The Squib South Coast Championships are scheduled for this weekend at Kinsale Yacht Club, where the class has strong support.

Racing is planned for Saturday and Sunday, with the rules requiring that boats be kept afloat during the event, no hauling-out and no cleaning below the waterline by any means allowed during the championships. Pretty strict regulations to keep the boats in equal conditions!

As Afloat previously reported, the National Squib Championships were raced at Weymouth Bay in Dorset, hosted by the local sailing club last week on the south coast of England. In strong conditions, with winds up to 25 knots, they did not thrive. Kinsale YC’s 'Outlaw' (Ian Travers and Keith O'Riordan) was best Irish-placed, in 26th.

Squibs are two-person keelboats measuring seven metres long, originally designed in 1967 as a racing and teaching boat. There are 800 of what is a one-design class around Britain and Ireland.

The Department of Transport has been advised by the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences at University College Cork that on on Tuesday 12 June it deployed 12 benthic sensors between the Seven Heads and the Old Head of Kinsale in West Cork.

These sensors are being used in scientific research which aims to track skate using acoustic tracking equipment.

The benthic sensors will be deployed for 12 months. Each sensor consists of a mooring weight and an acoustic sensor for tracking tagged skate in the area. None have surface markers.

A map and coordinates of the sensor positions as well as contact details can be found in Marine Notice No 39 of 2023, attached below.

Kinsale Yacht Club will host the “O’Leary Life South Coast Dragon Championships” from the 26th – 28th of May. The event, which is the first regional event on the Irish Dragon class calendar, will mark the start of an exciting 16 months for Kinsale Yacht Club, which host the Nationals in August this year and then the Gold Cup in September 2024.

Commodore Matthias Hellstern, who is sailing with long-time Dragon sailor, Anthony O’Neill for the South Coasts, commented, “Firstly, thank you to Brian Goggin and all at O’Leary Life for sponsoring the event; we simply can’t run the event without sponsors. Kinsale Yacht Club has such a fantastic history with this wonderful class, and we are really looking forward to showcasing to all Dragon sailors what Kinsale has to offer over the months ahead”

Brian Goggin of O’Leary Life commented, “This month, O’Leary Life celebrates being 50 years in business. As part of our 50th-year celebrations, for the next 12 months, we will support various community organisations and give back to those who have supported us throughout the years. For the month of May, we are thrilled to sponsor Kinsale Yacht Club for the South Coast Dragon Championships”

Kinsale Yacht Club Commodore Matthias Hellstern (left) with Brian Goggin of O’Leary Life at the South Coast Dragon Championships for the West Cork port later this month

Although the sponsor may be celebrating 50 years in business, they are still some years behind the Dragon Design, who will turn 94 this year, having been conceived in 1929!

The class continues to reinvent itself, with Glandore now home to the largest fleet in Ireland, with many of their youth sailors looking like future dragon champions. Of course, the legendary dragon sailor Don Street has been one of the major backers of youth dragon sailing in Glandore, sharing his knowledge for decades in the West Cork harbour

The event will be an early season indicator of who has “wintered” the best, with stalwarts like Peter Bowring and his team on Phantom and Cameron Good with Little Fella among the early entries. James Matthews, fresh from winning the recent Keelboat regatta in Kinsale, are the early favourites but other local boats such as Whisper and Ghost will also be battling at the sharp end in what is shaping up to be a seriously competitive fleet.

The first Wednesday night of La Bougie Early Summer Cruiser Racing at Kinsale Yacht Club in Cork had to be cancelled due to high winds, but it is hoped to get going this Wednesday night, May 10 with First Gun (FG) at 18.55.

One Design Racing for Squibs and Dragons will be on Thursday at FG 18.55. McCarthy Insurances Early Summer TGIF on Friday will have FG 18.55.

The past weekend saw the Keelboat Regatta sponsored by Kinsale Boatyard. Six Dragons raced with James Matthews, TBD, being the winner on 5 points overall, from three first placings and two seconds in the five-race series. Second was Whisper (Brian Goggin) on 9 points and third Little Fella (Cameron Good) on 10,

The Squibs Class also sailed five races in the Kingstons Kinsale Boatyard series, which was won by Outlaw (IanTravers/Keith O’Riordan), having been first in all five races. Second was Fuggles (Sean and Paul Murphy) and third Flora (Bobby Nash/Frances Corkery).

The O’Leary Life Dragon South Coast will begin on Friday May 26.

Sea Sunday will be held next Sunday, May.14.

Final preparations are underway for the Simply Blue Sovereigns Cup which begins on June 21.

Fog may have shrouded the reappearance of the classic 33-metre superyacht Mariette off Kinsale Harbour County Cork yesterday, but there was no mistaking the silhouette of the two-masted gaff schooner.

Designed and built by Nathanael Greene Herreshoff in 1915, Mariette arrived in Kinsale after a one-day voyage from Falmouth on the English South Coast.

Mariette was built as "Project 698" by Nathanael Herreshoff, at his Bristol, Rhode Island yard, for prominent yachtsman Harold S. Vanderbilt.

She was part of a series of seven large schooners built between 1903 and 1905 by the Herreshoff shipyard. Mariette and her sister-ship, Vagrant, are the last of this series still in service.

Yesterday's arrival into Kinsale was not a maiden voyage to West Cork as Bob Bateman's photos below document; Mariette sailed in 17 years ago, cutting quite a dash at the Fastnet Rock in the summer of 2006.

(Above and below) Designed and built by Nathanael Greene Herreshoff in 1915, Mariette is pictured off the Fastnet Rock in 2006 Photos: Bob Bateman

Located just a few miles from Kinsale town on the banks of the River Bandon, River House is back on the market with a €950,000 price tag, as the Irish Examiner reports.

The four-bed bungalow hasn’t been getting enough use as a holiday home for its current Dublin-based owner — but it could be your perfect getaway or even a new primary home for a more easy pace of life.

Breathtaking views over the river from this waterfront property are a given through the generous floor-to-ceiling windows in the master bedroom and living area.

Access to Kinsale is by road or by water, as the property comes with its own slipway, pier and mooring.

The locality has has its fair share of famous residents, too, with the Georgian-era Ballywilliam House up the road once owned by Tori Amos.

The Irish Examiner has more on the story HERE.

Two-and-a-half million euro could snag you a stunning home right on the waterside in the Summercove area of Kinsale.

The Anchorage dates from the Victorian era when it was home to a British navy admiral. In more recent times, Hollywood star Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and film director Patrick O'Connor called it their address.

Today it’s a luxury three-bed, three-storey waterfront property with a blend of traditional and modern styling that maximises its space to the fullest — not to mention magnificent views over the West Cork harbour from its many windows.

Viewing is by appointment with agents Engel & Voelkers, who have more on this property HERE.

The course for 2023's 54th edition of La Solitaire du Figaro will be contested over three stages over the period August 27 to September 13 and will call to Kinsale in late August.

As Afloat reported earlier, the route was unveiled today at the Hôtel du Département de Loire-Atlantique in Nantes with the news that Ireland will have at least on entry in the race thanks to County Meath sailor, Tom Dolan.

This time, the perennial pinnacle solo race of the French Elite Offshore Racing Championship covers a monumental 1,850 nautical miles over three successive, demanding stages.

It starts from the Channel port of Caen (Calvados) and finishes three weeks later on the Loire Atlantic coast at Piriac-sur-Mer (Loire-Atlantique). It takes the solo racers to stopovers in Kinsale (Ireland) and the Bay of Morlaix (Finistère). More than 30 solo skippers are expected to compete on what remains the ultimate annual solo racing multi-stage offshore race.

La Solitaire du Figaro course 2023

The course passes through the English Channel, Celtic Sea, the Irish Sea, Iroise Sea and out and back across the Bay of Biscay. So La Solitaire du Figaro 2023 promises to be as demanding as it ever has been, each stage this time requiring the skippers to spend up to four nights at sea.

“We have kept true to the DNA of the race with varied types of course. After a start in the English Channel from the city of Caen, the Figarists the stages will combine an almost equal mix of inshore coastal and open, offshore racing. " says Yann Chateau who is the race director of La Solitaire of Figaro.

The race moves to a stopover outside of France for the first time since the global helath crisis. And the intermediate time bonuses for the podium positions at the sprint markers now get 5 minutes subtracted from their elapsed time for the first to pass the mark, the second gets three minutes and the third one minute.

Ireland's Tom Dolan competing off Kinsale in 2019 - the County Meath Irish solo sailor harbours a strong ambition for a top result when the race returns to Kinsale at the end of the first leg of the 2023 Figaro Race this August Photo: Bob Bateman

Kinsale, Ireland hosts a race stopover for the 21st time in history

After leaving the City of Caen, which hosts the Grand Départ of the race for the third time after 2004 and 2007 there is a very technical opening to a first course mark at the Saint-Marcouf Islands which are left to starboard followed by a passage across the Channel to the Isle of Wight passing the Nab Tower, east of the Isle of Wight and the Needles Fairway, the west of the island, where the first intermediate sprint marker is.

"Bypassing the Isle of Wight, either down the Solent to the north of the island or offshore outside depending on the current and the strategy of each, could well open the game here," says Yann Chateau.

He continues, " The fleet will double back across the Channel a second time towards Bréhat where a new tactical choice needs to be made at Guernsey depending on the current and the weather forecas before making the long tack to get the Fastnet then heading back east along the Irish coast to get to the beautiful haven of Kinsale, a great classic stop which will host La Solitaire du Figaro for the 21st time”.

Concentration and maximum focus will be required until the finish, the topography of the Irish coastline and the different headlands points can create local wind effects and in 2019, last time there, the top three into Kinsale were separated by just 3mins and 47 seconds, Yoann Richomme winning the stage by 1 min 13 seconds ahead of a debuting rookie named Tom Laperche.

Roscoff - Baie de Morlaix in 2021 Photo: Alexis Courcoux

An unprecedented second stage between Kinsale and the Bay of Morlaix via the Isle of Man

La Solitaire du Figaro will then head for Brittany, the scenic Bay of Morlaix, which will welcome the Figarists for the 6th time in its history, with one single waypoint at the Isle of Man and an intermediate sprint at Chicken Rock.

“La Solitaire du Figaro has planned to go north to the Isle of Man before but it has never happened yet, usually because of the weather. But our recent experience of the 3rd leg of the 2022 race underlined again that the Figaro BENETEAU 3s are very seaworthy and can withstand strong weather conditions. This course is therefore feasible in September." says Yann Chateau. "It is a stage that can be considered as coastal knowing that the Irish Sea is not very wide. There are sandbars, lots of fishing boats and points to pass.”

The other difficulty of this stage includes the current at the passages of Land's End, the south-west tip of England. And of course fatigue really accumulates for the sailors as they arrive back towards the Breton coast on a leg on which there is really no let up and very little time to rest. 

A finish in Piriac-sur-Mer, in Loire-Atlantique

The major partner of the event, the Department of Loire-Atlantique sees the finish of La Solitaire du Figaro into a new host city: Piriac-sur-Mer. The finale stage, will once again arrive in the Pays de la Loire region and is a more open, offshore sailing stage.

The first course mark at the Chaussée de Sein will open up the field of play from the start in the Iroise Sea where choices need to be made, among other things, between the Chenal du Four and the Passage de Fromveur, before crossing the Bay of Biscay to a buoy off Gijón, Spain which will also act as a gate for the third intermediate sprint.

“This stage can be quite tricky knowing that at that time, there can be high pressure ridges in the Bay of Biscay with only little mouse holes of wind to use ,” says Yann Chateau. "It's a stage on which the fleet should be more spread out than on the previous one and the potential gaps greater. The finish into Piriac-sur-Mer will offer a technical 'sting in the tail' with the Four plateau, the prohibited areas and the potential windshadows and puffs of the islands."

The course is very much specified to the strengths of the Figaro BENETEAU 3 as well as the expectations of sailors and stopover cities. All in all there should be a great, engaging race on the water until the final finish line as well as a very popular celebration on land.

IN BRIEF

Stage #1 Caen – Kinsale : 610 nautical miles
Departure August 27 (expected arrival August 30)

Stage #2 Kinsale – Baie de Morlaix : 630 nautical miles
Departure September 3 (expected arrival September 6)

Stage #3 Baie de Morlaix – Piriac-sur-Mer : 620 nautical miles
Departure September 10 (expected arrival September 13)

Outlaw, sailed by Ian Travers and Keith O’Riordan, is nearing overall victory in the Squib Class of the Frostbite Series at Kinsale Yacht Club.

They sailed to one first and two second places in Sunday’s three races. Outlaw is closely pursued by Colm Dunne and Fiona Ward in Allegro, which won two of those races but dropped to fourth at the finish of the third on Sunday.

Outlaw has 18 points overall going into the final day of the series this Sunday. Allegro is on 23.5. That should make for an interesting battle between these two crews for the final placings. Third is Fifty Shades (Matthias Hellstern and Colm Daly) on 36.5 points and unlikely to affect the top two placings.

Kinsale Yacht Club is mourning the loss of former Commodore Pat Pyne, who died on February 22nd.

Pyne was Commodore from 1995-1998 when the West Cork club's flagship event, the Sovereigns Cup, was launched in 1995.

A keen sailor, Pyne competed in KYC Class 2 on his boat Demi-Sec for many years.

Pyne took particular interest in fostering Junior sailing, ensuring the young sailors were heard and looked after within the club. 

"Pat and his wife Maureen, who passed away only recently, will be greatly missed by us all at Kinsale Yacht Club. Our deepest sympathies go out to his family and friends", KYC Commodore Matthia Hellstern told Afloat.