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ICRA Prizegiving Salutes Cruiser National Champions at Royal Cork Yacht Club

11th June 2017
2017 ICRA Prizewinners gathered at Royal Cork Yacht Club. Scroll down for more prizegiving photos 2017 ICRA Prizewinners gathered at Royal Cork Yacht Club. Scroll down for more prizegiving photos Credit: Bob Bateman

ICRA Commodore Simon McGibney and Royal Cork Yacht Club Admiral John Roche presented the national champions with their trophies and prizes at the Cork Harbour Club this afternoon.

Afloat's Bob Bateman captured the prizegiving atmosphere at Crosshaven. 

Read all Afloat's coverage of the three day championships in one handy link here

DSC 0874After two days of tough racing the ICRA silverware is ready to be presented at the Royal Cork Yacht Club. Photo: Bob Bateman

DSC 0874Royal Cork Admiral John Roche (left) and ICRA Commodore Simon McGibney (centre) congratulate Mark O'Donovan and family, winners in Non Spinnaker B IRC division sailing his Beneteau 35s5 Roaring Forties Photo: Bob Bateman

DSC 0874Mollie Murphy of the Grand Soleil 40 Nieulargo was the winner of Non Spinnaker A IRC

DSC 0874Daragh McCormack was ICRA Class Four winner on both IRC and ECHO. The Foynes helmsman also won the J24 Southern Championships being sailed as part of the ICRA event. Photo: Bob Bateman

DSC 0874Straight wins for Paul Gibbons' Quarter-tonner Anchor Challenge (IRL 3087) gave him the Division 3 title. Photo: Bob Bateman

DSC 0874Howth Yacht Club's Ross McDonald on Equinox won the Division 2 national title Photo: Bob Bateman

DSC 0874ICRA Class One winner is John Maybury's Joker 2 from the Royal Irish Yacht Club Photo: Bob Bateman

DSC 0874Paul O’Higgins, skipper of Rockabill VI (a JPK 10.80) was runner-up in IRC One and the winner of Class One ECHO division Photo: Bob Bateman

DSC 0874Robert O’Leary, Royal Cork helmsman of visiting Welsh yacht and IRC Zero winner Dark Angel Photo: Bob Bateman

DSC 0874The Howth Yacht Club J24 ‘Scandal' K25 team Photo: Bob Bateman

DSC 0874Winning j24 skipper Daragh McCormack of Stouche with RCYC's Kieran O'Connell (left) and Admiral John Roche (right) Photo: Bob Bateman

DSC 0874Denis and AnneMarie Murphy's  crew from the Grand Soleil 40 Nieulargo, winners of Non Spinnaker A IRC. Photo: Bob Bateman

DSC 0874Daragh Mc Cormack’s winning class four J24 crew from Foynes Yacht Club Photo: Bob Bateman

DSC 0874Robert O'Leary and the Dark Angel Team from Swansea in Wales Photo: Bob Bateman

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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)