Brisk Start To Volvo Dun Laoghaire-Dingle Race In Sunny Dublin Bay

11th June 2025

WM Nixon

This breezy start to the 2025 Volvo Dun Laoghaire Dingle Race led to a general recall for the 40-boat fleet as the tide pushed the boats over the Dun Laoghaire Harbour line on Wednesday (June 11th) afternoon at 2 pm. The race started at the second attempt in strong south-easterly winds that could see the lead boats cross the Dingle finish by Thursday teatime, according to forecasts Credit: Afloat

D2D Day 1 (Wednesday) 2 pm - Apart from a certain bite to the air temperature in the 18 knots plus southeast breeze, Dublin Bay looked almost Mediterranean as the high-powered 41-strong fleet headed off in the National YC's biennial 270nm Volvo Dun Laghaire to Dingle Race. With the ebb tide running southeast, there were whitecaps a-plenty, and the start at the second attempt required cool heads in a crowd of boats with formidable meeting speeds after the fleet had seen the first try scrubbed.

The Elliott 57 Opal (Frank Whelan, Greystones) Photo: Afloat

In the eventual start, the Elliott 57 Opal (Frank Whelan, Greystones) was showing ahead at mid-line, while further to seaward Johnny Murphy's J/109 Outrajeous (Howth YC) was right on time, as was Keith Milller's Mills 36 Prime Suspect (Waterford Harbour SC) at the seaward end, but their lead margins had them barely clear in front of the thundering herd.

The Elliott 57 Opal (right) leads the way out of Dublin Bay (from right) Mojito, Nielulargo, Request, Outrajeous (just visible) and Freya Photo: Afloat

However, Opal's significant length advantage had her well ahead crossing Killiney Bay where she tacked off Bray, by which time the fleet were showing a remarkable range of strategic choices, with an offshore group led by Peter Ryan's First 40.7 Tsunami (NYC) and Barry Donovan's First 44.7 Black Magic heading well out into the channel, while Conor Doyle's Xp50 Freya from Kinsale seemed able to hold higher.

Former Dun Laoghaire Dingle Race winner Paul O'Higgins' JPK 10.80 Rockabill VI Photo: Afloat

The livelier than forecast conditions will have been good news for the three JPK boats, and former winner Paul O'Higgins' JPK 10.80 Rockabill VI was looking very well indeed as she paced with Mike and Richie Evans' newly-acquired J/112e The Big Picture, both of them within shouting distance of the J/122s Aurelia and Mojito.

The J122 Mojito (Vicky Cox and Peter Dunlop) from Pwllheli Photo: Afloat

With the fleet slugging to windward, the calculated placings only give a partial picture of who is doing best, and our next update in three hours' time may show some very interesting changes.

Volvo Dun Laoghaire Dingle 2025 Race Start Photo Gallery by Michael Chester

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 LaoghaireDingle Race

About The Author

WM Nixon

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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.

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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.