Opal Expected To Finish Volvo Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race Well Before Midnight

12th June 2025

WM Nixon

On-the-water leader Opal, Frank Whelan's Elliott 57 from Greystones, has crossed the mouth of the Kenmare River, and is tacking downwind towards Skellig Michael at 12 knots, with 23 sea miles to the finish Credit: Afloat

D2D Day 2 (Thursday) 7.30 pm - Those of us who live northeast of a line from Sligo to Waterford have been blessed throughout today (Thursday), as the welcome benison of rain – often quite heavy – has been irrigating our parched acres of productive farmland, whereas the other southwestern half of the country has had to make do with a fairly average Irish summer's day. In it, the wind has drawn from a mostly southerly direction to keep the fleet moving – albeit with some irritatingly inexplicable pauses in local calm patches – in the National Yacht Club's biennial Volvo Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race.

Off the southwest coast, the breeze is currently southeast along the shore, and sometimes soft with it. So when Chris Power Smith's "Steady Eddy" performer, the J/122 Aurelia (Royal St George YC), came past the Fastnet Rock at precisely 18:00hrs, her crew found their work becoming cut out to maintain the best downwind angles for optimum speed to keep them ahead of the closely challenging J/122e Mojito (Peter Dunlop & Vicky Cox) from Pwllheli.

The J/122 Aurelia (Royal St George YC) Photo: Afloat

Aurelia has always been there or thereabouts among the top boats under the IRC's Corrected Time, and as she came past the rock that symbolizes Irish offshore sailing, she was lying second overall, bested only by Johnny Murphy's J/109 Outrajeous (Howth YC), which on the water was bustling along astern, offshore of Kedge Island near Baltimore.

The Pride of Howth was being kept up to speed by the nearby presence of the JPK 1030 Coquine (Richie Fearon, Lough Swilly YC) and the Sun Fast 3300 Cinnamon Girl (Cian McCarthy & Sam Hunt, Kinsale YC), a pair of more modern French-originating boats that have been snapping at Outrajeous's heels like a couple of terriers all the way sailing the south coast - irritating maybe, but all to the good for keeping Outrajeous on the pace.

The Sun Fast 3300 Cinnamon Girl (Cian McCarthy & Sam Hunt) Photo: Afloat

Away northwest along the coast, on-the-water leader Opal, Frank Whelan's Elliott 57 from Greystones, has crossed the mouth of the Kenmare River, and is tacking downwind towards Skellig Michael at 12 knots, with 23 sea miles to the finish. A Dingle finish for line honours is on the cards within three hours and possibly much less, but odd things do sometimes happen to the wind in Dingle Bay.

Astern, off the mouth of Bantry Bay, there's the unlikely pairing of Conor Doyle's Xp50 Freya from Kinsale and the Hall family's Lombard 46 Pata Negra from Pwllheli battling for second in line honours. It's an unlikely pairing in that Freya is dignified restraint and elegance in her styling, whereas Pata Negra is in-your-face handsome-is-as-handsome-does brutalist design aimed at offwind speed. But for now, the camaraderie of this fascinating race has brought these two together.

Johnny Treanor's J/112e ValenTina (National YC) Photo: Afloat

Race organiser Adam Winkelmann is himself racing in a key role on Johnny Treanor's J/112e ValenTina (National YC), currently at the Fastnet and dicing with sister-ship The Big Picture (Mike & Richie Evans, Howth YC), but we have no doubt that the timing of the finishers ahead of ValenTina has been delegated to responsible adults.

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 to 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.