Displaying items by tag: Mona's Queen (III)

27th March 2023

Exhibition in Isle of Man to Commemorate Loss of Mona's Queen During Dunkirk's Operation Dynamo

An exhibition about the Isle of Man Steam Packet's passenger steamer Mona's Queen which was lost at Dunkirk in northern France during WW 2 is to take place on 22nd May.

The exhibition writes EnergyFM, is to commemorate the Mona's Queen which on May 29th 1940, was struck by a German mine on the way into Dunkirk to help with Operation Dynamo.

Of the vessel's 24 crew who died, seventeen were from the Isle of Man.

For two weeks the exhibition display will take place in the south-west of the island at Port St Mary's (Town Hall) where as Afloat reported, two cruise ships are to call offshore this season as part of a record year.

The story of the Mona's Queen (III) which was built by Cammell Laird, Birkenhead in 1934 will be told through exhibits of launch photos from the Merseyside shipyard, original plans for the ship, apprentices model, original tableware and the ship's pennants.

There will also be a video of the wreck today. Next month, a dive team from the Isle of Man will be travelling to Dunkirk to photograph and video the Mona’s Queen wreck.

Also to be on display at Port St. Mary will be the stories of other Steam Packet ships and their crews.

Published in Isle of Man

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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.