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Displaying items by tag: Arcona 370

Every so often a boat comes up on the Afloat.ie Boats for Sale listings which has the magic Ingredient X in abundance writes W M Nixon. And this Arcona 370 - on the site from MGM Boats’ Kinsale office - is spot on the target. Everything about her – including her stylish dark blue hull and flawless teak deck - talks of class. And broker John McDonald’s photos, taken on board just a week ago, clearly tell us that “immaculately maintained” is scarcely adequate to describe her enviable condition.

You wouldn’t think she’s eleven years old, but she dates from 2005 when the Arcona 370 joined the rather exclusive range of four performance cruisers for connoisseurs by Arcona Yachts in Sweden. Since then, the 430, 410 and 380 have increased the selection further. But if you wanted to select a mid-size design which exemplifies the dynamic interaction between Arcona and their designer Stefan Qviberg, the Arcona 370 does it in style.

Arconas are boats which seem to suit enthusiastic cruising couples particularly well, and former International Fireball Champions Adrian & Maeve Bell from Strangford Lough have been so taken with the marque that they’ve owned two of them and made award-winning cruises with both, their current one being a 430.

This Arcona 370 has been used for the same sort of competent cruising, with the owner and his wife (they have had the boat from new) regularly taking in the Breton and French coasts down as far as La Rochelle in their many annual ventures. Although Kinsale-based, being British owned she’s British priced, at £109,950 GBP, and as she’s one of the most fully-equipped yachts currently on the Irish market, her-ready-to-go condition makes her a very attractive proposition. 

Click for the Arcona advert here.

Published in Boat Sales

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)