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Impressive Maybury & Joker II Crew Continue to Lead ICRA Class One

8th June 2019
Three race wins sets John Maybury's J109 Joker II up for a successful defence of her Class One title on Dublin Bay tomorrow. Onboard Joker II is Crosshaven 2004 Olympian Killian Collins. Victory tomorrow would give the RIYC skipper four wins in a row of the ICRA title Three race wins sets John Maybury's J109 Joker II up for a successful defence of her Class One title on Dublin Bay tomorrow. Onboard Joker II is Crosshaven 2004 Olympian Killian Collins. Victory tomorrow would give the RIYC skipper four wins in a row of the ICRA title Credit: Afloat

After five races sailed and a discard applied at the ICRA National Championships at the Royal St. George Yacht Club, John Maybury is two races away from an impressive fourth win of the Class One title after another impressive day on Dublin Bay sees the Royal Irish Yacht Club skipper lead 18-boat class one by five nett points with three wins from five races.

As predicted, J109s continue their stranglehold of class one and are in the top three places. Second, on 10 points, is Howth Yacht Club's Storm skippered by Pat Kelly and one point behind in third overall is clubmate and ICRA Commodore Richard Colwell in the new Outrajeous campaign.

Current J109 National Champion Andrew Algeo sailing his brand new J99 is fourth overall. 

Three solid windward-leeward races, with beats of 1.1 nautical miles, were held today in shifting westerly breezes of 280 to 290 degrees that placed an emphasis on sailing the high tack and staying in the strongest pressure, upwind and down. The 10-14 knot breeze was heaviest in the morning with gust up to 20 knots over relatively flat seas. 

"It was very tight racing - again - and it was tough with 20 knots for all three races and good courses too," said Colwell.  "It's very close in our class, one mistake and you pay heavily - the way it should be!"

Results are here. The final two races are scheduled tomorrow from 11 am with breeze forecast to be westerly at eight knots on Dublin Bay

Class One start 2895With just seconds to the start gun, the Strangford Lough Ker 32 HiJacKer from Down Cruising Club wins the pin end of the 400 metre line Photo: Afloat

Storm J109 Kelly 2545Pat Kelly's Storm has moved up to second overall Photo: Afloat

Outrajeous 1892Richard Colwell in the new Outrajeous campaign is lying third overall Photo: Afloat

J99 J109 2747Andrew Algeo's J99 on port with Colwell's Outrajeous in today's windward-leeward races

Grand soleil Nieulargo 2550Kinsale's Grand Soleil Nieulargo was fourth in the third race to be 11th overall Photo: Afloat

Gringo 2060Dublin Bay local IMX38 Gringo (Tony Fox) from the National Yacht Club won race three and is sixth overall Photo: Afloat

Jelly Baby 2022Seventh-placed Jelly Baby (above) - Despite her advertised tactician being Olympic skiff campaigner Seafra Guilfoyle, the 49er crew was spotted otherwise engaged on Dublin Bay (below) Photos: Afloat

49er 1772

Read all the latest from the ICRA National Championships in one handy link here.

Published in ICRA, J109
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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)