Meteorological commentators tell us that Autumn has definitely arrived, thereby closing off the decidedly mixed summer of 2024. So there's a certain awed fascination in contemplating the reality that in Ireland the 2024 sailing season is only really getting into its stride. Or at least that's the case in terms of hosting national and international majors. And all this despite the fact that in three weeks time, the hours of darkness will be starting to match the hours of daylight.
DRAGONS AND ILCAS IN DUN LAOGHAIRE
Yet in Dun Laoghaire the Grant Thornton ILCA Nationals got going yesterday (Friday) from the National YC, while the International Dragons have been racing since Thursday (concluding tomorrow) in the Irish Dragon Nationals, hosted in Dun Laoghaire by Commodore Mark Hennessy and his fellow-members in the Royal St George YC.
It can happen. The Quarter Tonner Snoopy from Courtown racing in mid-September sunshine at the ICRA Nats 2023. Photo Afloat.ie
COUNTDOWN TO KINSALE
And this slice of decidedly serious sailing is itself just part of the countdown towards the Astra-sponsored Dragon Gold Cup in Kinsale from 6th to 13th September, when we would expect The Master of Tralong, aka Lawrie Smith, to be setting the pace on behalf of Glandore Harbour Yacht Club.
He is already doing that in Dublin Bay in the Dragon Nationals in an impressively international fleet, putting his stamp on the lead with two straight seconds on Day One while defending champion Cameron Good of Kinsale had to battle to get into the top ten, despite finishing third in Race 1.
Heading towards the Dragon Gold Cup. The legendary Lawrie Smith with the Dragon Class's Edinburgh Cup, won (again) at Abersoch in July 2024, while progressing steadily towards the current Irish Dragon Nationals in Dublin Bay (below), and beyond that the Dragon Gold Cup at Kinsale in September. Photo: SCYC
This Dragon fleet of all the talents (and further enlarged) gets going again in Kinsale on 6th September for the Dragon Gold Cup. Kinsale YC Commodore Tony Scannell and his members are pulling out all the stops to stage what is one of the world's great classic championships. Back in Dun Laoghaire meanwhile, the Dublin Bay Sailing Club may well by then have staged its last evening race of the year, but the fleet will be swinging into action from the Royal Irish Yacht Club with Commodore Timothy Carpenter leading the membership for the three-day UNIO Irish Cruiser Racer Nationals 2023 from August 30th through September 1st.
The J/109 Outrajeous won the ICRA Nats 2023 by one point. Photo: Afloat.ie
BUMPER YEAR FOR J BOATS
Last year's ICRA Nationals in Howth in mid-September 2023 were closely won by Johnny & Suzy Murphy's J/109 from the host club, but the racing this year has seen many boats of all marques in the reckoning, though there's no doubting the fact that boats from the J/Boat family have been having a bumper season.
Thus, just as the current Dragon Nationals is seen by many as something of a countdown towards the Gold Cup in 12 days time, so the more determined J/Boat skippers will see the ICRA Nationals as a useful countdown towards their own J-Cup Championship 2024 from the Royal Irish Yacht Club on 7th-8th September.
Such an attitude will of course only go to ensure that successful non-J/Boat skippers such as Belfast Lough's John Minnis with the A35 Final Call II, and Dublin Bay's Paul O'Higgins with the JPK 10.80 Rockabill VI, will be doing their damnedest to make sure that it's not a J/Boat taking off the top ICRA prize.
John Minnis's successful Archambault 35 Final Call II from Belfast Lough will be coming south "on maneouvres and into battle". Photo: Afloat.ie
COWES WEEK OVERALL CLASS WIN
But it has to be admitted that Irish J/Boats of all types have been having a ball during 2024 both at home and abroad, with the multi-province-crewed J/24 Headcase taking the Europeans, while in a very hot Class 2 in Cowes Week, Crosshaven's own Jones family with the J/122 Jellybaby had a convincing overall win.
In home waters last year, Howth's Pat O'Neill's J/80 Mojo (a former World Champion) won the inaugural Irish J-Cup, while Barry Cunningham's Chimaera (RIYC) was first of the most numerous class, the J/109s.
On a jelly roll….the Jones family's J/122 Jellybaby from Cork scored a very significant success in Cowes Week 2024
LET'S HEAR IT FOR COBRA
For this year's event, the approaching lineup of proven 2024 winners of all J Boat types really is remarkable. Pat Kelly's J/109 Storm from Rush had another class success on Belfast Lough in Bangor Regatta (aka COBRA – let's hear it for City of Bangor Regatta) while the Goodbody family's J/109 White Mischief has consistently hit the high notes with DBSC.
The Shanahan family (NYC) with their J/109 Ruth shot into the limelight with their historic win in the K2Q celebrating the 1860 Kingstown to Queenstown Race, or the Dublin Bay to Cork Harbour if you prefer. And in ISORA (due for a race this weekend), Ruth leads overall, though another J/109 – Simon Knowles Indian from Howth – is in the mix, as is the J/112e Mojito from Pwllheli.
"These people win races". ValenTina's success in Volvo Cork Week marked a breakthrough for the J/112e
CORK WEEK SUCCESS
Then in Volvo Cork Week in mid-July the overall winner (albeit by a whisker) was Johnny Treanor's J/112e ValenTina (NYC), while the Beaufort Cup was won by the Defence Forces crew helmed by newly-unleashed politico Simon Coveney, racing a J/109 that in civilian life reverts to being Artful Dodjer from Kinsale.
So if the weather obliges, the J-Cup Ireland series from the Royal Irish YC in Dublin Bay on 7th-8th September has the potential to provide some of the most intense sailing competition to be seen in Ireland this year. Yet the J-Cup in a way is yet another lead-in to something else in an ascending scale.
THE BIG KAHUNA
This is 2024's Big Kahuna. The Maples Group IRC European Championship on Dublin Bay from the Royal Irish Yacht Club, a four day event from 12th to 15th September. Patrick Burke of the successful First 40 Prima Forte is event chairman, and they've a direct link to the IRC-administrating Royal Ocean Racing Club through its former Commodore Michael Boyd, a longtime Royal Irish YC member. But probably most importantly of all, this sixth staging of the IRC Europeans is going to see the outcome of the Irish hosts commissioning of a special new Corinthian Prize, at a time when the Corinthian divisions are rising up in significance in most major events.
That it should happen in Dun Laoghaire is trebly appropriate, for it was Dun Laoghaire's Royal Alfred Yacht Club which first codified the concept and rules of Corinthian or amateur sailing in 1870, with its set of rules eventually forming the basis of the rules of the International Yacht Racing Union.
STEWARD AND LADIES' MAID
Most of the boats availing of the new setup were smallish craft, and soon totally amateur sailed. But the founding fathers of the RAYC - a motley crew from several club backgrounds – were realists, and for larger boats they allowed one or two paid people, provided they were the Steward and the Ladies' Maid.
"The only paid crew to be a Steward and a Ladies' Maid". The start of a Royal Alfred YC Cross Channel Race from Dublin Bay in 1888
It would be a generous gesture if the name of the Royal Alfred YC – now amalgamated into Dublin Bay Sailing Club - were to be incorporated into the new trophy, but either way this official highlighting of the Corinthians will come to be seen as one of the most important elements in the IRC Euros 2024.
BEAU GESTE ENTERED
Another important element is simply the numbers game – how many will come to Ireland in mid-September for a major annual championship when many of the natives would otherwise be thinking about getting a congenial crew together for the up-coming Autumn Leagues.
It's all rather fascinating, as one of the early entries back in June was Karl Kwok's TP52 Beau Geste from Hong Kong. Beau Geste is on the prowl in Europe this season, and on 13th August at Mariehamn in the Aland Islands in the northern Baltic (home to the famous Ericksson square-rigged grain ships), the Hong Kong boat was overall winner of the ORC Euros from a fleet of 56 boats.
Serious pre-race pep talk on a serious boat. Pete Smyth's Ker 46 Searcher (RIYC) is expected to head the home challenge in the up-coming cruiser-racer contests in Dublin Bay. Photo: Afloat.ie
TARGET ENTRY FIGURE FOR IRC EUROS
So although it may be crude to put it so bluntly, despite being on a wet and windy island set far into the Atlantic in early Autumn, the IRC Euros in Dublin Bay on September 12th to 15th should be aiming for an entry of at least 57 boats.
For you're living on another planet if you think the ORC and the IRC are best mates, and supporting numbers matter. But in the current spell of volatile and stormy weather, there'll be those who'll instinctively think that calling it a day for the 2024 season on 1st September would be as nature intends.
PERISH THOSE THOUGHTS
Such thoughts must not be entertained. Perish them. For thanks to it being IRC, the Cape 31s can take part, and the word is of considerable enthusiasm among the Mark Mills Mob. So too can the J/80s, and they're very rewarding boats to sail and race.
But with the exceptionally restless weather, distant entries are slow to commit. Currently there are 32 paid-up entries, but with more in the pipeline. Others can be encouraged, for it's statistically possible that the run of late-season gales will have blown themselves out by mid-September to bring the weather experienced last year at the same time.
TWO CERTAINTIES
Meanwhile, there are two reasonable certainties. One is that Beau Geste will be among the close contenders for the overall prize in the IRC Euros 2024.
And the other is that there's no way Beau Geste will win the new and already much-coveted Corinthian Prize, whatever it may be called. For as this vid reveals, Beau Geste was skippered to a horizon job win in the ORC Euros by Gavin Brady. And if Gavin Brady is a Corinthian, then I am Marie of Roumania.
