Volvo Dun Laoghaire-Dingle Race: Privateer’s Crew Necks Are Safe For Another Day

8th June 2023

Ron O’Hanley, skipper of the Cookson 50 Privateer of the New York Yacht Club and overall winner of the 2023 Volvo Dun Laoghaire Dingle Race Credit: Dominick Walsh

D2D Thursday, 7 pm - In the golden olden days, when the legendary Fingal privateer skippers like Luke Ryan of Rogerstown or James Mathews of Rush went forth on their remarkably fine ships in officially licensed pursuit of enemy bullion and other treasure, their crews knew that they would either return in profitable triumph or else they would never be seen again, having been strung up by the neck from the yard-arm of the hostile ship of some disapproving foreign navy or – worse still for the sheer indignity of it – from the yardarm of their own beloved vessel.

Privateer - The New York Yacht Club expedition in search of plunder from the biennial Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race seems to be confirmed as having been completely successful Photo: Afloat

By that token, the necks of the crew of Ron O’Hanley’s Cookson 50 Privateer of the New York Yacht Club are happily safe for the time being, as their expedition in search of plunder from the biennial Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race seems to be confirmed as having been completely successful in just about every area in which they could possibly have taken prizes. Thus if we hear stories of squillionaire pensioners dancing on West 44th Street in New York outside the NYYC’s quirky clubhouse, it wouldn’t surprise us for a minute.

Sunfast 3300 Cinnamon Girl, raced two-handed by owner Cian McCarthy and regular shipmate and fellow Kinsale sailor Sam Hunt Photo: Michael Chester

The entertainment of this year’s staging of the biennial modern classic is accentuated by the fact that the second overall prize has been taken by the very different little Sunfast 3300 Cinnamon Girl, raced two-handed by owner Cian McCarthy and regular shipmate and fellow Kinsale sailor Sam Hunt. Quite how just two guys managed to maintain the sprint pressure against the fully-crewed boats which otherwise dominated this year’s race is anyone’s guess, but it really is a very extraordinary achievement.

There are so many permutations in the prize list that it’s going to take a while to sort it all out. But for this evening and tonight, Privateer and Cinnamon Girl are deservedly the toast of the Dingle waterfront.

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.