Kyran O’Grady of the RORC-supported Round Ireland Race from Wicklow Sailing Club is very much open for business today, Saturday, February 28th, as it’s the closing date for discounted entries for the 2026 staging of the 700-mile offshore classic on June 20th. And he saw the dawn come up this morning with 24 entries already paid-up and in the box, with several extremely interesting ones among them.

THE FRENCH CONNECTION

RIRW26 promotion is also being undertaken by international offshore campaigner Pamela Lee from Greystones just up the road, but now resident in Brittany. She assured the ICRA Annual Conference in Dun Laoghaire earlier this month that she was doing all she could to encourage her classmates in the largely French-based hotshot Class40 to make the Round Ireland one of their pillar events, and certainly in times past enough of them have shown to give it all a real edge.

Shortly after a Round Ireland start, the Class 40 Corum seems to be at risk of blanketing by Eric de Turckheim’s Teasing Machine………

….but Corum’s crew have read the wind line towards Wicklow Head to perfection…….

……and they’re soon clear ahead. Photos: W M Nixon

But however it came about, the fact that French offshore superstar Gery Trentesaux with his Jason Ker-designed Sydney GTS 43 Long Courrier is in the race as Entry 16 means that the Round Ireland 26 has now crossed the barrier into international significance. This is already accentuated by Frank Whelan of Greystones chucking his hat into the fray as Entry 18 with another Sydney 43. She’s the boat formerly known as CoinCoin but for the time being is listed as Syd, which may well stick.

Round Ireland Race 1996 overall winner Michael Boyd (RIYC) in his subsequent role as Commodore Royal Ocean Racing Club with Gery Trentesaux after the latter had won the 2015 Fastnet Race overall with the JPK 10.80 Courrier du Leon in his 13th time in the classic race.

Round Ireland Entry List @ 27-02-26

SYDNEY BOATS

Sydney-originating boats have a good record in the race with the Sydney 36 Tanit from Scotland winning overall in 2014. And the 2011-originating Sydney GTS 43 has an immaculate pedigree, as her flared stern and general arrangement shows her to be a very near if slightly bigger sister of Anthony O’Leary’s all-conquering Ker 39 Antix, which led Ireland to victory in the 2014 Commodore’s Cup.

Cut and thrust. Anthony O’Leary’s victorious Antix dishing it out in the 2014 Commodore’s Cup

But as anyone who has been paying attention this week will be aware, the controlled advance of the scows continues with the French-created Mach 50 Palanad adding a stellar performance in the RORC Caribbean 600 to her overall victory in January’s east-west Transat.

SCOW DO YOU DO?

For long enough, the glorious Class A scows of the extensive lakes in America’s flyover states put everyone into the mind-set that these were great lake boats, but only lake boats nevertheless. However, Peter Milne created the brilliant scow-inspired Fireball, and many years later - though for more than a decade now - the scow concept spread into the Mini-Transat fleet. As they proved their success, it was only a question of time before bigger boats gave it a whirl.

Glorious. The Class A scows of America’s mid-west lakes were not seen as a seagoing concept until the Fireball dinghy came along…….

….and then the Ministransat showed it could work for serious seagoing, as demonstrated here by Ireland’s Tom Dolan, who later went on to be overall winner of the Figaro Solo.

LOGISTICS CHALLENGE

Whether or not Palanad is going to be back in Europe in time for the Round Ireland is a moot point, as the biennial CCA Bermuda Race starts on the same June weekend, and with the logistics of getting to Newport RI for the start already half-solved, the Bermuda contest will be very tempting to demonstrate Palanad’s power in yet another set of sailing conditions against new competition.

It’s all decidedly intriguing, for we are at an inflection point in yacht design development, with the pointy-bowed flared-stern boats probably developed to their uttermost, while the scows are still very much work in progress.

Work in progress? The “total scow” Palanad seems to have taken scows beyond the experimental stage…….

….yet the start of the RORC Caribbean on Monday revealed the “new” direction being taken in contrast to the sharp-bowed boats.

RORC CHAMPIONS RETURN

Taken together, the original tranche of Round Ireland entries provides much of interest, as it includes the return of RORC champions Rob Craigie and Deb Fish with the former’s Sun Fast 3600 Bellino, while the sharp end of the home fleet includes John Treanor of the National YC’s newly-acquired NMD 43 Cristina, which is probably spelt CrisTina, but we’re in a communication dark place out here on the peninsula.

The NMD43 Cristina will make for interesting sailing for Johnny Treanor’s crew after their successful years with the J/112 ValenTina.

The west of Ireland has just one representative at the moment, Mark Wilson of Galway Bay SC with the First 40 La Veuve Noir, in which he somehow manages to have a share while also having a share in the “King of the Bay” Sigma 33 Scorpio. As for the East Coast, flagship of their representation has to be the ever-enthusiastic Chris Power Smith (Royal St George YC) with the J/122 Aurelia.

Front-of-House man – Kyran O’Grady’s leading role in the Round Ireland is well supported by a strong backroom team in Wicklow

Some highly likely entrants expected by Kyran O’Grady have been keeping their powder dry until they see the calibre of the entries already in. But we would suggest that there’s enough quality firmly lined up to make striking a deal today a sensible proposition, with the entry fee a minimum for the smallest 30ft boats at €450, and upwardly negotiable thereafter.

NEGOTIATED ENTRY FEE

The idea of haggling over your entry fee is not something which would spring to mind in the major sailing centres. Once upon a time during Cowes Week, a shipmate in his scruffy sailing clothes was ambling past Bruce Benzie’s 1862-established nautical jewelry shop in the High Street, and spotted an item in the window that he knew his wife had long fancied.

Part of Cowes and the Cowes Week story – Benzies the nautical jewellers tempting passers-by in the High Street

He went in and made an offer. The very properly pinstripe-attired grand assistant drew himself to his full height, spread the palms of his hands on the counter, gazed down - with the slightest hint of a twinkle in his eye - on the salty little sailor, and cleared his throat.

“I’m sorry Sir. We don’t bargain”.

WICKLOW IS AN ACQUIRED TASTE

That’s Cowes for you. And anyway, who knows how the situation might be if you had been discussing the sale of an item much too high end to be displayed in Benzies’ window? But in any case Wicklow is an acquired taste, yet once acquired - as the late great Bob Fisher memorably observed – it is never lost, and those who have savoured it with longtime relish include Denis & Mary Doyle, Piet Vroon, 2024 overall winner Eric de Turckheim and many other giants of international offshore racing going back to the founding of the biennial Round Ireland Race from Wicklow by the doggedly determined Michael Jones in 1980.

GO TO GAOL

As for the rest of us, who could resist going to a town whose biggest tourist attraction billboard on the approaching motorway delights with the very firm suggestion that you absolutely must visit Wicklow Gaol?

Balancing that, however, is the fact that if you approach by sea at the end of the Round Ireland Race, you’ll find you’re arriving in the most hospitable little club on the planet, with the wonderful atmosphere of a place well-filled with those who, on various boats, have shared the life-essential experience of racing round Ireland. Until you’ve done it, you can have no idea of just what it means.

Wicklow from seaward on a perfect early Spring day, with the first three of the WSC fleet already on their moorings in the Outer Harbour.