#cruiserracing – Arrangements are being finalised to provide top class racing on the water to decide National Champions in all divisions at this year's ICRA Nationals that take place at a prime time in the season from 13th to 15th June in the Royal Irish Yacht Club. This, say organisers, will be the major cruiser racing event on the east coast for 2014 and already there is a push on to break the record of 125 entries for the championships.

There is currently a fine high calibre fleet of 42 boats already entered from all around the country and across the Irish Sea.

Also with the emphasis by ICRA to look at new divisional break-points in an effort to provide great racing for all, Divisions 1 & 2, Divisions 2 & 3 and Divisions 3 & 4 might be looking a bit different!

Racing will be under Endorsed IRC and Progressive ECHO. There will be a Club Team trophy and new trophy for boat with best aggregate score in Irish IRC's and Welsh IRC's.

In Division 0, Jump Juice is making a welcome return to challenge Crazy Horse and WOW with Tsunami also in the mix. Still awaiting Scottish First 40's to enter together with the challengers from Wales! With Antix away with other Commodores' Cup boats, it leaves the division ready to crown a new champion.

As is, Division 1 has a really exciting line up developing with Paul O Higgins Rockabill taking on a clutch of 7 J109's including previous Champion Pat Kelly's Storm, Liam Shanahan's Ruth, John Hall's Something Else, John Maybury's Joker II, visitor Peter Dunlop's Mojito, Stephen Tudor's ISORA Champion Sgrech, Rob O'Connell's A35 Fool's Gold and the crewed-up Fox & Sox with yet more challengers to enter.

Division 2 is also building nicely with Nigel Bigg's Checkmate lining up against the Corby 25's Smile Rob Allen and Noonan Chambers Impetuous and well-travelled Shane Strathan and Trudy O'Leary's Slack Alice. Adding to all these the hot half Tonners King One, The Big Picture and visitor Movie Star Blue. 

Division 3 will see the Quarter Tonners Cri-Cri Paul Colton and Supernova of Timbs, Monaghan, Costello and McStay form the basis of what no doubt will also be a very competitive fleet. Also into this will be Cartoon, Quest, Sigma 33 White Mischief, J24's Jebus and Euro Carparks.

Division 4 will also be competitive with local boats of Asterix, Gung Ho & Taiscealai, UpD8 and Saki to the fore.

For Non Spinnaker Boats,The Corinthian Cup provides trophies and prizes in both IRC and ECHO and should see a good fleet taking part. Leading contenders Dave Shanahan's Warrior, Howard Knotts Calypso, Steve Hayes Pure Magic, Sean O'Regan's Vespucci and Philip Smith's Just Jasmin (DBSC's Spring Chicken winner) are among the early entries.



This year's ICRA Nationals are building momentum and looks forward to building on the success of superb previous events worthy of a true National Championship and to celebrate producing top-class National Champions!

 The 25% discount entry date is 14th April so get your entries in now.

#ISORA – The main contractor for the new £8.3m National Sailing Academy and Event Centre has been appointed in Pwllheli, North Wales. The substantial dredging works has already started and the new dedicated visitor and event pontoons will be completed by June and be available for the IRC Welsh Championships in August just after the Dun Laoghaire to Pwllheli ISORA feeder race.

The organisers, including ISORA Champion, Stephen Tudor, is keen to attract as many boats across the Irish Sea as possible.

The IRC National Championship is an open event and will use the facilities of the Welsh National Sailing Academy and Event Centre and will draw on the skill and experience of the Academy's event team who regularly run World and European Championships.

This work says Tudor will enhance and extend the events capacity in Pwllheli and will improve access to the world renowned sailing waters of Cardigan Bay with the provision of new dedicated visitor and events berths with cranes located adjacent to the marina.

#halftonner – In what is being billed as the 'Duel of the Half Tonners' by ICRA organisers for June's National Championships another vintage half–tonner 'The Big Picture' is being optimised for competition. According to ICRA Commodore Norbert Reilly, the Howth campaign plans to take on the Nigel Biggs Sistership MG30, the all conquering ICRA National Champion, Check Mate IV.

Though, currently for sale on Afloat.ie, there is also the prosect of a three way half ton battle with Dave Cullen's King One, a boat that has taken its own share of silverware.

Commodore Reilly's own boat, Crazy Horse is at Malahide marina boatyard to sort out damage sustained at last year's Volvo Dun Laoghaire regatta Week.

The overall leader of the 2013 event was forced out after a collision with J109 clubmate, Storm. Both boats were doing seven knots at the time of the incident. 

His Cruisers Zero crew is preparing for the nationals as part of the Howth YC Team and mounting a bid to win the Club Championship Trophy currently held by Royal Irish YC.

Reilly has hinted that former crew mates David Harte and Led Pritchard (both ex Comanche Raider crew) will join the boat.

#commdorescup – An American and a British yacht will join Royal Cork's Antix to form the 'Green Team' to win the Commodore's Cup for Ireland it has been officialy announced. The three boat team is Catapult, a Ker 40 owned by Mark Glimcher of the United States; Anthony O'Leary's Ker 39, Antix from Royal Cork; and the RORC Yacht Quokka, a Grand Soleil 43, being chartered by Royal Irish sailors Michael Boyd and Niall Dowling. There will be a strong Irish crew involvement on all three boats comprising of sailors who first won the Cup for Ireland in 2010. Crew list announcements are expected to follow.

In what was sailing's worst kept secret of the year so far the Irish Cruiser Racing Association (ICRA) finally announced this morning the Irish team line–up for this Summer's Cup. Details of the team were previously reported on Afloat.ie

ICRA has been working for some time to assemble a top level Irish Team for this year's event, taking place off Cowes, Isle of Wight between 19th and 26th July 2014.

Catapult has won the US IRC Nationals, Cork based Antix is a seasoned and successful campaigner and a winning Commodores' Cup team member in 2010. Quokka is an extremely competitive IRC boat with a strong track record. The Team's campaign will begin with the Warsash Spring Series in the Solent followed by various other regattas including the UK IRC Championship in mid-June.

ICRA Commodore, Norbert Reilly welcomed the development of such a high calibre team. ICRA also say they have serious interest from a fourth boat to form a second team and are inviting interest from another two boats to form Ireland Orange Team.

#commodorescup – An announcement of the three–boat Irish team to contest the Commodore's Cup this July is imminent, according to Afloat.ie sources this morning.

Since last October's news that Ireland is to enter the Cup there has been increased speculation about team composition. Cork Olympic helmsman Peter O'Leary's participation in last month's Key West regatta on the New York based Ker 40 Catapult was seen as the start of the campaign build up. In local Key west interviews both O'Leary and boat owner Mark Glimcher more than hint that the Ker 39 is to join his father Anthony's Ker 39 Antix on the 2014 team leaving Ireland just looking for one more boat to win back a Cup it first won in 2010. 

In the Irish Times on January 3, David O'Brien wrote that the third boat is likely to be a Solent based Grand Soleil yacht. One unconfirmed source this morning names this boat as Quokka under former RORC skipper Peter Rutter, a yacht that is currently being campaigned in RORC's Caribbean 600 series.

Quokka, a Grand Soleil 43, is one of the most successful race yachts in the UK. In 2011 she won the IRC Nationals outright. She also finished in the top 10 overall in the Fastnet 2011, won two RORC offshore races and represented Great Britain in the 2009 Commodores Cup.

Team officials from the Irish Cruiser Racing Association (ICRA) have remained tight-lipped on the matter however. "It's still a fluid situation but we're working really hard to make this happen," Barry Rose said in early January but hoped to make an annoucement within the month.

Anthony O'Leary, is expected to lead the Irish team on former winner Antix and following a pre-Christmas meeting of ICRA in Portlaoise, the Grand Soleil was identified as the boat to fill Ireland's third boat slot.

More on this story as we have it.

#icra – The Irish Cruiser Racer Association (ICRA) has come up with a new flexible approach to the question of class divisions. At its last executive meeting the decision was made to promote to all boat owners especially those who may not have competed in the past such as X 332s and Beneteau First 31.7s for example.

In reviewing its approach the cruiser body decided its classes divisions are too pre-determined by 'traditional' class divisions in major yacht clubs.

In open events it is necessary 'to cut your cloth according to your measure' - you manage the boats you have and you do not base divisions on boats that do not even turn up for the event' says ICRA's Denis Kiely, the national handicapping officer.

Kieky says 10/15 boats is an optimum number for good competitive sailing with five boats being a minimum. In fleets above 20 Kiely maintains there should be serious consideration for two classes. Overall smaller classes will give tighter TCC bands where IRC works best.

Kiely hopes this will encourage greater turn outs and points to the present typical class 1 that has 2 quite distinct groups in it - the top group consisting of Corbys [33], Archambaud 35s, J109s etc [ avg TCC .1035ish] and a lower group of X332s, etc [avg TCC somewhere around .990]. The bottom group boats are not turning up because they feel they have no fair chance against the top group.

ICRA Commodore Norbert Reilly is to appoint an ICRA Rep in each club to help roll out this and other ICRA initiatives. 

#icra – Of all the items on Saturday's ICRA cruiser conference agenda the 'liveliest' issue debated was how ISAF sailing categories are to be policed at future ICRA cruiser national championships.

A gathering of 110 downstairs in the Royal Irish Yacht Club, Dun Laoghaire found fertile ground for debate and there were many opinions and suggestions on how the difference between 'professional' and 'amateur' sailors should be treated. There was little in the way of consenus, however, about whether professionals should be restricted from competing at the National Championships.

Currently, two professional sailors are permitted in class zero, one in class one and none below that.

After a good solid debate, ICRA Chair Nobby Reilly deferred the matter and asked for any further contributions by email.

The ISAF Sailor Classification system provide events and classes with an international system of classification for sailors to provide a clear distinction between 'professional' and 'amateur' sailors.  At last year's ICRA Nationals professional sailors were limited but how the rule was policed in Fenit left many asking questions. 

Reilly's deferral however didn't stop the chat on the contentious topic. The après conference in the bar – where one insider says the real talking on the matter was done – focussed on a resolution of the issue. The ICRA Notice of Race for the 2014 championships is now published and ICRA is expecting sailors to respect the rule. 'The intention is for it to be self policing because ICRA has not got the resources to handle the administrative burden the ISAF system brings', one ICRA source told Afloat.ie

The ISAF Sailor Classification Code defines how sailors are classified but it is the responsibility of sailors to apply for a classification and provide all information necessary to determine his or her classification.

The hope now is that debate on the issue has raised awareness.

#boat of the year – The Cork based solo yacht named 'Full Irish' skippered by 22-year-old David Kenefick has won ICRA's boat of the year award. The decision was announced at today's annual ICRA conference at the Royal Irish Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire. It is the first time a solo campaign has won Irish cruiser–racing's top prize and reflects a season of highs for the Royal Cork Rookie on the professional French offshore sailing circuit. 

He was just 21 when he qualified to become a Figaro 'rookie' mentored by former participant Marcus Hutchinson, and though he turned 22 during June as the 2013 programme accelerated through a demanding season, he continued as the youngest in a schedule which saw him complete almost 7,000 offshore miles, nearly all of them single-handed.

It's only the latest award for the youngster, last month for his year long series of achievements he lifted Afloat's Sailor of the Month award.

#icra – ICRA Commodore Nobby Reilly has issued a last minute appeal for support for Saturday's ICRA conference at the Royal Irish Yacht Club, urging cruiser sailors to help recruit more people to the sport of cruiser racing. It follows a campaign launched in 2013 where ICRA recruited up to 300 for day sails at Howth Yacht Club last April. 

The day long conference on Saturday will hear from keynote speaker Matt Sheahan on foiling at the America's Cup and Philip Bendon and his Irish Match Racing Irish Team who earlier this season won the U23 European match racing championships. 

There will also be news on a Commodore's Cup Team Up Date, Crew Training Programme: Comprehensive Modules for all clubs, a Crew Point: Plan to link Crew to Boats in your club and an ICRA Club Rep Role.

#welshircnationals – At their annual meeting on 12th September, the GBR IRC Committee approved the IRC GBR Regional Championships for 2014 to be held in Pwllheli.
The date proposed for the Championships is to coincide with the Pwllheli Regatta between 1st and 4th August 2014. An 'Event Organising Committee (EOC)' is now been setup and anyone wishing to contribute should contact Stephen Tudor at Pwllheli SC