23 boats confirmed so far and target is to get to 28-30 for the Kinsale Yacht Club staging of the Half Ton Classic Cup this August. As no French boats are declared yet, it looks likely that the West Cork club will meet or exceed its target. Dowload the entry form and the Notice of Race below.

Ireland will field a strong team with Checkmate XV, Harmony, The Big Picture, King One all set for the trip from Dublin. Cork's George Radley will unleash his latest half tonner Cortegado.

Windsor Laudan and Stephanie Ennis’ stalwart Demelza will lead the Irish hopes for the production series which is open to all boats that were eligible to be half tonners and were production boats and the hope is more Shamrocks will join them.

On the international front, nthe news is that Swuzzlebubble has been bought in Cowes and is being ramped up to defend her title by a pro team. Nigel Biggs returns to the circuit with a newly optimised Checkmate XVIII (ex Dick Dastardly) that is currently receiving surgery. Paul Wayte from Swansea is also working up a refurb of a HB31 called Headhunter that is also being totally revamped so the fleet will be split in two between fully optimised half tonners and more original halfs. Paul Pullen’s Miss Whiplash also has some unfinished business and will definitely be vying for the title with her and some other Half–tonners coming over earlier in the summer to participate in some other Irish regattas.

The Half Ton Classic Cup series consist of daily races between Monday 14th August 2016 and Friday 18th August and will include a mix of both coastal and round–the–cans races.

Race Programme:

Sunday 13 August 15:00 Practice starts followed by practice race

Monday 14th 11:00 First warning signal for 1st race of the day, 2 other races following

Tuesday 15th 11:00 First warning signal for 1st race of the day, 2 other races following

Wednesday 16th 11:00 First warning signal for 1st race of the day, 2 other races following

Thursday 17th 11:00 First warning signal for 1st race of the day, 2 other races following

Friday 18th 11:00 First warning signal for 1st race of the day, 1 other race following

 

Kinsale Yacht Club reports five entries already received since opening entry this morning for the Sovereign's Cup entries from 21st-24th June 2017. This is the 12th Sovereign’s Cup and organisers are looking forward to welcoming over 100 boats to Kinsale next Summer. 

“We are looking forward to welcoming many fleets to Kinsale next year, to enjoy both great racing and the hospitality Kinsale offers as well,” said Kevin Murray, Sovereign’s Cup Regatta Director. There will be a separate trophy for the white sail class and a new coastal fleet this year,” he added.

The Sovereigns Cup trophy is a revival of a centuries-old tradition when the ‘Sovereign of Kinsale’ presented a trophy for the fastest sailing craft of the time. However, the modern-era regatta is named after the large rocks that overlook the racing area offshore and has been held biennially since 1995.

Many of the Ireland’s best racing crews will be competing for the Sovereigns’ Cup under the international IRC handicap system. The Portcullis Trophy will be awarded to competitors under the ECHO handicap system.

Cork County Council as sponsor, is taking the opportunity to promote Kinsale as a tourist venue and the start/finish point for the much acclaimed Wild Atlantic Way, as many cruising boats are likely to stay in the West Cork area after the regatta. Also Dubarry of Ireland are involved as clothing sponsors.

As the Irish Cruiser Racing Association (ICRA) Nationals take place from 9th-11th June 2017 at the Royal Cork Yacht Club, both Kinsale and RCYC are working together to encourage sailors from the UK and all over Ireland to compete in both events in Cork in June 2017 by organising marina berths for holding boats and arranging delivery crews between RCYC and KYC.

This weekend Kinsale Yacht Club had its Christmas Regatta for Junior Sailors. 34 Optimists, and 12 mixed dinghies, comprising of Laser‘s (Radial & 4.7’s) and Toppers braved the chilly conditions over the two days.

Saturday got off to a rather breezy start which made it challenging for the Optimists and saw 6 retirees from Race 1. Harry Twomey took line honours for the Optimists with Killian O’Regan in second and Edu Ojez took third. Wind eased and the flat seas made for more comfortable racing for the rest of Day 1. For Races 2 and 3 Michael Crosbie dominated the Optimist fleet and took first in both with Edu Ojez second in both, Killian O’Regan took 3rd in Race 2 and Harry Twomey was 3rd in Race 3.

The Mixed Dinghy Fleet was very competitive with local boy Michael Carroll winning Race 1 in his 4.7 ahead of Chris Bateman in a Radial. Micheal O’Suilleabhain was 3rd, also in a 4.7. Best of the Toppers was David Carroll who came 4th in that race. Chris Bateman took 1st in Race 2 with Michael Carroll and Micheal O’Suilleabhain in joint 2nd place. The 4.7’s dominated in the 3rd race with Micheal O’Suilleabhain in 1st place, Michael Carroll 2nd and Cathal O’Regan 3rd .

Day 2 saw a shake up in the Optimist Fleet. Rory O’Sullivan took line honours in all 3 races. Killian O’Regan took 2nd in Race 4 and Harry Twomey took 3rd. Diego Peleteiro Herrero took 2nd in Race 5 with Edu Ojez in 3rd. Race 6 saw Edu Ojez come in 2nd to Rory which was enough to see him win the regatta, Michael Crosbie was 3rd in Race 6 which was enough to secure him 2nd overall.

The mixed dinghies saw the Lasers continue to battle between the 4.7’s and Radials. Michael Carroll in a 4.7 won Race 4 with Chris Bateman in a Radial in 2nd and Micheal O’Suilleabhain in a 4.7 in 3rd. Michael Carroll also won Race 5 with David Carroll in a Topper putting in a great performance to secure 2nd, Micheal O’Suilleahain continued his solid run with a 3rd in his 4.7. For the last race Micheal O’Suilleabhain took 1st place with Chris Bateman in 2nd but a 3rd for Michael Carroll was enough to secure him first place overall.

Overall Results:

Optimist: 1st Edu Ojez 2nd Michael Crosbie 3rd Killian O’Regan 

Mixed Dinghies: 1st Michael Carroll (Laser 4.7) 2nd Micheal O’Suilleabhain (Laser 4.7) 3rd Chris Bateman (Laser Radial)

 

Jeff Condell and Jeff Cochrane from Kinsale Yacht Club sailing In Squib 812 'Fuggles' are the winners of this year's Irish Squib Travellers Trophy. 

The annual keelboat class award is for Squibs which travel to the regional and national championships.

It is necessary to compete in two regional championships and in the National Championships to qualify to win the trophy.

They concluded their achievement with a 3rd place at the inland championships in Dromineer on Lough Derg last weekend.

There was a great turnout for Kinsale Yacht Club's 'At Home' Regatta yesterday. The all–in IRC 2016 cruiser fleet attracted 19 entries and was won by Richard Hanley's GK24 Saoirse. In a 41–boat ECHO handicap division the win went to an Elan 333, Artful Dodger, skippered by Finbarr O'Regan.

The main feature of this year's 'At Home' was the upsurge of new Oppie sailors who started sailing at KYC this season. Unfortunately, KYC’s sailability fleet was stood down due to a heavy airs forecast although some sailors later went to sea in a Hawk 20.

During the day a large squall with rain went through and this put a lot of the beginner Oppy sailors out of action.

KYC is suffering a shortage of cruiser racers, like many other clubs, and this was evident in the spinnaker class turnout.

The Squibs mustered four boats but one retired before racing.

A single point margin gave Jaguar sailed by Martin Byrne, Adam Winkelmann and Donal Small the Irish Dragon title in Kinsale this afternoon. The RStGYC entry best local hope Cameron Good, Henry Kingston, David Good and Simon Furney sailing 'Little Fella' in a seven race series. 

Royal St. George boats took three of the top four places in the 12–boat fleet. Cloud sailed by Clare Hogan, Neil Hogan, Bill Nolan and Graeme Grant took third overall beating defending champions Phantom David Williams, Arthur Meighan, Hilary Murray and Ed Butler in fourth overall.

Despite the relatively small turnout, it was a very hard fought contest. Going into the final race both Good and Byrne were on equal points but to win Good had to beat Byrne and finish in the top six. It was not to be and the first five overall were only separated by a point each (22–26 points)

Royal St. George's Jaguar sailed by Martin Byrne, Adam Winkelmann and Donal Small lead the Cantor Fitzgerald Dragon National Championships at Kinsale Yacht Club after three races sailed writes Bob Bateman. The Dun Laoghaire crew lead by four points from Kinsale locals Cameron Good Henry Kingston/ David Good Simon Furney who were winners of the Glandore based South coast championshps held a fortnight ago. Third is Byrne's club mate Clare Hogan skippering Cloud on equal points with Good's Little Fella. Racing continues tomorrow. Full results sheet downloadable below.

After a one hour postponement at the Dragon National Championships the decision was taken to abandon today's first day of racing due to fog and light winds writes Bob Bateman in Kinsale. The first gun tomorrow is scheduled for 11.55.

On the third day of the Rio Paralympic sailing regatta, Ireland's John Twomey from Kinsale Yacht Club with crew Ian Costelloe and Austin O'Carroll are back into the top ten overall after counting a fifth in race six of the three person Sonar keelboat class. Ireland scored also scored a 9th and 13th yesterday moving them up to tenth overall. Full results here.

Race day three. Three people in a boat. Three races. Three wins. If three isn't the lucky number for Great Britain's Robertson, Stodel and Thomas then it certainly should be after today.

Languishing in the bottom half of the fleet with a 11,9,14 on the scorecard it looked like the chase for a medal was over before it had begun for the British team. Whatever went on in the nightly debrief after day two, it definitely worked.

Not giving too much away, Thomas said, "Some of the stuff we talked about last night in the debrief we came out on the water today and implemented.”

He continued, "The debrief from last night was mainly to believe. Which then allowed us to follow our plan. So believe and then execute with a positive mindset. We love the medium to strong breeze and we have been working on a few techniques with our new coach which are working.”

If the team is to continue up the leaderboard and get a first Paralympic medal in their fourth attempt, they will need a lot more of that belief that worked so well, but they also need boats around them to falter. For Thomas though, their destiny is still in their own hand's, "All we have to do is worry about our own performance and not worry about the others. Having three firsts makes you feel positive and I'm not sure how that has helped us with the overall scores. The boat is going well now, and we can't influence others.

"For us it is about sticking to our processes and coming out strong and delivering on what we can do. If we can then be in the medal zone we will be happy.”

The Britons now sit in fifth place on 23 points.

Still leading the way are the Australian team of Colin Harrison, Russell Boaden and Jonathan Harris who posted two second places and a discarded seventh for the day to leave the team on 12 points. They are followed in second by 2016 world champions Alphonsus Doerr, Hugh Freund and Bradley Kendell (USA) who rocketed up from seventh place with a 2,3,3 to finish on 18 points.

New Zealand's Richard Dodson, Andrew May and Chris Sharp are third on 21 points with London 2012 bronze medallists, Norway's Aleksander Wang-Hansen, Marie Solberg and Per Eugen Kristiansen just one point back on 22.

Ireland's Paralympic sailing team secored a ten and 14 in the first two rounds of the three person keelboat regatta yesterday. Kinsale Yacht Club's Sonar crew of John Twomey, Ian Costelloe and Austin O'Carroll now lie 12th from 14 with two more races in the series today and plenty of opportunity for a prized top ten finish. Results are here.

With compatriot Matt Bugg going well in the 2.4 Norlin OD and the SKUD18 team leading the way in their fleet, it was down to Colin Harrison, Russell Boaden and Jonathan Harris to carry the baton for Australia in the Sonar to end a good day for the land down under.

The Australians led at every mark on the Escola Naval race area in race one to take the bullet and followed it up with a second place to sit on top of the leaderboard with three points.

Explaining the key to success for his team, Harrison said, "It was about getting a clear lane early, focusing on boat speed and then just working the shifts. It wasn't tough in that they were huge shifts but there was enough pressure and you had to be on the right side of it.”

Even with the good start, Harrison knows the battle for gold won't be an easy one with top competition to deal with as well as difficult race areas, "It's very challenging racing in Rio, out of all the venues we have sailed around the world in the Sailing World Cup series, Rio is the most challenging.”

Recovering from an eighth place in race one, Trans-Tasman neighbours, New Zealand's Richard Dodson, Andrew May and Chris Sharp, came back with a bullet in race two to move up to second overall on nine points.

New Zealand may be the second name on the leaderboard, but they sit on the same points as Vasilis Christoforou, Anargyros Notaroglou and Thodoris Alexas (GRE) who scored a 3,6 and Lasse Klötzing, Siegmund Mainka and Jens Kroker (GER) who scored a 4,5.

World champions, USA's Alphonsus Doerr, Hugh Freund and Bradley Kendell have ten points which leaves them in sixth overall while Canada's Paul Tingley, Logan Campbell and Scott Lutes are above them in fifth on the same points tally.

Racing continues on Tuesday 13 September with two races scheduled for all fleets. There will be a switch in the race areas as the 2.4 Norlin OD and SKUD18 race on the Escola Naval area and Sonar's move to the Pao de Acucar (Sugarloaf Mountain) race area.