20 Entries In For June's Dun Laoghaire Dingle Race, ICRA Conference Told

4th March 2023

Tony O'Brien's J109 Tighey Boy from Schull Harbour Sailing Club is entered for June's Volvo Dun Laoghaire Dingle Race Credit: Bob Bateman

With the news that the Volvo 70 Wizard has already entered June's Volvo Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race, organiser Adam Winkelmann of the National Yacht Club told this morning's ICRA Conference in Dun Laoghaire that the biennial offshore race has 20 entries to date.

Entered by well-known Irish offshore sailor Johnny Mordaunt, the 2016 winner of the Sydney-Hobart Race will add extra spice to the 270-mile race to Europe's most westerly harbour.

As Afloat reported, Mordaunt, who most recently campaigned the Fast40+ Tschuss at 2022 Antigua Sailing Week, will undoubtedly make a splash when the VO70 starts off Dun Laoghaire Harbour on the 30th anniversary of the race.

The race starts from Dun Laoghaire on June 7th and is scheduled to arrive in Dingle Harbour on June 9th and 10th.

Wizard won't be the only New York entry on the D2D startline either, with Ron O'Hanley's Cookson 50 Privateer heading to County Kerry.

As Afloat reported in January, Royal Cork Grand Soleil 40 'Nieulargo' will defend her Dun Laoghaire-Dingle Race title, and the 20 boats entered so far are drawn from across the Irish Sea, including Cardiff Bay, Belfast Lough and Strangford Lough.

At the ICRA event, Winkelmann made a special appeal to competitors to arrange accommodation in Dingle as soon as possible.

The NYC organiser also explained that a competitor's berthing plan for Dingle Harbour would be announced shortly as the County Kerry marina was damaged last year, and space is expected to be limited.

Published in Dun Laoghaire Dingle, ICRA

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

Tagged under

Dun Laoghaire Dingle Race

About The Author

Afloat.ie Team

Email The Author

Afloat.ie is Ireland's dedicated marine journalism team.

Have you got a story for our reporters? Email us here.

We've got a favour to ask

More people are reading Afloat.ie than ever thanks to the power of the internet but we're in stormy seas because advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news sites, we haven’t put up a paywall because we want to keep our marine journalism open.

Afloat.ie is Ireland's only full–time marine journalism team and it takes time, money and hard work to produce our content.

So you can see why we need to ask for your help.

If everyone chipped in, we can enhance our coverage and our future would be more secure. You can help us through a small donation. Thank you.

You might also want to read...

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.