Kinsale Yacht Club's SCORA League Fastnet Race sponsored by CH Marine takes place this Friday at 8pm.

This 100–mile round trip to one of the most iconic ocean racing turning points presents all the challenges to competitors associated with classic offshore/coastal racing.

The many headlands along the track present major tactical decision points for skippers and navigators in their race to make the many tidal gates along the route. This coupled to the often fickle winds make the creation of a race winning strategy extremely difficult.

This now classic race on the South Coast typically attracts competitors from the host Club Kinsale Yacht Club along with competitors from the Royal Cork and Cobh Sailing Club. 

The inclusion of the Kinsale Fastnet in SCORA Jim Donegan Memorial Series enhances the standing of this race along the South coast and the very generous sponsorship of this race by CH Marine makes the race highly attractive for South coast sailors.

Intending competitors are reminded that this is a ISAF OSR Cat 3 race with life rafts. Safety checks may be conducted prior to the start.

A strong, unstable and blustery airflow produced exciting, and at times marginal racing conditions at the week end for the East Coast Dragon Championship hosted by the Royal Irish Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire.

Despite Race Officer Jack Roy's skill and patience only four of the six race series was completed as a full gale swept through the bay on today.

In winds gusting up to 30 knots on the Friday and Saturday the tricky conditions produced four different winners, but Cameron Good and his team from Kinsale showed the most consistency to take the championship. Richard Goodbody from the host club was a close second, with Royal North of Ireland's Simon Brien third.

The Dragon focus now turns to Kinsale for the Nationals in August, and the last chance for visitors to check out the venue for the the Dragon Gold Cup in 2012'

Dragon East Coast Championship 2011 Results

1st Cameron Good, Simon Furney, Henry Kingston KYC
2nd Richard Goodbody, Rick Johnson, Rob Johnson RIYC
3rd Simon Brien, Mark Brien, David Good RNIYC
4th Andrew Craig RSGYC
5th Martin Byrne RSGYC

Sailing Preparations are well underway for The Sovereign's Cup that takes place from 22nd to 25th June 2011, as Kinsale Yacht Club is gearing up to welcome 140 boats and their crews for a fantastic four day sailing and social programme. Kinsale Yacht Club is delighted to announce that MGM Boats, Eli Lilly and Fáilte Ireland have come on board as partners for Sovereign's Week 2011.
"We are delighted to announce our partners for Sovereign's Cup 2011 as MGM Boats has opened a new brokerage office in Kinsale, Eli Lilly is a long-established multi-national and the support of Fáilte Ireland is a great measure of the impact the event has on local tourism," said Gary Horgan, Regatta Director.
Entries are rolling in each week, with both regular competitors and newcomers to the event from all over Ireland and the UK. This year welcomes previous Sovereign's Cup winner, Eamonn Rohan returning to defend his title on his Quarter tonner 'Anchor Challenge'. Also registered is previous Sovereign's Cup winner and team Captain of last year's victorious Rolex Commodore's Cup Team, Anthony O'Leary on his Ker 39 'Antix'.
There are a number of entries in the strong Quarter Ton fleet, including international professional yachtsman, Peter Morton who will race on 'Odd Job' as his wife Louise Morton (and Quarter Ton Class Secretary) will race on 'Espada'. Other Quarter tonners include 'Black Fun' from New Zealand, Neil Kenefick on 'Tiger', Rob Gray on 'Aquila', Ian Travers on 'Bandit' and Ken Lawless on'Supernova', to name but a few.
According to Regatta Director, Gary Horgan, "As well as the excellent sailing conditions, race management and social programme ashore, we are encouraging sailors and guests to start thinking about their travel and accommodation plans. We are delighted that the Cork Swansea ferry will enable more sailors to access Kinsale easily from the UK and Failte Ireland's website www.discoverireland.ie/cork is an excellent vehicle for checking out accommodation in Kinsale and surrounding areas," he added.
The social programme is based around providing a fun atmosphere after racing for people to enjoy and later in the evenings there will be some great music for a top party atmosphere. The event kicks off with a launch reception at Kinsale Yacht Club on Tuesday 21st June and the week will draw to a close following the prizegiving on Saturday 25th June with a Bar-B-Q and musical entertainment.
The Sovereign's Cup was established in 1995 and has been a very successful and hugely popular cruiser regatta. The biennial event attracts over 140 boats from all over Ireland and the UK who compete for the prestigious Sovereign's Cup for best all round score in IRC and The Portcullis Trophy for best ECHO handicap.
There are many Classes for entry; including Class 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and two White Sails classes. Also, the Quarter Ton Class Championships will be taking place during the Sovereign's Cup, bringing many new visitors to Kinsale from the South of England and Wales in particular.

The John Corby designed 38 one off, Gloves off, was the winner in class zero of Kinsale Yacht Club's Spring Series League. In Class One, the X- yacht Eos skippered by David Scott had a 16-point winning margin over Dan Buckley's J109 Justus. In class two another Corby design, a 25-footer, Yanks and Franks skippered by Vincent O'Shea beat Brian Goggin's sister ship Allure. Provisional overall results are published below class by class. Photos of the event by bob Bateman are here. All the latest Kinsale news and photos including updates on June's Sovereign's Cup.

 

Kinsale's Spring Series Class IRC Zero Overall

Series Place	Sail No	Boat	Type of Boat	Owner	Handicap	Series Points
1	IRL2003	GLOVES OFF	CORBY 38 ONE-OFF	Kieran Twomey	1.115	8
2	IRL4477	FREYA	X-442	Conor Doyle	1.098	17
3	IRL4475	GODOT	Dufour 44	Godkin & O'Donovan	1.099	24
4	IRL4076-2	MERIDIAN	SALONA 45	Tom Roche	1.131	29

Kinsale Yacht Club Spring Series Class IRC One Overall

Series Place	Sail No	Boat	Type of Boat	Owner	Handicap	Series Points
1	IRL6695	EOS	X-362 SPORT	David Scott	1.022	10
2	IRL2067	JUSTUS	J 109	Dan Buckley	1.027	16
3	IRL1843	ANTIX BEAG	1720mod	Anthony O'Leary	1.005	27
4	IRL2805	INDULGENCE	DEHLER 36 [JV]	Aidan Heffernan	1.023	30
5	IRL1583	CHANCER	ELAN 40	Carroll Bros	1.033	39
6	IRL4430	SAMBA	SUNFAST 40.3	John Downing	1.030	41

Kinsale Yacht Club Spring Series Class IRC Two Overall

Series Place	Sail No	Boat	Type of Boat	Owner	Handicap	Series Points
1	IRL2525	YANKS & FRANKS	CORBY 25	Vincent O'Shea	0.938	14
2	IRL2506	ALLURE	CORBY 25	Brian Goggin	0.936	22
3	IRL4170	SLACK ALICE	GK 34	Shane Statham	0.953	26
4	IRL16859	BAD COMPANY	SUNFAST 32	Desmond-Ivers-Deasy	0.939	29
5	IRL4506	SEA HAWK	SIGMA 33ood	Clem McElligott	0.915	34
6	GBR7525R	Thunderbird	Corby25	Denis Coleman	0.940	43
7	IRL1121	MAC MAGIC II	First 31.7	McCarthys	0.956	62
8	IRL78	NO-GNOMES	NICHOLSON 30 mod	Leonard Donnery	0.910	67
9	IRL9732	Wicked	Sun Fast 32i	Mark Mendel	0.940	70
10	IRL692	GEMINI	FIRST 310	Salter/O'Regan/Minihan	0.930	82
11	IRL329	GUNSMOKE 11	FIRST 32	Sammy Cohen	0.910	89
12	IRL3492	BIG DEAL	DEHLER 34	Derek Dillon	0.925	90
13	IRL6676	Y KNOT	FIRST 32S5	Barrett_Conlon	0.933	95

Kinsale Yacht Club Spring Series Class IRC Three Overall

Series Place	Sail No	Boat	Type of Boat	Owner	Handicap	Series Points
1	GBR506R	ANCHOR CHALLENGE	Farr 1/4 tonner	Eamonn Rohan	0.917	13
2	IRL1771	Shillelagh	BLAZER 23	John Twomey	0.868	15
3	IRL9600	IMPACUNIOUS	IMPALA	Eddie Rice	0.888	21
4	IRL4206	POWDER MONKEY	SIGMA 33	Liam Lynch	0.909	31
5	IRL6002	STAGEFRIGHT	FORMULA 28	STAGEFRIGHT	0.912	47
6	IRL6564	MONKEY BUSINESS	Formula28	Bill McConnell	0.912	49
7	IRL152	CHAMELEON	FASTNET 34	Padraig O'Donovan	0.896	52

Kinsale Yacht Club Spring Series Class IRC Four Overall

Series Place	Sail No	Boat	Type of Boat	Owner	Handicap	Series Points
1	GBR9625R	SUNDANCER	DYNAMO 25	Alan Mulcahy	0.841	8
2	148	SHELLY D	MOODY 30	Mick Murphy	0.859	16
3	A191	LA MARAQUITA	ACHILLES 24	Eddie Higgns & Kevin Morrisson		32

Kinsale Yacht Club Spring Series Class IRC White Sail Overall

Series Place	Sail No	Boat	Type of Boat	Owner	Handicap	Series Points
1	IRL3450	Val Criss	First 345	Murphy Hennessy Dann	0.965	13
2	IRL4004	OBJECTION	SUN ODYESSY 35	Kevin & Celia Murray	0.953	17.5
3	IRL7880	Windrose	Nicholson 26	Bill Joyce	0.850	20
4	IRL1176	MAGIC ELFIN	Hanse 371	Peter Kelly	0.992	22
5	IRL6006	CIMARRON VI	OCEANIS 42.3	Dave O'Sullivan	1.009	33
6	IRL4369	Charisma	Sigma33	Des Lyons & Aine Dunne	0.957	35
7	IRL7305	Delos	First 305	Dave Cullinane	0.914	40
8	IRL2123	WHEELS	SUN ODYESSY 42	John Whealan	1.013	40
9	IRL3910	Sonas	Sun Odyssey 39i	David Ross	1.011	44
10	IRL1424	Roloco	Oceaniis 343	Brian Rose	0.917	45
11	IRL109	Ragtime	GK 24	John Alexander	0.811	57
12	IRL4003	Aoife	Oceanis 350	John O Mahony	0.911	62

The first of the 2011 Irish Squib Class Regional Championships is being held in Kinsale over the May Bank Holiday Weekend. Boats from Dublin and Ulster are joined a local Munster fleet for some great racing today. Scroll down for photos below by bob Bateman. Big Seas!

Wind over tide and a 25-knot Easterly breeze meant it was always gonig to provide a great end to Kinsale's Spring Series Cruiser League. Scroll down for Bob Bateman's action shots from this afternoon's Cruiser course off Kinsale. Provisional overall results here.

Photographer Bob Bateman captured the sailing action from the final day of Kinsale's April league this afternoon and what a finale it turned out to be. Big seas, big winds for a classic Kinsale finish. The Squib class joined for good measure and are racing today and tomorrow for South Coast championship honours.  Scroll down for Bob's photos.

More final day Cruiser photo action from Kinsale HERE

More Squib South Coast photo action from Kinsale HERE

An appropriately named house for a sailing setting is on the market in Kinsale, County Cork. The Chart House is a 7-bed period house currently operating as a luxurious Bed and Breakfast.

The property is situated in the heart of Kinsale and within walking distance of Kinsale Yacht Club. It's on the market for €650,000. More here.

Click this link for the latest in Irish waterfront property

Bob Bateman was afloat today to capture the latest Spring sailing off Kinsale Yacht Club, a month long sailing series that has been sailed in sunshine so far each Sunday and today's Bank holiday Monday race was no different. Scroll down for photos, there are some nice shots of John Twomey's Sonar, Shillelagh.

Today's racing was sailed in a north east 8 knot breeze. An ebb tide flowing out of Kinsale harbour gave a good beat on the windward/leeward course, leaders tacking up the western shore.

The first round the weather mark was Anchor sailed by Ian Travers with sailmaker Nigel Young on board.

Winds dropped during the day but filled in again from the South East.

Classes 0, 1, 2 were on a round the cans course taking the Bullman buoy as weather mark before going on a two sail reach to Sovereigns Islands and  a run out to SE mark.

Racing co ntinued all day and a weary class 2 only returned to the harbour after 5pm.

Racing concludes next saturday followed by a prize giving Dinner.

 

The weather gods continue to simile on competitors and organisers alike,on what has been a very calm and on the whole, enjoyable spring sailing series off Kinsale thus far writes Keith O Riordan. The third round of The Kinsale Yacht Club Spring Series, sponsored by The Carlton Hotel Kinsale, got off to a punctual start this Sunday, in an 8-10 knot south-easterly breeze.
Classes 0,1 and 2 were on windward-leeward course, looked after by race officer Alan Crosbie and his team. Race 1,this week consisted of two rounds of the course with a short beat to finish. Gloves Off owned by Twomey & O'Mahony and Conor Doyle's Freya, were the lead boats coming in to the weather mark, having tacked for the shore early and benefitted most from the tide. Neither boat was to relinquish its position in the race. In race 1IRC then,Gloves Off secured first place, followed by Freya with Godkin & O'Donovan's Godot finishing in third position. Race 2 followed the same format except for having three rounds instead of two. Again classes 0 and 1 got off to a clean start, much to the relief of the committee boat. Gloves Off again led around the course, the light airs suiting her much more than the heavier cruiser-racing boats. Freya and Tom Roche's Meridian had a nip and tuck battle for second place all the way around the course, with the former just piping Meridian on the line. The results therefore in the second race were, Gloves Off in first, Freya in second and Meridian in third place. This leaves the overall table, with one discard applied, looking like Gloves Off in first, Freya in second and Godot in third place. In ECHO Meridian leads the overall standings, with a first and a second yesterday, from Godot in second position and Gloves Off in third.
Class 1 IRC is developing into a three way battle at the half way point of the series. David Scott's,X-362,Eos again had a very successful day on the water. Eos however is being chased hard by Rob O'Leary's Antix Beag and Dan Buckley's Justus. Eos managed two firsts on Sunday, which keeps her at the top of the overall standings on just four points. Antix Beag had a third and a second respectively, which is enough to keep her in second place overall, with eight points. Justus is keeping the pressure on in third position overall with a third and a second this week.
The top of the league overall in Class 1Echo is also very tight with only five points separating the first four boats. Eos is leading overall again, having had a second and third on the day. Aidan Heffernan's Indulgence is in second overall with a sixth and a first on Sunday, followed by Justus in third with a first and a sixth. Chancer owned by the Carroll brothers got a third in race one which is enough to keep them in fourth overall, and John Downing's Samba had a second in the second race leaving them in fifth position overall. In Class0&1 Restricted Eos is again the overall leader with two firsts on Sunday, followed by Freya with a second and third, with Justus in third overall.
Class 2 had the same courses as Classes 0&1.In Class 2 IRC, the lighter airs of this spring series have certainly been favouring the Corby 25's. Vincent O'Shea's Yanks & Franks, made it two wins from two on Sunday, followed closely by another Corby 25, Allure, owned by Brian Goggin with two seconds. In race one Shane Statham's Slack Alice took third place, while in race two it was the Desmond-Ivers-Deasy owned Bad Company which took third position. This leaves the leader board with Yanks & Franks in pole position, followed closely by Allure, and Clem McElligot's Sea Hawk hanging on to third place.
In Class2ECHO race one Yanks & Franks took first, with Mark Mendell's Wicked in second and Allure in third. Race two saw Sea Hawk in first place, Bad Company in second and Yanks & Franks in third. The overalls in ECHO at the half way mark in racing are, Sea Hawk, followed by Barrett & Conlon's Y-Knot with Wicked in third position
Classes 3&4 were on the round the cans course this week, under the watchful eye of race officer Jennot Petch and his team. The course for race one was Sovereign Mark-South mark-Centre Point. Class 3 got off to a good beat down to Sovereign Mark, but as they rounded were slowly swallowed up by a bank of low cloud and fog. As a consequence of this, despite having GPS co-ordinates for the mark, could not find South Mark. Thus race one had to be abandoned for Class 3.The fog bank lifted quite quickly, which allowed Class4,which had started five minutes after Class 3,to find South Mark and complete their race.
In Class4 IRC Alan Mulcahy's Sundancer had two firsts on the day ,leaving him in first place overall in IRC, and in the enviable position of being able to discard a first place! ShellyD owned by Mick Murphy got two seconds leaving him second overall, with the Eddie Higgns and Kevin Morrisson owned La Maraquita with two thirds and in third position overall. In Class4 ECHO La Maraquita leads the league, followed by ShellyD, and Sundancer in third. In Class 3 IRC the boats completed the second race of the day. Eammon Rohan's Farr quarter tonner, Anchor Challenge led the boats around the course to a line honours win in IRC. Eddie Rice's Impacunious gained second place while John Twomey's Shillelagh came in third. The race committee decided to run another slightly shorter race for class 3 to make up for the abandoned first race. The course was Sovereign Mark-Centre Pt-Finish, which was a straight windward leeward course. Unfortunately a number of boats were over the line, some returning to restart, whilst others took their chances. Again Anchor Challenge led the field around the course to take line honours, but were then informed they had been OCS and thus disqualified .Consequently Shillelagh took the win, with Impacunious in second place, followed by Bill McConnell's Monkey Business in third place.
The league table in Class 3 IRC sees Shillelagh in the lead, followed closely by Anchor Challenge, with Impacunious in third spot. Class3 ECHO has Impacunious out in front overrall, followed by Shillelagh and Liam Lynch's Powder Monkey in third.
The White Sail Class once again had good racing officiated by Donal Hayes. The Murphy-Hennessy-Dann owned Val Criss was once again well up there, recording a first position on Sunday. In second place was Objection owned by Kevin & Celia Murray, followed in third by Charisma owned by Des Lyons & Aine Dunn. The overall standings in The White Sail Class see Val Criss in pole position, followed by Objection, with Billy Joyce's Windrose in third place.

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