The West of Ireland offshore Racing Association (WIORA) are very proud to be in its 40th year writes Elaine O'Mahoney. This year their flagship event, The West Coast Championships, are being hosted by The Royal Western Yacht Club of Ireland (RWYCI), from the 29th June to the 2nd July, at the newly refurbished Kilrush Creek Marina under the new ownership of L&M Keating (Maritime) LTD.
At present there is a total of thirty-one entries and the organisers are calling for more boats to take part to put the number over forty. That is the ultimate goal. Entries received to date represent clubs along the west, south and east coasts.
Simon McGibney, WIORA Commodore, has highly commended the work being done by the RWYCI to attract boats to this years’ event. For €120 you will get top class racing with seven races scheduled over four days under the guidance of OOD Alan Crosbie. Lift in & lift out for trailerable boats and berthage included.
The organising committee have put together a cracking social calendar to match the on the water activities. A new first for our White Sail class is that they will be on a completely separate course to the IRC boats but within the same spectacular sailing area on the lower Shannon.
Another element to this years’ event has been to promote sports boats participation – an idea driven by Yannick Lemmonier from West Sails, who already has confirmed entries from 1720/Melges 24/SB20 boats. They will sail within class but they will have a specially commissioned trophy for the overall winner. As WIORA is a cruiser racer association the overall West Coast Champion will be chosen from the cruiser racer IRC classes and this has been acknowledged by all classes. All sports boats are welcome!
Entry information can be found on the Royal Western Yacht Club of Ireland website. So if you are free in four weeks’ time and have a boat, come along and join in the 40th year celebrations which are guaranteed to be fun!
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