Maples Group IRC Euros Class 1 is Completely Outrajeous

12th September 2024

John Minnis's Belfast Lough-based A35 Final Call II leads on the water in a race that's later abandoned due to a 55-degree wind shift on the first day of the IRC European Championships on Dublin Bay Credit: Afloat

The national success, as the 2024 season progresses, of John and Suzi Murphy's J/109 Outrajeous from Howth has been so, well, utterly outrageous, that ordinary folk might reasonably have expected a slight but inevitable easing of the pace by the time we get to mid-September.

After all, it's an enormous spider's web of logistics which has to be invisibly controlled from the Eagle's Nest up in the Hills of the Naul, aka Command HQ for Outrajeous Campaigns. But the style with which it succeeds in keeping this crew of all the talents running smoothly is way beyond anything you'll read in some standard management textbook.

John and Suzi Murphy's J/109 Outrajeous from Howth scord two wins from two races on the opening day of the Maples Group IRC European Championships at the Royal Irish Yacht Club on Dublin Bay Photo: Afloat

CLEAN PAIR OF HEELS

Yet despite the inevitable stress of performing at this level, they're at it again, with two bullets in the ferociously keen Class 1 on Day One of the IRC Europeans in Dun Laoghaire. And as one bemused first time observer commented after Race 1: "We're talking clean pair of heels here".

John Maybury's J/109 Joker 2 (RIYC) lies second after the first two races of the Maples Group IRC European Championships at the Royal Irish Yacht Club on Dublin Bay Photo: Afloat

Barry Cunningham's J109 Chimaera counts 6,2 to lie fourth overall after the first two races of the Maples Group IRC European Championships at the Royal Irish Yacht Club on Dublin Bay Photo: Afloat

Admittedly in Race 2 it was more nip and tuck, with Barry Cunningham's sister-ship from the host club snapping at those Outrajeous cubans from far Fingal just 32 seconds astern. But in the first day's final points tally, Outrajeous has a bird's eye view worthy of an eagle, as she sits comfortably nesting on just two points. This is already all of four points clear of the tied pair – John Maybury's J/109 Joker 2 (RIYC) and John Minnis's Archambault 35 Final Call II from Belfast Lough – somewhere below on the rough lower slopes, rustling up an overnight shelter from six points apiece.

Class One yachts navigate a shifty northwesterly on the first day of the Maples Group IRC European Championships at the Royal Irish Yacht Club on Dublin Bay Photo: Afloat

Race Results

You may need to scroll vertically and horizontally within the box to view the full results

Published in RORC IRC Europeans, J109, Royal Irish Yacht Club

Published in RORC IRC Europeans

Tagged under

IRC Euros

About The Author

WM Nixon

Email The Author

William M Nixon has been writing about sailing in Ireland for many years in print and online, and his work has appeared internationally in magazines and books. His own experience ranges from club sailing to international offshore events, and he has cruised extensively under sail, often in his own boats which have ranged in size from an 11ft dinghy to a 35ft cruiser-racer. He has also been involved in the administration of several sailing organisations.

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.