The waiting is over for ICRA members writes Claire Bateman and this is the last sailing reminder for anyone still wishing to take part in the feeder race from Cork to Dun Laoghaire on Friday next. This promises to be a challenging and exciting race and will feature three Irish Commodores’ Cup yachts from the Royal Cork Yacht Club, Anthony O'Leary in his Ker 39 Antix, Dave Dwyer in his Mills 39 Marinerscove.ie and Andrew Creighton in Roxy 6, the new Corby 36.  This will be Roxy's first competitive outing and there will be much interest in this latest addition to the fleet.  Entry for this race is mandatory for any boat wishing to compete in the Commodores' Cup.

As entry for the feeder race does not close until 18.30hrs. on Friday, 14th May at the Royal Cork Club Race Office, it is not known yet which boats will sail and which will travel by road. What can be confirmed is Donal O'Leary of RCYC will be sailing his well known D-tox and Schull Harbour Commodore, Morgan O'Donovan in Loco will be using the feeder as a qualifier for his entry to the Round Ireland Race in June.

First gun will be at 19.55 hrs at Weavers Point on Friday and the start line will be a laid line between a committee boat (Adrielle) and an adjacent mark in the harbour.  The finish line will be between the lighthouses on the East and West Piers at the entrance to Dun Laoghaire Harbour.  Yachts will record their own finish times together with the names and approximate times of boats immediately ahead and astern, if possible.  Time limit for the race will be 12.00 hrs on Sunday, May 16th.

The Davies/Creighton Corby 36 has made a very welcome appearance on the marina at the Royal Cork Yacht Club writes Claire Bateman.  She was recently completed at the Dale-Nelson Yard in Wales. She is built of strip cedar and is a close clone of Quokka 7.

Roxy 6 is expected to sail for an Irish team from Royal Cork Yacht Club. She will be the Class Three representative in the biennial Rolex Commodores’ Cup, an intense seven day racing programme that will take place on the testing waters in and around the Solent from  August  15th to  21st, 2010.  Class Two will be represented by David Dwyer’s Marinerscove.ie, recent winner of Class Zero at the  Kinsale Spring Series.  Class One is to be represented by Anthony O’Leary, now the new owner  of Antix, a boat he chartered from Colm Barrington in 2008 that was the top scoring boat in its class at the 2008 Commodores’ Cup event.

The Class Bands are as follows:

Class One    1.110 to 1.230

Class Two    1.075 to 1.119

Class Three  1.025 to 1.074

Ireland is entitled to send up to four teams of three boats but currently there is no word of any other team emerging.

The programme for the team is as follows: They will compete in the feeder race from the Royal Cork on May 14th to the Liebherr ICRA Nationals that will take place in Dun  Laoghaire from May 21st to 23rd.  Antix and Roxy 6 will compete at the Scottish Series from May 28th to 31st. Marinerscove.ie will not compete at this event.  The full team will regroup for the British IRC National Championships at Cowes from June 25th to 27th at which event Dave Dwyer in Marinerscove.ie will defend his title.  This Championship is mandatory for the British Commodores’ Cup teams to compete in.  After this its back to Royal Cork  for Cork Week from July 10th to 16th. It is hoped the French and British teams will also compete at Cork Week.  Finally they will head for the big one, the Commodores’ Cup in August, an event that we have just missed out on for the last two occasions and have some unfinished business we hopefully can settle this time round.

A new sailing trophy will be awarded to the winning yacht in a new offshore race from Cork Harbour to Dublin as part of the build up to the Irish Cruiser Racer Nationals to be held on Dublin Bay from May 21-23.

The feeder Race will take place from Royal Cork in Crosshaven on  Friday 14th May. Commodore's Cup team boats will use the passage as part of their offshore practice.The Race also can be used as a qualifier for next month's Round Ireland Race and it will also accomodate double handed entries.

111 boats have already entered the Liebherr Nationals from 21st to 23rd May in the Royal St George Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire. Event organisation is in full swing to ensure a quality event  both aflaot and ashore, says ICRA Commodore Barry Rose.

Entry forms and sailing Instructions will be available at the Royal Cork Yacht Club. Interested boats are requested to inform ICRA of their intention to compete. The ICRA perpetual offshore trophy will presented to the winning yacht.

ICRA are reporting its national sailing championships entry is approaching the 100-mark nearly two months out from the event, the first big regatta of the sailing season.

The Liebherr Cruiser Nationals to be held in Dun Laoghaire from May from May 21st to 23rd and hosted by the Royal St. George Yacht Club, has already attracted very strong support. ICRA are delighted to report that already entries are almost at the 100 mark and expected to reach record numbers despite the current economic environment. The formula for the event will be a three-day championship with seven races.

There will be a variety of tight Windward/Leeward and Olympic type round the cans courses in two separate specially designated areas. The combination of the National Championships title at stake and an excellent social programme ashore has proved to be a great success. The fact that the event rotates locations has also added to its stature.

With the excellent racing and onshore entertainment planned by the Host Club, the Royal St. George, and in conjunction with the strong sponsors, Liebherr, The Royal Marine Hotel, Dun Laoghaire and Dubarry Footwear and Clothing, a very special festival of sailing plus a strong welcome for all competitors is assured. The inaugural ICRA Corinthian Cup for non-spinnaker boats is also being well supported with 17 entries already recorded. This event will be sailed on a separate course. Early entry is encouraged so that final Class Bands can be fairly decided.

 ICRA National Championships in full swing

The Irish Cruiser Racing Association’s National Cruiser Championships is now just a week away and for the first time ever it’s being hosted on the West Coast by Tralee Bay SC – a club well used to giving a warm welcome to sailors: they’ve hosted events on all levels from Club to World Championships on this beautiful idyllic part of our coast.

Over 70 boats will contest the right to become the Irish National Cruiser Champion in each of the divisions and the spoils will be Irish Sailing Association Medallions and a place at the ISA Helmsman's Championships at the end of the season for their achievement.

Last years Division Zero winner Dave Dwyer's Marinerscove.ie is presently preparing on the Solent for the UK IRC Nationals (6–7 June), but Dave’s commitment to defend his closely-won title at last years National Cruiser Championships in Howth has put his crew on a tight schedule to get the boat back in time for the first gun in Tralee. Eamon Rohan (King 40 Blonde IV) will be Marinerscove.ie’s main competition, finishing a very creditable 3rd at last year’s event. Other strong competition in this division will come from Kieran Twomey’s Corby 38 Gloves Off, Tim Costello’s Mills 43 Tiamat, George Sisk’s Farr 42 WOW, under the burgee of the Royal Irish YC and the host club giving him an advantage over the rest of the fleet outside of Rob Allen’s Corby 36 Mustang Sally from the Royal Western YC.

In Division One Mike McCarthy’s Ker 32 Checkmate will be one to watch but in this division there are plenty of diverse competitive boats: Barry Cunningham’s Corby 33 Contango; two J109 – S. and J. Tyrrell’s Aquelina and Pat Kelly’s Storm; Anthony O’Leary from the Royal Cork has entered a modified 1720 Antix Beag; Denis Hewit is bringing his Mills 30  Raptor from the Royal Irish; and some local boats – Martin Reilly’s Corby 29 Esperanto, Eddie Barry’s 40.7 Caolila and Dan Counihan’s First 36.7 Galileo. X-Yachts are out in force in this division: X332s include Ian Gaughan’s Xena, Thomas and Kieran Whelan’s Chaos, Team Foynes’ Dexterity, and host club boat Donal Brown’s Excuse Me; X362s have David Scott’s Eos, Derry Good’s Exhale, and Donal O’Leary’s X35.

Attracting the greatest number of entries is Division Two and the hot favorite must be Colwell/Murphy’s Corby 25 Kinetic from Howth Yacht Club, winner of this division last year – that’s not to say that they will get it all their own way, one of the boats that will be trying to take their title away is current West Coast Champion Conor Ronan’s Corby 26 Ruthless; then Corby 25s – Vincent O’Shea’s Yanks & ffrancs, Denis Coleman’s Thunderbird, and Denis Ellis’s Corby 27 Kodachi; also Sigma’s 33s – Commodore of the host club Liam Lynch’s Powder Monkey, Peader O’ Laughlin‘s Reconaissance, David Buckley’s Boojum, Finbarr O’Connell’s Treyona, and finally Dehler 34s – Raymond McGibney’s Disaray, David Griffin’s Egalite, and Derrick Dillon’s Big Deal to mention a few.

Division Three is as competitive as ever with Vincent Gaffney’s Albin Express Alliance topping the bill, being a past Division Champion and current West Coast Champion from Howth Yacht Club, but with plenty of competition to make this division very competitive indeed – Paul McGibney’s J24 Virgin will have his first outing at National level, but as we saw at last year’s event the J24s were the ones to beat. Three HB31s are also in this division – John Buckley’s Headhunter, Gary Fort’s K Vector, Mark Prendeville’s Rooster, two Shamrocks – C. MacDonncha’s Sliver Foam from Galway and J.P. Buckley’s Battle, Jackie Ward’s Parker 27 Hallmark, and D. Losty’s very successful Quarter Tonner Woody to name but a few.

Race Officers Alan Crosibe, Rob Lamb and Liam Dinneen with their formidable teams will ensure competitors’ exhilarating sailing over a variety of courses over the three days racing.

ICRA National Cruiser Championships, Tralee Bay Sailing Club 11 –13 June 2009

Fintan Cairns, Commodore – 087 24 9208, email: [email protected]

Denis Kiely, Secretary, 087 908 6424, email: [email protected] 

Irish Cruiser Racing Association  

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