Outrajeous Continues to Lead Volvo Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race as Fleet Navigates Challenging Conditions

12th June 2025

WM Nixon

Overall IRC leader of the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Dingle Race 2025 on day two, Outrajeous (J/109, Johnny Murphy, Howth YC) was achieving extra speed at 8.2 knots off the Old Head of Kinsale. Credit: Afloat

D2D Day 2 (Thursday) 1.30 pm - The long haul along the south coast of Ireland has seen most of the fleet in the Volvo Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race get themselves clear of the rainbelt that covered the northeastern half of the country. But now the hope is that a forecast re-strengthening of the faltering southerly breeze will soon be well in place, as light wind conditions towards the Baltimore area have been seeing a speed drop for the leading boats on the water.

That said, they made the best of the breeze while it was there. For even as a local veering forced Frank Whelan's Elliott 57 Opal from Greystones to tack as she neared Galley head at 11:40 hrs, as leader she was well down the Cork coast while the lowest rated boat in the fleet, Peter Bowring's Sigma 33 Springer, was in the process of putting the Coningbeg astern off the south Wexford coast.

One of the most impressive peformances through this morning has been registered by the JPK 1030 Coquine (Richie Fearon, Lough Swilly YC), which came out past the Tuskar at 10 knots, and then found her fleetest feet to put her into second overall on IRC as she paces past the Old Head of Kinsale at 13:00hrs at 7.0 knots, neck and neck with overall leader Outrajeous (J/109, Johnny Murphy Howth YC) which was finding extra speed at 8.2 knots.

The Hall family's broad-sterned Lombard 46 Pata Negra is make good speed along the south coast Photo: Afloat

As expected, the long reach has suited the Hall family's broad-sterned Lombard 46 Pata Negra, which slowly but steadily overtook Conor Doyle's Xp50 Freya as they approached the Old Head of Kinsale at 10:30hrs, which was something of an affront to the Queen of the Kinsale fleet, but that's boat racing for you, and anyway Freya was narrowly ahead again off Glandore.

Passing the entrance to Baltimore at 13:00 hrs, Opal had got back up to 9.4 knots, on track for the next turn at the Fastnet, so it's still possible that she'll get to Dingle by tea time as some pundits have forecast. But then tea time in far west Kerry is a moveable feast which can be shifted to midnight if that's what's needed.

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 Laoghaire Dingle 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.