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Irish Offshore Sailing News. Training Courses, Lessons, & Race Results
North Sea Racing
RORC's North Sea Race and Vuurschepen Race have both been cancelled due to travel restrictions in the UK and the North Sea Regatta has decided to organise an 'exciting replacement race'. During this year’s upcoming Ascension Day Weekend, on Friday,…
Younger sailors have been featuring more in South Coast racing including George Radley Jnr and crew on Creamy Beam, a vintage Sadler 25, competing in the 2020 Cobh to Blackrock Race
More young sailors are interested in racing offshore, an encouraging trend that should be fostered. It can help to bridge the problems that have been encountered in sailing where younger sailors have been lost to the sport in bridging the…
Damage to the hull on the starboard side of the yacht Medi Mode
A collision involving a yacht and a tanker in August 2019 has prompted a reminder for boaters to brush up on the “rules of the road” for seafarers in the Department of Transport’s latest Marine Notice. The 38ft yacht Medi…
2021 OSTAR & TWOSTAR Races Still Going Ahead as Planned
This year’s OSTAR and TWOSTAR races are going ahead as planned, the Royal Western Yacht Club of England has confirmed. Organisers say that after consultation with finishing hosts Newport Yacht Club in Rhode Island, they are “confident that we can…
Rolex China Sea Race 2021 Cancelled Amid Pandemic Concerns
Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club has cited “continued uncertainty regarding international border openings” amid the coronavirus pandemic in its decision to cancel the 2021 Rolex China Sea Race, which had been due to start on 31 March. In a statement,…
Seamus Fitzpatrick's First 50, Mermaid on her way to VDLR victory in 2019
The defending Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta offshore champion is among the first six entries into that division for July’s regatta, a class that looks set to become one of the biggest fleets of the biennial event again. As regular Afloat…
Ella’s Pink Lady in Sydney after Jessica Watson’s solo circumnavigation
Mail Online is reporting that the yacht used by would-be round-the-world record-setter Jessica Watson has been left to rot outside the maritime museum where it has resided for almost a decade. In 2009, then 16-year-old Watson, from Australia, sailed her…
Offshore pairing - Ireland's Kenny Rumball and Pam Lee are sticking with their mixed offshore keelboat campaign plans for Paris 2024 even though a decision on the new class will not now be made by the IOC until the end of May 2021
A leading offshore sailor and former Admiral of the Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) in London says because of the 'possible loss' of the new offshore keelboat at the Olympics he questions whether it is worth sustaining the connection of…
Bill King of Oranmore Castle in Galway
Global circumnavigator Bill King of Oranmore Castle in Galway had lived to be 102 when he died – still very fit – in 2012. Yet he’d led such an extraordinary life of adventure and danger ashore and afloat and under…
Pam Lee and Kenny Rumball have mapped out a campaign plan for the Paris 2024 Olympics
Dun Laoghaire Harbour's Kenny Rumball and Pamela Lee of Greystones Harbour have restated their goal to represent Ireland at Paris 2024 in the new Olympic Mixed Offshores Double Class.  "We're absolutely focused and excited and working towards Paris 2024, but…
Plans in the Offing for ‘Great Cape Race’ in 2021-22
Plans have emerged for a new round-the-world event for ocean racing yachts which could set off from the starting line next October. As Yacht Racing Life reports, a provisional Notice of Race has been published for what’s being called the…
Catherine Hunt and Pamela Lee of Greystones aboard Iarracht Maigeanta. Their new double-handed Round Ireland Time has added significance when set in the full historic framework
The Round Ireland Sailing Record is a bit like Ireland herself. It's complicated by Partition. It's a case of there being not one but two sets of records, two elephants in two rooms. But for interested parties, the relevant elephant…
Alex Thomson inside the nerve centre of his IMOCA 60 Hugo Boss
The Vendée Globe will likely see a new record time set in the edition which starts this Sunday 8 November, with Hugo Boss skipper Alex Thomson suggesting a finish “between 59 and 70 days depending on the weather”. Such a…
Kenny Rumball at the helm of the RL Sailing Figaro 3, with its North Sails 3Di set-up
Rookie Kenny Rumball competed in his Figaro debut this autumn, reaching as high as 15th in the third stage in the notoriously tough French solo marathon event that saw the Dubliner end up 33rd from 35 starters overall. It marked the first…
A yacht competing in the 2019 Rolex Sydney Hobart Race
This year's Rolex Sydney Hobart Race, the 76th running of the Australian race, welcomes a new division of boats and sailors to the world-renowned racecourse with the Two-Handed division included for the first time. After witnessing the worldwide increase in…
Catherine Hunt and Pamela Lee – their record-making circuit of Ireland showed real sailing artistry
The new Round Ireland Two-handed Record Holders, RL Sailing's Pamela Lee of Greystones SC and Catherine Hunt, are acclaimed as October's "Sailors of the Month" after a superbly-executed circuit of our island home which went way beyond their initial challenge…