Hong Kong TP52 is Latest Entry to 2024 Maples Group IRC European Championships at Royal Irish Yacht Club

26th June 2024

Hong Kong businessman Karl Kwok has entered the tP52 Beau Geste into the 2024 Maples Group IRC European championships at the Royal Irish Yacht Club on Dublin Bay this September Credit: courtesy Rolex Sydney Hobart Race

Hong Kong businessman Karl Kwok has entered the TP52 Beau Geste into the 2024 Maples Group IRC European championships at the Royal Irish Yacht Club on Dublin Bay this September.

The entry is one of the first of the expected large overseas campaigns to enter for the championship which will bring together some of the best Grand Prix cruisers racers in Europe for a nine-race championship over three days of competition from September 12th to 15th.

Also expected to contest the Euros is home entry, Pete Smyth's Ker 46, Searcher, currently competing in the Round Ireland Race.

Kwok has won many of the major offshore events around the world with various Beau Gestes and will be seeking to add an IRC crown in his optimised TP52.

In a special partnership with the London-headquartered Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC), the sixth edition of the IRC European championships includes a number of innovations to make the event more attractive to smaller-rated boats and includes gold and silver fleets.

As Afloat previously reported, the event is one of three major keelboat regattas to be run by the Royal Irish at Dun Laoghaire this summer.

The early entry discount cut off for the events has been extended to 14th July.

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.

Published in RORC IRC Europeans, Royal Irish Yacht Club

Published in RORC IRC Europeans

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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.