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ICRA U25 Sailing Support Programme Deadline is Approaching!

14th December 2019
Under 25 sailing deadline - the closing date for all  U25 2020 supports is the 19th December Under 25 sailing deadline - the closing date for all U25 2020 supports is the 19th December

For clubs considering establishing an ICRA Under-25 sailing programme and clubs with existing U25 programmes, there are only a few days left to submit your “Expression of Interest” or make your “Existing Programme” application to join the ICRA U25 Support Programme.

As Afloat previously reported, ICRA and Irish Sailing are offering this programme directly to sailing clubs across the country.

Over the next three years, ICRA will deliver support funding that will provide successful applicant clubs with an initial Capital Grant that will help them buy a keelboat for their U25 squad. The scheme will then continue to provide an annual allowance to assist the same clubs to run their U25 programme until it is well established.

The closing date for all 2020 supports is the 19th December.

ICRA says it will not accept any Expressions of Interest or Applications for 2020 after this time.

Please visit the here for more information.

Published in ICRA
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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)