Kinsale Yacht Club Salutes its Dun Laoghaire Dingle Racers

15th June 2023

Afloat.ie Team

Kinsale Yacht Club salute: (from left) Brian Carroll, KYC Cruiser Captain, Tom Roche, Meridian; Finbarr O Regan, ArtfulDodjer; Cian McCarthy and Sam Hunt, Cinnamon Girl and Matthias Hellstern, Commodore Kinsale Yacht Club Credit: Bob Bateman

On the eve of its 100-boat Sovereign's Cup Regatta, Kinsale Yacht Club saluted their Volvo Dun Laoghaire Dingle Racers, particularly the two-handed campaign of Cian McCarthy and Sam Hunt, who finished second overall.

As Afloat readers know, the stunning performance of McCarthy and Hunt in Sunfast 3300 Cinnamon Girl has been a highlight of the 2023 season, with the doughty pair eclipsing the fully crewed 43-boat fleet except for New York Club's 50-foot canting keel Privateer skippered by Ron O'Hanley.

See the Volvo D2D prizegiving photos from Dingle here

In a packed clubhouse on Wednesday night, Brian Carroll, the KYC Cruiser Captain, was on hand to applaud the performance and that of club mates Tom Roche and his crew on the Salona 45 Meridian and Finbarr O'Regan and his J109 crew on ArtfulDodjer.

A packed Kinsale Yacht Club clubhouse to acknowledge the achievements of KYC's D2D racers. Photo: Bob Bateman

Kinsale Yacht Club Commodore Matthias Hellstern made the presentations to its D2D racers after a successful KYC outing in the 270-miler.

Double handers: Sam Hunt (left) and Cian McCarthy, who finished D2D in second overall are pictured back in Kinsale Yacht Club with Commodore Matthias Hellstern (centre) Photo: Bob Bateman

Next week the West Cork club stages its biennial Simply Blue-sponsored Sovereign's Cup Regatta, where 100 boats will compete, including the record-breaking American winner of the 2023 D2D.

Finbarr O'Regan, skipper of J109 ArtfulDodjer (left) with Cian McCarthy of Cinnamon Girl Photo: Bob Bateman

Cinnamon Girl co-skipper Sam Hunt (left) with his parents Poppy and Keith Hunt Photo: Bob Bateman

Published in Dun Laoghaire Dingle, Kinsale

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 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.