Opal Takes Line Honours In Volvo Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race

12th June 2025

WM Nixon

Frank Whelan's Elliott 57 Opal crew from Greystones Sailing Club celebrate their line honours win in the 2025 Volvo Dun Laoghaire Dingle Race

Frank Whelan's Elliott 57 Opal crew from Greystones Sailing Club celebrate thier line honours win in the 2025 Volvo Dun Laoghaire Dingle Race Credit: Con Murphy

D2D Day 2 (Thursday) 10.00 pm - Frank Whelan's Elliott 57 Opal from Greystones Sailing Club has taken line honours in the D2D25, crossing the finish at the entrance to the attractive West Kerry harbour at 21:32hrs, carrying enough of the southerly breeze into Dingle Bay to be making around 10 knots as she closed on the line.

The Opal crew enjoy pizza delivered by shore crew via the Dun Laoghaire Dingle Race Officer's RIB on arrival into Dingle Harbour

Out beyond the Skelligs, the "Odd Couple" of Conor Doyle's Xp50 Freya from Kinsale and the Hall family's Lombard 46 Pata Negra from Pwllheli were still neck and neck for second on the water, but had 35 miles to sail as Opal completed her race.

The corrected time overall leader J/109 Outrajeous (Johnny Murphy, Howth YC) Photo: Afloat

The Corrected Time overall leader J/109 Outrajeous (Johnny Murphy, Howth YC), was passing the Fastnet Rock at 20:00 hrs making 6.9 knots, and is now well at sea west of Mizen Head, making 7.8 knots and maintaining the overall lead with Aurelia (Chris Power Smith) reckoned at second, Coquine (Richie Fearon) third, and Pata Negra fourth.

Lying second on IRC - Aurelia (Chris Power Smith)

Lying third on IRC - Coquine (Richie Fearon)

The Hall family's Lombard 46 Pata Negra from Pwllheli is lying fourth on IRC

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

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.