Hot Pace On A Cold Night For Dun Laoghaire-Dingle Racers

7th June 2023

There is a very strong possibility of records with the pace set by Ron O’Hanley’s super-charged Cookson 50 Privateer from New York in the 2023 Dun Laoghaire-Dingle Race Credit: Afloat

D2D Thursday at 12.30 am - It’s a cold night off the south coast, with a keen edge to the east nor’east breeze which is sweeping the fleet towards a very strong possibility of records in the biennial 270-mile Volvo Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race.

That said, the pace is hot for those who can stick it, and Ron O’Hanley’s super-charged Cookson 50 Privateer from New York is due south of Cork Harbour at midnight, still clocking 15-18 knots even with the necessary tacking to lee, which her rig configuration requires.

Here's a vid from the deck of Privateer earlier tonight that gives a great view of the New York crew flying along the Irish south coast.

At just ten hours from Dublin Bay to Cork Harbour, it’s not surprising that she holds both the line honours lead and the overall lead on IRC too.

The Welsh J125 Jackknife (Andrew and Sam Hall) are lying second on IRC overall after the first ten hours of sailing in the Volvo Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race 2023 Photo: Afloat

But she isn’t completely out of sight on the leaderboard, as Andrew and Sam Hall’s vintage J/125 Jackknife from Pwllheli is having the race of her life to be second on corrected time by a margin of an hour and a half. That could evaporate very quickly in Jackknife’s favour if Privateer happens to be first into any area of soft pressure, which has happened before to seemingly unassailable leaders in this race.

Certainly, the breeze is light over much of the land. But with a new active weather system finally approaching from the south, it could be a case of Privateer being the one who gets “the mostest there the fastest” as she shapes her course on down towards the Fastnet Rock and stronger winds, with more than half the course distance already well astern – in fact, she only has 120 miles to go.

Rockabill VI (Paul O'Higgins) from the Royal Irish Yacht Club leaves Dublin Bay behind her under an asymmetric spinnaker in the Volvo Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race 2023 Photo: Afloat

Of the smaller craft, Paul O’Higgins JPK 10.80 Rockabill VI is now back up at fourth overall, just a smidgin ahead of Pete Smyth’s Sun Fast 3600 Searcher and both of them – along with mostly larger craft – south of Waterford Harbour.

The National Yacht Club's Sunfast 3600 Searcher (Pete Smyth) passes the Muglins Rock on Dublin Bay in the Volvo Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race 2023 Photo: Afloat

Right there nearly with them is Cian McCarthy’s smaller Sunfast 3300 Cinnamon Girl from Kinsale, going mighty well to overcome that quite severe rating which she has shown herself well capable of handling in times past.

The Sunfast 3300 Cinnamon Girl from Kinsale is co-skippered by Cian McCarthy (standing) and Sam Hunt in the Volvo Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race 2023 Photo: Afloat

This (Thursday) morning could see some interesting variations in the weather off the southwest seaboard, with the wind from the east, and frontal conditions developing to see the breeze locally fluctuating between 25 and 35 knots. Whatever, it could well be that the only real windward work of the entire race is the last short leg from Skellig Michael to Dingle Harbour.

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

Tagged under

Dun Laoghaire Dingle Race

About The Author

WM Nixon

Email The Author

William M Nixon has been writing about sailing in Ireland for many years in print and online, and his work has appeared internationally in magazines and books. His own experience ranges from club sailing to international offshore events, and he has cruised extensively under sail, often in his own boats which have ranged in size from an 11ft dinghy to a 35ft cruiser-racer. He has also been involved in the administration of several sailing organisations.

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.