After a previous cancellation due to weather, the 2024 DMYC Kish Race - supported by Lenster Boats - from Dun Laoghaire on Dublin Bay sailed on Sunday (October 6th), albeit to the Shanganagh buoy in Killiney Bay, because of heavy offshore seas and persistent misty conditions at the Kish Bank.
The first three boats home on the water, from 24 competing, were Frank Whelan's canting keel Elliot 57, Opal from Greystones Harbour, Chris Power Smith's J122 Aurelia, and Justin Burke's JPK 10.30, ReQuest.
Frank Whelan's canting keel Elliot 57 Opal took an expected early on-the-water lead as she appears from behind Dun Laoghaire's East Pier on the way to Shanganagh Buoy in the 2024 DMYC Kish Race Photo: Afloat
The overall handicap prize went to ReQuest, with Aurelia second and John O'Gorman's Sunfast 360, Hot Cookie third.
A Kish Race that didn't go to the Kish
With two "Jekyll & Hyde " weekends of weather in a row with the closing Saturday of DBSC a light weather affair followed by howling gales on the Sunday making a Kish Race on the last Sunday of September impossible, the Kish Race, sponsored by Leinster Boats and hosted by the Dunn Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club was pushed in to the first weekend of October with an initial plan to try to sail it on either the Saturday or the Sunday. From early in the preceding week, it was apparent that another skewed weekend of wind was imminent, with the Saturday looking impossible but the Sunday almost too light.
A view of the departing Kish Race fleet as they cross the Dun Laoghaire harbour mouth with Firefly and Optmist dinghies racing in the harbour Photo: Afloat
By midweek, the Race Officer had been made aware of an overnight cruise to Greystones planned for the Friday and Saturday and a consequent plea that the Race be hosted on the Sunday. As the weekend drew closer, it became apparent that Greystones or No, Sunday was the only day on which the Kish Race could be sailed. And the Greystones adventure was cancelled when the projected weather for the Friday afternoon/evening arrived. Saturday did what was forecast but on Sunday morning, the predicted schedule for wind and even sunshine by XCWeather was not in place.
Sunday morning 10:00 – grey, misty and drizzly and Dublin Bay Buoy showing 40 knots of breeze. However, the flags in the Coal Harbour were telling a different story. As we set ourselves up in the DBSC's starter hut on the West Pier, we debated whether we should be sending the fleet to the Kish, which wasn't visible. With one radio on Channel 12, (Dublin VTS) we heard a communication from the Dublin Bay Pilot advising of heavy seas further out and that persuaded us that going to the Kish would not be the best decision. The SIs made provision for other courses, and we chose to send the fleet to the Shanganagh Mark instead, a distance of just over half of the Kish Race. This was communicated to the fleet by radio and after a short postponement to get ourselves finally sorted, 24 boats made a clean start on an upwind leg to the turning marking in Killiney Bay with the additional proviso that the fleet was to stay outside Dalkey Island. We were only seven minutes late!
The fleet of twenty-four boats ranged in size from the Elliott 57, Opal, of Frank Whelan from Greystones to the J80s (2) and Ruffians (5). In between we had a range of sizes including Aurelia (J122/Chris Power Smith), Hot Cookie (Sunfast 3600/John O'Gorman), ReQuest (JPK 10.3/Justin Burke), a Hanse 371, Misfits, two Beneteau 31.7s, Camira and Avalon, a Sigma 33, Boojum and a Dehler 36JV, Dehliverance.
The fleet got away first time with Opal having the luxury of not needing to dominate the start line but rather being able to execute a very conservative start to glide effortlessly through the smaller boats on her way upwind. At the start my handheld anemometer was recording 14 – 17 knots from 150°. The first apparent tactic was to tack into Scotsman's Bay to get out of the flooding tide and while we could see the tall masts of the bigger boats carrying out that manoeuvre, I am reliably informed that the whole fleet made the same decision.
Shortly thereafter, they disappeared from view. Just over an hour later, in weather that was still contrary to the XCWeather forecast, Opal emerged from the grey to finish in a time of 1:07:43. Next home was Aurelia in 1:20:29, followed by ReQuest in 1:23:44, Hot Cookie in 1:26:21, the 2-Handed Plane Sailing II, a Sun Odyssey 410LK in 1:38:23 and Dehliverance in 1:38:55.
The first J80 was Declan Curtin in a time of 1:41:09, just two seconds ahead of the Elan 333, Playtime. The first of the five Ruffian 23s was Frank Bradley in Ripples in 2:01:10 while the only Shipman, Invader (Gerry Glynn), came home in 2:10:19.
Ashore the consensus view was that it was a good call to leave Kish in peace for the afternoon but the course to Shanganagh Mark was still challenging and on the downwind leg on the way home, some of the smaller boats had some "fun and games". However, by 15:30 the water in the inner harbour had turned glassy smooth so the shorter race was vindicated on a completely different wind condition to the one that had prompted the change of course in the first place.
With the race shortened and everyone ashore early and no protests lodged, the prize-giving was brought forward to 15:30 and a modest attendance saw the following prizes awarded;
Kish Race Officer Cormac Bradley (right) with overall winner Justin Burke
Leinster Boats Kish Race 2024. Overall (24 boats)
- 1st Request, JPK 10.3, Justin Burke.
- 2nd Aurelia, J122, Chris Power Smith
- 3rd Hot Cookie, Sunfast 3600, John O'Gorman
- 2 Handed (3 boat fleet) 1st Plane Sailing II, Sun Odyssey 410LK, Andy Cronin
- Ruffian 23s (5 Boats) 1st Ripples, Frank Bradley
- Shipman 28 1st Gerry Glynn.
A full set of results is available on the DMYC website and has featured below, but for the purposes of this article selected handicap results are listed here.
The prizes were presented by Race Officer Cormac Bradley, standing in for DMYC Commodore Ian Cutliffe. He acknowledged the participation of all the entries and noted that two Greystone boats had made the trip up the coast to participate – Opal and Wraith (Ian Barton).
Thanks were also recorded to the race team on the day, to DBSC for the potential use of their fixed marks (which didn't arise), the starter's hut and the mark-laying RIB and to Dublin Port Company for their cooperation in allowing us to host the event.
The final note of thanks went to the race sponsor, Ronan Beirne of Leinster Boats.
This event concludes the summer sailing season in Dublin Bay.
