Hong Kong TP52 ‘Beau Geste’ Arrives in Dun Laoghaire for IRC Europeans

1st September 2024

Safe arrival - Hong Kong businessman Karl Kwok's TP52 racing yacht Beau Geste is rigged at Dun Laoghaire Harbour two weeks ahead of the first races of the 2024 Maples Group IRC European championships

Hong Kong businessman Karl Kwok's TP52 racing yacht Beau Geste has arrived at Dun Laoghaire Harbour two weeks ahead of the first races of the 2024 Maples Group IRC European championships at the Royal Irish Yacht Club on Dublin Bay.

The 52-foot boat came by ship to Dublin Port, with the special cargo (including 23.8m long carbon fibre mast) handled by Dublin's Hyland Shipping and was unloaded at Dun Laoghaire where the mast was stepped at the Coal Harbour area.

Convoi Exceptionnel - Hong Kong businessman Karl Kwok's TP52 racing yacht Beau Geste on her way to the 2024 Maples Group IRC European championships at the Royal Irish Yacht Club on Dublin Bay

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 cruiser 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 Unio ICRA National Championships.

No sooner than one event ends than the busy Royal Irish Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire is preparing for the next regatta. In fact, when the curtain falls on the ICRA National Championships on Sunday, the RIYC boathouse is already underway with welcoming boats for the J Cup on September xx and the IRC Europeans on

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. Regular Afloat readers will recall how Ireland's own Eamonn Conneelly sailing 'Patches' won the inaugural 2006 TP52 Global Championships in Miami with Kwok taking bronze.

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.

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.