With top-five results scored in all five races so far - and three race wins to boot - the Kelly family J109 from Rush Sailing Club continues to lead the ICRA Nationals Division One on Dublin Bay.

Such consistent sailing has allowed the Kelly's, with Cork Harbour's Robert O'Leary onboard as tactician, to build a margin of four points in the biggest fleet of the championships. 

Second is Mike and Ritchie Evans J99 Snapshot from Howth Sailing and Boating Club on 11 points. 

J109 designs continue to dominate the 24 boat division, occupying eight of the top ten places overall. 

Royal Cork visitor Jelly Baby (Brian Jones) is third, just five points off the overall lead with two more races left to sail tomorrow, so the championships is still very much up for grabs. 

Royal Cork Yacht Club J109 Jelly Baby (Brian Jones) lies third Photo: Afloat

The forecast for Sunday's finale is for SSE winds of 12 to 16 mph

Results are here. 

Howth J109 Outrajeous lies fifth

The XP33 Bon Exemple from the Royal Irish is fourth

J109 Artful DodJer from Kinsale Yacht Club lies eighth

The J109 White Mischief from the Royal Irish lies sixth

J109 Something Else from the National Yacht Club is tenth

Part of a Class One start in the 24-boat fleet - a strong tide led to several general recalls

Raptor, a Mills 30 - gear failure led to a retiral in one race

At the helm of David Kelly's King One, Jonny Swan has ruined the perfect scoresheet of Nigel Biggs and his Checkmate XVIII team after an intense second day of competition at the ICRA National Championships on Dublin Bay.

Checkmate continues to lead overall after five races sailed, but King One is now just three points off the top of the leaderboard with the final two races of the Championships left to sail tomorrow (Sunday).

Biggs added another win to his two opening day victories on Friday and looked invincible at lunchtime, but this afternoon, in races four and five, as the breeze went right to 145 degrees and strengthened, the King One crew took advantage and earned their first race win in the last race of the day.

With it all still to play for, a third Howth Half Tonner Mata (Darren Wright) is on 10 points in third place in the 17-boat IRC Two fleet, where HYC entries occupy the top seven places overall. 

Howth Yacht Club's leading Half-Ton Trio

The Checkmate XVIII crew going like a train in the heavier conditions of day two: Dave Cullen, Nigel Biggs, Daragh Sheridan, Suzie Murphy, Andy Sargent, Mark Kenny and Niki Potterton

Jonny Swan steering and Ryan Glynn on mainsheet in the Half Tonner King One

 Darren Wright's Half Tonner Mata, whose crew includes Athens Olympic sailor Killian Collins of Royal Cork

Results are here. Racing concludes on Sunday.

Let's hear it for coloured sails. On a grey day on a grey bay, every last spinnaker or asymmetric or gennaker or whatever with a splash of colour was more than welcome yesterday morning (Friday) to help bring the grimly monochrome scene to life as a raw easterly – From Russia With Malice as you might well say – livened up the seas off Dun Laoghaire to help the Irish Cruiser Racing Association get its 2021 Championship underway on Dublin Bay.

The hosts at the National Yacht Club, with Paul Barrington as Race Director, had pulled out all the stops, and a goodly fleet of around 80 boats has gathered for battle. In normal times this would be regarded as a distinctly so-so turnout. But these are not normal times. Thus it's a very good entry in a stop-go period of mixed pandemic responses, for there are those who have decided to sit it out completely until a very clear all-clear is sounded. However, other more gung-ho types have been reckoning for some time now that it's all systems go, even if they have to keep themselves reined in when ashore.

And though we've only the first day's racing of a three-day programme to go on, on the basis of home club location we've a useful and varied spread of sailing centres large and small getting their name up in lights, though a quick scan of the Class 2 outcome suggests that the Howth sailors' occasional habit of racing around some unusual natural marks does no harm at all in training for orthodox turning points in Dublin Bay.

With weather marks like this at home, Howth boats find orthodox race marks in Dublin Bay a straightforward proposition. Photo: Annraoi Blaney

Either way, 2021 has seen great sport on the water in contrast to a sense of restriction on already limited socialising the minute you step off the boat. This is constraining for everyone, for as we've suggested before, sailors are so weird that their's is the only sport in which the participants administer performance-enhancing drugs after the event.

It means that when leaving the boat, you may be well aware that you've had an indifferent race. But even a couple of socially distant pints ashore is enough to modify the recollections to having been placed in the top half of the fleet.

In theory, there should be no greater difference in mood than that between the pre-racing and the après-sailing, but it has to be said that in offshore racing in particular, the fact that its participants are a minority within a minority sport used to mean that they simply had to celebrate meeting each other before the event, regardless of the detrimental effect it may have on their performance when the big race began next day.

Even the great ocean-racing pioneer Captain John Illingworth was prone to this, and during the RORC Channel Race of 1947 - his first major race with the new and hugely innovative 40ft Myth of Malham – he was pleased to observe that the Myth was out-performing everything once they'd started turning to windward in a Force 5 to 6, "even though my head was regularly in a bucket, as I'd over-indulged at the pre-race dinner the night before".

John Illingworth's innovative Myth of Malham was the super-star boat of 1947, '48 and '49.

You didn't need to go to the English Channel to witness this sort of thing. The great Leslie Kertesz of the National YC, who introduced the ultimate Dehler DBS Lightning to ISORA racing back in the 1970s, had started his competitive life afloat with the austerely dedicated rowing clubs on the Danube in Budapest, and he found the Irish Sea's pre-race approach of those convivial days distinctly odd.

Before there was a marina at Pwllheli, the season concluded with the Abersoch-Rockabill-Howth Race, and the first time Lightning's skipper witnessed the pre-race Bacchanalia in the notably hospitable South Caernarvon Yacht Club in Abersoch the night before what everyone knew was going to be a heavy weather race, he was briefly rendered speechless, and then gasped out:

"My God" said he, "and these people like to think of themselves as athletes…."

Stretching the season – sunset sailing for one of the Howth J/80s on Wednesday. Photo: Annraoi Blaney

Of course, it's all changed now, nutritionists rule is total, and there are those who modify their diet in all sorts of beneficial ways as the race approaches. For even if you've found a cure for seasickness or aren't prone to it in the first place, anything that improves the chances of being in top condition at sea is very welcome.

Time was when the greatest hazard of all was what amounted to an unofficial competition between owner-skippers as to who could host the best dinner in Cowes the night before the Fastnet Race. This usually had the makings of a perilous experience, so there were those of us who'd find an excuse to skive off to the outskirts of Cowes, where we knew of an unpretentious little café with good home cooking and the chance of a light but nourishing booze-free meal to set us up for the morning's inevitable wind-over-tide slog westward.

The memories of all that came back in full colour this week when our Offshore Sailors of the Month for August – the entire ship's company of the mighty successful Fastnet veteran Desert Star of Irish Offshore Sailing – sent along some more photos of as nearly perfect a sailing experience as anyone is ever likely to have. For if a boat of Desert Star's age and style, and crewed moreover by trainees, had done any better in the Rolex Fastnet Race 2021, there'd have been rioting in the streets of Cherbourg by those who have spent squillions in trying to achieve a comparable performance.

The Last Supper…..the crew of Desert Star having a restrained and sensible meal in Cowes the night before the Fastnet Race – skipper Ronan O Siochru on right.

The fact is the Desert Star did everything right from beginning to end. And with skipper Ronan O Siochru's Fastnet experience now covering four good races, the show was properly on the road the night before, when he and his team had somehow arranged a quiet meal together – The Last Supper as they call it – in what must have been one of the few peaceful corners of Cowes, and you don't need to be hawk-eyed to note that every glass is filled with water, but there's not a bottle of wine to be seen.

It's now all filed away under Special Memories. But meanwhile, with continued restriction-lifting promised in the weeks and months ahead, there are several significant late-season fixtures in prospect. And it has to be said that when the ICRA Nats were announced as the first weekend of September, it brought a soothing vision of balmy Indian Summer weather, and sailing on a sea which will continue to get warmer until mid-September.

Twilight sailing as we dream of it – the Gore-Grimes family's successful Dux arriving at the weather mark on Wednesday evening. Photo: Annraoi Blaney

But whatever we're experiencing today, nobody would talk of Indian Summer weather, so they'll be relying on the heat of competition to keep the temperature at tolerable levels for late-season fixtures and Autumn Leagues.

Another item which comes up the agenda at a time like this is Twilight Sailing, an evocative name whose promise is seldom fulfilled unless you're based in a place where daytime temperatures are such that Hoagy Carmichael's "cool, cool, cool of the evening" is the local anthem. We should be so lucky. This persistent easterly which has plagued us in recent days with its thin but seemingly impenetrable skein of cloud cover gets plain cold at night.

 Mind the gap…..Paddy Kyne's Maximus negotiating the turn at Gannet City off Howth. When the tide is ebbing southward, there's a helpful north-going eddy to the south of The Stack, close in under the cliffs if you can manage to carry the wind. Photo: Annraoi Blaney

Now and again it breaks enough for a final glimpse of the sun just before it sets, and in the evening races at Howth this week, Anraoi Blaney was on hand to capture some brief golden moments and also to wonder anew at the fact that, effectively within city limits, boats are racing close under rugged stack rocks which are home to one of the most vibrant gannet colonies in the world.

Those gannets are what they'd called "runners" in Howth. The first breeding pair settled on The Stack off the northeast corner of Ireland's Eye as recently as 1989. Now they're everywhere. That first pair have a lot to answer for.

Golden sunset, Silver Shamrock. Conor Fogerty's 1976 Half Ton World Champion is bathed by the elusive orb on Wednesday evening. Photo: Annraoi Blaney

It is a perfect scoreline of two firsts for Nigel Biggs and his Checkmate XVIII crew in IRC2 after the first day of the ICRA National Championships on Dublin Bay. 

The three competing Half Tonners made hay in the light and tricky conditions that prevailed for the two races and now occupy the top three places in the 17-boat fleet. 

David Kelly's King One from Howth Yacht Club is lying second on a 3,2 with clubmate Mata (Darren Wright) counting a 2,3.

Completing a clean sweep for Howth Yacht Club of the top five, J97s take the next three places overall with HYC's Lambay Rules in fourth and Jeneral Lee fifth.  Royal St. George's J97 Windjammer (Lindsay Casey) is in sixth place.  

King One chasing Mata downwind in the first race of the ICRA National Championships on Dublin Bay Photo: Afloat

Results are here. Racing continues over the weekend.

A two and a three scored in the opening two races of the ICRA National Championships on Dublin Bay has put Courtown Sailing Club Quarter Tonner Snoopy (Joanne Hall and Martin Mahon) top of the 11-boat Class Three IRC fleet. 

As predicted, the three optimised Quarter Tonners made full use of the light and tricky conditions in the Scotsman's bay race area.

Snoopy is one point ahead of Paul Coulton's Cri-Cri from the Royal Irish Yacht Club that won the opening race of the championships that has been full of drama.

Third is the Howth-based Formula 28 Animal, also on six points.

Paul Coulton's Cri-Cri from the Royal Irish Yacht Club Photo: Afloat

One of the championships favourites, Barry Cunningham and Jonathan Skeritt's Quarter Tonner Quest, was involved in a port and starboard incident in the first race.

The damage to her starboard gunwale took her shroud plate clean out of the hull. The crew were lucky not to lose the rig into the bargain.

The much-fancied RIYC entry now counts a retiral and a DNC. She is unlikely to be back on the water tomorrow, even though an overnight repair is not beyond the bounds of possibilities as we have already seen in this championship.

Quest (and her starboard gunwale) looking good in race one...Photo: Afloat

.....only to be back dockside at the RIYC after a collision... Photo: Afloat

...with the chainplate taken clean away...

Results are here. Racing continues over the weekend.

As well as taking the top two places overall, J109 designs also took six of the top ten places in the biggest class of the ICRA National Championships on Dublin Bay today.

Rush Sailing Club's Storm now leads (4,1) but has the same five points as Royal Cork visitor Jelly Baby (Brian Jones) (3, 2) in second.

Third is the much-fancied J/99 of Mike and Ritchie Evans from Howth Sailing and Boating Club on 10 points.

Sub ten knot winds and a small chop was far more than originally forecasted for day one so organisers completed the scheduled programme for ICRA's 80-boat fleet.

The new J/99 of Mike and Ritchie Evans from Howth Sailing and Boating Club Photo: Afloat

Although Howth Yacht Club's Outrajeous (Richard Colwell and John Murphy) outwitted four-time champion John Maybury on Joker II to take the opening race, Outrajeous suffered a UFD penalty in race two to put her tenth in the 23-boat fleet. Joker II from the Royal Irish also suffered a UFD penalty and lies 13th overall giving both top performers an early championships setback.

UFD is the acronym for a U flag disqualification under rule 30.3. If flag U has been displayed by the race officer, no part of a boat's hull, crew or equipment shall be in the triangle formed by the ends of the starting line and the first mark during the last minute before her starting signal. If a boat breaks this rule and is identified, she shall be disqualified without a hearing, but not if the race is restarted or resailed.

Results are here. Racing continues over the weekend

The National Yacht Club hosts the ICRA Nationals on Friday. 80 boats are entered. As in previous years, Afloat sticks its neck out to predict the top boats and winners in each division at Dun Laoghaire

In a typical year, you would have a big event such as Cork Week or Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta to gauge which boats are on form before predicting who will rise to the podium at a late-season ICRA Nationals. With VDLR cancelled in 2021, we will have to rely on events such as Sovereigns Cup, Calves Week, D2D, ISORA and DBSC to predict the likely winners.

Wind forecasting –this will play a big part this year. With only a day to go, the weather pattern indicates generally light to medium airs. Most wind models call light airs on Friday, a little more on Saturday, maybe around 10 knots. Sunday is generally light, though one wind model is showing 15 knots for the last day.

Class 0 will have only one race —a long coastal on Friday and one race Sunday with three short races on Saturday. All the other classes will have two races on Friday and Sunday and three on Saturday.

Clearly, with light wind predominating for the first two days, it must be expected that the winners will come from boats that do well in these conditions.

Class 0 

An excellent turnout of 13 yachts is expected from Northern Ireland, Cork and Dublin.

As Afloat previously reported, from Northern Ireland comes Shaun Douglas's Beneteau 40.7, Gamechanger and Jay Colville's First 40, Forty Licks. These boats perform well and are well crewed but generally prefer medium conditions to let them use their waterline lengths. We are not sure they will get this breeze on Friday and Saturday.

Paul O'Higgins' JPK 10.80 Rockabill VI - likes the breeze Photo: Afloat

If the conditions are medium to fresh, you would have to include Paul O'Higgins' JPK 10.80 as one of the likely winners. However, as was seen at Calves Week this year, she struggles in light airs, and this weekend's forecast will not be to their liking. She will stay in the hunt, though.

Sovereigns Cup winner, the new Grand Soleil 44, Samatom, owned by Bob Rendell from Howth, showed great form in both light and windy conditions in Kinsale to take the series from some good entries. However, her talents at that event included Olympian Mark Mansfield, who for ICRA's will be aboard another Class 0 entry, Frank Whelan's Greystones debutante J/122 Kaya.

The three Sunfast 3600s, Yoyo, Hot Cookie and Searcher, will be competing, but the lighter airs will not be to their liking.

This leaves the two likely favourites in these conditions, Conor Phelan's Ker 37 Jump Juice from Royal Cork and Frank Whelan's J/122 Kaya. This could be an exciting battle with Mansfield calling the shots on Kaya and Maurice (Prof) O'Connell doing the same on Jump Juice. Should it stay light, there will be nothing in it.

If the breeze comes up a bit, Kaya will still be strong, so we will call for Kaya to take it from Jump, but not by much.

Class 1

With 26 entries, this will be the biggest class numerically. Nearly all from the Dublin area apart from the two well sailed J/109's From Cork (Brian Jones' Jelly Baby and Finbarr O'Regan's Artful Dodger) and the Ker 32, Hijacker from Strangford lough, owned by Stuart Cranston. Hijacker will be the top-rated boat in its class, but if form is anything to go by, her performance at a light airs Scottish Series in 2021 will not bode well for this event.

Form boat - J/99 Snapshot (Mike and Ritchie Evans) Photo: Bob Bateman

Class 1 will likely be dominated by the many J/109s competing plus the new J/99 Snapshot, owned by Richard and Michael Evans from Howth. Snapshot won a competitive Sovereigns Cup Class 1 and is competitive in light and medium conditions. She will have Shane Hughes aboard, so expect her to make the podium.

The conditions will favour the J 109's, and there are 14 entered. Trying to pick who will emerge will be difficult. In 2021, Finbarr O'Regan's Artful Dodger took the runner up spot at the Sovereign's Cup, but that is after John Murphy and Richard Colwell's Outrageous had two OCS results. Outrageous, if she stays clean, will be in the mix. From Dublin Bay, you have the trio of John Maybury's Joker 2 (a four times ICRA winner), Tim Goodbody's White Mischief and Brian and John Hall's Something Else. All three regularly perform well. From Howth, Outrageous (tactician Aoife Hopkins) will be joined by Pat Kelly's Storm (tactician Robert O'Leary), who favours a breeze typically, but will nevertheless be there or thereabouts. Depending on what talent these J109's have onboard will determine who will likely come to the top.

We will go for Outrajeous and Snapshot, taking the top two slots, with Snapshot taking it by a hair.

Class 2

14 entries in this class will undoubtedly be dominated by the Half Tonners who excel in lighter airs. If there is a breeze for the three days, you could see Anthony Gore Grimes Dux come into the picture, but it does not look like this breeze will be present. Likewise, the J 97's Lambay Rules and Windjammer.

Not to be ruled out - David Kelly's Half Tonner King One Photo: Bob Bateman

The battle of the Half Tonners will be intriguing. The three form Half tonners will unfortunately not include David Cullen's Checkmate XV. Instead Cullen will sail with Nigel Biggs on Checkmate XVIII. Darran Wright's Mata will include Howth's Ross McDonald and Olympian Killian Collins, who will no doubt make a difference. The form would say that Nigel Biggs always performs well on the big stage. We will call for Nigel Biggs Checkmate XVIII to take it from Mata and Jonny Swann sailing David Kelly's King One instead of his regular Harmony coming in third.

Class 3

Paul Coulton's Cri Cri Photo: Afloat

Like Class 2, In lighter airs, the Quarter Tonners will like to rule the roost here. Paul Coulton's Cri Cri and Barry Cunningham and Jonathan Skeritt's Quest, both from the Royal Irish, will likely be the front runners. Of these two, Quest has the better record in the past and loves the light air.  Northern Ireland's Snoopy is still something of an unknown quantity here.

Were there to be breeze develop expect the J 24's to come into the picture, and of these, the wily Flor O'Driscoll could be one to watch.

Quest to win from Cri Cri and then a J24, possibly Flor.

Download the full entry list for the ICRA Championships here and download the Sailing Instructions below

This article was updated at 2 pm on Sept 2 to include additional crew and entry details

Five boats based at Northern clubs are making their way to Dun Laoghaire Harbour for this weekend's three-day ICRA championships hosted by the National Yacht Club, which has attracted 77 entries. Two of the northern contingent are by the same French designer, Le Basculer and Snoopy, both by Joubert Nievelt.

The Covid-19 pandemic forced the abandonment of much of the 2020 and early 2021 fixtures but measures have now been relaxed enough to permit safe competition afloat though shoreside social activities continue to be severely curtailed for this season.

The Quarter Tonner Snoopy owned by Joanne Hall and Martin Mahon is entered in the 13-boat Class 3 under Courtown Sailing Club in Wexford but they have become recent members of Royal Ulster Yacht Club on Belfast Lough and often race out of that club. Martin campaigned his previous boat, the First Class 8, Seeyoulater and clocked up a couple of wins in Cork Week.

With Snoopy recently, Calves Week served as a good dust-off and a second in Greystones Regatta last weekend pleased the crew. "I'm looking forward to some good close racing in Dun Laoghaire. Graeme Noonan's Formula 28 Flash and the ¼ tonner Quest as well a Flor O'Driscoll's J24 Hard on Port will need watching!".

Quarter Tonner Snoopy will compete in Class 3

Jay Colville's First 40 from Royal Ulster and Shaun Douglas's Beneteau 40.7 will continue their local rivalry in Class 0. Forty Licks was pipped into second overall in Class 0 in the 2019 event on a tie break by Paul O'Higgins' Rockabill VI from the Royal Irish Yacht Club. Jay Colville said he is looking forward to racing out of Dun Laoghaire.

Jay Colville's First 40 'Forty Licks' from Royal Ulster

From one of the smallest clubs in the North, Cockle Island BC on the North County Down coast is Shaun Douglas's Game Changer. In recent rivalry, the Beneteau 40.7 has managed to keep Forty Licks at bay but the 13 boat Zero fleet will present a different challenge.

Shaun Douglas's Game Changer

Strangford Lough clubs are represented in Class 1 by Stuart Cranston's Ker 32 from Strangford Lough YC which is expected to present a fresh challenge; the other is the French-designed Archambault A 35 Le Basculer, owned by Mike Spence from the same designer as Snoopy the Quarter Tonner in Class 3 – Joubert Nievelt.

The Irish Cruiser Racing Association (ICRA) National Championships returns to Dublin Bay this weekend (September 3-5th) and brings one of the biggest Division Zero fleets the cruiser-racer body has ever seen.

An expected fleet of 13 Zeros is bigger than the fleet of ten that raced in the 2019 Championships at the Royal St. George Yacht Club.

The National Yacht Club will host the championships, the biggest test for Irish cruiser-racers since West Cork's Sovereign's Cup at Kinsale in June and Calves Week in August.

In all, a total fleet of almost 80 boats has been mustered, and that's a welcome boost for the championships that was cancelled twice last year in the pandemic.

Class divisions are downloadable below (as an excel file) for the weekend championships as another strong fleet of Division One yachts is unveiled by ICRA, with 25 or so entries anticipated. 

National titles

The arrival of the championships mean national titles in four IRC classes plus a white sails event will be decided on the Bay by next Sunday.

A total of 17 clubs from Ireland's North, South and East coasts will be represented by 77 crews, a slight reduction in overall numbers (100 boats in 2019) attributed to the country's gradual reopening after Covid-19.

ICRA Nationals - 17 clubs from Ireland's North, South and East coasts will be represented. Photo: Afloat

“This year’s event is an opportunity for re-building crews and team bonding,” said Richard Colwell, Commodore of the Irish Cruiser Racing Association. "This year hasn't been without regular club racing, but the ICRA championships will be the biggest test of the year with so many clubs represented in the fleet."

The ICRA series will be hosted by the National Yacht Club, Dun Laoghaire. The Covid restrictions mean that the championships will have to spread out a little, with a maximum of 200 to be accommodated in one location. After consultation with the other waterfront clubs, Royal St George and Royal Irish members will be hosted by their respective clubs. Visiting boats and their crews will be hosted at the National Yacht Club.

ICRA Courses

Many former national champions are participating across all classes. Two inshore fleets, with Class 1 in White Fleet and Class 2, 3 and non-spinnaker in Orange fleet, will race windward/leeward and round the cans. Class 0 will race a mixture of coastal and windward/leeward courses, starting from the same line as Class 1.

International Race Officers Jack Roy and Con Murphy are running racing afloat. At the same time, Ailbe Millerick and Bill O'Hara will lead ICRA's Protest Committee, who will, as in 2019, be on the water to witness racing.

Robert Rendell's Grand Soleil 44 Samatom will be racing in a bumper Class Zero Photo: Adam Winkelmann

After a great season with his previous boat Eleuthera, Frank Whelan's J122 Kaya from Greystones Sailing Club could well be the form boat in Division Zero, though with a slew of rivals in this hotly contested class. Conor Phelan's Ker 37 Jump Juice from the Royal Cork YC and Paul O'Higgins' JPK1080 Rockabill VI from the Royal Irish YC are certain to be in the mix with Robert Rendell's Grand Soleil 44 Samatom from Howth YC.

Conor Phelan's Ker 37 Jump Juice Photo: Bob Bateman

After overall victory in Kinsale for the Sovereign's Cup in June, Mike & Richard Evans' J99 Snapshot will again try to disrupt the J109 fleet's dominance of Division 1. However, Stuart Cranston's Ker 32 Hijacker from Strangford Lough could add a fresh challenge.

Mike & Richard Evans' J/99 Snapshot Photo: Bob Bateman

Of the J109s, John and Brian Hall’s Something Else from the National YC will be looking for a result on home turf but can expect Howth's Colwell with John Murphy on Outrajeous to be on form as well as the Jones family's Jelly Baby from Crosshaven and the Goodbody's White Mischief from the Royal Irish YC.

John and Brian Hall’s Something Else from the National YC Photo: Bob Bateman

"We're all set and looking forward it - this is our first regatta in two years - we have a great crew, some of whom have sailed with me for 40 years," said Tim Goodbody (80). "Racing under IRC is great as we can sail with nine up so I can share the helm with Richard when I get tired."

The Royal Irish Yacht Club's John Maybury made it four in a row at the ICRA National Championships in 2019 in his Class One J109 yacht Joker II Photo: Afloat.

Nigel Biggs from Howth YC moves out of his new Flying Fifteen one design and back into Checkmate XVIII and will be the boat to beat in Division 2 after a near-perfect track record of wins in Dublin Bay in recent years. The Wright/De Nieve owned Mata, also from Howth, are likely challengers amongst the half-tonners.

Nigel Biggs' Half Tonner Checkmate XVIII Photo: Afloat

If the event gets breeze, clubmates Dux, an X302 sailed by the Gore-Grimes family, could repeat their 2019 event win though Lindsay Casey and Denis Powers' J97 Windjammer from the Royal St George YC is also tipped for the fresher conditions.

Anthony Gore-Grimes' Dux from Howth Yacht Club emerged overall winner of the Irish Cruiser Racing Association (ICRA) National Championships Photo: Afloat.

Bray Sailing Club’s Flor O’Driscoll will be taking on the might of the Royal Irish YC with his J24 Hard On Port facing the likes of Paul Colton’s Cri Cri and Barry Cunningham with Jonathan Skerritts' Quest, both revamped quarter-tonners.

"I've always enjoyed the ICRA's as the J24 is rated pretty well under IRC," O'Driscoll said while preparing for East coast championships in Howth. "We raced for the first time in two years in Foynes for the southerns but could have done better with a sixth place."

The Covid-19 pandemic forced the abandonment of much of the 2020 and early 2021 fixtures. Still, measures have been relaxed enough to permit safe competition afloat though shoreside social activities continue to be severely curtailed for this season.

Howth J109 Outrajeous (Richard Colwell and John Murphy) Photo: Bob Bateman

"Our main priority is to deliver a strong racing series afloat this year which will certain to be a warm-up for hopefully a full 2022 season," said Richard Colwell, Commodore of the Irish Cruiser Racing Association. "While social is more difficult in Covid restrictions, we have worked hard to make sure there will still be limited social activity spread across the Dun Laoghaire waterfront so everyone can enjoy the event as much as possible."

Racing begins this Friday at 1125hrs.

2021 ICRA National Championships Event Schedule

Thursday 6th June

2100hrs Skippers Briefing on Zoom (an invitation will be emailed in advance)

Friday 7th June

0830hrs Breakfast on the forecourt, Coffee & pastries in Club Room bar
1125hrs Racing
1600hrs BBQ on the forecourt
1800hrs Sailing Buffet in Dining Room

Saturday 8th June

0830hrs Breakfast on the forecourt, Coffee & pastries in Club Room bar
1125hrs Racing
1600hrs BBQ on the forecourt
1930hrs Regatta Dinner

Sunday 9th June

0830hrs Breakfast on the forecourt, Coffee & pastries in Club Room bar
1025hrs Racing
1500hrs BBQ on the forecourt
Approx. 1630hrs ICRA National Championships Prize Giving

Having recovered from the recent gruelling Fastnet Race, Royal Cork yacht Nieulargo continues to top the scoreboard for ICRA’s Boat of the Year Award.

According to the latest rankings released by ICRA (on August 20) the Grand Soleil 40 Nieulargo (Denis and Annamarie Murphy) remains at nine points and is followed by another Irish Fastnet Race competitor, Desert Star Irish Offshore Sailing that recorded a top class result, scoring second in division four in the ocean classic.

There are still several boats in contention for the ICRA top boat award given the ICRA Nationals, WIORA, ISORA, DBSC Thursday Series, HYC & RCYC Autumn Leagues are all yet to be completed.

The latest scores are listed below: 

ICRA Boat of the Year points

• Nieulargo 9
• Desert Star Irish Offshore Sailing 6
• Juggerknot II 6
• Coracle VI 4.5
• Samatom 4.5
• Shillelagh 4.5
• Slack Alice 4.5
• Snapshot 4.5
• YaGottaWanna 4.5
• Freya 4
• Humdinger 4
• Indian 4
• Rockabill VI 4