Five J109s - including the ISORA Champion - Line up for Volvo Dun Laoghaire Dingle Race

24th April 2023

Afloat.ie Team

North Wales-based J109 Mojito, the current ISORA champion, the Cork Week 2022 coastal winner, and the K2Q race winner, is one of five J109 designs contesting June's Volvo Dun Laoghaire Dingle Race Credit: Afloat

The all-conquering North Wales-based Mojito is one of five highly competitive J109 offshore cruiser racers that will contest June 7th's Volvo Dun Laoghaire Dingle Race organised by the National Yacht Club.

Two of the J109s entered are West Cork based, with Finbarr O'Regan's Artful DodJer from Kinsale Yacht Club and Tony O'Brien's Tighey Boy from Schull Harbour.

Tony O'Brien's J109 Tighey Boy from Schull Harbour Tony O'Brien's Tighey Boy from Schull Harbour Photo: Bob Bateman

As regular Afloat readers will recall O'Regan's Artful DodJer was one of five boats to controversially suffer a 20 per cent time penalty after being judged to have entered the Tuskar Shipping Traffic Separation Scheme in the 2021 race.

Finbarr O'Regan's Artful DodJer from Kinsale Yacht Club Photo: Afloat

The other two are drawn from the Dublin ISORA fleet, with Simon Knowles Indian from Howth entered and the Shanahan family's Ruth coming from the host club who took third overall in an arduous 22-mile ISORA last Saturday.

The Shanahan family crew on their J109 Ruth competing in the first Viking Marine ISORA Coastal Race of 2023 Photo: Afloat

As regular Afloat readers know, 2022 was a stand-out season for the Pwllheli crew. Skippered by Vicky Cox and Peter Dunlop, they won July's inaugural 260-mile K2Q Dun Laoghaire to Cork via Fastnet Race, followed by an overall win of the IRC Coastal Division of Volvo Cork Week and the overall ISORA Wolf's Head Trophy. More on the Mojito 2022 campaign here

Simon Knowles's J!09 Indian from Howth Yacht Club Photo: Afloat Simon Knowles's J109 Indian from Howth Yacht Club Photo: Afloat

The five J109s are part of a red-hot Class One D2D fleet of nine boats, including the defending champion in the 270-milers, Denis Murphy's Grand Soleil 40, Nieulargo.

Organisers have 35 entries for the race so far and expect a fleet of over 40, a highlight of the 2023 Irish offshore sailing calendar.

Published in Dun Laoghaire Dingle, J109, ISORA, West Cork

Dun Laoghaire Dingle Race Live Tracker 2025

Track the progress of the 2025 Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Yacht Race fleet on the live tracker above and the leaderboard below

The 17th edition of the 280-mile race organised by the National Yacht Club starts at 2 pm on Wednesday, June 11th, on Dublin Bay.

Read the full 2025 race preview by WM Nixon here
Read all the D2D Race News in one handy link here

WM Nixon will be posting regular race updates and analysis throughout the 2025 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.