ICRA Class I is billed as John Minnis's A35 Final Call II from Belfast Lough being in with more than a shout against the "monstrous regiment" of J/109s. But in the end today, she had to be content with reaching the evening in second overall, as Johnny and Suzy Murphy moved out on their own both in class and against their sister-ships, ending the day for the J/109 Outrajeous (Howth YC) on just 8 points from 1,3,2,2 against Final Call's 14pts from 2,1,3 and 8 (ouch!).

Class One leader J/109 Outrajeous (Howth YC) starts on port in race two of the ICRA Nationals at Howth....

...and gets an early advantage

John Minnis's A35 Final Call II from Belfast Lough goes downwind in the first race of the ICRA National Championships at Howth Yacht Club Photo: Afloat

Obviously, that fourth race is in line for the discard if we can get it tomorrow, but meanwhile, Saturday night sees defending champion Joker II (J/109, John Maybury, RIYC) third on 9,2,7,1, with Mighty Mouse, aka Mike & Richie Evans' J/99 Snapshot (HYC) in fourth after logging 6,8,1,3.

Downwind in class one of the ICRA Nationals 2023 at Howth, with the J109 Joker II (John Maybury) lying in third overall on port gybe Photo: Afloat

Racing continues on Sunday.

The Cowes-based J109 Jukebox crew, led by John Smart, sailed a smart race on Tuesday to take the lead in a highly competitive IRC 3 fleet at the 2023 Cowes Week Regatta. The team, which has Royal Cork's Mark Mansfield racing as tactician and the National Yacht Club's Alan Roche onboard, sailed a flawless race to beat out Ed Mockridge and the team on Elaine Again (ranked number 1) for the top spot.

The 14-strong IRC3 fleet saw Brita Van Rossum on the HOD35 Zarafa leading going into Tuesday's race. This team, which took third place at the European championship last year, is in top form, but the Irish crew on Jukebox managed to take the lead by a slim margin.

The quality fleet also includes Jamie McWilliam and Jamie Boag racing on the J109 Witchcraft, who are currently lying in fourth overall.

Despite the excitement on Tuesday, the race committee has made the decision to abandon racing for all classes on Wednesday due to the Met Office yellow wind warning in force for the south coast.

The results of Tuesday's race can be found here

At Schull Harbour Sailing Club's All-In cruiser ECHO racing in West Cork, the Windbourne Trophy was won by Kevin Daly's Jamaro.

The Geneveve Trophy winner was Tony O'Brien's J109 Tighey Boy, and Alan Dwyer's Joxer won the Rosbrin Trophy.

The Barnett Trophy is scheduled for this Saturday.

Summer League leader is John McGowan's Mackey G, with Barry Quinlan's Capella second and Tadg Dwyer's Brazen Husie third.

A first and a second scored in today's final races has given National J109 Champion John Maybury of the Royal Irish Yacht Club the overall Class One IRC title at the 2023 Simply Blue Sovereign's Cup off Kinsale.

Maybury's Joker II crew ended the six-race series with all their results in the top five, and with three race wins to boot, the RIYC crew were two points clear at the top. 

Camelot in Kinsale is how Afloat's WM Nixon described the scene on the first two days of the regatta, but the 2023 Cup concluded with 100% cloud cover and drizzle on Saturday afternoon.

Five times J109 National Champion (and top ICRA yacht at Cork Week 2022), John Maybury and his Joker II crew won the Sovereign's Cup Class One IRC division Photo: Bob Bateman

Defending Sovereign's Cup Champion, Mike Evans's J99 Snapshot finished as runner-up by virtue of a final race win to be on 10 points overall. 

The Howth J99 broke up a J109 stranglehold in IRC One, with five of the top six boats being 109s. 

Maybury's clubmates, Richard and Timothy Goodbody, on' White Mischief', took a well-earned third overall with no race wins but six top-four results to finish on 15 points.

Mike and Ritchie Evans's J99 Snapshot from Howth (above and prizegiving below) finished in second place in IRC One of the 2023 Simply Blue Sovereign's Cup off Kinsale Photo: Bob Bateman

Mike and Ritchie Evans's J99 Snapshot from Howth (above and prizegiving below) finished in second place in IRC One of the 2023 Simply Blue Sovereign's Cup off Kinsale

The 15th edition of the biennial regatta attracted 90 entries across all divisions and ran from 21st to 24th June and incorporated the 1720 European sportsboat Championships.

Results below

Read all Afloat's 2023 Sovereign's Cup Regatta coverage in one handy link here

National J109 Champion John Maybury of the Royal Irish Yacht Club has moved into the overall lead of Class One IRC on day two of the 2023 Simply Blue Sovereign's Cup off Kinsale.

Maybury's Joker II crew won race two, were third in race three and won the last race of the day, and found themselves quite at home in the light winds that prevailed on Thursday, moving up from fifth overall after Wednesday's opening single race.

Mike Evans's J99 Snapshot from Howth has moved up to second place in IRC One of the 2023 Simply Blue Sovereign's Cup off Kinsale Photo: Bob Bateman

The  J109 design continues to hold four of the top five places in IRC One but also moving up overall is defending Sovereign's Cup Champion, Mike Evans's J99 Snapshot, now in second place from yesterday's third. 

Mike Evans's J99 Snapshot from Howth leads into a mark on day two of the 2023 Simply Blue Sovereign's Cup off Kinsale Photo: Bob Bateman

Early leader Howth Yacht Club's Indian skippered by Simon Knowles, and Finbarr O'Regan's Artful DodJer have both dropped off the podium, letting Maybury's clubmate Richard and Timothy Goodbody's ' White Mischief' into third overall.

Finbarr O'Regan's Artful DodJer of the host club has dropped to fourth Sovereign's Cup Class One IRC after four races sailed Photo: Bob Bateman

This is the 15th edition of the biennial regatta, which has attracted 90 entries, runs from 21st to 24th June, and incorporates the 1720 European sportsboat Championships.

Southwesterly winds gusting to 30 knots are forecast for Friday's races.

Results below

Pat Kelly’s family crewed J109 Storm from Howth and Rush began this year’s Celtic Cup RC 35 series with a win at Kip Regatta, the first big event of the season.

Dad Pat Kelly skippered the very competitive Storm with three generations of Kellys; sons Paddy, Paul and Ronan, and grandson David Jnr and, Ronan tells me, the long-standing crew members Kevin Sheridan, Mark Ferguson and Nin O’Leary, who call the shots!

The 11-strong fleet at Kip Regatta run out of Kip Marina at Inverkip in the Clyde, had mainly five light weather races over two days, 13th and 14th May.

Storm came through a very enjoyable tricky regatta in tight racing. Storm won two of the five outings but, after finishing first in Race 3, had to swallow a DSQ for that outing. This left the event wide open with Charlie Frize’s

Corby 33 Banshee and Ben and Jono’s J109 Mocking-J were close on points. Storm fought back on the second day to win Race 4 and take fourth in Race 5. That was enough to snatch first overall by two points to bring home the prize to Rush and Howth.

The expected battle with John Minnis’s Archambault 35 Final Call II from Belfast Lough didn’t materialise.

Next up for Storm is next weekend’s Scottish Series at Tarbert on Loch Fyne in an expected large class of RC35s.

As well as the Kip regatta, the Tarbert event, the RC 35 Celtic Cup series includes the Bangor IRC and RC35 weekend, the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta and Largs Regatta Festival.

With 25 entries already in two months before the first gun (compared to 26 racing in 2019), Class One IRC Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta (VDLR) looks like it's going to be a repeat of some of the hottest Irish Sea IRC action seen since before covid.

The regular Irish and Welsh boats in this class will be joined by some of the Scottish RC35 Class, which previously used VDLR as one of the Celtic Cup events, so it's no surprise to see a few of this number travelling to the hub of Irish Sea yachting, including the Celtic Cup Champion, John Minnis in his A35, Final Call II from Belfast Lough. 

RC35 Celtic Cup Champion, John Minnis in his A35, Final Call II will compete in IRC One at VDLR Photo: Afloat

Scottish RC35s

Scottish and Northern Ireland RC35s are due to race at Royal Ulster Yacht Club at an inaugural RC35 weekend ten days ahead of Dun Laoghaire, so the visitors should be fully warmed up if that dress rehearsal gets the numbers as Afloat's Betty Armstrong reports here.

Robin Young's J109 from the Scottish RC35 class is Dun Laoghaire bound from the Clyde this July Photo: RC35

Dublin J109s

14 J109s are currently entered (there were 16 in 2019) and are known to be potent across the wind range, as shown in 2019 when 1,2,3 went to the well-sailed Dublin class.

2019 winner John Maybury's Joker II has entered again, and after a successful foray at Cork Week 2022, now has a Cork Harbour tactician onboard. His Royal Irish runner-up clubmates Richard and Tim Goodbody in White Mischief are also in, but third-placed Storm II (Pat Kelly of Howth and Rush) is not entered yet.

2019 VDLR Class One winner, John Maybury's Joker II is a five-time J/109 Irish champion Photo: Afloat

The ISORA champion J109 Mojito is also entered in IRC One, and as regular Afloat readers know, she was the Cork Week Coastal Champion in 2022 but has opted to sail in VDLR IRC One rather than the regatta's dedicated Offshore Class, so it will be interesting to see how the North Wales crew perform inshore.

Richard and Tim Goodbody in White Mischief were Class One VDLR runners-up in 2019 Photo: Afloat

New Dun Laoghaire J109 entries for July include Bobby Kerr's new 'Riders on the Storm' and Barry Cunnigham's 'Blast on Chimaera', with North Sails' Prof O'Connell onboard, both from the RIYC.

The Shanahan family's J109 Ruth from the National Yacht Club has been an early performer in ISORA coastal in 2023 and will race to Dingle in June before the VDLR competition in July Photo: Afloat

Apart from the J109s, there are other possible front runners too, but that will depend greatly on wind strength, especially if it stays light for all four days of the regatta. 

A35

Minnis's A35 has just won the 2023 Spring Series in Belfast Lough, and as shown last year, with Gareth Flanigan driving, Final Call II saw them all off at Howth's WAVE Regatta with a dominant performance in a mix of conditions. Her ability to run square downwind with symmetric kites and gain on all the asymmetric boats proves especially effective in medium conditions on windward-leeward courses.

J111 and J99

There are a number of other J models competing, including a further optimised ICRA Boat of the Year, the J99 Snapshot, skippered by Mike and Ritchie Evans of Howth, along with their clubmate Norbert Reilly's brand new J111 Ghost Raider that saw her first action last Sunday in the second ISORA coastal of the season. 

ICRA Boat of the Year for 2023, the J99 Snapshot co-skippered by the Evans brothers, has been further optimised for the 2023 regatta season Photo: Bob Bateman

Corbys

Four Corby designs are competing, and they all are visitors to Dublin Bay. 

Carrickfergus's Brian and Ryan Wilson travel to Dun Laoghaire with their Corby 29E, Elixir. The Belfast Lough boat was the 2022 winner of the IRC One Bar Buoy Race at Strangford.

From Wales, Richard Fildes returns to the bay with his Corby 33 Imposter from South Caernavonshire Yacht Club and Pwhelli's Corby 36, Gelert, skippered by Brian Dixon, can show a turn of speed, again with the deadly use of a symmetric kite. 

Check out the entries so far here

In order to encourage greater participation by female sailors in the Irish J109 fleet, the class has voted to amend the crew weight limit to permit up to two female crew members to be excluded from the combined crew weight limit for class events.

This amendment, passed by 75% of voting class members, changes the crew weight limit requirements from the current maximum combined crew weight (excluding helm) of 650kg to a maximum crew weight (excluding helm) of 600kg plus up to two additional female crew members, according to Irish J109 Class Captain, Dave Egan. 

The 2023 Irish J109 Class events are the J109 Eastern Championships, to be held 10th - 11th of June on Dublin Bay, and the J109 National Championships to be held as part of the Key Yachting J-Cup from the 26th - 27th of August.

There is a new crew weight limit for the Irish J109s in 2023 Photo: Afloat

It is hoped that with the National Championships being held as part of the J-Cup, and near the ICRA Championships, a number of yachts from Northern Ireland, Wales, Scotland, and potentially further afield will make the journey to Dublin to compete in both events.

In a further change, this year, the Eastern and National Championships will be contested under both Scratch and Progressive ECHO, to encourage as many boats as possible to enter.

North Wales ISORA champion Mojito is one of the first entries into July's Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta. 

The Pwllheli J109 of Vicky Cox and Peter Dunlop is a regular visitor to the Irish east coast and was a big winner on the south coast of Ireland last year too. 

The Mojito crew are entered into what is expected to be a hot Cruisers One division at Ireland's biggest regatta, where a combined fleet of up to 500 boats will compete.

After a successful 2022 Irish campaign that included wins in the 260-mile K2Q race from Dun Laoghaire to Cork Harbour and a Cork Week coastal win in July, the top Welsh J109 returned home to dominate the IRC Welsh National Championships in August before being crowned ISORA champion in September.

As Afloat reported, VDLR 2023 has issued its notice of race and is open for entries.  A class captains' information evening for the regatta's 22 competing classes will be held on January 11th.

The Irish J109 Irish Championships scheduled for Dublin Bay this weekend has been cancelled 'due to a lack of entries'.

Seven entries had been received but deemed 'not viable to proceed' with the championship, according to a statement issued by regatta organisers.

Organisers say that a 2023 championship date will be decided at the class AGM.

Afloat sources say efforts were made to reschedule to an alternative date next month for the 2022 event, but some boats were unavailable.

At least one boat made the journey from West Cork to Dun Laoghaire for this weekend.