While Admirals are expected to lead, the accepted naval strategic thinking would have it that the leading is meant to be done from Staff Headquarters, either ashore or on some vast ship, rather than out on the water in a small boat. But Rear Admiral Denny Vaughan USN (Retd.) seems to have decided that being retired permits him to leave the orthodox thinking of the manual behind on the bookshelf, and get right into the thick of things in the front line out on the water.

For having come all the way from Seattle to race his J/24 Easy Street (the very name should be a warning to other competitors) in the J/24 Euros at Howth, the Admiral went out for the first race in a sunny east to northeast breeze this morning (Tuesday), and didn’t he win? He did indeed.

This is either crazy, or starting with supreme confidence – despite the US sail number, this is Joe Murphy’s Jigalo from Howth – she ended the day on 16th overall. Photo: Annraoi Blaney 

That may have been a wake-up call for the proven European hotshots in the 34-strong fleet. And in that first race, all was largely as it should have been, as the syndicate-sailed Headcase from Ireland, definitely a favourite after a trail of success across the Continent and in home waters since June, was in second place.

Bur shrewd observers would have seen that the Americans were there again in third, with Denny Vaughan’s clubmate Kurt Dammeier racing Amuse Bouche. And the even more knowledgeable would have noted that the recently-crowned J/24 World Champion Mike Marshall of North Sails was in Dammeier’s tasty crew lineup.

That would seem to have been shown in the afternoon race, when Amuse Bouche logged another sensible third while things went completely pear-shaped for Headcase, as she was back in 19th. As for Easy Street, she’d also had some slippage, as the Admiral was back in tenth. So overall the leaderboard after Day 1 is headed by Amuse Bouche, two points ahead of James Torr from Plymouth, with the Admiral third.

Summer 2022 may be gone by this coming weekend, but it’s still making a great last stand off Howth. Photo: Annraoi Blaney

It speaks volumes for the enduring international attraction of this vintage class that the top ten placings run right across six nations, taking in entrants whose homeport spread is from Seattle to Crete. Meanwhile, armchair admirals – as opposed to admirals who get into the thick of things – are sitting back and wondering if we’re seeing the beginning of one of those utterly sensible campaigns, where the overall winner takes the title without actually winning a single race.

Day One Results Here

The International J/24 European Championship getting under way this weekend in Howth leads inevitably to thoughts of a special drama afloat two months ago. The crunch finish period of the SSE Renewables Round Ireland Race 2022 at Wicklow on Friday, June 24th, was a time of high tension.

Laurent Charmy’s SL Energies Fastwave from France had been the clubhouse leader for most of the afternoon. But in the final counter-tide beat to the finish, offshore tyros Mike and Richie Evans from Howth with their little Snapshot had managed to break away from a group of their closest competitors, and were wriggling along the beach with hyper-short tacks in a sharpening breeze to such good effect that the unthinkable became remotely possible. They might just snatch the lead.

In the end, they missed it by five minutes. But they were soon confirmed as unassailably second. It was a remarkable high seas debut. Yet, in all the excitement of the finish, little was made of surely the most significant aspect of the whole business. SL Energies Fastwave is a J/111, well proven in her short but successful offshore career. As for Snapshot, she’s a J/99, with recognised success in regattas, and now an offshore star as well.

Throughout the Round Ireland fleet – almost entirely in the leading groups – were other boats from the J range, and there isn’t a club fleet in Ireland, and at the main centres all round the Irish Sea, that won’t see this no-nonsense, versatile and effective American-originating marque well represented.

DEFYING ORTHODOXY OF PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE

Yet despite the fact that their global commercial success relies on a continuous up-dating of their extensive range to keep their thousands of customers at the front of the fleet, the little boat which started it all, the J/24 of which more than 5,000 were built, continues to be highly popular, defying orthodox concepts of planned obsolescence.

J/24s racing at Howth, where the first boat appeared less than two years after the class’s debut in America. Photo: Annraoi Blaney

She’s a modern classic if you like. But there’s no denying a J/24 is now something of a cult object, not least because they fulfill the American dream in having been created in the designer-builder parents’ garage - so totally garage-bound, in fact, that they’re not the J/25 simply because there wasn’t enough space to build a 25 footer.

The story begins in 1975. Young Rod Johnstone, then an ad salesman for a sailing trade magazine and an active one-design sailor, decided to build a sailboat he had been working on since completing a Westlawn School of Yacht Design correspondence course in the 1960s.

With $400-worth of fibreglass and wood, plus some rigging and hardware left over from a Soling of his brother Bob, he built the 24' LOA x 9' beam sloop – eventually called Ragtime - during weekends in the three-car garage at his family home in Stonington, Connecticut. During the summer of 1976, with an all-family crew aboard, Ragtime beat everything in sight, and he realized he had created something special.

Enter Everett Pearson, the owner of Tillotson Pearson, Inc, a highly respected boat builder in Warren, Rhode Island. He was quite taken with Rod's design and agreed to produce the boat on spec in return for the U.S. building rights. Display ads in the sailing trade magazine got the word out. That winter, they set up a makeshift factory in an old textile mill in nearby Fall River, Massachusetts, and began popping out J/24s.

Enter the marketing experience of brother Bob, a Vice President of Marketing at AMF/Alcort , the makers of Sunfish sailboats at the time. He had seen the potential in the boat Rod had designed. From 1975 to 1977, Bob had helped to take Alcort from the red into the black, and then began trying to convince AMF to start producing a boat similar to the J/24. When AMF didn't jump, in February of 1977 at age 43, Bob did, and threw in his lot with J/Boats.

Signature of approval – Bob Johnstone of J Boats International signs a J/24 rudder in Howth in 2014. Photo: Brian Turvey 

5,400 BUILT

In all, 5,400 J/24s have been built since, plus hundreds and sometimes thousands of other boats to an extensive range of J Boat designs. It has been another case of the phenomenal commercial and creative power of American brothers working together. Think Gougeon Brothers with WEST Epoxy Systems, for instance, a company so successful that when the brothers retired, they handed it over to their employees as a very tangible way of saying thank you for their loyalty and dedication. And think too of Olin and Rod Stephens of designers Sparkman & Stephens. They were very much a team, and it was Rod's skill and ingenuity with rigs and rigging which persuaded the great Carleton Mitchell to transfer his design loyalties from Philip Rhodes to Olin Stephens, resulting in the 38ft Stephens-designed Finisterre which won the biennial Bermuda Race three times on the trot.
So in owning and sailing a J/24, you’re sharing in a sense in the most positive aspects of the American dream. And as it has been found that quality fibreglass just doesn’t wear out, the J/24 offers an inexpensive route into competitive sailing for impecunious young enthusiasts who aren’t afraid of doing their own maintenance work.

PHILIP WATSON SETS OFFSHORE PACE

The J/24 very quickly came to Ireland, and while club and regatta racing and even some cruising was their main purpose in life, sailmaker Philip Watson in 1978 geared up his new J/24 Pathfinder for the ISORA circuit. After the Fastnet storm of 1979 had resulted in more stringent ballast keel requirements, the lightly-ballasted J/24 – which relies on considerable weight effort from her crew of five – was no longer eligible to go offshore, but in that one golden year of 1978, Watson and Pathinder swept all before them, winning their ISORA Class overall.

Pioneering Pathfinder – in 1978, Philip Watson of Howth with Pathfinder showed the way for J/24s – and won his class in that year’s ISORA series

All that is now 44 years ago. Since then, new J Boat designs of almost legendary status have come and gone from the headlines after dominating the sailing scene for a few years and sometimes more. Yet the little old J/24 is still very much with us with thriving national, regional and global associations, and this weekend in Howth they’re in the throes of final stages of preliminaries for the 2022 Europeans with Organising Committee Chairman Richard Kissane and his group ensuring the smooth running of an event which sees final measuring and test sailing over the weekend. The official practice race is on Monday under the direction of Race Officer David Lovegrove, with the Howth machine set in motion to continue the real racing from Tuesday through to Saturday (September 3rd).

Richard Kissane, Chairman of the Organising Committee, has been leading his team in extra preparations, as the J/24 Europeans have not been sailed since 2020, when they were staged in Greece.

KENNY READ COMES TO TOWN

With the appropriately-named Pathfinder taking the first steps back in 1978, Howth has a long association with the class, a notable early participant in a J/24 championship at HYC quite a long time ago being a young American skipper called Kenny Read.

In fact, Howth has acted as a very effective linkpoint over the decades between the European and American J/24 fleets, with the latter keen to sail here after dominating the 2013 Worlds at Howth, when the American overall winner emphasised Irish-American connections, as he was Tim Healy from Newport, RI.

Breezy action – the J/24 Worlds at Howth in 2013, when the overall winner was USA’s Tim Healy from Newport, RI.

Then in 2014, Bob Johnstone himself was in Ireland. Ostensibly, he was on holiday, but as he was the guest of the late Robin Eagleson of Lough Erne, President of the Irish J/24 Class, they made a point of visiting Howth, where Bob obligingly signed the rudder of the J/24 belonging to HYC Hon. Sec. Emmet Dalton – the word is it hasn’t been painted since.

The current Euros are the first since 2020, and there’s interesting American participation in the 35-strong entry entry list, with the furthest-travelled being retired US Navy Admiral Denny Vaughn from Seattle, who is age-defying as he calls his boat Easy Street….

THE ADMIRAL IS CELEBRATED

Admiral Vaughn is having himself a ball in Ireland as he has family links to Donegal, and last weekend during the J/24 Easterns at Howth in the boisterous Saturday night feasting, when the band heard they’d an American Admiral in the party, they trotted out their repertoire of John Denver and Johnny Cash.

As veteran J/24 sailor Flor O’Driscoll of Bray commented: “Only in Howth……”, to which Howth can reply “Only with the J/24s”, for it was in Howth that - at Nobby Reilly’s suggestion and with his energetic backing - the national U25 J/24 programme was instigated to produce some strong nationwide club entries in which young sailors have learned to team together to keep a J/24 in top internationally-competitive trim.

The 2022 campaign is successfully launched – the Headcase crew after winning the class at Kiel Week are (left to right) Ryan Glynn (Ballyholme YC), Sam O’Byrne (Howth YC), Cillian Dickson (HYC & Lough Ree YC), Louis Mulloy (Mayo SC) and Mark Ryan (MSC)

Currently, the pace-setter in this is the all-Ireland-crewed Headcase, which in Howth is in just one of her home ports, but she’s back in town with an astonishing 2022 CV that started with winning the class at Kiel Week, then they won the UK Nationals, then they won their ICRA Class in Cork Week, and last weekend they took the Easterns.

HEADCASE TAKES ON LA SUPERBA

It says something about national characteristics that the top home hope in the up-coming championship is cheerfully called Headcase, yet the boat they most definitely have to topple from the top of the pile is from Italy and unblushingly called La Superba.
Make of that what you will, but La Superba is the Italian Navy boat, and back in 2020 in Greece she won the Euros skippered by a young naval officer called Iganzio Bonnano. He has probably moved on to be an admiral by now, but La Superba is very much up for it again in Howth, with her skipper yet to be named.

The Travellers – Headcase and crew about to depart Plymouth after winning the UK Nationals, with an overnight ferry trip in prospect to make the start of the first race in Volvo Cork Week where she logged a class win. Her all-Ireland credentials are further emphasized with the use of a Galway-registered towing vehicle

IRISH FLEET ON A ROLL

The defenders will find that the Irish J/24 fleet is on a bit of a roll at the moment, and there are interesting helms and crews coming up through the system. We’ve remarked in the past that Munster is the only Irish province not represented in Headcase’s crew, but this may well be because they’re developing their own J/24 U25 squads in Munster, with the Kinsale YC Kinsailors led by Michael O’Carroll coming through in the Easterns to take second overall, while Tadg O Loingsigh with his Tralee Bay squad in Janx Spirit went over to the UK Nats and were very much in contention, their scoreline including a first.

The Howth Peninsula seen from the southeast. The Race Area for the J/24 Europeans 2022 will be just above the middle of this photo.

Munster is further represented by the Foynes YC U25 crew on Jasper led by Mary McCormack, while over on the east coast, after very many years Flor O’Driscoll of Bray (and formerly Cobh) has sold his well-used Hard on Port to his crew led by David Bailey, and they now sail out of Greystones where class leader Mark Usher sets the pace with Hedgehog.

This trans-club interaction is reflected in the northwest where Sligo YC and Lough Erne YC - and doubtless Mullaghmore too - all make input into Gossip with the combined efforts of Oisin Brennan, Declan Brennan, Michael Staines and Muireann Toibin.

Getting your boat and crew from Sligo or Lough Erne to other venues in Ireland can sometimes be a bit of a challenge. But an event like the Euros with an international entry puts it all in perspective, as they come not only from Seattle to the far west, but also from the island of Crete in the far eastern Mediterranean. The logistics of getting boat and crew as a private entry from Heraklion to Howth defies contemplation, but Nikolas Kapnisis of Heraklion Sailing Club has been game to give it a whirl with his boat Legal Alien. And such entries will feel right at home among the J/24s in Howth.

Entry List for J24 European Championships

Sail Prefix	Sail No	Boat Name	Owner Name	Club	Corinthian	Over 50	Youth	Entry Date
IRL	39	Jeb Stuart	Andrew Mannion	Lough Ree Yacht Club	No	No	No	22 Feb
ITA	416	La Superba	Marina Militare Italiana	CVA Marina Militare Italiana	No	No	No	12 Aug
IRL	680	Kilcullen	HYC U25 2	Howth Yacht Club	No	No	No	24 May
IRL	767	Jade	Conor Haughton	Wicklow Sailing Club	Yes	No	No	31 May
IRL	1183	Red Flag	Greystones Sailing Club	Greystones Sailing Club	Yes	No	Yes	08 Jun
USA	2810	Jigalo	Joseph Murphy	Howth Yacht Club	No	No	No	08 Apr
IRL	3060	Headgehog	Mark Usher	Greystones Sailing Club	Yes	Yes	No	09 May
USA	3746	Easy Street	Denny Vaughan	Corinthian Yacht Club - Seattle	No	No	No	26 May
IRL	4084	Battling J	Malahide Yacht Club	Malahide Yacht Club	Yes	No	No	31 May
GBR	4153	Jam	Benjamin Maddaford	Saltash Sailing club	No	No	No	13 May
IRL	4188	Jasper 2	Mary McCormack - FYC U25	Foynes Yacht Club	No	No	Yes	23 Aug
IRL	4191	Janx Spirit	Tadhg O Loingsigh	Tralee Bay Sailing Club	Yes	No	No	12 May
GER	4202	Gossip	Oisin Brennan, Declan Brennan, Michael Staines, Muireann Toibin	Sligo Yacht Club/ Lough Erne Yacht Club	Yes	No	No	11 Aug
IRL	4212	Scandal	HYC U25 1	Howth Yacht Club	No	No	No	24 May
IRL	4236	KINSAILOR	KINSALE YACHT CLUB	Kinsale Yacht Club	Yes	No	Yes	15 Jun
GBR	4242	Hitchhiker	Chris Randall	Saltash Sailing Club	Yes	Yes	No	21 May
IRL	4247	Headcase	Louis Mulloy, Marcus Ryan, Cillian Dickson, Sam O'Byrne, Ryan Glynn	Howth Yacht Club, Lough Ree Yacht Club, Mayo Sailing Club, Ballyholme Yacht Club	Yes	No	No	25 May
GBR	4248	MaJic	James Torr	Saltash Sailing Club	Yes	No	No	28 May
GBR	4260	Mojosi	Nick McDonald	RYA	Yes	Yes	No	28 May
IRL	4265	Smugairle Róin	Diarmaid mullen	Sligo Yacht Club	No	No	No	20 Feb
GBR	4266	NJO2	Tim Octon	JOG	Yes	Yes	No	02 Mar
GBR	4269	Cacoon	David Hale	Poole Yacht Club	Yes	Yes	No	04 Mar
IRL	4384	Proud Mary	Brian mc conville	Carlingford Lough YC	No	Yes	No	12 May
IRL	4532	Jelignite	Finbarr Ryan	Lough Ree Yacht Club	No	Yes	No	22 May
IRL	4533	Crazy Horse	Luke Mc Bride	Lough Erne Yacht Club	Yes	Yes	No	19 May
IRL	4794	Hard on Port	David Bailey and crew	Bray Sailing Club	No	No	No	31 May
IRL	5159	Jibe	Fergus & Tim Kelliher	Tralee Bay Sailing Club	Yes	No	No	30 May
IRL	5219	IL Riccio	JP Mccaldin	Lough Erne Yacht Club	Yes	No	No	11 May
GRE	5239	Legal Alien	Nikolas Kapnisis	Heraklion Sailing Club	Yes	No	No	30 May
IRL	5278	Hung Jury	Brian Raftery	Sligo Yacht Club	Yes	Yes	No	20 Jul
IRL	5285	Yachtzee	Diarmuid O'Donovan	TBC	Yes	Yes	No	27 May
USA	5352	Amuse Bouche	Kurt Dammeier	Corinthian Yacht Club!	No	No	No	22 Jul
GRE	5367	JMANIA	Konstantinos Tridimas/Kynthia Skotida	Nautical Club of Palaio Faliro	Yes	No	No	08 Mar
GER	5381	Schwere Jungs	Stefan Karsunke	Blankeneser Segel Club	No	No	No	22 Jun
IRL	5475	Jedi	Colm O'Flaherty	Sligo Yacht Club	No	No	No	26 May

With a fleet of 20 boats and crews drawn from 15 different clubs, including Seattle to the far west and Poole to the nearer southeast, the Irish J/24 Easterns over the weekend at Howth set the ball rolling towards the J/24 Europeans at the same venue in a week's time, with the first championship race scheduled for August 30th.

The all-Ireland resourced Headcase, whose crew of Cillian Dickson, Sam O'Byrne, Louis Mulloy, Marcus Ryan and Ryan Glynn count Howth, Lough Ree, Mayo and Ballyholme among their home places, maintained the steady progress already seen through the summer at several international majors, and came out first on 1,1, (8), 2,1. Next in line were the Kinsale team led by Michael Carroll with Kinsailor with a scoreline which included a first and two seconds to leave them on 9 points to Headcase's 5. Tadgh O'Loingsigh from Tralee Bay was third in Janx Spirit with the first of the overseas challengers, Dave Hale from Poole, fourth with Cacoon.

Full results here

So where are they? The hurricanes, we mean. Or more accurately, the “decaying tropical storms” which occasionally make their ominous and often unpredictable way towards Ireland as the Summer progresses and morphs into Autumn. For as it happens, back in May the more pessimistic among us were led to believe we could expect quite a raft of them this summer.

Certainly it’s some time now since news-room reports appeared suggesting that the “acknowledged international agencies” were agreed that all the signs indicated that the approaching summer of 2022 had the makings of a particularly busy year for hurricanes in the western sub-tropical Atlantic, with some of the usual subsequent fall-out adversely affecting Europe’s weather, of which Ireland is the frontier outpost.

But thus far, on the cusp of the final full week of August, we’ve had a decidedly odd summer, with the European weather machine grinding itself into sufficient high pressure action to keep the temperate Atlantic westerlies at bay. While most of us found the virtually windless heatwave weather from North Africa far too much of a good thing – if it was a good thing at any stage – we dreamt of those typical classic Irish days of perfect-sailing temperate westerlies, which in truth are so rare that we remember each one individually.

A decent breeze with some west in it, a generous portion of sunshine, and you’ve Irish sailing perfection – Squibs in action at Kinsale. Photo: Robert Bateman

Thus our header photo is there because it is the beau ideal of our sailing weather. When we try to sell Ireland as a sailing venue of the best international standard – indeed, as a sailing venue of better than international standard - then that scene aboard the race-winning J/99 Snapshot is exactly the kind of image that speaks volumes in support of our case.

PERFECTION IS RARE

Yet such perfect days in 2022 have been conspicuous by their rarity. Tedious flat calms have never been far away. And when we do get a breeze, the wind likely as not comes from the nor’east, which is good for neither man nor beast. Recently, it has been sending in lumpy grey seas which meant that at this week’s GP 14 Worlds at Skerries, photographer Bob Givens found himself recording images of disembodied heads and sails in which we’ve to assume that people and boats are attached.

Disembodied experience…..GP14s racing in this week’s Worlds at Skerries Photo: Bob Givens

But whatever has caused it, it certainly hasn’t been any follow-on effect from the very few minor hurricanes which have so far reached the Caribbean this year. For it seems that instead of curving north and then northeast, they simply continued heading on west and have gone clean across Central America to make nuisances of themselves in the Pacific.

Hurricane Katrina on August 23rd 2005, through the Caribbean into the Gulf of Mexico, and headed for New Orleans. As Katrina made landfall west of Florida, the chances of a later effect on Irish weather were greatly reduced.

However, it would be a big mistake to start to feel complacent. The old Caribbean hands are always ready to give out their bit of hurricane-period passage-making warning doggerel, which goes:

July: Stand By;
August: Only If You Must;
September: Remember;
October: All Over.

It used to be preceded by “June: Too Soon”, but there has been a marked tendency in recent years for the season to start earlier, which means that June is no longer too soon to expect tropical storms. Either way, there’s still quite a bit of potential poke left in 2022’s slow-to-start Caribbean hurricane programme, which affects us directly in Ireland in 2022 as the latter part of our season has us hosting an unprecedented number of international and world championships, all of which – when the weather is volatile - place an extra burden on that mysterious group, the International Race Officers.

They are mysterious simply because they are not as other people. If they are worried by the fact that their decisions on any particular day will directly affect the quality of the sport of sometimes hundreds of people, then somehow they don’t show it, whereas ordinary mortals would worry themselves into dithering incompetence.

Broad shoulders. Bill O’Hara of Ballyholme – currently running the GP14 Worlds at Skerries – has an impressive CV which includes being the Main Man in running the Volvo Ocean Race

But the top Race Officers, they have extremely broad shoulders. And it’s quite something to see the effect their arrival has at the venue for some major event. There, the Organising Committee will have been working at an accelerating pace for months or even years, and nerves are becoming frayed. There will have been increasing contact with the Race Officer. But then he or she arrives in person, on time and cool as a cucumber, and the atmosphere changes or the better. The Main Man or the Top Woman is here. The show will go on.

IRELAND’S MANY RACE OFFICERS

It may well be something to do with the fact that, from 1870 onwards, Irish sailing played a disproportionately important role is the development and codification of the International Races of Yacht Racing. But the reality is that we have an elite group of star Irish race officers who can put on a plethora of majors at much the same time without drawing on talent from outside the island. For although the demanding final weekend of the Shannon One Design Centenary at Lough Ree did bring in the services of Suffolk-based Owen Delany for a weekend of difficult decisions, he is of course of Shannon and Dublin Bay origins.

Thus in a season which has already seen Scorie Walls put in an exemplary performance in her administration of the Mermaid Championship at Foynes while David Lovegrove had to make some difficult but ultimately right decisions in Wave Regatta at Howth, we’re now into a new phase which sees Con Murphy of Dun Laoghaire in charge of the Fireball Worlds on Lough Derg, while back on the east coast, Derek Bothwell will soon be facing up to the J/24 Europeans at Howth after a masterful management of the Squib Easterns there.

Across the bay in Dun Laoghaire, they’ll be looking for the calming presence of David Lovegrove for the SB20 Worlds at the RIYC in September, while the highly-experienced Harry Gallagher of Sutton and Neil Murphy of Howth are no strangers to the hot seat on the Dublin Bay SC Committee Boats.

Con Murphy – currently running the Fireball Worlds on Lough Derg, earlier in the year he called the shots at Bangor Town Regatta on Belfast Lough. Meanwhile, his sailing experience includes holding the Round Ireland Open Sailing Record from 1993 to 2016.

All the top racing administrators are keen sailors themselves in addition to their multi-tasking abilities as Race Officers. In fact so keen are they in their general enthusiasm to help our sport in a voluntary capacity that they’ll use their unique locations to take the occasional well-judged photograph. Having opened with a photo of the Fastnet Rock being raced round on a glorious day, we’ll close with one taken this week by Con Murphy on Lough Derg as Chris Bateman of Cork Harbour and Thomas Chaix of Tralee Bay win the third race in the preliminaries of the Fireball Worlds, an image which perfectly captures the vision of the absurdly beautiful Lough Derg at its sailing best.

Lough Derg at its sailing best, with Fireball winners Chris Bateman and Thomas Chaix getting into their stride. Photo: Con Murphy

Kinsale Yacht Club in West Cork is well pleased with its Under 25 development programme following the team's success at the J24 National Championships raced in Foynes YC, Co.Limerick.

Named ‘Kinsailor’ when it was launched last year, the KYC yacht won the Under 25 section, took the silver prize for second overall and finished eighth of the 20 boats racing that included top sailors in the Class.

The Kinsale crew were: Mikey Carroll, Leslie Collins, Rachel Akerlind, Micheál Ó Suilleabháin, and Jack O’Sullivan.

“A great result,” said former Commodore Dave Sullivan, the Under 25 Team Mentor.

“Little did I think when we started out last October that we would have our boat so successful in the U25 section at the National Championships. She is a super boat with a super team of sailors. It took a lot of hard work and commitment to get to this stage and we are thankful to KYC members for their overwhelming support and continued generosity.”

This membership backing enabled the setting-up of the programme and the purchase of the boat.

“We still have the Eastern Championships in late August and Europeans in Howth in September to look forward to,” says Dave Sullivan.

Last weekend, the J24 National Championships took place at Foynes Yacht Club on the Shannon Estuary. 18 boats took part in the event drawn from all over the country.

Thursday evening was very busy with boats being launched and some final adjustments being made. Registration and Weigh-in also took place that evening, with a few having to run a marathon and have saunas to make the final cut, but perseverance prevailed, and everybody was at their target weight of 400 kgs in time for the first race on Friday morning!!

Foynes Yacht Club's U25 J24 team were very busy making and selling sandwiches every morning before racing, with the proceeds going towards the upkeep of their J24 Jasper.

Friday was an extremely tricky day on the water for the J24s

At the outset, Commodore John Paul Buckley welcomed everyone to Foynes Yacht Club and wished fair and safe sailing to all competitors and hoped that it would be an enjoyable event both on and off the water. Mark Usher, President of the J24 Association, said a few words on behalf of the J24 Association, and Derek Bothwell, Race Officer, gave the briefing.

Race Officer Derek Bothwell from Howth

Eight races were held over the weekend, three races on Friday, four races on Saturday and one on Sunday. Friday was an extremely tricky day on the water. The wind was light and shifty, making it difficult for OOD Derek Bothwell and his Mark Layers to set courses. However, they did prevail and managed to run three races. Saturday and Sunday brought a much steadier breeze.

Sam Byrne and the Howth Headcase crew with the J/24 National Championship Trophy at Foynes Yacht Club

Headcase (Howth Yacht Club) were the overall winners of the J24 National Championships 2022.

It has been a great year for Headcase so far this year, winning the UK J24 Nationals and the Kiel Regatta in Germany. In their prizegiving speech, Sam Byrne stated that they loved coming to Foynes Yacht Club, and that the standard of racing was one of the best. He complimented the Race Management, the onshore support, and the great hospitality.

Taking second place were the Kerry boys, Janx Spirit from Tralee Bay Sailing Club, and third place went to El Rico, Lough Erne Yacht Club, all the way from Enniskillen.

Silver fleet winners Kinsalor (Kinsale Yacht Club) won the U25 category

Kinsalor (Kinsale Yacht Club) won the U25 category and took first in the Silver Fleet. Foynes Yacht Club's U25 Jasper came second in the U25 category.

J24 2022 Irish Championships results are below

Irish J/24s have won seven out of the eight races in the weekend's UK Nationals at Plymouth, with the all-Ireland-crewed Headcase taking six bullets and the overall title to add to her recent success in topping
the class in Kiel in Germany.

Things are looking good for the J/24s in Ireland facing into the big championship next month in Howth, as Janx Spirit from Tralee Bay SC took one of the other wins to place fourth overall.

Meanwhile, the Headcase crew are keeping up the crazy pace - they're on the overnight cross-Channel ferry, and hope to be on the start line at 10.55 hrs in Volvo Cork Week this (Monday) morning.

Moving targets. The successful crew of Headcase in Plymouth on Sunday afternoon were (left to right) Sam O'Byrne (Howth YC), Marcus Ryan (Mayo SC), Ryan Glynn (Ballyholme YC), Cillian Dickson (Lough Ree YC & HYC) and Louis Mulloy (MSC). Fresh from success at Kiel Week, they've moved on again, headed towards Volvo Cork Week for Monday morning via the overnight ferry

Whatever excitements the Irish J/24 class may have been providing in home waters this past weekend, the current all-Ireland Champions (in every sense) with the not-inappropriately-named Headcase have succeeded brilliantly in keeping their heads above water and their noses in front in the top-of-the-line Kiel Week in Germany.

They've taken in Kiel as part of their countdown to the J/24 Europeans in Howth in August, with the UK Nationals very much in sight. But for now, this multi-talented crew (drawn from every Irish Province except Munster) had a scorecard to dream of in Kiel, with six bullets in nine races.

12 teams travelled from throughout Ireland to compete in the 2022 J24 Northern Championships hosted by Lough Erne Yacht Club over the weekend of 18th and 19th June.

Four local boats including Barry Humphreys on TJ, Tim Rippey on Jigalo, Luke Mcbride on Crazy horse and JP McCaldin on Il Riccio took part.

Racing on Lower Lough Erne from the Lough Erne Yacht club the teams completed all 6 races over the weekend in strong winds on the broad lough. Racing was overseen by national race office Derek Bothwell and a team of volunteers on and off the water.

Race one on Saturday afternoon started in 24 knots of wind and was a very close contest with the lead changing several times the race eventually going to local team Il Riccio led by JP McCaldin, second was the new owner of Hard on Port from Bray sailing club Dave Bailley, with Diarmaid Mullen, Sligo Yacht Club, in third position with his new boat to the class Smugairle Róin and close battles down the fleet for the other places.

Race two went to Class president Mark Usher from Greystones sailing club sailing Jumpin’ Jive again with second place going to Hard on port and Il Riccio in third.

Race three saw Hard on Port take their first race win with Jumpin’ Jive in second position and Colm O’ Flaherty and team in their new boat Jedi from Sligo Yacht club coming third.

With the wind increasing again, Hard on Port dominated race four to take the win from Il Riccio with Smugairle Róin in third. Very tired, battered, and bruised sailors retired to the clubhouse in Killadeas for an evening of entertainment and to swap tails of the days epic racing in strong winds and sea-like waves. The seen was set on Sunday for an exciting two-race showdown between Hard on Port, Il Riccio and Jumpin Jive all separated by just 3 points any one of them could still take the event.

Sunday dawned calmer but by the time the teams arrived in the sailing area winds were again as strong as the previous days and small jibs were the order of the day to keep the boats under control.

Race 5 was again a battle between Hard on Port and Il Riccio. Il Riccio needed to beat Hard on Port to keep their event hopes alive and were leading at mark 1 but great speed by Hard on Port saw them take the lead win the race and their tight controlling position over Il Riccio allowed Jumpin Jive through to take 2nd from Il Riccio. This result meant Hard on Port took their first event win under Dave Bailey with a race to spare and left the rest to battle it out for the final race.

The final race was dominated by Il Riccio who stuck with the smaller jib, Smugairle Róin also stuck with their jib and came 2nd with Jumpin Jive third. This result meant Il Riccio finished 2nd overall with Jumpin Jive in 3rd. 1st silver fleet and under 25 team went to Howth under 25 team on Killcullen lead by Oisin O’ Connor, definitely a team to watch for the future.

Back to the clubhouse to de-rig and ready for the long drive home for all the travelling teams.

The J24 Northern Champion for 2022, Dave Bailey who said “delighted to get the win in very challenging conditions over the weekend. A great start to the season and looking forward to the events ahead throughout Ireland. The event was run superbly from start to finish as always by LEYC. More great memories to add to our sailing up North”.

At the prizegiving, event organiser June Clarke thanked event sponsors and wished everyone a safe journey. The class looks forward to its National championships in Foynes Yacht Club in July.

The J/24 One Design 'Legal Alien' racing keelboat is for sale and priced at €14,000

The 1987 Rogers hull is in excellent condition and race-ready, according to seller Jill Sommerville. 

A marine surveyor report has been completed on the keelboat and the boat has current ECHO & ICR certs. Her Sail number IRL 4064 was recently approved for Ireland.

Her inventory includes a road trailer and trailer box with 1 spare wheel, and straps. 

Legal Alien has a large sail wardrobe and Veloctitek instruments.

Read the full advert on Afloat boats for sale with contact details here