Conor Totterdell, hailing from Dun Laoghaire Harbour, recently participated in the 2023 Sydney-Hobart Race, finishing in seventh place in IRC Division 1 on the TP52 named Frantic before moving on to Sydney Harbour cruiser fleet success.

After returning to the water in the new year, he has won several significant cruiser class events in Sydney. In particular, he won the NSW ORC State Championships 2024, DIV 2, on 'Let's Get it on' (Corby 36) and also claimed victory in the Sydney Harbour Regatta 2024, DIV 2, on the same boat.

The National Yacht Club sailor has set his sights on some notable regattas in Sydney, including 'Sail Port Stephen's' at the end of April and the Australian National Championships on April 5-7.

Totterdell's Sydney trip will culminate in the TP52, Frantic, taking on the epic 1,064nm race from Sydney to Nouméa, New Caledonia, beginning on May 25th.

The Royal Cork’s Volvo Ocean Race winner Justin Slattery is among the Irish interest involved in this year’s Chicago Yacht Cub Race to Mackinac, which got under way yesterday (Friday 12 July).

Afloat.ie’s Sailor of the Month for June 2015 — for this key role in Abi Dhabi Ocean Racing’s win in that year’s VOR — is racing Whitehawk, a classic 105ft super yacht, in the world’s oldest annual freshwater distance race, now in its 111th running.

More than 2,000 sailors across 270 boats are racing the 289 nautical miles offshore from Chicago, north across the length of Lake Michigan, to where it meets Lake Huron at Mackinac Island.

Another Irish entrant is National Yacht Club sailor Conor Totterdell, who is racing the J109 Smee Again, part-owned by Irishman David Neenan.

The boat, which sets off with the more nimble boats in the race later today (Saturday 13 July), is in contention for ORR winners as well as the J109 one-design trophy, won by Neenan and his fellow owners’ previous boat, Impluse (J111).

Later this month, Totterdell will join Slattery on board Whitehawk for the Bayview Mackinac Boat Race from Port Huron (north of Detroit) to Mackinac.

Whitehawk, a custom-built King 104’ from 1978, is racing in the cruising division of ‘The Mac’ that set off yesterday, and as of 12.30pm IST was due east of Two Rivers, Wisconsin. (Follow along with the online race tracker HERE.)

It was recently bought by Peter Thornton who owned Il Mostro (Puma V70), on which Justin Slattery and Willie Lynch were regular crew.

Despite the distance from this island, The Mac has longstanding Irish connections. In 2002, the late Roy Disney, who was certainly no stranger to these shores, set the race’s monohull record of 23 hours and 30 minutes in his Maxi Z68, Pyewacket.