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Round Ireland Yacht 2024 Race Updates from Wicklow Sailing Club
Going Round - Mike and Ritchie Evans Sovereign's Cup Champion J/99 Snapshot from Howth Yacht Club is entered for the 2022 Round Ireland Race on June 18 from Wicklow Sailing Club
The 40th entry to the SSE Renewables Round Ireland Race is Ross Farrow’s Jeanneau Sunfast 3300 Asgard from the Hamble. The milestone was reached this week with just over eight weeks to go to the 700-mile race starting off Wicklow. …
The Volvo 70 Telefonica Black is in the latest group of Round Ireland entries which has more than doubled the fleet numbers
When this year’s SSE Renewables Round Ireland Race 2022 was top of the agenda on Afloat.ie a fortnight ago, it was in the context of Wicklow Sailing Club being in double celebratory mode. They’d already logged 18 high-quality early entries…
Dave Cullen (left) and Nigel Biggs are the new joint owners of the latest Checkmate XX, a First 50
Q – What is 18 + 15? A – XX of course! The arrival of a new First 50, Checkmate XX into Howth Yacht Club will see the crews of Nigel Biggs’ Checkmate XVIII joining forces with Dave Cullen’s Checkmate…
The U25 team of Lorcan Tighe, Andrew Irvin, Ronan Mooney and Cian Crowe have chartered a Figaro 3 from the Offshore Racing Academy for their Round Ireland challenge
The SSE Renewables Round Ireland Yacht Race is an incredibly well-renowned race for most who are involved in sailing in any respect. Happening only once every two years, it is a very prestigious event steeped in history. The gruelling 704-nautical-mile…
Seasoned campaigners: The First 310 More Mischief (Grzegorz Kalinecki, Dun Laoghaire, left) and the J/122 Aurelia (Chris Power Smith, RStGYC, right) are Numbers 1 and 3 in the growing entry list for the SSE Renewables Round Ireland race from Wicklow on June 18th 2022
For most of us, the pandemic has been a matter of two years in limbo. And it maybe isn’t over yet, even if everyone is behaving as though we’re well into the end game. But for gallant little Wicklow Sailing…
Skipper Tom Kneen said he was '95% sure' his Fastnet Race winner Sunrise (above) would contest the biennial Irish 700-miler in 14 weeks time
The 2021 Fastnet Race winner Sunrise from Plymouth will compete in June's Round Ireland Race adding to the international competition of the 21st edition of Irelands' top offshore race. Responding to a question from the audience, Sunrise skipper Tom Kneen…
Bob Rendell's Grand Soleil 44 Samatom will compete in June's Round Ireland Race
Bob Rendell's Grand Soleil 44 Samatom of Howth Yacht Club is the latest entry into June's SSE Renewables Round Ireland Race from Wicklow. The 2021 Sovereign's Cup Coastal division winner - that also competed in last year's Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race - …
Midwinter lull in an otherwise stormy mid-Atlantic – Pamela Lee in a brief respite aboard the Class40 Redman during the mid-winter west-east Transatlantic Crossing
When they come to write further histories of the Covid Pandemic and the world’s uneven emergence from it, they should call on the many experiences of long-distance sailor Pamela Lee of Greystones. She has somehow managed to keep the development…
If a World Sailing rethink goes ahead Category 3 offshore races such as the Dun Laoghaire to Dingle race (above) would be exempted from the new out of water structural inspection rule.
A World Sailing re-think is under consideration to exempt Category 3 offshore races from the new requirement for documented structural inspection. Changes to the World Sailing Offshore Special Regulations (OSR) came into effect on January 1 2022, and mean an additional requirement…
The first international Class40 yacht has entered June's Round Ireland race
 The hard work of Wicklow Sailing Club's 2022 Round Ireland Race committee is bearing fruit with the early entry for this summer's race of the new Class40 yacht Influence by Italian skipper Andrea Fornaro. The VPLP design is the first such Class40…
The Round Ireland campaign for the VOR 70 Green Dragon will be is a joint entry from O’Coineen and Conor Ferguson. The boat is entered as both a Galway Bay Sailing Club and Royal Irish Yacht Club entry
Enter the Dragon. Enda O'Coineen, the Galway man behind the Irish entry in the 2008/9 Volvo Ocean Race is back behind the wheel of the Volvo 70 as the 12th entry into June's SSE Renewables Round Ireland Race. It's not Green Dragon's…
Royal St. George's Chris Power Smith has shown the depth of his Round Ireland Race ambitions by being one of the first entries for June's 2022 SSE Renewables Round Ireland Yacht Race from Wicklow.  Having narrowly missed out on the top…
Sitting pretty - On her mooring in Cork Harbour in January 2022, the 1937-built classic Maybird became the oldest boat to complete the Round Ireland Race in 2018
Darryl Hughes’ immaculately-restored 1937 43ft Tyrrell gaff ketch Maybird became both the oldest and the first gaff-rigged boat to complete the Round Ireland Race in 2018.  The historic yacht now moored in Cork Harbour on the Owenabue river is the…
ISORA's Andrew Hall skippered Lombard 46 Pata Negra competing at this week's RORC Transatlantic Race. The boat was entered for the 2018 Round Ireland and may yet enter for June's 2022 race
Entries open in less than a fortnight for the 2022 SSE Renewables Round Ireland Yacht Race and there is considerable 'pent up' interest in the biennial ocean race classic that was last sailed in 2018. Wicklow Sailing Club organisers have…
The 2022 Round Ireland Notice of Race document has been published
With entries scheduled to open on January 24 2022, the first formal document for the 2022 SSE Renewables Round Ireland Race has been taken with the publication of the Notice Of Race document (downloadable below) by Wicklow Sailing Club organisers. The…
Keel failure - World Sailing Offshore Special Regulations will require keel inspection for Category 3 Offshore Races in 2022
Changes to the World Sailing Offshore Special Regulations (OSR) coming into effect on January 1 2022, will mean an additional requirement for yachts taking part in races of Category 0 to Category 3. In 2022, Irish fixtures such as June's…

Round Ireland Yacht Race Information

The Round Ireland Yacht Race is Ireland's classic offshore yacht race starts from Wicklow Sailing Club (WSC) and is organised jointly with the Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) and the Royal Irish Yacht Club (RIYC). This page details the very latest updates from the 2008 race onwards including the race schedule, yacht entries and the all-important race updates from around the 704-mile course. Keep up to date with the Round Ireland Yacht Race here on this one handy reference page.

2020 Round Ireland Race

The 2020 race, the 21st edition, was the first race to be rescheduled then cancelled.

Following Government restrictions over COVID-19, a decision on the whether or not the 2020 race can be held was made on April 9 2020 to reschedule the race to Saturday, August 22nd. On July 27th, the race was regrettably cancelled due to ongoing concerns about COVID-19.

Because of COVID-19, the race had to have a virtual launch party at the Royal Irish Yacht Club for its 21st edition

In spite of the pandemic, however, a record entry was in prospect for 2020 with 50 boats entered with four weeks to go to the race start. The race was also going big on size and variety to make good on a pre-race prediction that the fleet could reach 60. An Irish offshore selection trial also looked set to be a component part of the 2020 race.

The rescheduling of the race to a news date emphasises the race's national significance, according to Afloat here

FAQs

704 nautical miles, 810 miles or 1304 kilometres

3171 kilometres is the estimate of Ireland's coastline by the Ordnance Survey of Ireland.

SSE Renewables are the sponsors of the 2020 Round Ireland Race.

Wicklow Sailing Club in association with the Royal Ocean Racing Club in London and The Royal Irish Yacht Club in Dublin.

Off Wicklow Harbour on Saturday, August 22nd 2020

Monohulls 1300 hrs and Multihulls 13.10 hrs

Leave Ireland and all its islands (excluding Rockall) to starboard.

It depends on the boat. The elapsed record time for the race is under 40 hours but most boats take five or six days to complete the course.

The Race Tracker is https://afloat.ie/sail/events/round-ireland/item/25789-round-ireland-yacht-race-tracker-2016-here.

The idea of a race around Ireland began in 1975 with a double-handed race starting and finishing in Bangor organised by Ballyholme Yacht Club with stopovers in Crosshaven and Killybegs. That race only had four entries. In 1980 Michael Jones put forward the idea of a non-stop race and was held in that year from Wicklow Sailing Club. Sixteen pioneers entered that race with Brian Coad’s Raasay of Melfort returning home after six days at sea to win the inaugural race. Read the first Round Ireland Yacht Race 1980 Sailing Instructions here

 

The Round Ireland race record of 38 h 37 min 7 s is held by MOD-70 trimaran Musandam-Oman Sail and was set in June 2016.

George David’s Rambler 88 (USA) holds the fastest monohull race time of two days two hours 24 minutes and 9 seconds set in the 2016 race.

William Power's 45ft Olivia undertook a round Ireland cruise in September 1860

 

Richard Hayes completed his solo epic round Ireland voyage in September 2018 in a 14-foot Laser dinghy. The voyage had seen him log a total of 1,324 sea miles (2,452 kilometres) in 54 sailing days. in 1961, the Belfast Lough Waverly Durward crewed by Kevin and Colm MacLaverty and Mick Clarke went around Ireland in three-and-a-half weeks becoming the smallest keelboat ever to go round. While neither of these achievements occurred as part of the race they are part of Round Ireland sailing history

© Afloat 2020