As this Friday's entry deadline looms for the ICRA National Championships on June 9, Royal Cork Yacht Club organisers say they will finalise racing divisions closer to the start of the event and will endeavour to make the splits as competitive as possible. 'Currently, it looks like we will have Divisions 0, 1, 2, 3 and Non-Spinnaker for the event, says organiser Paul Tingle of Royal Cork.

Always a contentious issue, it will be interesting to see how ICRA split classes as some entries maybe in limbo, such as those between the small class zero and the large class one, made up mainly of J109’s.

At present, the Race Officers will be working in two race areas for the various divisions, with an In-Harbour and Outer-Harbour start area. The outer area is planned to be located outside Roches Point with a mix of race types including Windward/Leeward, Sausage/Triangle and Around-the-cans, while the inner harbour start area will cater for the Non-Spinnaker division as well as a rotating other division(s). Course type will be varied with the use of navigation and harbour marks inside and outside the harbour. Of course final confirmation and further details will be sent soon.

Tingle has issued an appeal for any entries for the Coastal Division to confirm their interest.

After a decade of competition with the Swan 42 One-Design sailboat, the New York Yacht Club has announced a new class that will carry the Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup, sailing’s Corinthian interclub competition, into its second decade.

Production on the IC37, designed by County Wicklow's Mark Mills with support from KND-Sailing Performance and SDK Structures, will start in the next few months. A fleet of 20 37-footers, all owned and maintained by the New York Yacht Club, will be available for the 2019 Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup. The fifth Invitational Cup will be sailed this September in 15 Swan 42s and Ireland is represented again by Royal Cork Yacht Club. 

“A decade ago, we created a new class of boat and a ground-breaking international sailing competition,” says Commodore Philip A. Lotz. “Both have been tremendous successes. The first four editions of the Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup have set a new standard for interclub competition, bringing amateur sailors from 43 yacht clubs from 21 countries to compete off Newport. The Swan 42 was an instant success with 18 boats competing in the class’s inaugural national championship in 2007. More recently, the design has found tremendous success in handicap regattas around the world. The dispersion of the class away from the Northeast United States has made it harder and harder to get enough boats to meet the continued interest in the Invitational Cup. To ensure the future of this great event, the Club decided to build its own fleet of raceboats. From 19 submissions from top yacht designers around the globe, we have selected a 37-footer drawn by Mark Mills. We think it’s the perfect choice to carry this regatta forward and build upon the substantial legacy established by the Swan 42.”

The new design, with the working title of IC-37, is a dedicated raceboat with a flush deck, open cockpit, and square top main reflecting the latest developments from Grand Prix inshore racing. 

Unlike the Swan 42, which was built to cruise and race both around the buoys and offshore, the IC37 is purpose-built for competition. The flush deck, square-top main, open cockpit and wide beam carried all the way to the transom are all hallmarks of a thoroughbred raceboat, designed to be pushed hard on all points of sail.

“It’s definitely a planing downwind design,” says Mills, who founded his eponymous design firm in 1996. “We tried to find a displacement that produces that outcome, but still provides a boat you can build within the determined cost envelope and doesn’t leave you lacking stability going upwind. It will be an exciting boat to sail.”

Since the Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup is a Corinthian regatta sailed in supplied boats, the design brief also specified that the boat be sturdy, relatively straightforward to sail and welcoming to amateur sailors.

“One of the goals was to accommodate a wide range of ages of both genders,” says Mills. “It would be easy to do a lighter boat that’s very aggressive and very dynamic and required burly 20-somethings to sail it. But that would fail against the requirements of the club. We’re trying to create a boat that’s light and high performance, and can be sailed aggressively by a wide variety of sailors.”

The IC37—a working class title that's subject to change—will measure in at just over 37 feet, or 11.3 meters, with a 6-foot retractable sprit. The beam is just shy of 12 feet and the displacement is scheduled to be approximately 8,000 pounds with 50 percent of that in a T-bulb that will draw just more than eight feet. A two-spreader carbon rig will support 900 square feet of upwind sail area and 2,000 square feet of downwind sail area. The projected ratings for IRC, ORC and ORR are 1.180, 542.7 and 545.3, respectively.

“We were overwhelmed with the response to our initial request for proposals,” says NYYC Sailing Committee Chair Paul M. Zabetakis, who skippered the Club's Invitational Cup entry in 2015. “We feel that’s a strong indication that there’s an opportunity in sailing for the next great one-design class. While our primary goal is to create a boat that will sustain the Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup well into the future, we also hope that the momentum provided by the Club’s investment will establish a class that will reinvigorate a general interest in Corinthian yachting in larger boats.”

While the class rules are a work in progress, the Club is committed to sustaining the amateur focus of the Invitational Cup and promoting the inclusion of women and youth sailors.

With the design selected, the next step is to choose a builder. Experienced yacht builders from across North American and around the globe have expressed an interest. The Club expects to make that decision within the next few weeks.

“While we have more than two years until the start of the 2019 Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup, our timeline doesn’t have a lot of margin for error,” says NYYC member Arthur J. Santry, who chaired the IC37 Selection Subcommittee. “We hope to start the tooling by mid July and sea trial the first boat before the end of the year.”

Commodore Lotz' connection to the Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup goes back to the inaugural competition in 2009, which he won while representing the host club. He also claimed two Swan 42 National Championships.

"Each time we run the Invitational Cup, the bar gets raised," Lotz says. "The teams come to Newport better prepared and the competition gets more intense. With the IC37 we have the perfect boat to continue that trend. We expect the 2017 event, the final one for the Swan 42, to be the most competitive yet. We anticipate the switch to the IC37 will increase both the interest in competing and the effort each invited club puts toward winning Corinthian sailing's top prize."

With a month to go to the ICRA National Championships at Royal Cork Yacht Club, the Cruiser Racer body has published a 56–boat entry list to date that reveals a large entry from the host Cork Harbour Club. Royal Cork yachts represent 30% of entries received to date. Dublin Boats represent another 30% but there is likely to be some disappointment that no entries have so far been received from either the Royal St. George YC or National Yacht Clubs. To date, Howth Yacht Club is sending eight boats while the Royal Irish Yacht Club is sending similar.

18 yacht clubs are represented at the 2017 championships.

Neighbouring Kinsale Yacht Club has five entries listed. A single Scottish entry from the Clyde has been received as has a single Welsh entry from Swansea Yacht Club.

Seven boats in the fleet are J24 one designs that will also race for southern class honours, a new departure for the ICRA championships.

ICRA believes only 60% of the entries have been recevied at this stage so with five days before the early bird entry expires, ICRA Commodore Simon McGibney is urging skippers to avail of the discounted rate.

Read the provisional ICRA entry list below: 

The ICRA Cruiser National Championships reduced entry fee registration of €150.00 will end this Friday 12th May, just a month before the event sets sail at Royal Cork Yacht Club from 9th – 11th June. The final closing date for entry is the 26th May. Enter online here.

As of today, ICRA estimates over sixty percent of the expected boats have entered the championships.  'Thanks to all the boats that have entered so far as this assists greatly with the planning of the event', ICRA Commodore Simon McGibney told Afloat.ie

The J24 Association of Ireland will be hosting their Southern Championships during the event and the Quarter tonner will in addition to be racing in division but also will be racing for the Quarter Ton Cup.

Royal Cork Yacht Club's UK Sailmakers May league began this evening and Afloat.ie's Bob Bateman captured the sailing action from Cork Harbour.

In the first race of a seven boat 1720 division Heroes and Villains (Gary Rhodes) was the winner. Brian Twomey was second in RCYC 1 and third Brian Jones's Cosmic

A new arrival into Royal Cork Yacht Club this season is an Olson 30, a vintage American design writes Bob Bateman. Afloat.ie understands it's the only one of its type in Europe and will be new competition at the top of class two in June's ICRA National Championships. The 'lightweight flyer' is skippered by RCYC's Kieran Collins. 

The Olson 30 was designed by George Olson of Santa Cruz, California around 1978. Olson was a surfer and surfboard shaper who decided to design a 30' ultra light displacement boat. 

Approximately 250 boats were built by Pacific Boats and Ericson Yachts. The Olson 30 was introduced into a crowded market of ultralight boats constructed in the Santa Cruz area, including Ron Moore's Moore 24 and Bill Lee's Santa Cruz 27.

The Kieran Collins skippered Olson 30 afloat off Cork with a spinnaker depicting her country of origin Photo Bob Bateman

There will be no crew number limitations or crew weight limitations at this year's Irish Cruiser Racer (ICRA) Nationals at Royal Cork Yacht Club.

The rule had been 'under review' following discussion at March's ICRA Conference in Limerick where it was shown different regattas deal with crew weight limits in different ways.

Yesterday, ICRA Commodore Simon McGibney confirmed to Afloat.ie, 'There is no change to point five of the Notice of Race for this year's Championships'.  

Point five says: Crew Limitations IRC Rule 22.4 is deleted. There is no crew number limitations. There is no crew weight limitations.

IRC Rule 22.4 says: “The Crew Number printed on each boat’s certificate shall not be exceeded or the crew weight shall not exceed 85kg multiplied by the Crew Number printed on the certificate.”

The decision brings clarity to a situation six weeks after a healthy debate on the issue at the national conference and six weeks before the championships is set to sail in Cork Harbour. 

It means competing skippers are now free to invite as many crew as they wish and book accommodation at Crosshaven accordingly.

The focus of conversation at the conference, under guest speaker Mike Urwin of the RORC, was the disposal of crew limits at events such as the ICRA National Championships.

As the rule does not apply at the ICRAs, boats had an option to take less crew on a light wind day and stack the rail in breeze.

Traditionally, fun regattas like Calves Week, did not have crew limits, so that late crew members could be recruited from the quayside and children could also be accommodated as required.

The move to delete the limit rule followed significant consultation with sailors and ICRA surveys found overwhelming support for its withdrawal.

However, the meeting heard that for 'serious regattas', such as a national championships, not having a crew limit can lead to advantages to those who bring a large crew pool to an event, thus upping overall costs of participation.

Some delegates believed championships should stick to the IRC certificate crew limit or maybe the 'cert plus one'. Others thought a stipulation in the Sailing Instructions requiring the same crew numbers in every race would be helpful.

An Afloat.ie reader poll following the conference (running from March 9 to April 25) recorded answers from eight countries, with 45% of respondents from Ireland.

The poll asked: 'Should there be a crew limit at ICRA 2017?' Answer options: No – Let them all race! or Yes – Reinstate IRC Rule 22.4. There was a strong result (73%) for the reinstatement of IRC Rule 22.4.

Results are below: 

Six relatively light wind races completed at Howth Yacht Club gave Charles Dwyer and his crew Nin O'Leary and Richie the overall win of the inaugural six–boat National 18s Eastern Championships in Dwyer's new boat.

A tie break behind them saw Tommy Dwyer, Peter O'Donovan and Charlie Moloney take second with Colin Chapman, Morgan O'Sullivan and Ronan Walsh taking third.

The National 18s continue racing in Cork Harbour with Wednesday leagues already in operation and Saturday racing beginning at the start of May.

ICRA has issued a notice to all Cruiser Racers attending June's Royal Cork Yacht Club National Championships this year in Cork Harbour that full lifting facilities will be available through the following suppliers:

· Salve Marine is right beside the yacht club in Crosshaven and has a full working boatyard facility as well as a lifting Crane. The Crane has a lifting limit of 4.5ton. Contact Wietze at 087 2601755. Rates vary depending on number of lifts required but in general it would be €175 per boat and and mast lift. Boat only lift €100.

· Paul Murphy Crane Hire. Paul works out of Kinsale also and so could do the lift in Crosshaven and the lift out at Kinsale. Paul’s rate would be €170 per lift per three boats together. €150 if there were more than three boats. Contact Paul at 087 2659970.

· Crosshaven Boatyard. There is a full yard facility available with varying rates and times of lifts. Please contact Matt at 021 4831161 for further information.

ICRA is asking sailors to make direct contact with these to finalise specific lifting requirements.

Royal Cork Yacht Club pairing Harry Durcan and Harry Whitaker last were bronze medalists in the 29er class at the British Youth Sailing National championships sailed last week on the Solent. In a fleet of 70 boats the Royal Cork duo sailed 18 races in five days to give themselves a boost before the World Championships in America later this Summer.

The RYA youth nationals for under –19s (totalling a massive fleet of 450 boats and boards) was held in Hayling island sailing club, the British version of the current ISA regatta being sailed in Ballyholme YC.

Sailing in a wide range of conditions, the 29er fleet was split into two flights. Each day consisted of three to four races with each lasting 30 minutes for the lead boat. The Cork Harbour teens finished eighth place in the qualifying series and then slowly climbed up to third place overall in the Gold fleet series after sailing very consistently. 

'We are the current 29er British national champions and while we can't complain about a medal, we would have liked to have won but we hadn't raced in seven months', helmsman Durcan told Afloat.ie

Durcan and Whitaker (green kite on right) surf over the top of 29er competitors at the RYA Youth Nationals in Hayling Island. Photo: RYA

Next up for the pair is the USA national championship and then the following week the 29er World Championship in Long Beach, California in July where a top 10 finish is the aim after last year's 23rd.

'Until then it's working on the last few pieces of the puzzle and spending time in the gym to be fully prepared. We are the only Irish boat in Ireland and the only Irish boat heading to the Worlds'.

Results are here