there’s €1,000 on it. As the tides suit, they’ll be using the full available length and breadth of the Owenabue River between Crosser and Carrigaline in a crazy sailing project to blow the winter cobwebs away, and it will be a useful training for ogranisational energy levels as young O’Leary puts his team through their paces in training for the Cork Dinghy Fest at the end of June.

RS Fevas in a National Championship on Lough Ree. They’ll be gathering with other classes in Cork at the end of June 2017
Like Tim Goodbody, he can be slightly sentimental about his boats – in his case, it was seeing an old and much-loved Optimist he’d once raced which fired him up to spread the news. An email from him this week gets the flavour of Nicholas O’Leary’s approach to sailing:

“Top of the organisational agenda is taking on the Dinghy Festival at the end of June on behalf of the Royal Cork Yacht Club and the dinghy fraternity of Ireland and beyond. My good friend Marty O’Leary is chairman of the RS Class in Ireland, and we will again welcome three fleets from under his wing - The RS200 for their Nationals and the RS400 and Feva Southerns.

The array of dinghy classes within Ireland concentrate on doing their own calendar year after year. This is a huge undertaking and requires massive dedication by class captains, regional reps and the clubs that host. The Dinghy Fest takes the stress off such class reps for one of many events they would normally have to organise, and brings together the masses into one harbour to enjoy great racing and great craic ashore, particularly as it provides socialising with friends they haven’t seen due to other class commitments.

We are working on connections within the variety of classes nationwide, and one exciting grouping that we’re planning is an Extreme Fleet. To see one 49er screaming across Cork Harbour is a sight, but we plan to have one race course dedicated to an entire fleet of fast dinghies, with the foiling Moths - where we hope to see Olympic Silver Medallist Annalise Murphy racing against her coach Rory Fitzpatrick - as well as 29ers and 49ers, and the Cat class, with the Catamarans demonstrating their viable concept of mixed craft racing on the one race track, and results divided thereafter.

I know this Extreme Fleet will open the eyes of young sailors to see that there is life after an Optimist, 420, Laser or whatever fleet they are currently in, and that fast fun boats are accessible classes, alive within Irish waters. I sincerely think it’s very important for the future of youth sailing that they enjoy it, finding a class they are happy in rather than being marched up to the gates of a pathway and pushed through. Those who enjoy the sport will stay in the sport. If they excel to greater heights, then so much the better, but that shouldn’t be the be-all and end-all for everyone.

I don’t believe the success of an event is within its number of entries, but in its quality of racing provided. That is why my old housemate and current ISA Champion of Champions Alex Barry is joining our team in an advisory role to keep the high standard of racing up to scratch, and in line with what we would expect when racing Worldwide. I look forward to developments in the months to come, and will of course keep everyone updated with sailing news from near and far.”

29er in flight. Nicholas O’Leary, organiser for Cork Dinghy Fest 2017, hopes that the presence of 29ers will encourage more young sailors to realize that boats like this aren’t only for the elite

So the dinghies of Ireland have the good example of somebody thinking in a far-sighted and coherent way. But with the offshore racers, the picture is as ever more complex. Yet it’s for sure we’re interested in the Scottish Series out on its own in May, as we provide the ex-Pat overall winner Dara O’Malley (originally from Westport, he’s Edinburgh-based) with his Hunter 707 Seaword in 2016, while regular contender John Hall from the National YC won Class 2 with his J/109 Something Else.

But in June things get mighty complicated, as there are two major cruiser-racer championships in Cork with a clear fortnight between them, yet during that fortnight the biennial Dun Laoghaire to Dingle race gets under way.

However, if you talk with the enthusiasts involved in organising any of these events, it all seems very manageable. Paul Tingle who is chairman to organise the ICRA Nats at Royal Cork from June 9th to 11th has recently moved from campaigning a Corby 25 with family and friends to the comparatively luxurious yet equally competitive surrounds of an X 34 which will also be called Alpaca. He sees the ICRA Nats at Crosshaven from June 9th to 11th as offering the special cachet of a National Championship in a manageable package. And at the end of it your boat is conveniently placed to be moved to Kinsale the following weekend for the time-honoured Sovereign’s Cup series the weekend after (June 21st-24th)

Kinsale is pulling out all the stops to make the Sovereign’s Cup fleet welcome from June 21st to 24th.
In fact, Paul Tingle and his counterpart at the Sovereign’s, Kevin Murray of Kinsale, are coming up with all sorts of ingenious suggestions for getting the boats from Crosshaven to Kinsale, ranging from a passage race to a simple offer to provide voluntary delivery crews. The thinking is that some crews and owners will welcome the opportunity for a weekend off to score some brownie points on the home front. But however they get to Kinsale, the participants in the Sovereign’s will find that the entire town is behind the event, which is very much aimed at being a fun happening.

Freed from the constraints of the IRC limitations within ICRA, Kinsale YC can open the door to sportsboats and even inshore keelboat classes, should they be so interested, and the emphasis is going to be very much on a regatta atmosphere rather than the more serious mood of a national championship.

Meanwhile, take note that the Dun Laoghaire to Dingle race is on a Wednesday evening – June 14th – not the Friday evening as in 2015. The feeling is that in these demanding times, it make more sense to slip away from business cares on a Thursday and Friday to get comfortably finished racing by Sunday and probably earlier, rather than arrive in the office exhausted on a Tuesday after a 380-mile race which finished in the small hours of Monday morning. Last time round, it was J boats of several sizes which dominated, with the Shanahan family’s J/109 Ruth winning from sister-ship Mojito, but maybe in 2017 some other marque will get a look in.

For July, an east-west divide arose in planning the programme, when the fascinating concept of a West of Ireland Offshore Racing Association Championship on the Aran islands made the discovery that out in Kilronan, each summer weekend is spoken for in terms of hosting some major island festival. Thus the only clear one they could offer hyper-keen Atlantic Way sailor Cormac MacDonnacha of WIORA was July 8th & 9th, and as his fleet will be wanting to make their way home along the Atlantic seaboard on the Sunday, the WIORA Championship 2017 is July 6th to 8th. It will make for a painful decision for some crews who had hoped to go east for the big one in Dun Laoghaire taking place at exactly the same time.

The Rolex Fastnet Race next year is earlier in August than it has been for some time, going off on Sunday August 6th. And among the fleet will be an Irish boat defending a trophy won in 2015, the Jeanneau 37 Desert Star skippered by Ronan O Siochru of Irish Offshore Sailing of Dun Laoghaire. Desert Star was right on the podium among the many Irish boats in the previous race, and she was also overall winner of the Sailing Schools trophy, besting 32 other boats.

Desert Start round the rock during the Rolex Fastnet Race of 2015, on her way to winning the Sailing Schools Division in a fleet of 33 yachts. Photo: Rolex

This was a notable success which underlined just how significant the concept of Fastnet Race experience has become in the definition of genuine seagoing ability. The camaraderie which developed among Desert Star’s crew of rookies from an extraordinary variety of backgrounds was heart-warming to behold, and it’s something which many wish to experience and share.

It’s very much what we hope for 2017, as it’s the perfect example of sailing for more ordinary folk rather than top level competition for superstars. So as we snuggle down into winter with just the special Frostbite, Brass Monkey and Turkey Shoot races available for those who want the occasional quick taste of sailing all year round, spare a thought for those dedicated souls who are so keen to get involved that they’ll go to sea just whenever they can, and that includes going offshore in the depths of winter.

For those dreamily contemplating next season from a comfortable armchair in front of a roaring fire, here’s a thought-provoking email I received last Sunday from Ronan O Siochru:

“We are flying downwind with a poled-out headsail
and double reefed main, 30 knots behind us in absolutely glorious sunshine
from Kilkeel back to Dun Laoghaire.
The guys are after sailing 500 miles in six days, and have been to Wales, the Isle
of Man, England, and Northern Ireland. We have also experienced the raw energy
of the North Channel and the Scottish sea state in November as we headed up to
Cambeltown on the Mull of Kintyre.

They are getting some of the most intense, gruelling training in difficult
conditions - cold, 16 hours of darkness each day, and sometimes very fast-changing weather. We haven’t seen another sailing boat in 500 miles, as we
 left Dun Laoghaire in the dark and haven’t been back since.

They are doing serious training, and are learning so fast they are
really closing in on many so called 'experienced’ sailors who have been
sailing for decades.

They are an interesting group coming from a variety of backgrounds, a
totally international crew, and all guys on this occasion - Irish, French, English, Italian and a Canadian. Their reasons for being here range from a Canadian naval architect looking to learn to
sail, to a Frenchman taking early retirement with a dream to cash in his
pension to buy a catamaran and do charters in the Caribbean.
And there are a few young bucks
keen to avoid university, and instead sink their teeth into a grittier more active
career……The course has been running since 3rd September, and culminates in the RYA
 Yachtmaster Offshore exam on the 26th November. Meanwhile, roll on 2017. The Fastnet calls.”

A selfie by Fastnet Race class winner Ronan o Siochru with his crew of trainee yachtmasters as they experience their first easy sailing on the final leg last Sunday from Kilkeel to Dun Laoghaire.

Racing for a new trophy in memory of former Royal Cork Yacht Club Admiral Archie O'Leary got underway today at the O'Leary Insurance's Winter League in Cork Harbour.

Photo gallery below by Bob Bateman.