Breen's 'Galway Harbour' Leads the Fleet out of the Irish Sea

11th June 2011

D2D report 2200 BST Saturday June 11th. At Tuskar Rock, Martin Breen's Reflex 38 Galway Harbour (Galway Bay SC), leads the Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race fleet out of the Irish Sea writes our Offshore Correspondent. Closely tracked by Cathal Drohan's Legally Brunette (Royal St George YC) and Aquelina (Arklow SC), Galway Harbour sailed a great race down the Irish Sea, timing carefully her forays in and out of the tide. With the wind set to back soon the leading boats should have a shy reach and may even get to fly spinnakers for a while in the forenoon, before being headed again along the Cork coast.

The early hours of day two are always a crucial phase as watch systems come in to play and helms and trimmers combat the fatigue caused by the adrenalin of the first day. Tracking will give those equipped with internet access a keen advantage as they monitor the heading and speed of their opponents, ensuring that they stay on their toes during the small hours.

Galway Harbour has done very well to stay ahead of handicap and if she can keep this up may well take the overall prize. However, in addition to Aquelina and Legally Brunette, she will need to keep an eye on Matt Davis' Raging Bull (Skerries SC) who has also sailed above the handicap to be second overall at the Tuskar.

Once past the Coningbeg Superbuoy, the forecast predicts that the leaders will have a beam wind increasing from force 3 to force 5 by midday Sunday.

The next test of the fleet looks like the headwinds that are predicted from the Fastnet to the finish and performance in the associated seas may prove to be the decisive factor.

Published in Dun Laoghaire Dingle

Dun Laoghaire Dingle Race Live Tracker 2023

Track the progress of the 2023 Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Yacht Race fleet on the live tracker above and the leaderboard below

Dun Laoghaire Dingle Race Live Leaderboard 2023

The 16th edition of the 280-mile race organised by the National Yacht Club starts at 2 pm on Wednesday, June 7th, on Dublin Bay.

Read the full 2023 race preview by WM Nixon here
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WM Nixon will be posting regular race updates and analysis throughout the 2023 race here

Published in Dun Laoghaire Dingle

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Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Yacht Race Information

The biennial Dun Laoghaire to Dingle race is a 320-miles race down to the east coast of Ireland, across the south coast and into Dingle harbour in County Kerry.

The race is organised by the National Yacht Club.

It never fails to offer a full range of weather, wind and tide to the intrepid entrants, ranging from a 32ft cruiser to a 79ft all-out racer.

Three divisions are available to enter: cruiser (boats equipped with furlers), racing (the bulk of the fleet) and also two-handed.

D2D Course change overruled

In 2019, the organisers considered changing the course to allow boats to select routes close to shore by removing the requirement to go outside Islands and Lighthouses en route, but following input from regular participants, the National Yacht Club decided to stick with the tried and tested course route in order to be fair to large and smaller boats and to keep race records intact.

D2D Course record time

Mick Cotter’s 78ft Whisper established the 1 day and 48 minutes course record for the Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race in 2009 and that time stood until 2019 when Cotter returned to beat his own record but only just, the Dun Laoghaire helmsman crossing the line in Kerry to shave just 20 seconds off his 2009 time.