Displaying items by tag: Mark Pettit

18th January 2011

Ireland's Dragon Team ends World Championships in Top Half

Dun Laoghaire trio Andrew Craig, Mark Pettit and Brian Mathews finished in the top half of the 70-boat Melbourne based Dragon World Championships at Port Philip yesterday after a six race series of predominantly light winds.

Hopes of bettering Ireland's best ever result at a Dragon Worlds, a fourth place overall, achieved by Craig in Tasmania in 2003, were dashed with a string of mid fleet results. The Irish crews best finish was tenth in a highly competitive fleet to be 26th overall. RESULTS HERE.

The event was won by Brtiain's Lawrie Smith who has not sailed since his Last Volvo Ocean Race campaign in 1999. "This really is such a joyous way to come back. I honestly did not think we'd get the win. Then again, I also thought it was going to blow 25 knots each day!" said Smith at the prizegiving.

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11th January 2011

Dun Laoghaire Dragon Trio are 29th in Melbourne

After three races in the Dragon World Championships in Melbourne, Australia, Dun Laoghaire trio Andrew Craig, Mark Pettit and Brian Mathews are 29th overall counting a 19, 36 and 28 in the 70-boat fleet. The event is being led by top German helmsman Markus Wieser, Sergey Pugachev and Matti Paschen sailing the Ukranian entry Bunker Queen. Full Results HERE.

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10th January 2011

Dun Laoghaire Trio Stay Mid-Fleet at Dragon Worlds

Andrew Craig, Brian Mathews and Mark Pettit sailing Chimaera have posted a 36th to add to their 19th at the Dragon World Championships in Melbourne yesterday. The second windward leeward race of the series was sailed in six to eight knots of wind. It puts the sole Irish competitors into 32nd place overall at the 73 boat championships. Australian entry Puff-eu, Richard Lynn, Ian Olson and Ron Rosenberg lead with 4 and 6 scored. The regatta is still in its early stages with nine races left to sail. More HERE.

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9th January 2011

Craig Opens Dragon Worlds with 19th

Andrew Craig, Mark Pettit and Brian Mathews have opened their account at the 2011 Dragon world Championships in Melbourne, Australia with a 19th place. The early leaders of the regatta are a legendary British trio Lawrie Smith, Ossie Stewart and Tim Tavinor.
Craig, of the Royal St. George in Dun Laoghaire, rounded the first mark in the middle of the 73-boat fleet but managed to gain places on each leg of the windward leeward course to finish 19th. Racing continues this week. More HERE.

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The Kingstown to Queenstown Yacht Race or 'K2Q', previously the Fastnet 450

The Organising Authority ("OA") are ISORA & SCORA in association with The National Yacht Club & The Royal Cork Yacht Club.

The Kingstown to Queenstown Race (K2Q Race) is a 260-mile offshore race that will start in Dun Laoghaire (formerly Kingstown), around the famous Fastnet Rock and finish in Cork Harbour at Cobh (formerly Queenstown).

The K2Q race follows from the successful inaugural 'Fastnet 450 Race' that ran in 2020 when Ireland was in the middle of the COVID Pandemic. It was run by the National Yacht Club, and the Royal cork Yacht Club were both celebrating significant anniversaries. The clubs combined forces to mark the 150th anniversary of the National Yacht Club and the 300th (Tricentenary) of the Royal Cork Yacht Club.

Of course, this race has some deeper roots. In 1860 the first-ever ocean yacht race on Irish Waters was held from Kingstown (now Dun Laoghaire) to Queenstown (now Cobh).

It is reported that the winner of the race was paid a prize of £15 at the time, and all competing boats got a bursary of 10/6 each. The first race winner was a Schooner Kingfisher owned by Cooper Penrose Esq. The race was held on July 14th 1860, and had sixteen boats racing.

In 2022, the winning boat will be awarded the first prize of a cheque for €15 mounted and framed and a Trophy provided by the Royal Cork Yacht Club, the oldest yacht club in the world.

The 2022 race will differ from the original course because it will be via the Fastnet Rock, so it is a c. 260m race, a race distance approved by the Royal Cornwall Yacht Club as an AZAB qualifier.

A link to an Afloat article written by WM Nixon for some history on this original race is here.

The aim is to develop the race similarly to the Dun Laoghaire–Dingle Race that runs in alternate years.

Fastnet 450 in 2020

The South Coast of Ireland Racing Association, in association with the National Yacht Club on Dublin Bay and the Royal Cork Yacht Club in Cork, staged the first edition of this race from Dun Laoghaire to Cork Harbour via the Fastnet Rock on August 22nd 2020.

The IRC race started in Dun Laoghaire on Saturday, August 22nd 2020. It passed the Muglin, Tuscar, Conningbeg and Fastnet Lighthouses to Starboard before returning to Cork Harbour and passing the Cork Buoy to Port, finishing when Roches's Point bears due East. The course was specifically designed to be of sufficient length to qualify skippers and crew for the RORC Fastnet Race 2021.