#icra – ICRA Class 2 is building to become the strongest class and most widely representative of all coasts at June's ICRA Nationals at Tralee Bay SC writes Barry Rose.

With entries already received from likes of Paul and Deirdre Tingle from Royal Cork who are bringing their new Corby 25 Alpaca (ex Allure ex Kinetic) a boat with a terrific reputation at ICRA Nationals.

The Tingle's will be taking on fellow Corby 25 Tribal (ex Yanks and Franks) Liam Burke from Galway Bay and Ray Mc Gibney's Disaray from Foynes Yacht Club and Strictly Business (Ferguson Kelleher) from Tralee Bay.

King One Dave Cullen's Half Tonner from Howth Yacht Club will travel together with Nigel Biggs Checkmate XV from Royal St George to lead a Dublin Challenge.

Egalite David Griffins Dehler 34 from Cliften will likely be joined by Martin Reilly's Half Tonner Harmony (also originally optimised by Nigel Biggs) and Conor Ronan's well prepared Corby 26 Ruthless both from Sligo Yacht Club.

It is also hoped Royal Cork Admiral Peter Deasy and his team on Bad Company will compete to build on their success at Cork Week.

Class 0 already has the likes of Norbert Reilly's Mills designed Crazy Horse sailing this time with a father and son combo and Conor and Denise Phelan's Ker designed Jump Juice being joined by Anthony O'Leary's Ker 39 Antix and George Sisk's Wow so the basis of a most competitive fleet is also building nicely in this class.

Priority berthing in Fenit Marina will be given to early bookings.

Update from Brian O'Sullivan at Tralee Bay SC

1. April 27th: end of early entry discount.

2. IRC and ECHO Certificates: have you got your certificates sorted out, or
even applied for at this stage? this process can take several weeks, so make
sure you get your application in as soon as possible....

3. Accommodation: There are still some houses available for letting at very
reasonable rates in Fenit village, but they are getting scarce. The
committee have sought out whatever is available and the last few houses will
be listed on the website very shortly, so keep an eye on this. Don't forget,
the Brandon Hotel also, have a few rooms left at unbelievable rates - check
out our website for details - www.traleebaysailingclub.com

4. Crew: for owners and skippers - it is time to get your crew together. Get
some early training in, get rid of the cobwebs and build up some team
spirit. Only 8 weeks to go!!!

5. Boat Movements: if you have to bring your boat to the event - have you
lined up a delivery crew and a return trip crew? Time to organize this now -
make sure you have plenty crew, as inevitably, some will drop out in the
last minute for whatever reason! If you are struggling to get crew, contact
us and we will help from our pool of skippers and crew who have volunteered
for these delivery trips. Email us on [email protected] for
details.....

6. June 12th: WIORA commences...........

7. June 13th: ICRA commences............

Guys and girls: start getting your ducks in a row!!!!! Get entries with
PAYMENT in to avail of priority berthing in Fenit Marina!!!!

#cruiserracing – The town of Fenit in County Kerry is getting ready to host a combination of national and regional sailors when it stages both the Irish Cruiser Racing Association (ICRA) National Cruiser Championship & Corinthian Cup along with the WIORA Regional West Coast Championships & White Sails event this June.

As it is a combination of two events, the Regional West Coast Championships commences on Wednesday, June 12th and finishes on Friday, June 14th with the ICRA National Cruiser Championships commencing on Thursday, June 13th and finishing on Saturday, June 15th, for two days out of the four there will be dual scoring for both events.

The Irish Cruiser Racing Association (ICRA), together with the West of Ireland Offshore Racing Association (WIORA) and host club Tralee Bay Sailing Club (TBSC) have been very busy over the winter months organising the ICRA National Cruiser Championships / Corinthian Cup and WIORA's Regional West Coast Championships / White Sails which will take place from the 12th – 15th June 2013.

With the ICRA National Cruiser Championships been a NON DISCARD event for the first time in its history a lot of competitors have also entered the regional event (WIORA) to get their boats up to speed the day before the Nationals commences. WIORA have opted to keep with their traditional stance on Discards - one discard will apply, if six or more races are sailed and in their White Sails division one discard will apply, if five or more races are sailed.

On the water Alan Crosbie, David Lovegrove, Peter Moore and teams will be ensuring the course will be of the highest quality and varied to satisfy the competitors with Mike Butterfield officiating as chairperson in the protest room and Denis Kiely & Peadar Murphy looking after the prompt posting of the results.

Tralee Bay Sailing Club boasts views of Tralee bay, with spectacular race courses easily followed from various spectator spots along the shore line. The organising committee under Brian O'Sullivan are finalising an exciting and varied racing programme over the four days, along with an excellent social programme of shore side activities including a crew tug of war sponsored by Walsh Brothers Shoes of Tralee. With ten weeks to go to first gun and over fifty confirmed entries to date, it will be a very special event both on and off the water. For non-sailors joining the event, they will be interested to know that there is a lot to see and do locally, and the organisers are running a fashion show in aid of the RNLI on Friday afternoon in the club.

Tralee Bay Sailing Club has partnered with the Brandon Hotel (Please call reservations on (066) 7123333 and Quote ICRA) to bring a very special accommodation deal for the duration of the event and reservations are open until 19th April. Also, locally there are houses available to rent - for more information please go to www.traleebaysailingclub.com. The committee advises to book accommodation early, as availability of houses is not limitless!

Entries for the National Cruiser Championships, West Coast Championships, and ICRA Corinthian Cup & WIORA White Sails can now be made on line at www.traleebaysailingclub.com. Entry fee for combined events is €225 – single event €175. To encourage early entries a discounted entry fee for combined events of €175 – single event €125 applies until the 27th April 2013. Entry closes 04th June 2013.

#icra – A fleet of 40 boats with some high calibre entries are entered so far for the ICRA National Championships at Tralee Bay Sailing Club in June.

This year organisers says there is equal focus on IRC and ECHO handicaps in the National Championships with equal trophies prizes and recognition together with the ICRA Corinthian Cups for the Non-Spinnaker Divisions means that all Club sailors are catered for say organisers.

Division 2 is already shaping up to be a great fleet with the Corby 25 Tribal (ex Yanks and Franks), Liam Burke from Galway Bay entered and Dave Cullen's Half-Tonner King One from Howth Yacht Club. Nigel Biggs' Half-Tonner Checkmate XV from Dun Laoghaire's Royal St George is also in. There are also expected entries from skippers Frank Desmond, Peter Deasy and Mark Ivor's Cork Week winning Bad Company from the Royal Cork and Martin Reilly's Half-Tonner Harmony from Sligo Yacht Club.

Division 3 already has two hot quarter tonners Diarmuid Foley's Anchor Challenge from the Royal Cork and Lostys Illes Pitituses from Cobh Sailing Club as well as the defending champion Tiger (Neil Kenefick).

Division 1 is also building with likes of Raptor Denis Hewitt and partners and Joker 2 John Maybury both from the Royal Irish Yacht Club and Exhale Derry Good from Royal Cork Yacht Club leading the charge.

Division 0 sees ICRA Commodore Norbert Reilly's Crazy Horse Howth Yacht Club lining up against Anthony O' Leary's Royal Cork Antix who will be using the Dun Laoghaire to Dingle race as a feeder. Gloves Off skippered by Kieran Twomey and Conor Phelan's Jump will also be likely to travel from Royal Cork.

The ICRA Corinthian Cup will be sailed for non spinnaker classes at the same time and is expected to draw significant interest.

As before in Tralee, WIORA West Coast Championships is 'intertwined' with the ICRA's and starts a day earlier on 12th finishing on the 14 th as an extra bonus for all those who travel.

The facilities of Fenit Harbour including marina berths for the duration of the event together with inexpensive lift in and out are a bonus for ICRA.  TBSC promise a carnival atmosphere in the club and throughout the village with pubs and restaurants doing their bit to make sailors welcome.

Entry discount applies before 27th April 2013 so don't delay - get your entry in now at www.traleesailingclub.com

#riyc – The Royal Irish Yacht Club (RIYC) is encouraging as many cruiser–racer crews as possible to to attend its Spring Coaching Regatta intiative on the weekend of the 27th and 28th of April in Dun Laoghaire.

The event is bringing together sailmakers Prof O'Connell, Des McWilliam, Philip Watson and Kenny Rumball for on the water coaching and video analysis, Olympic sailor Timothy Goodbody is on hand for tactician briefings and there will be a racing rules pub quiz to highlight the 2013-2016 rule changes.

The off the water sessions will deal with techniques, tactics and racing rule changes for 2013.

Saturday will consist of practice starts, upwind trim and windward mark roundings and will integrate three races. Sunday will focus on downwind trim, gybing and leeward mark roundings and a final race to pull it all together.

Skippers that will be bringing on new crew for 2013 or competitive teams looking to grease the team cogs before the ICRAs will benefit from this world class training weekend say organisers. Non-DBSC boats are more than welcome too and any trailered boats from outside Dublin can be launched from the RIYC.

The cost for this event is €50 per boat which the RIYC say is a continuation of its policy to provide really good and value for money events for skippers.

#rorc – World renowned as a centre of excellence for measurement, the UK-based RORC Rating Office, the technical hub of the Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC), is delivering a series of Seminars to clubs across the UK this Spring. 

There are no dates for Ireland as it is up to each rule authority to promote IRC in its own area. In Ireland the authority is the Irish Sailing Association.

The main focus of the presentations is to examine the current state and future opportunities for club cruiser racing at a local level.

The aim of these 'roadshows' is to encourage all the clubs in a specific region to work together to offer cohesive and attractive racing to club sailors for the benefit of all.

Sailors have different priorities & concerns about racing

The idea for the seminars came from a survey run by the Rating Office last winter, which showed that sailors had many varied priorities and concerns about racing, either under Spinlock IRC or local handicap/PY.

The Seminars are being presented by Mike Urwin, RORC's Technical Director, who explained: "These seminars will offer a discussion forum about improving turnouts generally; the advantages of dual scoring, class splits, types of courses, and any other issues relating to cruiser racing.  They should also dispel some of the many myths surrounding IRC, such as the idea that it is only suitable for grand prix racers, which is very far from the truth!"

Mike will also be explaining the highly practical initiative for 2013, the Limited Validity TCC, for those who might like to do one or two IRC events a year.

In addition, members of the RYA Technical office will be attending at least one of the seminars to introduce the new National Handicap scheme for Cruisers (NHC).

All are welcome

The RORC Rating Office is urging all the individuals undertaking key roles at the local clubs to attend, such as the sailing secretary, club secretary, captain of racing and other flag officers; and of course the sailors, whether they usually race PY/ local handicap or Spinlock IRC. All are welcome.

There are currently nine events scheduled between the end of January and the end of March, with venues stretching from the Isle of Wight on the South Coast to Inverkip on the Clyde in Scotland.  Others include South Wales, the East Coast and the Channel Islands.

Full details of the venues and dates can be found here

#icra – The Irish Cruiser Racer Association (ICRA) is to try again and form a team for the 2014 Commodore's Cup in Cowes, an international cruiser team event Ireland won in 2010.

ICRA is seeking declarations of interest from owners to participate in an Irish challenge that was won so convincingly by Anthony O Leary's Antix, Dave Dwyer's

Mariners Cove and Rob Davies Roxy.

"The Cup takes place again in 2014 and it's likely to be a similar format to 2012. The earlier that ideas are exchanged and interest is declared, the better the opportunity to mount a winning challenge" says ICRA chief Norbert Reilly.

It's the second major announcement for the go-ahead Irish sailing body this month. Last week Reilly launched a 'more sailors, more sailing' crew training initiative that kicks off in Howth in April.

Former ICRA Commodore Barry Rose ([email protected]) is the ICRA rep looking after the Team Ireland Commodore's Cup efforts , a role he is well used to having being team manager for the successful three boat team three years ago and the man behind efforts to rekindle interest in 2011 and 2012.

There was little surprise that despite exhaustive efforts over a long period it had not been possible in the current environment for Ireland to mount a defence team for the 2012 Cup.

After months of doubt about Ireland's ability to put a competitive three boat team together Ireland eventually pulled out of mounting a defence for the cup last August. The event was won by host nation Britain.

#icra – The Irish Cruiser Racing Association (ICRA) rolls out a nationwide 'crew recruitment and training programme in April just over a month ahead of its 2013 national championships at Tralee Bay Sailing Club.

The Initial roll out of the 'More Sailors, More Sailing' programme will take place on April 21st at Howth Yacht Club, where 120 slots are available that day in the Sailfleet J80 keelboat fleet that is based in Howth for 2013.

It follows a commitment given by ICRA Commodore Norbert Reilly at the ICRA Conference in Kilkenny last November to recruit more numbers to ICRA's 3,000 plus membership base.

The programme will consist of both water and shore based sessions lead by top Irish sailors.

The objective is to create a pathway to get on to a racing yacht, promote local training and provide national standards for the various positions (mast, bow, trim, helm, etc.)

This project is open to all levels of sailors from those interested in mid-week social racing, right up to a position on the Irish Commodores Cup Team.

More on www.cruiserracing.ie

#icra – A series of feeder races to Kerry for the 2013 Irish Cruiser Racer Association (ICRA) Nationals at Tralee Bay Sailing Club (TBSC) could swell numbers to 70 boats or higher for the Fenit event according to estimates coming from ICRA's annual conference in Kilkenny on Saturday. PDFs of the Notice of Race, entry form and event advert and flyer are available for download below.

The major event for Fenit Bay next season will be preceded by the WIORA West Coast Championships (June 12 - 14th 2013) and as both events will be staged in the same week along with a shore based family based Sea Breeze festival, the Kingdom is preparing for a big celebration of sailing 'craic' next Summer.

TBSC are also aiming to contribute to 'The Gathering' initiative by inviting overseas crews to sail back home for a racing week in the most westerly port in Europe.

Championship organiser Brian O'Sullivan previewed the June 13-15 event for the ICRA delegates on Saturday and there was a lively discussion on making the national championship a no-discard event as well as writing new alternative on the water penalties into this year's sailing instructions.

O'Sullivan confirmed feeder races will include the Dun Laoghaire to Dingle (D2D) race (June 8th) with D2D race organiser Martin Crotty offering to accommodate as many ICRA racers for the 180–mile race from the National Yacht Club. Races from Galway and Cork have also been designed to encourage as many boats as possible to head west.

Estimates indicate that a 40-boat WIORA fleet will be supplemented by at least 30 or more Dublin and Cork visitors giving respectable championship fleet sizes.

Although ICRA and Fenit organisers concede the remote location from the big Dublin cruiser fleets might be an obstacle on reasons of cost in the current climate, the decision is nevertheless in keeping with ICRA's ethos of sharing the championships around the coast on a yearly basis. (The next championships is scheduled for Dun Laoghaire at the Royal Irish YC in 2014).

Course types were also discussed on Saturday. Research from the 2012 ICRA championships in Howth showed cruiser racer fans are split on course types. Some favour windward leeward courses but others are keener on round the cans course configurations. International Race Officer Alan Crosbie will lead the race management team on the water.

A mix of courses produces more accurate results under the IRC handicap rule and as there appears to be a ground swell away from pure windward-leeward courses the intention in Fenit is to run three separate course types over the two seven race WIORA and ICRA series from Brandon Point to Kerry Head.

#ICRA –  The Irish Cruiser Racing Association's (ICRA) new Commodore seeks to increase participation in cruiser racing during his five year term in office. In his opening address to delegates at the ICRA conference on Saturday Norbert Reilly said he believes the expansion potential for Irish sailing – up to three or four time its existing size – is huge compared to other sports as participation in competitive sailing can be much longer than in other sports.

Experienced keelboat campaigner Reilly, the new man at the helm of cruiser racer sailing in Ireland, said that as well as building on the successes of his predecessors in 2013 ICRA wants to recruit new people into sailing to replace those lost during the recession.

A new ICRA crew training programme will be introduced and the initiative will be club based. It will run to uniform ICRA standards at a number of sailing centres with a programme drawn up by former national sailing coach Dave Harte now based in Schull.  The aim is to train crews, such as the role of bowman, to a quality standard for local, national and international events.

The ICRA conference was told quality training for new people would produce a valuable supply of crews to help sail the existing fleet. It will provide a 'route to the boats' for newcomers that can also boost flagging yacht club memberships.

Reilly currently races the Dublin based Mills 36 Crazy Horse and has been running cruiser racer campaigns from Howth since the 1980s including the well known Comanche Raider.

#boatofthe year – The NUI Galway campaign sailing Martin Breen's Galway Reflex 38 yacht has been named ICRA's Boat of the Year. The prize was presented in Kilkenny this afternoon and applauded by a wide cross section of delegates at the one day ICRA conference including leading sail makers, race organisers, Olympic race officer Jack Roy and Volvo Ocean Race (VOR) champion Damian Foxall.

The NUI campaign was picked ahead of six other boats shortlisted for the prize.

NUI Galway campaign manager Cathal Clarke said the boat's aim in 2012 was to inspire other sailors from the West Coast to undertake similar projects and for the next generation of Volvo Ocean Race sailors to get out there and get sailing.

The ICRA Judges said the student based campaign embodied the spirit of ICRA with a campaign that featured competition in many venues around the country.

Following an overall win in the 2011 Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race as 'Galway Harbour' Martin Breen's Reflex 38 was prepared for the 2012 Round Ireland by students of NUIG and raced as 'NUIGALWAY'. The students won Class 2 and were the first Irish fixed keel boat, finishing sixth overall.

They were also class 1 winners in the Pwllheli to Wicklow ISORA race in preparation for June's Round Ireland race.

The boat is raced by a separate inshore crew and in 2012 they competed in the 2012 ICRA Nationals in Howth, Cork Week and Calves Week. In 2013 they will plan to race at the ICRA Nationals in Fenit and also in the Sovereigns Cup in Kinsale.

The NUI Galway Round Ireland crew were Ben Scallan (helm), Eoghan McGregor (helm), Joan Mulloy (trimmer), Mark Armstrong (trimmer), Cathal Clarke (trimmer), Back row (left to right) Eoin Breen (bowman), Conor Kinsella (Mainsail trimmer), David Fitzgerald, (bowman), Louis Mulloy (bowman) and Ruaidhri De Faoite (mainsail trimmer).

One of the main aims of NUI campaign was to promote the home-grown sailing talent in Galway. Boat skipper, Cathal Clarke said: "The vision of this project is to prove the wealth of sailing talent here on the west coast and to encourage the next generation of Volvo Ocean Race sailors to get out there and get sailing. We aim to inspire other sailors from the region to undertake such projects in the future."