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Royal Irish Yacht Rockabill VI is ICRA Boat of the Year

22nd October 2019
Paul O’Higgins’ JPK1080 Rockabill VI, the ICRA Boat of the Year for 2019 Paul O’Higgins’ JPK1080 Rockabill VI, the ICRA Boat of the Year for 2019 Credit: Afloat

Paul O’Higgins’ JPK1080 Rockabill VI from the Royal Irish Yacht Club on Dublin Bay has won the ICRA Boat of the Year Award to round off a stand out 2019 season.

Rockabill’s wins in the high scoring ICRA Nationals and the offshore Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race, both in June, contributed to her highest score, all clinched by participating and finishing third in Howth Yacht Club’s Autumn League this month. 

Rockabill VI pipped Nigel Biggs’ Half Tonner Checkmate XVIII to claim the title by a single point.

The 2019 ICRA Boat of the Year scored the performance of over 100 boats throughout a tremendous season for Irish yacht racing.

Tope scoring boats in each of the classes were:

  • Class 0 – Rockabill VI
  • Class 1 – Joker II
  • Class 2 – Checkmate XVIII
  • Class 3 – F’n Gr8
  • White sails – Demelza

The coveted Lighthouse trophy will be presented to Paul O’Higgins and his Rockabill crew at the annual ICRA Conference (date and venue to be confirmed).

Paul O'HigginsRockabill VI skipper Paul O'Higgins Photo: Dominick Walsh/D2D

The final scores for all boats are downloadable below.

ICRA updated its Boat of the Year scheme this year to better reflect the national cruiser-racer picture. Now, instead of an annual committee decision, the points from a series of 12 regattas were combined to identify the top-performing boat on IRC across the season balanced between the east, south, west and offshore scenes.

The ICRA Boat of the Year was awarded on a points basis with the top three places in an IRC division at National Championships. National regattas and regional events all count towards the rankings for the year.

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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)