J125 Jackknife Leads Early Stage of K2Q Race With Fair Winds To Cork

12th July 2024

Under full sail, Frank Whelan's impressive-looking canting keel Elliott 57 Opal was on a tight reach to the first mark of the 160-mile K2Q course at the Muglins Rocks before the majority of the fleet had even made it past the Forty Foot bathing place on the south side of Dublin Bay Credit: Afloat

K2Q Day 1 - Ireland's East Coast may have had grey skies late this morning, but the word is of sunshine in Cork. And as those Dublin Bay grey skies were driven on by a good working nor'east to north wind, the remarkably varied fleet of 17 boats racing from Dublin Bay to Cork Harbour in time-honoured style in the K2Q were vying with each other in setting offwind cloth to chase the sun.

A light northerly wind and flooding tide on Dublin Bay saw an interesting 17-boat mix of cruiser-racers combined ISORA/SCORA fleet get the 2024 K2Q Race underway off Dun Laoghaire Harbour Photo: Afloat

Frank Whelan's Elliott 57 Opal from Greystones may not be a giant by today's international standards, but she's a serious biggie in the Irish context, and soon was showing clear ahead under several acres of sail. At the other end of the size scale, the junior crew from Kinsale with Cian McCarthy on the Sunfast 3300 Cinnamon Girl were able to take full advantage of the customised long bowsprit developed by the McCarthy/Hunt team, and showed their stern to some larger boats.

Andrew and Sam Hall's Welsh J125 Jackknife that by 3 pm on Friday was leading on handicap. Photo: Afloat

Initially they all were plugging the flood tide in order to stay with the traditional start time of 11:00 hrs, but now the ebb is starting to make, though the wind's drive has de-powered as forecasters attempt to make sense of a low over Germany trying to move west, which is not at all the shape of things in the regular meteorological songbook.

Defending K2Q champion Nieulargo lies first in class one IRC after the first four hours of racing in the 2024 race from Dublin to Cork Photo: Afloat Defending K2Q champion, Royal Cork's Nieulargo (Murphy family) lies first in class one IRC after the first four hours of racing in the 2024 race from Dublin to Cork Photo: Afloat

After the first five hours of racing the Shanahan family's J109 Ruth was lying first in Class Two of the 2024 K2Q Race Photo: Afloat

For now, Opal leads on the water approaching the latitude of Cahore Point, with Sam Hall in the J/125 Jackknife second, the J/109 Mojito (Pwllheli) third and the Royal Cork Admiral's Yacht Nieulargo fourth, while on corrected time the vintage Jackknife holds it for the moment, but with the ebb building and the wind fading, it could be all bets are off until a clearer picture emerges.

The J122 Mojito (Vicky Cox and Peter Dunlop) passes the Muglins at the start of the 2024 K2Q Race Photo: Afloat

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

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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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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.