Welsh J109 'Mojito' Takes Inaugural 'K2Q 260' Race Victory

3rd July 2022

Afloat.ie Team

K2Q260 winner - The J109 Mojito from North Wales

K2Q 260 inaugural winner - The J109 Mojito from North Wales Credit: Afloat

The inaugural K2Q 260-mile race from Dun Laoghaire via Fastnet Rock to Cork concluded on Sunday in Cork Harbour and was won on IRC by the J/109 Mojito (Peter Dunlop and Vicky Cox).

It was the first collaboration between the Munster-based SCORA and the Irish Sea ISORA offshore racing associations and, as previously reported, was a restaging of the first recorded Irish offshore race of 1860.

There were no Cork boats in the four-boat race and of the four ISORA boats competing, three were from Wales.

K2Q 260 IRC results overall for the four boat fleet

Earlier, a shorter version of the K2Q called the 'K2Q160' running over the same course but leaving out the 100-mile section to the Fastnet Rock and finishing directly in Cork Harbour was won by Royal Cork's Nieulargo as Afloat reported here.

Robert Rendell's Grand Soleil 44 Samatom from Howth Photo: Afloat

Second on IRC overall to Mojito was the line honours winner, the Howth Yacht Club Grand Soleil 44, Samatom. Third was the Pwllheli J125 Jackknife skipperd by Andrew Hall.

J125 Jackknife skippered by Andrew Hall departs Dun Laoghaire Harbour at the start of the K2Q Race Photo: Afloat

The only two-hander in the race was Mark and Jo Thompson's Sunfast 3200 Jac Y Do sailed by Thompson and Phil Jackson. The Pwllheli duo are aiming to compete in the 2,400 mile ocean AZAB race and the K2Q distance is a mandatory qualification length for the AZAB.

The AZAB, also known as Azores and Back race starts in Falmouth and goes to the port of Ponta Delgada, on the Azore's Island of São Miguel. Competitors take a brief respite on the island before turning around and racing back to Falmouth.

Marc and Jo Thompson's Sunfast 3200 Jac Y Do

A K2Q prizegiving will be held next Monday on the first day of Cork Week Regatta 2022.

See race trackers below

Published in Fastnet 450 Race

'K2Q' Dun Laoghaire to Cork Race Live Tracker 2024

Track the progress of the 160-mile K2Q Race (formerly known as the 'Fastnet 450 race') fleet on the live tracker and see all Afloat's K2Q Race coverage in one handy link here

Published in Fastnet 450 Race

Tagged under

About The Author

Afloat.ie Team

Email The Author

Afloat.ie is Ireland's dedicated marine journalism team.

Have you got a story for our reporters? Email us here.

We've got a favour to ask

More people are reading Afloat.ie than ever thanks to the power of the internet but we're in stormy seas because advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news sites, we haven't put up a paywall because we want to keep our marine journalism open.

Afloat.ie is Ireland's only full-time marine journalism team and it takes time, money and hard work to produce our content.

So you can see why we need to ask for your help.

If everyone chipped in, we can enhance our coverage and our future would be more secure. You can help us through a small donation. Thank you.

You might also want to read...

The Kingstown to Queenstown Yacht Race or 'K2Q', previously the Fastnet 450

The Organising Authority ("OA") are ISORA & SCORA in association with The National Yacht Club & The Royal Cork Yacht Club.

The Kingstown to Queenstown Race (K2Q Race) is a 260-mile offshore race that will start in Dun Laoghaire (formerly Kingstown), around the famous Fastnet Rock and finish in Cork Harbour at Cobh (formerly Queenstown).

The K2Q race follows from the successful inaugural 'Fastnet 450 Race' that ran in 2020 when Ireland was in the middle of the COVID Pandemic. It was run by the National Yacht Club, and the Royal cork Yacht Club were both celebrating significant anniversaries. The clubs combined forces to mark the 150th anniversary of the National Yacht Club and the 300th (Tricentenary) of the Royal Cork Yacht Club.

Of course, this race has some deeper roots. In 1860 the first-ever ocean yacht race on Irish Waters was held from Kingstown (now Dun Laoghaire) to Queenstown (now Cobh).

It is reported that the winner of the race was paid a prize of £15 at the time, and all competing boats got a bursary of 10/6 each. The first race winner was a Schooner Kingfisher owned by Cooper Penrose Esq. The race was held on July 14th 1860, and had sixteen boats racing.

In 2022, the winning boat will be awarded the first prize of a cheque for €15 mounted and framed and a Trophy provided by the Royal Cork Yacht Club, the oldest yacht club in the world.

The 2022 race will differ from the original course because it will be via the Fastnet Rock, so it is a c. 260m race, a race distance approved by the Royal Cornwall Yacht Club as an AZAB qualifier.

A link to an Afloat article written by WM Nixon for some history on this original race is here.

The aim is to develop the race similarly to the Dun Laoghaire–Dingle Race that runs in alternate years.

Fastnet 450 in 2020

The South Coast of Ireland Racing Association, in association with the National Yacht Club on Dublin Bay and the Royal Cork Yacht Club in Cork, staged the first edition of this race from Dun Laoghaire to Cork Harbour via the Fastnet Rock on August 22nd 2020.

The IRC race started in Dun Laoghaire on Saturday, August 22nd 2020. It passed the Muglin, Tuscar, Conningbeg and Fastnet Lighthouses to Starboard before returning to Cork Harbour and passing the Cork Buoy to Port, finishing when Roches's Point bears due East. The course was specifically designed to be of sufficient length to qualify skippers and crew for the RORC Fastnet Race 2021.