Mojito Takes Provisional K2Q IRC Victory

4th July 2026

Afloat.ie Team

Gold Delivery: Pata Negra comes alongside the Royal Cork Yacht Club finish boat to collect the traditional celebratory beer after taking line honours in the 2026 Kingstown to Queenstown Race Credit: Bob Bateman

Welsh yacht Mojito emerged as the provisional overall IRC winner of the biennial Kingstown to Queenstown Race on Saturday after a demanding 175-nautical-mile passage from Dún Laoghaire to Cork Harbour.

Provisional tracker results showed Mojito leading the IRC standings after a race that began in light easterly conditions on Dublin Bay before the fleet encountered stronger westerly breezes along Ireland's south coast.

Defending champion Ruth finished provisionally second overall on IRC, while fellow Welsh entry Pata Negra completed the provisional podium after spending much of the race among the leaders on the water.

Royal Irish Yacht Club's Aurelia, sailed by National Yacht Club skipper David Turner in the absence of owner Chris Power Smith, was provisionally fourth overall. ReQuest, winner of last weekend's ISORA Coastal Race and Royal Irish Yacht Club Regatta, finished fifth ahead of El Syd, while Indian and Hijacker completed the provisional top eight.

The race began on Friday afternoon from Dún Laoghaire, with El Syd making the best of the start before hugging the Dublin coastline to gain an early advantage. Overnight, the fleet encountered changing conditions, with stronger westerly winds along the south coast reshuffling the provisional handicap standings before the finish.

One of the race's defining moments came on the final approach to Cork Harbour. Having built a lead of several miles over Pata Negra, El Syd appeared set to take line honours before reportedly snagging a lobster pot near Power Head, only a few miles from the finish. The incident is understood to have cost the yacht around 20 minutes, allowing Pata Negra to overhaul her for line honours and leaving El Syd to slip down both the scratch and corrected-time standings.

Pos	Yacht
1	Mojito
2	Ruth
3	Pata Negra
4	Aurelia
5	ReQuest
6	El Syd
7	Indian
8	Hijacker

Provisional IRC overall results from the race tracker. Official results remain subject to confirmation by ISORA.

As the final two competitors continued towards the finish on Saturday evening, crews already ashore received a warm welcome from the Royal Cork Yacht Club.

SCORA Commodore Daragh Connolly greeted the fleet, saying:

"Welcome to Cork for those who have landed. Two boats are still racing and I am going out to meet them. Cold beer in the bar and hot showers open. See you guys in the bar in a little bit."

Connolly said the official prizegiving would take place at the ISORA Dinner Dance but hoped competitors would first gather to celebrate the race and its provisional winner once the final two boats had finished.

"We will do the prizes at the ISORA Dinner Dance but would love to raise a glass and toast the race and winner on arrival of the final two boats. Well done all. Welcome again to Royal Cork Yacht Club."

Published in Fastnet 450 Race

'K2Q' Dun Laoghaire to Cork Race Live Tracker 2026

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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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.