2022 promises to be a bumper year for offshore racing, especially in Ireland with the much-awaited Round Ireland Yacht Race undoubtedly the highlight of the year ahead for many offshore sailors in Ireland.

As detailed last year, the Offshore Racing Academy has been founded as a hub of advice, training and support for offshore racing. Its founder Kenny Rumball has been racing offshore professionally for over 10 years with notable successful campaigns in Ireland and abroad including Jedi’s (J109) Fastnet Race class win, a superb season as a skipper of the Fast 40 Keronimo and three years on the Figaro circuit in France. Not just one to rely solely on racing, Kenny also won the RORC Seamanship Award for Successful recovery of MOB in the Round Ireland Race.

Learning from these successful campaigns and the intense level of training and coaching in France, the Offshore Racing Academy is bringing this training and advice to Ireland and supporting ISORA where many successful young sailors have started their offshore racing campaign.

With some boat plans well in advance for 2022, the ORA has a number of talks planned to aid preparations for the season ahead. All sessions and events will be advertised on the Offshore Racing Academy website, and Facebook pages, likewise on ISORA with a reminder article on Afloat.ie one week out from each event!

The start of an ISORA race on Dublin Bay

Most events will be on Zoom as the providers for these talks and seminars are based outside of Ireland.

The talks are as follows;

Introduction to Offshore Sailing seminar/discussion for skippers and crew Tuesday 22nd March 2022 1900-2100.

All your questions answered as to how to prepare yourself and your boat for Offshore Racing! Topics include;

• Basic Boat Preparation
• Crew Preparation
• Safety Considerations
• Managing sleep and watch systems
• Navigation and routing considerations
• New keel inspection requirements for 2022

Weather Analysis/Windy briefing by Christian Dumard. Tuesday 5th April 2022 1900-2100 on Zoom.

Windy is the most complete source of weather information available on the internet. In two hours you will learn how to use all the features and combine the different data available to get a quality forecast, whether you are sailing for a day or a multi-day trip. The course material will be sent to you at the end of the course with a series of exercises to practice.

Christian is a professional router and has worked for many skippers, including the Mini Transat, the Volvo Ocean Race, the Vendée Globe, the Atlantic Back Cruising and many other events. He accompanies more than a hundred cruising yachts every year during their crossings. He has participated in numerous races (America's Cup, Tour de France à la Voile, Admiral's Cup, ...) and has more than 100 000 miles of cruising experience.

Adrena/Expedition weather routing basics and information Tuesday 12th April 2022 1900-2100

This introduction session aims to showcase the differences between the two most popular routing software providers and provide answers to some of the myths surrounding routings and routing software.

It is hoped to give participants the advice on what program will suit them best the price considerations for both and also the necessary hardware and backup information for these systems to work on one’s boat!

Getting the most from your racing. 1900-2100 on zoom on Tuesday 29th March 2022

This more advanced information evening is for more in-depth offshore racing thoughts and aims, which this session will aim to cover.

• Boat Preparation Cat 1 & Cat 2
• Interpreting Rules
• Managing Crew roles and rest patterns
• Spares and boat preparation to avoid necessary repairs
• Weight distribution and securing arrangements.
• Use of weather and navigation routing for optimal performance.

These talks will be followed up later in the season by pre-race weather analysis and post-race performance debriefings that Kenny Rumball provided last year.

These weather and post race de-briefs were hugely successful in allowing boats, crews and skippers to understand where some boats had made winning decisions and where other boats could have improved!

Wednesday morning saw some early 2022 season double-handed two boat tuning for a pair of Jeanneau Sunfast 3600 keelboats on Dublin Bay.

ISORA campaigners Searcher (Pete Smyth) and John O'Gorman's Hot Cookie enjoyed 10-15 knots north-westerlies for a fast reach from Dun Laoghaire Harbour.

Searcher and Hot Cookie, both from the National Yacht Club, cut quite a dash crossing a deserted bay at speed under pink and red spinnakers.

The pair returned to the harbour after a two-hour session with Searcher sporting a ripped kite in conditions that had strengthened to over 20 knots in gusts.

ISORA celebrates its Golden Jubilee with a return to traditional Irish Offshore Racing in 2022 with the first fixture on May 28th with a 60-mile race from Dun Laoghaire to Holyhead. All this, of course, is preceded by DBSC's Spring Chicken Series that begins on February 6th. 

A Welsh sailor with a longtime connection to offshore racing in the Irish Sea has been recognised by his home club with a lifetime contribution award.

Richard Tudor was presented with the accolade recently at a special function hosted by Pwllheli Sailing Club, which has posted a glowing tribute on its website.

A fixture on the ISORA calendar, most recently in the J125, Jackknife — and a former champion in the J109, Sgrech, too — Richard has been a part of Pwllheli’s club since its first clubhouse, after a childhood growing his love of the water under the tutelage of Gwyndaf Hughes.

Sailing also runs in the family, with his father Huw serving as Pwllheli’s commodore for a time and his brothers Andrew and Stephen also keen helmsmen.

Richard sailed his first ISORA in 1976, and his first Fastnet Race in 1977 — the beginnings of a decades-long connection with Ireland’s offshore sailing scene that continues to this day. Pwllheli Sailing Club has much more HERE.

Following its AGM, ISORA aims to run the full traditional offshore series including the Wolf’s Head overall trophy in what will be its 50th season. 

There are great plans for the 2022 season. We have proposed a separate Coastal Series on each side of the Irish Sea and an Offshore Series. We propose to move back to our traditional offshores by making them longer. We are proposing staggered starts for the races to ensure that as many boats arrive at the finish at the same time. This should revive the great social part of ISORA. We will be working with the host clubs to ensure that there will be “facilities” open for crew no matter what time they arrive at the finish. If sufficient interest exists, we would encourage cruising boast to follow the race fleet, as a “Rally”, and take part in the pre and post-race social events.

ISORA will be working with the Irish National Sail and Powerboat School, INSS, in placing newly qualified crews onto appropriate ISORA Offshore and Coastal boats. ISORA will also be working with the newly formed “Offshore Racing Academy” to promote the technical aspects of offshore racing and to inform and update Skippers on appropriate offshore data. Kenneth Rumball gave a very useful series of pre-race weather and tactical briefings immediately before some of the major races this season. These were well received by Skippers. It is hoped as part of the Offshore Racing Academy, these briefings will continue next season.

Kingstown to Queenstown Race (K2Q Race)

Obviously, the main offshore event is the Round Ireland Race. ISORA will be working with Wicklow Sailing Club and fully supporting and promoting this great race. ISORA have included this in their race schedule and will be preparing boats to qualify for this epic race. ISORA will also be providing tracker service to the race. The other great offshore race in 2022 will be the recommencement of the “Kingstown to Queenstown Race”, (K2Q Race), a 270-mile race that starts in Dun Laoghaire, rounds the Fastnet and finishes in Cork Harbour. It is run by the Royal Cork Yacht Club in conjunction with the National Yacht Club and ISORA.

Let’s hope that the 2022 season will see ISORA grow again, in its 50th Season, promoting offshore racing in the Irish Sea.

To mark this 50th season we hope to finish an offshore in Howth in June and run a celebratory party.

Some of the ISORA fleet in Howth after a cross-channel race in 1980, with the fleet including (at centre) Dai Mouse III (now Sunstone) and the McGruer yawl Frenesi, as well as the first Round Ireland Race winner Force Tension (Johnny Morris) on right. Despite the primitive facilities at most ports, more than a hundred boats regularly entered the ISORA Championship each season. Photo: W M Nixon

ISORA 50th

Afloat's Winkie Nixon wrote about ISORA's birth earlier this year: 

ISORA had its preliminary informal launching to emerge out of the North-West Offshore Association (formerly the Mersey & North Wales Joint Offshore Committee) in the old Howth YC on the West Pier at lunchtime on Sunday 29th August 1971, the day after the Abersoch-Howth Race (the James C Eadie Cup).

The main movers and shakers in making the up-grade were Dickie Richardson from Holyhead SC and Hal Sisk from the National YC. Among those present were Alan Stead and Bert Whitehead (both HSC and Tranmere SC, subsequently officers of ISORA) Ronnie Wayte of Setanta of Skerries, and myself, together with sundry others who were keen to get the business done so that the proper post-race party could progress at its usual ferocious pace.

The first season in 1972 had an awesomely busy and complex programme, by the mid-'70s there were 107 boats in the annual points championship, and it all reached a sort of height in 1976 when the biennial ISORA Week was staged in Crosshaven with a huge turnout which made the Corkmen wonder why they were going to all this effort for the benefit of a bunch of madmen from the Irish Sea, and thus Cork Week was born.

Read the full article on ISORA's Golden Jubilee

Significant changes to the ISORA 2022 fixtures schedule (downloadable here) on the Irish Sea will be discussed online at this year's Irish Sea Offshore Racing Association (ISORA) Annual General Meeting.

The offshore body promotes offshore racing on both side of the channel, principally from Dun Laoghaire on Dublin Bay and Pwllheli in North Wales.

As Afloat previously reported, it is proposed to hold two Coastal Series, one on each side of the Irish Sea. Points for the Coastal series will not count for the Wolf’s Head. The Coastal Series will have its own signature trophies.

The AGM will be held virtually by 'Zoom' on Saturday 4th December 2021 at 11.00 hours.

The meeting is for the transaction of the following business:-

• To approve the minutes of the previous AGM.
• To approve the accounts for the year to November 2021
• To elect Officers of the Association for the ensuing year.
• To elect members of the Committee
• To Agree the 2022 Race Management Detail and Proposed Race Schedule

The meeting is for the following categories:

• 2019, 2020 and 2021 Skippers, or their appointed representative
• 2022 prospective Skippers, or their appointed representative
• 2021 Committee Members
• 2022 Committee Members (proposed)
• Yacht/Sailing Club Representatives

Voting will be restricted to one vote per ISORA participating boat.  Questions for the AGM are required to be forwarded to the Hon Sec before 2nd December 2021

Some significant changes to the ISORA 2022 fixtures schedule (downloadable below) on the Irish Sea are highlighted by ISORA Chairman Peter Ryan ahead of this year's online AGM. 

The Offshore will be a stand-alone series for ISORA's overall Wolf’s Head Trophy. The offshore races will be longer, more like the traditional ISORA races.

There will be two Coastal Series, one on each side of the Irish Sea. Points for the Coastal series will not count for the Wolf’s Head. The Coastal Series will have its own signature trophies.

The Offshore will include the Round Ireland Race and the new RCYC/ISORA Kingstown to Queenstown Race – Dun Laoghaire to Cork, via the Fastnet.

To facilitate gathering for socialising after races, the class starts will be staggered, with Class 2 heading off first. This will also keep the fleet in touch for longer.

ISORA's Peter Ryan - instigating change for 2022 offshore season

We are strongly promoting the social side of racing. Even with the longer offshore races, there will still be facilities at the finishing club for every boat irrespective of when a boat finishes.

ISORA coastal racing off Dun Laoghaire Harbour, the hub of offshore racing in Ireland

Encouraging cruising boats to join with the ISORA racing fleet and join in the post-race social events.

We are working with ICRA to create an ICRA National Offshore / Coastal Championship.

At first light on Saturday 5th July 1980 off Wicklow, Johnny Morris of Pwllheli - who has died aged 88 - secured himself a permanent place in the story of offshore racing. In command of Force Tension, a One Tonner to the High Tension 36 design by Jac de Ridder, he became the first skipper to complete a non-stop Round Ireland Race, taking line honours in Wicklow SC’s inaugural event in five days 15 hours and two minutes.

He thereby placed himself two hours and 10 minutes on the water ahead of Dave Fitzgerald’s 40ft Partizan from Galway. However, when all the fleet was in, Brian Coad’s Rival 34 Raasay of Melfort (Waterford Harbour SC) was declared the overall handicap winner under WSC’s special Round Ireland Rating system, while Jim Poole’s Ron Holland Half Tonner Feanor (National YC) won under the RORC system, the IOR.

But there at the top of the listings as the clearcut line honours winner was - and always will be - Force Tension (A J Vernon, South Caernarvon YC, sailed by J.S.Morris). With the biennial Round Ireland Race now more than four decades old and well established as a pillar event of the European offshore season, it’s an achievement of steadily increasing significance. Yet it tells us much about the dedicated enthusiasm of Johnny Morris to sailing, and to life generally, that it was just one of many milestones in a very fully-lived existence.

Pre-start manoeuvres at the first Round Ireland Race 1980 off Wicklow, with Line Honours winner Force Tension on left, and handicap winner Raasay on right. Photo: W M Nixon

His sailing started at Abersoch in Dragons and 30 Square Metres. But soon after the family had acquired the attractive 34ft Holman-designed cruiser-racer Grenade for regular participation in the developing programme of the newly-formed ISORA - which had emerged from the Northwest Offshore Association - Johnny started to go his own way. He did this with the acquisition in 1972 of the new Sparkman & Stephens-designed She Wolf, a She 31 of a very attractive marque which became well-represented and successful in the Irish Sea programme.

Having proven he’d a winner in his ISORA racing, Johnny took She Wolf to the English Channel and repeated his success in season-long RORC Class V racing. This provided an introduction to the wider RORC programme, and in 1976 he was very much in contention in the RORC Round Britain and Ireland Race with Tiderace, the competition including Denis Doyle’s 47ft S&S design Moonduster – the “Blue Moonduster”.

Pocket rocket…..Johnny Morris’s very successful She Wolf was a Sparkman & Stephens-designed mini-classic

Yet his first love as a sailing location was Cardigan Bay, and in 1977 it became home with his establishment of Firmhelm Ltd at Pwllheli Boatyard. Among his early contracts to put the yard on a sound footing was the completion from a bare hull of the boat which became Force Tension for Tony Vernon who - a couple of years later – loaned the boat to Johnny for “this new-fangled Round Ireland Race”, thereby doubling the Morris achievement as he took the honours racing a boat he’d built himself.

It was only one success in an extraordinary life of dedication to the sport and the boats involved in it. He’d spend the week in hands-on management in Firmhelm, and then he’d go off and spend the weekend in ISORA racing, often in command and always in a key role, and usually aboard a boat in which he’d made a significant constructional or tuning input, craft such as Autonomy, Greased Lightning, Teambuilder, Jackhammer, Korimako, and Glider.

Pwlheli with Snowdonia beyond. John Morris’s development of the Firmhelm Boatyard here from 1977 onwards was important for the harbour’s growth.

As to the administration of ISORA, his input was typically practical. For many years he served on the committee, but in addition, he was longtime Trophy Secretary. It’s a key job, for as any sailing secretary well knows, as one busy season rapidly succeeds another, it sometimes happens that the inscription on some historic piece of silverware is the only record of the outcome of an increasingly remote race.

With all these areas of involvement in and around boats and racing, you might well think that Johnny Morris had his plate well filled, but he was also hugely enthusiastic about horses, and a demon on the ski slopes. And though in his latter years he’d retired from racing, his passion for being afloat and involved continued with the acquisition of the very comfortable cruising catamaran Sirena, which as often as not was to be found on duty as Committee Boat or Pin End Boat at many of the national and international events hosted by Pwllheli SC and Plas Heli.

Always afloat whenever possible – the late Johnny Morris glimpsed aboard his comfortable cruising catamaran Sirena

Johnny Morris added a new dimension to “enthusiasm and zest for life”. He may have gone from among us, but his wide circle of friends and family around the Irish Sea and beyond are much heartened by the memory of all that he achieved, and the way that he did it. 

WMN

Top Irish offshore yacht Rockabill VI was first in line honours, first in IRC overall and class in the seven-boat James Eadie long offshore (76-miles) from Pwllheli to Dun Laoghaire yesterday. 

Race 15 was the final race of the Musto ISORA Offshore Series for the cross-channel association that has been frustrated for a second year by COVID restrictions. 

The winning JPK 10.80 skippered by Paul O'Higgins of the Royal Irish Yacht Club finished in 14 hours, 53 minutes and 20 seconds. 

Chris Power Smith's Aurelia crew from the Royal St. George Yacht Club were second in line honours and IRC Zero, but third overall as the Welsh J/109 Mojito ( Peter Dunlop) from Pwllheli took second overall.

The seven boat ISORA fleet start their cross-channel race off Pwllheli

As reported earlier, as there were only two possible combined offshore races between the Welsh and Irish fleets this season, the Wolf’s Head Trophy for the Musto ISORA Offshore Champion will not be awarded in 2021.

Details are provisional and as per the ISORA YB tracker.

Out of an entry list of 13 boats, seven will take part in the last offshore of the Musto ISORA Offshore Series on Saturday. 

The 'Long Offshore' will start from Pwllheli in North Wales at 10 am and sail a course to Dun Laoghaire Harbour to conclude the 2021 season.

While there are only seven boats taking part, they are the top boats of the year and the overall placings in the Irish and UK Musto ISORA Offshore Series will be decided by this race.

ISORA James Eadie race fleet

Known affectionately by ISORA sailors as the “James Eadie Race” it is traditionally the last race of the ISORA season.

As there were only two possible combined offshore races this season between the Welsh and Irish fleets, the Wolf’s Head Trophy for the Musto ISORA Offshore Champion, will not be awarded in 2021.

The race can be followed on the YB tracker app and on the ISORA website.

Provisional results give Paul O'Higgins' Rockabill VI the overall win in ISORA's Race No. 12. The Royal Irish JPK 10.80 was the line honours winner in the slated 35-mile coastal day race that started and finished Dun Laoghaire Harbour.  

It was a light air affair from the get-go for the 11-boat fleet at 10 am on Saturday that saw the ISORA champion take just over five hours to complete the course.

Second overall was Pete Smyth's Sunfast 3600 Searcher that won in IRC 2.  Ninth on the water but third on IRC was the double-handed First 310 of Grzegorz Kalinecki, the silver fleet winner. 

This 12th race of the 2021 Musto Series also doubled as the third race of the ISORA Viking Marine Coastal Series. 

Light winds for ISORA's 12th race off Dun Laoghaire Harbour Photo: Michael Horgan