Canting-Keel 'Opal' Crew Predict Fast Time on Volvo Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race Course

6th June 2023

Afloat.ie Team

Frank Whelan's Opal pictured in training for the 2023 Volvo Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race off the County Wicklow coast. A full carbon sandwich construction, Opal is coupled with a canting keel of 4,000kgs lead torpedo bulb and a carbon retractable canard. The 11,000 kg flying machine is 'effortlessly controlled' by the smallest of crews thanks to full push-button hydraulics and powered winches for all duties

Frank Whelan's canting keeler Opal is seeing routing times of 28 hours to complete Wednesday's Volvo Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race as the County Wicklow ace reassembles his crew for a third campaign at the National Yacht Club.

The Greystones team has seen previous success with the 2021 ICRA Champion, the J122 Kaya and before that, the 2019 Sovereign's Cup winner Grand Soleil 44 Eleuthera.

"A lot of variations, but 28 hours looks the best at the moment" is what helmsman and Navigator Paddy Barnwell is seeing from the current routings for Opal when she debuts tomorrow at the 2 pm start of the D2D off Dun Laoghaire Harbour.

The Greg Elliott designed speed-machine was built by Knierim in Germany in 2011.

The Opal crew drawn from Greystones dinghy sailing talent has seen previous success with the 2021 ICRA Champion, the J122 Kaya and before that, the 2019 Sovereign's Cup winner Grand Soleil 44 Eleuthera.

Barnwell is one of three drivers on Opal, with Whelan and O'Leary also down for steering duties. The 13-man crew is completed with a mix of talented former dinghy sailors Andy Verso, Conor Kinsella, John White, Bill Nolan, Kevin O'Rourke, Killian Fitzgerald, Gary Hick, Matt Sherlock, Conor Galligan and Mal Moir.

Regular Afloat readers will know that news of the arrival of the Irish canting keeler broke in April, and since then, it has "been absolutely hectic the last four weeks prepping the boat - hundreds of hours work by all the crew", Barnwell says.

As W M Nixon pointed out in the 2023 D2D Race preview on Saturday, Opal is the highest-rated boat in the 42-boat fleet but is not the only canting keel entry, with Ron O'Hanley's Privateer from New York also expected to make a splash in Wednesday'sforecast north-easterly breezes, which Race Chairman Adam Winkelmann told Lorna Siggins would be ideal for spinnaker reaching on this podcast here

Eve of race - a tranquil scene at the National Yacht Club at Dun Laoghaire Harbour, just 36 hours out from the start of the 30th anniversary Volvo Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race with Cork entrants Imp (Green hull) and West Cork J109s Artful Dodger (Kinsale) and Tighey Boy (Schull Harbour) also safely arrived on Dublin Bay and berthed on the club pontoon Photo: Afloat

Although few are muttering anything about course records, a sub-24-hour time will be required to beat the course record of 24 hours and 28 minutes set by Mick Cotter's 93ft Windfall in 2019.

After D2D, the Opal campaign features coastal class racing at Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta in July, West Cork's Calves Week in August, and some ISORA racing.

Opal in her home port of Greystones. According to the yacht broker behind the sale of the 11,000 kg Opal, she is 'arguably the ultimate short-handed rocket ship that money can buy'. The yacht cost over €1.5m to build.

Published in Dun Laoghaire Dingle

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

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Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race

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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.