Displaying items by tag: Royal North

7th January 2011

Kearney and Odell Add World Mirror Title

After a solid performance in testing conditions Ross Kearney and Max Odell have won the Mirror World Championships in Albany, Australia today. The Royal North of Ireland pair finished the series with two good races on the final day to lead the 61-boat fleet after 15 races sailed.

For the final rounds the winds blew 18-22 with gusts to 28 knots for both races - Kearney had a third in the first race this morning, followed by another third and then a second to clinch the series.

The results is so far provisional and subject to confirmation. Overall score sheet available for download below.

Last August, in Sligo, the Belfast Lough duo picked up the European title.

The prizegiving ceremony is underway in Albany now at 8pm Australian time and there will be more updates later on the win for Ireland.

It is not the first time Royal North of Ireland Yacht Club is celebrating a world championship homecoming tonight because Kearney won it previously in Sweden in 2005 aged 19. He was crewed then by Adam McCullough (11) when they lifted the world title at Östersund.

Today is Ireland's fifth win of the regatta that is open to all but is predominantly contested by youth crews.

The Belfast youth's follow in the footsteps of club mates Chris Clayton and Craig Martin who won the championship in Australia in 2003 previous to that Ireland won the biennial fixture in South Africa in 1999 and also when it was hosted in Howth in 2001.

mirror

Ross Kearney and Max Odell survive a luff in 20 plus knots ! Photo: Rob Cruse. More photos from Rob HERE.

Kearney named January Sailor of the Month HERE

Published in Mirror

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Royal North Pair Lead Mirror Worlds

Ross Kearney and Max Odell lead the Mirror World Championships in Albany, Australia with the final day of sailing tomorrow. The Royal North of Ireland pair have fought back hard to be on top of the 61-boat fleet after 13 races sailed. More HERE.

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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.