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Displaying items by tag: Etchells National Championships

There is a distinctly international flavour to this year's Etchells National Championships sponsored by Euro Car Parks at Howth Yacht Club next weekend (August 14th & 15th), which is hardly surprising with the World Championships taking place at the same venue a week later. Fourteen entries from the USA (3), Australia (5) and UK (6) will be joined by local boats for the three-day event.

Among the major contenders will be America's Cup legend John Bertrand, fellow Australian and former World Champion Peter McNeill and leading American Argyle Campbell from Newport Harbour YC. Ante Razmilovic, from Royal Hong Kong YC, a regular visitor to Howth and the defending champion, will be another one to watch as the overseas crews familiarise themselves with the Howth waters ahead of the big event starting on August 23rd.

Leading the local challenge will be Dan O'Grady on 'Kootamundra Wattle', Richard & David Burrows on 'Matatu Dubh', Simon Knowles on 'Jabberwocky' and Laura Dillon on 'Key Capital' and their respective crews, all from the host club. The three-day event involves 6 races on windward-leeward courses and the race officer will be David Lovegrove who will also be the PRO for the forthcoming Worlds.

Published in Etchells

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.

RORC Points Calendar

The 2019 race was the first edition to form part of the Royal Ocean Racing Club “RORC” calendar for the season. This is in addition to the race continuing as part of the ISORA programme. 

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.