Tom Dolan’s marvellous sunrise victory on Thursday in Stage 1 of the 2026 Figaro Solitaire was the most effective starting signal we could hope for in order to encourage us all into thinking the 2026 season really is under way at last.
While we may have had some early 2026 season events of varied importance staged in Ireland with their results duly posted, there has been a peculiar feeling of unreality that - as is so often the case here - has had a lot to do with the weather.
For there’s been a very harsh wind chill around our island which – when combined with the sea temperature only just starting to rise after being at its annual low – has meant that any sort of traditionally relaxed al fresco post-regatta revelry has been a non-starter.
To the south, meanwhile, the Mediterranean has served up a smorgasbord of the nasty unpredictables, with sudden storms well leavened with thunder and lightning for some major events, and the achievement of just one race completed per day becoming the par for some of the courses. Thankfully, one of those races was a win in Croatia for Olympic solo sailor Finn Lynch of the National YC.
You really don’t need this sort of thing when you’re trying to race an Olympic boat on the supposedly benign waters of Croatia
Despite meteorological mayhem, Finn Lynch secured a race win. Photo: Sailing Energy
Further to unbalance our early summer expectations, the beginning of this week saw some days of mega heatwave in central Russia which - if spread further north - would have had the permafrost becoming rather less perma. That can apparently cause real infrastructural problems of a kind we never have to deal with in Ireland. Which is just as well, for in the unlikely event of trying to do so, it would be reasonable to put good money on us making a world class hames of sorting it all.
JUST LIKE THAT…..
Perish the thought. For suddenly, just like that and thanks to Kingspan’s solo skipper, the positive celestial switch has been clicked. Summer 2026 is definitely upon us this weekend. And there are colourful events, happenings and achievements to match the hopefully sunlit yet not completely calm scene afloat.
For the downside of the weekend’s developing high wandering in the neighbourhood of Ireland might be a period of relative windlessness. But with any luck, in this case its central area will be sufficiently eastward of us to provide nice warm sailing breezes from the south and southwest, and you really couldn’t and shouldn’t ask for more.
HOPEFUL NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENTS
Yet for those who do, they have to acknowledge that recent days and weeks have seen encouraging and enthusiasm-regenerating developments on the national and international scene that have a feeling of sailing moving in the right direction.
The Spirit of Shackleton is a 2013-built Tony Castro-designed Clipper 70 with re-designed bow and the accommodation modified to include classroom and research facilities.
To take one example, the Atlantic Shackleton Trust now have their former Clipper Ventures 70ft cutter Spirit of Shackleton in Dun Laoghaire, with training and extensive research voyages the main plan. But first, Enda O Coineen and the Clipper fleet’s most successful skipper Bobby Beggs have to race the boat in the Round Ireland from Wicklow on June 20th.
ROUND IRELAND RACE OPTIMISM
As for the Round Ireland Classic, that too is a cause for optimism as its entry list soared through the totemic 50 mark this past week, and the word is that Class40 entry numbers – currently at eight - may still be building, with a good possibility of ten superstar Class40s coming to the line.
They will include That Man Again, 2025 Figaro champion, Fastnet Race twice times overall winner, and Sydney Hobart 2025 victor Alexis Loison in his new Lombard-designed Groupe REEL.
SUPPORT NEEDED FOR CHAMPION WOMAN SAILOR
Increased Irish interest in Class40 is all to the good for their 2025 Female Champion Pam Lee of Greystones, as she’s still in the midst of building sponsorship resources to continue her programme with #Empowher on through the 2026 Transatlantic Route de Rhum to Guadeloupe from St Malo on October 20th. A useful performance in racing Round Ireland next month should be a real boost to resource-building for someone who already holds the two-handed Round Ireland Record.
Pamela Lee of Greystones is now French-based, and current female champion in Class40
While this brings the focus to Ireland for a week or two, out in the great big world of superstar sailing the supposedly long-planning 38th America’s Cup, while steadily counting down towards 2027 Series in the Bay of Naples, has leapt to welcome extra life in the past month or so with a plethora of late entries.
KEN READ BRINGS THE AMERICA’S CUP TO LIFE
This includes the fresh American one through the necessary club status of Sail Newport (RI), headed by the legendary Ken Read to bring a much-needed colourful character to the previously overly-serious 38th AC scene.
Game for a laugh…..Ken Read in Galway during the Volvo Stopover in 2012. Photo: VWR
The rapidly-developing Sail Newport squad have taken over all the considerable resources and expertise accrued by the American Magic team that pulled out of competition in 2025. But while we’ve seen Ken Read provide miracles of achievement out of major setbacks in high-powered events like the Volvo World Race, even he wouldn’t have thought of getting it all together in time for some sort of participation in this weekend’s important preliminary regatta at Cagliari in Sardinia.
Game for a challenge……Ken Read today. He has stood down as Global President of North Sails to head up the late-but-great US challenge for the 38th America’s Cup series in Naples.
MAYOR OF NAPLES SEEKS GUARANTEES OF CONTINUITY
Whether it’s in Sardinia or further down the long countdown as the America’s Cup moves its focus to the Bay of Naples, the Read presence will be welcome. It all adds to the buildup and the impulse for waterfront development, which has been so encouraging that the Mayor of Naples is already seeking guarantees that the 39th America’s Cup will be staged on his rather special bit of sea. And the word is the powers-that-be on the neighbouring Amalfi Coast are thinking to follow the international trend by levying a direct Visitor Tax. Just what’s needed, one would have thought, in an area already world-renowned for its volcanic activity.
Pushing the envelope. The foiling AC75 American Magic tests the limits in Auckland. The resources of this previous US America’s Cup Challenge have now been taken over by the new Ken Read team.
SCOTTISH SERIES
A quick look at the events already well in place to take full advantage of any good weather this weekend suggests we’ll have all the fun of the fair. The Jura Scottish Series at Tarbert on Loch Fyne is into its annual staging, and defending overall champion is the Hall family’s J/109 Something Else from the National YC in Dun Laoghaire. Time was when one of the more unusual pleasures of racing this series was through doing the feeder race, starting Thursday evening from Bangor on Belfast Lough, and then being rewarded by the dawn coming up on Friday to reveal the peaks of Arran still well-covered in snow.
In the days of the Belfast Lough to Tarbert overnight feeder race to the Scottish Series, it was a memorable experience to see the sun come up on the snow-capped peaks of the steep island of Arran in the outer Firth of Clyde.
ISORA CROSS-CHANNEL
There’s certainly have been snow on Snowdonia for the early 2026 races of ISORA, but visibility has been mixed and much of it has been unobserved. Their most recent outing was the Dun Laoghaire to Holyhead, won by the other Hall family (the Pwllheli crowd) with their fascinating Lomabard 46 Pata Negra.
How about this for a piece of kit? The Hall family of Pwllheli’s Lombard 46 Pata Negra introduced the Irish Sea to Marc Lombard designs, and we’ll see some of his latest thoughts next month when multi-champion Alexis Loison’s very new Lombard-designed Class40 Groupe REEL comes to Ireland for the 2026 Round Ireland Race from Wicklow.
Today (Saturday 23rd May), ISORA is racing back to Dun Laoghaire, but while conditions have been wintry and beyond until now, suddenly it’s summer. And the course is just that bit nearer the calm centre of the High Pressure than other weekend events of Irish interest. So the prospect of a Saturday night Dun Laoghaire party-plus after a fast race is by no means a certainty.
RIYC DUN LAOGHAIRE REGATTA CUP
We’ve often said it here that Saturday turnouts for the Dublin Bay Sailing Club regular programme can be at such a varied and colourful level that it amounts to a weekly regatta. But for this weekend (23rd-24th May), the Royal Irish YC is starting its 195th Anniversay programme by expanding that idea into something more specific, and their Dun Laoghaire Cup is for One Design keelboats and dinghies.
New boys on the block. The Melges 15s will be the biggest class in this weekend’s RIYC Dun Laoghaire Cup
The interesting fleet entered ranges in boat size from International Dragons down to the growing Melges 15 Class. They’ve the largest turnout, and seem to be in the midst of a competition for the daftest boat name. Presumably if you’ve called your new Melges 15 by the moniker of Dopes Afloat, you’re then beyond insult when racing.
HOWTH PARTY TO SENIOR ILCAS AND MONEY RACING
Across the bay on the Howth peninsula with the Howth Maritime festival in full swing, there’s a fascinating mixture of serious sport, serial seafood savouring, and boat racing for good old-fashioned cash this weekend.
The more serious sailing today (Saturday 23rd) and tomorrow is the Irish ILCA Masters 2026 being hosted by Howth Yacht Club. For those of us who have been around the sailing scene for a while, it looks as though the ILCA sailors start to qualify for one of the Masters categories while they’re still in short pants. But nowadays, chronological age seems less relevant than ever, and spreading the net as generously as possible draws in a larger and more varied fleet.
Which is another way of saying that the Irish ILCA Masters 2026 seems to have drawn in entries from every corner of the island, and it’s anybody’s guess who’ll win.
SPLASH FOR CASH
Things move onto an entirely different plane tomorrow with the Howth Maritime Festival Pursuit Race, geared to be spectator friendly, and hopefully with the last stage the very visible Balscadden Mark to Howth Pier Finish leg in the southeast part of Howth Sound.
Howth Sound looking northwest. Ideally, the final leg for tomorrow (Sunday’s) Pursuit Race will be from the Balscadden Mark at the Nose of Howth heading northwest into the Sound and finishing at the end of the pier. Photo: Facebook
First to finish after the lengthy staggered start process is of course the winner, as clearcut as you please. And even more so is the prize - €500 in cash. Howth being Contactless Central these days, they’ve forgotten how to handle actual money, so it’s expected the five hundred snots won’t go beyond the bar.
BALTIMORE DOUBLE FESTIVALS
Baltimore in West Cork being furthest from the centre of this weekend’s slightly disorganised High Pressure system, it has the best chance of a good sailing breeze, which will be just the job to shift the hefty gaff-rigged craft of traditional type taking part in this weekend’s Baltimore Woodenboat Festival.
Where all things are possible…….summertime in Baltimore in West Cork
Of course, so long as your boat is built in wood, you can take part regardless of rig type. So if you happen to have brought your lateen-rigged felucca home from the Nile, then go for it down west in Baltimore. In times past, the lateen rig’s splendid sailing qualities were high-lighted by the achievements of Grace O’Malley, the pucauns of Galway Bay were lateen rigged, and the Achill Yawls still are.
SAOIRSE THE STAR
Nevertheless the central thought of woodenboats in Baltimore this weekend continues to be the fact that Liam Hegarty at Oldcourt succeeded in authentically re-creating Conor O’Brien’s world girdling 42ft Saoirse in time for the Centenary in 2023-2025 of his great pioneering voyage souh of the great Capes, and now Saoirse II has Baltimore as her home port.
The People’s Flagship – Saoirse II sailing in Baltmore Harbour
SEAFOOD FESTIVAL
She is flagship over a port as famous for its seafood as its sailing, so Baltimore is having two major events, as the Seafood Festival is running concurrently with the Woodenboat event, and for good measure it looks as though a parallel Baltimore Craft Fair has come into being as a bonus.
The sheer level and variety of activities and interests afloat and ashore in Baltimore this weekend may be somewhat at variance with West Cork’s image as an easygoing sort of place. But that’s the way it goes, easy or otherwise – just don’t expect to understand it all at once, or maybe at all.
