D2D Update - First 24 Hours & Two Hander Sets the Pace

8th June 2013

#d2d – The first 24 hours of this year's Dun Laoghaire to Dingle have been atypical as the fleet juggled with the complexities of a building springtide, and relatively light north easterly winds. See live Tracker here

Most opted for the port gybe offshore option down the Irish Sea, taking them away from the stronger tides around Wicklow Head,
before gybing back inshore. Antix led the fleet around the Tuskar shortly before 4am in a relatively fresh 16 knots, but are now running downwind in a more modest 8 knot north easterly.

While Antix leads on the water, they are trading places for the overall IRC lead with Liam Coyne and Brian Flahive in Lulabelle. This is impressive going by the duo, keeping ahead of most of the fully crewed yachts. These pair are being closely followed by Liam Shanahan's J109 Ruth and Brian Carroll's Elan 40 Chancer.

With 130 miles to go the current rate of 7 knots should see Antix get to Dingle at about 10am Sunday, however, maintaining that progress may be difficult with the current forecast predicting even light winds ahead.

So all to play for over the next 24 hours, and plenty of sunshine and spinnaker work for the crews as they approach the iconic Fastnet Rock.

One time leader the J109 Mojito is stll chasing sistership Ruth. ISORA commodore Peter Ryan on board Mojito texted - 'Chasing Ruth! Hard to stick with her. Hard work. Gybing not paying. We have another plan if the wind holds'.

Brian O'Sullivan of Tralee's Amazing Grace text to say: 'We took a chance and ran the rhumb line from the kish bank and that has paid off! We' re now back in this race after a sluggish start'.

Text updates to Afloat.ie: 0n 086 7290901

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
Read all the D2D Race News in one handy link here
Listen to Lorna Siggins's interview with Race Chairman Adam Winkelmann on Afloat's Wavelengths here

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.