Menu

Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

ICRA Nationals Sailing & Apres Sail Plans Underway At Royal Cork Yacht Club

24th February 2017
Mixed sailing cruisers competing in a Royal Cork Yacht Club Race in Cork Harbour. The ICRA National Championships wil be held at RCYC from 9th to 11th June Mixed sailing cruisers competing in a Royal Cork Yacht Club Race in Cork Harbour. The ICRA National Championships wil be held at RCYC from 9th to 11th June Credit: Bob Bateman

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 RCYCEnjoying 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.

Published in ICRA

We've got a favour to ask

More people are reading Afloat.ie than ever thanks to the power of the internet but we're in stormy seas because advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news sites, we haven’t put up a paywall because we want to keep our marine journalism open.

Afloat.ie is Ireland's only full–time marine journalism team and it takes time, money and hard work to produce our content.

So you can see why we need to ask for your help.

If everyone chipped in, we can enhance our coverage and our future would be more secure. You can help us through a small donation. Thank you.

Direct Donation to Afloat button

The Irish Cruiser Racing Association (ICRA) Information

The creation of the Irish Cruiser Racing Association (ICRA) began in a very low key way in the autumn of 2002 with an exploratory meeting between Denis Kiely, Jim Donegan and Fintan Cairns in the Granville Hotel in Waterford, and the first conference was held in February 2003 in Kilkenny.

While numbers of cruiser-racers were large, their specific locations were widespread, but there was simply no denying the numerical strength and majority power of the Cork-Dublin axis. To get what was then a very novel concept up and running, this strength of numbers had to be acknowledged, and the first National Championship in 2003 reflected this, as it was staged in Howth.

ICRA was run by a dedicated group of volunteers each of whom brought their special talents to the organisation. Jim Donegan, the elder statesman, was so much more interested in the wellbeing of the new organisation than in personal advancement that he insisted on Fintan Cairns being the first Commodore, while the distinguished Cork sailor was more than content to be Vice Commodore.

ICRA National Championships

Initially, the highlight of the ICRA season was the National Championship, which is essentially self-limiting, as it is restricted to boats which have or would be eligible for an IRC Rating. Boats not actually rated but eligible were catered for by ICRA’s ace number-cruncher Denis Kiely, who took Ireland’s long-established native rating system ECHO to new heights, thereby providing for extra entries which brought fleet numbers at most annual national championships to comfortably above the hundred mark, particularly at the height of the boom years. 

ICRA Boat of the Year (Winners 2004-2019)