Every time Met Eireann and its international associates add an extra bank of machinery to their IT resources, it makes life a little more difficult for the organisers of short to medium offshore races in Ireland.

Obviously, a clearcut 12-hour prediction of a severe gale puts an obligation on the committee to make a timely cancellation or postponement decision, thereby enabling skippers and crew to allocate their interests elsewhere. For the fact is, we live in an era when people get twitchy if their day does not include some purposeful activity.

But equally, the expectation of prolonged calm has a discombobulating effect on potential participants. Certainly, it could be a factor in the National Yacht Club's RORC-supported 275-mile Volvo Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race on Wednesday, June 11th. But as our current weather is surely using up our annual light breeze quota, statistically speaking it's unlikely, and as the race is now something of a classic, the fleet will take whatever's going

Line honours and overall win – the Cookson 50 Privateer (Ron O'Hanley) finishing the 2023 Dun Laoghaire-Dingle Race in the entrance to Dingle Harbour. Photo: NYC

SATURDAY NIGHT IN DINGLE

It may be upwards of four weeks away, and entries may not close until the end of May. But with a tight enough schedule which assumes everyone will be finished in Dingle by Saturday night for the decidedly festive Prize-giving in the Dingle Skelligs Hotel, a worthwhile period of brisk going at some stage is needed to keep the show on the road, and a bit more breeze will be welcome

QUIET CONFIDENCE

Yet organiser Adam Winkelmann - who has taken over as organiser very effectively from the late Martin Crotty, co-founder of the race in 1993 with Peter Cullen - has the quiet confidence of a man who already has 34 quality entries in the bag, and knows there are more in the offing.

Race Organiser Adam Winkelmann speaking at the 2023 prize-giving in Dingle

In fact, Adam is so relaxed about the ultimate success of the D2D 25 that, for the next week, his mind is completely elsewhere as he's having a change of nationality and devoting all his attention to the International Dragon Worlds at Vilamoura in Portugal. In a signal to us on Thursday (8th May), he revealed:

"SPANISH FOR THE WORLDS"

"We are Spanish for the Dragon Worlds. Three Irish – myself, Sheena Bowers and Andrew Conan - are crewing with Tanit Cabou Wolf on Aurum, ESP 79. We have sailed together in Palma for the winter series, and in Cascais in the Juan Carlos as prep for this worlds. We're a Corinthian Team, so hoping to do as well in that category as we can.

Lawrie Smith (Glandore Harbour YC) is currently leading the warm up event with Pedro Andrade in second. Last two races scheduled today (Thursday) but not much wind currently, so maybe no more racing. A strong entry for Worlds with mainly pro teams. Should be a major challenge."

Johnny Treanor's J112e ValenTina on her way to Dingle. Photo: Afloat.ie

AFTERGUARD BRAINS TRUST

In addition to that, Adam is in the Afterguard Brains Trust on Johnny Treanor's J/112e ValenTina (NYC), one of the top boats of the 2024 season and listed for D2D25. And when he has a minute for himself, he races his Dublin Bay Water Wag in that numerous and multi-talented class, so his dedication to sailing is in a league of its own.

Adam Winkelmann (right) hauling his Water Wag after an evening race in Dun Laoghaire. Photo: W M Nixon

As for the way the D2D25 is shaping up, he's relaxed as currently the list is good in terms of quality, even if the 2023 winner, Ron O'Hanley's Cookson 50 Privateer, has been called away for international service. This is as one of the Royal Irish YC's two-boat squad in the new-look revived Admiral's Cup being run in conjunction with 2025's Centenary Fastnet Race.

However, the Co-stars of the 2023 race, Kinsale's Cian McCarthy with Sam Hunt racing two-handed in the souped-up Sun Fast 3300 Cinnamon Girl, are very much back in the fray. And the race is set in a larger structure as part of the ISORA, with ISORA top man Peter Ryan racing the First 40.7 Tsunami to Dingle.

ISORA's Peter Ryan (NYC) will be racing the First 40.7 Tsunami to Dingle

The current entry list for the 2025 D2D is here

J/109s OUT IN STRENGTH

As you'd expect with the current Irish sailing scene, J/109s make up the largest single group, with nine of them posted as of this morning, alphabetically fronted by Finbarr O'Regan's Artful Dodjer from Kinsale. This was the boat that was organised by Kinsale's own Brian Matthews to be the mount for Simon Coveney's stylish signalling of his retirement from politics by winning just about everything going in Cork Week last year.

Simon Coveney racing one of the Dingle-bound J/109s to success during Cork Week 2024. Photo: James Tomlinson

With all of Ireland's superstar J/109s pitching their hats into the Dingle ring, we're going to be getting 275-miles plus of offshore One-Design racing. Okay, they have tiny differences in their ratings which may count in the final weary miles to the finish. But the effectively OD setup should mean that here's an inbuilt advantage to being with a J/109.

The successful JPK 10.80 Rockabill VI (Paul O'Higgins, RIYC) developing power. Photo: David O'Brien/Afloat.ie

But Paul O'Higgins and his crew on the successful JPK 10.80 Rockabill VI (RIYC) would say there's another scenario which they much enjoyed when they had their first win in this race. They just kept slightly but comfortably ahead of all the J/109s, every one of which carries a marginally lower rating than Rockabill, and that was job done.

ISORA EVENT

In terms of size, biggest of all is Frank Whelan's Kneirim Elliott 57 Opal from Greystones. With a stratospheric rating of 1.414, she's going to have to be very much out on her own at the finish, as the next high rater, Conor Doyle's ever-cool silver wraith, the Xp50 Freya from Kinsale, is down at 1.167, while Andrew and Sam Hall's Lombard 46 Pata Negra from Pwllheli is close behind at 1.155.

Irish Offshore Sailing's veteran Sunfast 37 Desert Star is one of the lowest-rated boats in the Dingle Race. She came second in class in the first staging of the new look Fastnet Race with its finish at Cherbourg.

And at the other end, there are four boats down in the 0.9 category, with Ian Bowring's Sigma 33 Springer (Royal St George YC) the lowest rated of all, at 0.903. There's always special support for the lowest-rated boat, and heaven knows but a Sigma 33 is a real contender. Yet that said, the great Damon Runyon put it in a certain perspective:

"The race is not to the swift. Nor the battle to the strong. But that's the way the smart money bets".

Well, maybe.

The promised land. Dingle is a prosperous place, but a complete style contrast with Dun Laoghaire