Ever since Fintan Cairns of Dun Laoghaire and the late Jim Donegan of Cork brought the Irish Cruiser-Racer Association into being twenty years ago, ICRA’s Annual Conference & AGM has provided a fascinating overview of the state of play in this most popular yet notably diverse sector of our national sailing scene.

But although the ICRA Commodore (currently Dave Cullen of Howth) will have to guide the formal and sometimes very technical aspects of the 2023 meeting through to the optimum conclusions this morning in the Royal St George YC, there’s no doubting the fact that the mood will really leap to life when there’s a presentation which, in effect, brings the sea and sailing right into the room.

Last year in Dun Laoghaire’s National Yacht Club, with the social aspects of sailing only just emerging from the Pandemic Lockdown, there was a stroke of genius with Fastnet Race overall winner Tom Kneen of the JPK 11.80 Sunrise being spirited across from Plymouth in a private plane to tell of his “secret formula” in boat choice, crew selection and campaign structure.

THE KNEEN EFFECT

The Kneen Effect had resulted in the clear overall win in the Fastnet, the real overall win in the Middle Sea Race, and subsequently a Class win in the Sydney-Hobart Race. So merely to be in the room with this affable campaigner – whose amiable personality clearly camouflages a personal core of purest marine grade steel – was as inspirational as it was instructive.

The buildup begins. Snapshot’s crew and supporters in Kinsale, June 2021, tops in the O’Leary Insurances Sovereigns Cup series with Anthony O’Leary himself (left) to launch them on two seasons of rising success. Photo: Robert Bateman

Thus it says much about the current healthy state of ICRA and its members that today’s “atmospheric, inspirational and instructive” presenter slot is being filled from within the Association’s own ranks. For the “Man With a Plan and a Powerpoint Presentation” is Mike Evans, co owner-skipper with his brother Richie in the all-conquering J/99 Snapshot from Howth, the ICRA Boat of the Year which - by diligently availing of every summer easing of movement restrictions – has blazed a comet-like streak across the Irish cruiser-racing firmament, both inshore and offshore, since she was commissioned in April 2021.

TEAM EVANS TO STAR ON BOTH SIDES OF THE BAY TODAY

Obviously the real meat of the information exchange will emerge from this morning’s Q & A session. And there may be more to be learnt this evening back in Howth, when the Snapshot team are to be given a proper welcome home by their fellow members with their newly-acquired Top Boat Trophy in Howth YC at 6.30pm. So though the focus is rightly on the moment and Snapshot’s almost dreamlike achievements, a little bit of background wouldn’t go amiss.

It says everything about the quality of the Snapshot campaigning that their crew panel should include the internationally-successful former RORC Rear Commodore Laura Dillon (centre). Photo: Afloat.ie/David O’Brien

For the Evans family have contributed at least as much to life ashore in Howth and the sensible development of the village as they have to the success of sailing from the harbour. For it was Mike and Richie’s father Tom, a New Zealand airline pilot recruited by Aer Lingus but now nearing retirement, who spotted an opportunity hidden in plain sight with an historic but under-utilised building for which he envisaged an unexpected and bright future.

EVANS INSPIRATION FOR NEW LIFE FOR AN OLD BUILDING

Back in the early 1800s when workers were coming from all over Ireland to find employment in the construction of the new harbour under the noted engineer John Rennie, Howth was tiny, lacking in most facilities including a Catholic church. So in their spare time, the workers built themselves a church, a simple sensible building with a few basic yet evocative external decorative stone carvings illustrating, among other things, the little railroad trolleys which brought the stone for the new harbour down from the nearby Kilrock Quarry.

Despite its decline as a cross-channel ferryport because of the increasingly large size of ferries and the better options of Kingstown, Howth eventually thrived as a fishing port and expanding harbourside village. So much so, that in the 1870s a leading Wicklow stonemason, William Lacy, was brought in to build a proper church of attractive character which is now central to the main village (for Howth has at least three parts).

CREATIVE INPUT FOR HOWTH

The Lacys stayed on and became one of Howth’s leading sailing families, and meanwhile the former “harbour-builders’ chapel” was de-consecrated and used for a variety of functions, none of which seemed to do it justice. In fact, as it was set back from the main street with newer buildings intruding on the useful space in front, many folk more or less forgot about it until Tom Evans came up with the Renaissance Project to make the building the centre of a miniature business park, perfectly placed right in the hidden heart of “old Howth”.

Unlike some re-purposed churches, the former “Harbour Builders’ Chapel” in Howth has lent itself well to its new identity as the Renaissance Building. Photo: Streets of Dublin

Meanwhile, another Evans family interest through Tom’s Irish wife Rosemary was in skincare products. Here again, they were ahead of the curve, for it’s only now that most of us are aware that Ireland has one of the highest skin cancer rates in the world. Yet years ago the Evans family were working at making skincare mainstream and sensible, rather than a vanity interest, such that now the Howth-based Renaissance Products – with Michael Evans (who of course, was to have one of the first all-electric Tesla cars in Howth) as Managing Director. The firm has become the largest professional skincare distribution company in Ireland, regularly winning international awards for the success of their business operation.

INTO SAILING

And like most families living in Howth, the Evans clan availed of the peninsula’s many outdoor sports possibilities, with young Mike setting the pace in sailing, particularly after he’d become very active in Laser racing with a bit of Mirror experience going into a mix which has since gone on to include alternatives of an International 14, a B 14, and now an RS800. But meanwhile the 1720 Sportsboats from Cork started to become the hot class, and he and younger brother Richie moved into that and learnt much while getting themselves on the podium with regularity.

No matter what business is at hand in Howth, you’re never far from a sailing connection. Mike Evans in his capacity as MD of Renaissance Products presents an award to Sally Ann Collier of Howth Haven Skincare. Sally Ann’s father Denis McBride raced two Fastnets as an Admirals Cup crewman, and was for several seasons a regular crewmember aboard the frequent ISORA-winning Leemara (Bill Cuffe-Smith, Howth YC).

That in turn gave them a taste for the possibilities of boat modification, and for several years they campaigned and up-dated the Rob Humphreys-designed Half Tonner The Big Picture with the hyper-hot Half Ton Classic class at Howth. But the picture from The Big Picture seems to be that they were only reaching their peak towards the end of each season, and though regular overall victories in the Howth Autumn League were a rewarding way to finish the summer’s sailing, they decided that season-long value might be better served by a carefully-selected multi-purpose off-the-shelf standard racing machine. Out of a personal short-list of J/99, J/109, Cape 31, and Italia 998, they settled on a J/99.

IT’S ALL IN THE NAME

The Big Picture, having started to run up astronomical costs at Cinerama levels, was sold to Belgium, and it tells us much about the completeness of the Evans way of doing things that they then chose a new J/99 and called her Snapshot. A snapshot is about as far as you can get from a big picture. And with more tightly-controlled budgets and readily available options for the best in sails and J/99-friendly equipment, they had more organisational energy to build up a crew panel of like-minded and extremely talented sailors, such that since April 2021, campaigning with Snapshot has been a largely happy and congenial affair.

Yet another excuse for us to use one of our favourite sailing photos. The spirit of active enjoyment aboard Snapshot as she puts the Fastnet Rock astern and races towards success in Calves Week 2022 with Des Flood trimming, Richie Evans on the helm, and Mike Evans reading the numbers.

The assessment formula for the ICRA “Boat of the Year” title has been carefully refined over the years, and these days it needs season-long commitment across a remarkable variety of events and some really impressive results. The highlight of Snapshot’s 2022 season was of course the SSE Renewables Round Ireland Race from Wicklow, when she took the top Irish boat award with her close second place which she almost managed to convert into first overall with a classy performance at the finish.

The crew of Snapshot in Wicklow after Round Ireland success are (left to right) Daragh White, Richard Evans, John Phelan, Shane Hughes of North Sails, Michael Evans, and navigator Nick Cherry

But the thoroughness and closeness of the ICRA series is revealed in the fact that Snapshot only clinched the overall title with a win in the final race of the Autumn League at Howth, which put her tops of that particular points table, and then with season-long successes, put her at the top of the ultimate peak.

The bullet points from the presentation Mike Evans will be giving at the ICRA Conference in the Royal St George YC this morning are downloadable below as a PDF file. If you want to get full value from it, have your questions ready….

When the Irish J/109s hunt as a pack – as nine of them did at the Sovereigns Cup in Kinsale – there's blood in the air and anyone racing a brand new J/99 against such a mob will naturally feel vulnerable. But former Classic Half-Ton Racers Mike & Richie Evans of Howth kept their cool with their fresh-out-of-the-box J/99 Snapshot. With talents of the calibre of Laura Dillon, Shane Hughes, Des Flood and Graham Curran on the strength, they were so game for the challenge that they emerged at the regatta's conclusion as outright winners of the hyper-hot IRC 1 and the new holders of the overall trophy – the Sovereigns Cup - for good measure.

Although the sailing numbers entered to date are smaller than usual for the SB3 fleet, what it lacks in quantity it will more than up for in quality when racing starts off Howth next Saturday (April 30th).

Unless last year's champion Gareth Flanigan and his crew can beg, steal or borrow a boat, they won't be able to defend their title and a new winner will be crowned on May 1st. The recent Spring Warmer Series saw some boats post inconsistent results while two teams in particular stepped up from last year to place themselves in the running.

Eoin Quinlan's decision to team up with Mike Evans and Peter Frane with 'Shockwave' looked like a smart one, with consistent results putting them on top of that series, and giving them the confidence to make the top 3 or 4 places at the Easterns.

John O'Driscoll of the Royal St.George is another skipper in flying form and will be hopeful of a good overall result next weekend. HYC's own 'Sharkbait' (Ben Duncan/Brian Moran/Rick Morris) can never be under-estimated and will be tipped to be among the prime contenders.

A feature of the event is the entry of several women helms, the most notable being Olympic hopeful Annalise Murphy of the National YC with her mother (and former Olympian) Cathy MacAleavey crewing.