Maples Group Announced as Title Sponsor for the RORC IRC European Championship at Royal Irish Yacht Club

9th May 2024

Dun Laoghaire's new Ker 46 'Tonnerre de Breskens 3' will contest the Mals Group RORC IRC European Championships under skipper Pete Smyth

Dun Laoghaire's new Ker 46 'Tonnerre de Breskens 3' will contest the Maples Group RORC IRC European Championships under skipper Pete Smyth Credit: Carlo Borlenghi

The Royal Irish Yacht Club (RIYC) has announced that Dublin law firm Maples Group will be the title sponsor of the upcoming IRC European Championship sailing regatta. Taking place on the Irish capital's waters of Dublin Bay, the Maples Group RORC IRC Europeans will bring together some of the best Grand Prix cruisers racers in Europe for a thrilling nine-race championship over three days of competition from September 12th to 15th.

The sponsorship announcement follows this week's news of the imminent arrival of a top new racing yacht for the RIYC fleet that is expected to contest the Euros.

The event marks the climax of three weeks of keelboat racing in the Dun Laoghaire Harbour Club this summer. The action-packed summer starts with the 2024 ICRA national championships in August, followed by the J/Boat Cup, which incorporates the J/109 Europeans and finishes with the Maples Group RORC IRC European Championship. The event website is here

In a special partnership with the London-headquartered Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC), the sixth edition of the championships promise to be an unforgettable week of top-class sailing. According to the Royal Irish Yacht Club Regatta organiser, Fintan Cairns, “We have introduced a number of innovations this year to make the event more attractive to smaller-rated boats, right down to Quarter Tonners, and, given the right conditions, a lower-rated boat may well take the overall prize!”

Quarter Ton Cup Champion Ian Southworth in his vintage yacht Protis from England is entered in the 2024 Maples Group IRC European Championships

Peter Stapleton, Managing Partner of Maples and Calder, the Maples Group's law firm in Dublin said, “We are delighted to support the IRC European Championship on its return to Ireland for the first time since 2016. As an island, Ireland's beautiful coastline provides many wonderful places to sail, and I have no doubt Dublin Bay will prove to be a wonderful venue for an unforgettable week of top-class sailing. At the Maples Group, we are committed to fostering strong relationships and making a positive impact in the communities where we operate. In addition to sailing, the Maples Group in Ireland has a proud history of partnering with sporting organisations in rugby, football and the Special Olympics. We wish the Royal Irish Yacht Club and all domestic and international crews the very best of success for this year's championships".

With 120 days to the first gun, the excitement is already building, with over 20 boats having registered expressions of interest, including some notable top campaigns from the UK, such as Quarter Ton Cup Champion Ian Southworth in his vintage yacht Protis from England. Host country boats are also expected to make a strong showing, with Cork Harbour campaigns among the early entries.

The IRC European Championship, which alternates between the North and South of Europe (the Channel and the Mediterranean Sea), is a flagship event of the RORC.

The fifth edition of the IRC European Championship took place in Hyères in 2021, France and followed Cork Week in 2016, Marseille in 2017, Cowes in the UK in 2018, and San Remo, Italy in 2019.

Check out the IRC Europeans website here

Published in RORC IRC Europeans, RORC, Royal Irish Yacht Club

Published in RORC IRC Europeans

Tagged under

About The Author

Afloat.ie Team

Email The Author

Afloat.ie is Ireland's dedicated marine journalism team.

Have you got a story for our reporters? Email us here.

We've got a favour to ask

More people are reading Afloat.ie than ever thanks to the power of the internet but we're in stormy seas because advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news sites, we haven't put up a paywall because we want to keep our marine journalism open.

Afloat.ie is Ireland's only full-time marine journalism team and it takes time, money and hard work to produce our content.

So you can see why we need to ask for your help.

If everyone chipped in, we can enhance our coverage and our future would be more secure. You can help us through a small donation. Thank you.

You might also want to read...

IRC Europeans Championships

Alternating between the North and the South of Europe (the Channel and the Mediterranean Sea), the IRC European Championship is a flagship event of the IRC season and typically aims to bring together more than 60 boats.

IRC is a World Sailing-recognised rating system and the principal yacht measurement system for the rating of racing yachts worldwide.

The event is open to all IRC-rated boats. Typically, it will consist of a minimum of four coastal or tactical races (coefficient 1) and a long coastal race (coefficient 2).

Following the inaugural championship as part of Cork Week in 2016, the event sailed in Marseille in 2017, Cowes in 2018, and San Remo in 2019; the event sailed in Hyères, France in 2021 before moving to Brekens, Holland, in 2022 and in Cannes, France last June.

The IRC rating rule is administered jointly by the RORC Rating Office in Lymington, UK and UNCL Centre de Calcul, Pôle Course du Yacht Club de France, in Paris, France.