Irish offshore sailing's biggest social event of the year has traditionally been ISORA's annual dinner at the National Yacht Club and last Saturday night was no different with 160 guests gathering at the East Pier clubhouse in Dun Laoghaire to salute its 2019 champion Paul O'Higgins and his crew from the JPK10.80 Rockabill VI.

As Afloat previously reported, O'Higgins, from the neighbouring Royal Irish Yacht Club, came from behind in the last race of the season to lift the Wolf’s Head trophy at a sell-out night at the NYC.

Saturday's ISORA prizegiving at the NYC Photo: GP Foto

The full list of prizewinners on the night is downloadable below. 

The prizegiving dinner was preceded by the association's agm at which the 2020 ISORA calendar was published.

ISORA 2019 - Report on 2019 by Hon. Sec. Stephen Tudor

The 2019 ISORA series started in April and racing concluded on Saturday 7th September.

The 16-race series saw 63 competitors from 13 Clubs. The fleet has made use of 7 ports including Dún Laoghaire, Holyhead, Pwllheli, Dingle, Liverpool, Douglas, and Greystones.

We are extremely grateful for the work and input of all Club representatives who have made our visits possible. The devastation in Holyhead impacted on the number of competitors and a loss of a key port in the 2018 and 2019 schedules.

The ISORA Offshore Series for the Royal Dee Yacht Club’s prestigious Wolf’s Head was won this year by the Paul O’Higgins, Rockabill VI from the Royal Irish Yacht Club, for the best six offshore races, followed closely by Aurelia, Chris & Patanne Power Smith, and the Jackknife, Andrew Hall who collected most points in the season and consequently won the ISROA Points Series. The series was decided by the results of the last race from Pwllheli to Dun Laoghaire.

The two ISORA Coastal Series attracts the largest fleets; The Viking Marine Series in Ireland and the Global Exhibitions Series in Wales. This style of point to point racing is very popular with competitors favouring the challenge of a longer race with the usual post-race social gathering.

The Club Team Trophy was won this year by the Royal Saint George team of Aurelia, Windjammer and YoYo. This is the first time in many years that the team trophy was not won by the Pwllheli Sailing Club team.

Prizes are awarded to all principal winners and to each race winner, overall winners in each of the three IRC classes and the restrictive class ‘Silver Class’.

ISORA is affiliated to the governing bodies; ‘Irish Sailing’ IS, ‘RYA’ and ‘RYA Cymru Wales’.

The Wolf's Head Trophy Photo: GP Foto

We have embraced many modern technologies for race management with an automated on-line entry and payment system, a dedicated web site with over 1,000 recipients of the ISORA e-newsletters. Race Committee and Race Management have been communicating with WhatsApp and this has proved successful in 2019 and enabled work load sharing in particular with Mark Thompson and Peter Dunlop. All races are viewed by the ISORA YB Tracking which has enabled the use of virtual waypoints and unmanned finish lines such as the finish line set in the middle of the Irish Sea following the start in Douglas; this enabled competitors to disperse to their home ports - brilliant!

Tracking would not be possible without the support of our fantastic sponsors Viking Marine and Global Exhibitions for the Coastal Series and of course our Race Sponsors Avery Crest, Jack Ryan Whiskey, Hendricks Ryan and Tudor Estate Agents.

The impressive array of ISORA trophies on display at the NYC Photo: Michael Horgan

ISORA has been instrumental in providing shore bases for ‘Automatic Identification System’ (AIS), with support from Marine Traffic, providing better coverage of the Irish Sea area and making deliveries between ports safer.

The 2019 series was again scored using the ISORA High Points System with more points awarded for more challenging races and more reward in larger fleets. This complex system is possible by using the superb results program ‘Sailwave’ which also enables the publishing of results as competitors finish and for all the different fleets and classes.

2019 was another great offshore series seeing new boats, more competitors, challenging racing and fantastic shore time for social gatherings and the usual warm ISORA camaraderie.

Finally, our thanks and appreciation for the hard work, the dedication of our Chairman Peter Ryan – Thank you, Peter