With over 80 entries already registered, the Simply Blue Group-sponsored Sovereign’s Cup has less than 20 places left at Kinsale to reach its official cap.

The biennial regatta takes place 21st to 24th June in Kinsale Yacht Club and this year, the regatta incorporates the 1720 European Championships.

Race Officer Peter Crowley will run racing in the waters between the Old Head of Kinsale and the Sovereign Islands for the Spinnaker, 1720 & White Sail Fleets.

A Coastal Fleet will have longer courses which will take them west to Black Tom and east to the Cork Buoy.

Sixty per cent of the entries have already been received for June's Simply Blue Group Sovereign’s Cup at Kinsale Yacht Club on the south coast of Ireland.

The 15th edition of the biennial regatta will run from 21st to 24th June 2023 and incorporates the 1720 European sportsboat Championships.

A strong fleet is expected, with entries of up to 105 boats from the US, UK and Ireland arriving at the West Cork port.

International entries include Ron O'Hanley's Cookson 50 Privateer from New York, as Afloat reported in January, and there is a strong domestic take up for the KYC event. Entries from as far afield as Carrickfergus Sailing Club on Belfast Lough to Tralee Bay in County Kerry have been received.

This year, a new prize has been launched for the first Lady Helm. The special award has been created by Rosemary Roy and will be presented for the first time in June.

Tomas O'Brien of KYC was Master of Ceremonies at the official launch of the 2023 Simply Blue Group Sovereign’s Cup at Kinsale Yacht Club Photo: Bob Bateman 

Simply Blue Group, headquartered in Cork, is a leading developer focused on pioneering blue economy projects such as floating offshore wind, e-Fuels, wave energy and low-impact aquaculture which, they say, are all in harmony with the oceans.

Cllr Marie O'Sullivan, Mayor of the Kinsale/Bandon District, Cork County Council with Hugh Kelly Group MD, Simply Blue Group and Sara MacKeown, Group Communications Director at the official launch of the 2023 Simply Blue Group Sovereign’s Cup at Kinsale Yacht Club Photo: Bob Bateman 

With a strong presence in Kinsale, Simply Blue Group’s Emerald Floating Wind Project, situated in the Celtic Sea off the south coast of Kinsale, will utilise cutting-edge technology to construct a wind farm which, upon completion, will have a total installed capacity of up to 1.3 GW, the equivalent to powering 1 million Irish homes.

Hugh Kelly, Co-Founder and Group Managing Director of Simply Blue Group, who will compete in the event onboard the J122 Jelly Baby, said: “We are delighted to support the Kinsale Yacht Club’s Sovereign’s Cup this year. Driven by a vision to work with the oceans and is headquartered in Cork, we’re very proud to be supporting this great biennial event in Kinsale. With racing taking place in both the inner and outer harbours, an exciting four days are expected for the local community and tourists alike.” See Mary Malone's vid below.

He continued: “Like the competitive sailors at this event, Simply Blue Group aims to harness the wind's power through the development of our offshore floating wind projects and to make a valuable contribution to meeting Europe’s green electricity demand.”

Tom Roche (left), who presented the Meridian Trophy for the Sovereign's Cup with Hugh Kelly and Anthony Scannell, Vice Commodore KYC, at the official launch of the 2023 Simply Blue Group Sovereign’s Cup at Kinsale Yacht Club Photo: Bob Bateman

Anthony W. Scannell, Vice Commodore Kinsale Yacht Club, Regatta Director, said: “We are delighted to have Simply Blue Group as the title sponsor for the regatta, which is returning to full strength post-Covid. Simply Blue Group and Kinsale Yacht Club share a common interest in efficiently harnessing wind energy.

Sovereign's Cup Director Anthony Scannell at the official launch of the 2023 Simply Blue Group Sovereign’s Cup at Kinsale Yacht Club Photo: Bob Bateman

We would also like to acknowledge the ongoing support for the event by Cork County Council, recognising the commercial value that the regatta brings to the town of Kinsale and the wider area of West Cork.”

The official launch of the 2023 Simply Blue Group Sovereign’s Cup at Kinsale Yacht Club Photo: Bob Bateman

Early bird entries for the Sovereign's Cup are available until the end of March. There is a prize of a €250 Voucher for one Early Bird Entry.

Official Launch of 2023 Simply Blue Group Sovereign’s Cup at Kinsale Yacht Club Photo Gallery By Bob Bateman

As the official launch of the Simply Blue Group Sovereign’s Cup 2023 draws closer, Regatta Director Anthony Scannell has announced a new prize for the best performing female helm at June's Cup at Kinsale Yacht Club with entries now topping 50 boats.

The regatta, one of the highlights of the 2023 Irish sailing season, runs from June 21st to 24th.

International entries include Ron O'Hanley's Cookson 50 Privateer from New York, as Afloat reported in January, and there is a strong domestic take up for the KYC event. Entries have been received from as far afield as Carrickfergus Sailing Club on Belfast Lough to Tralee Bay in County Kerry.

Sovereign’s Cup 2023 draws closer, Regatta Director Anthony Scannell has announced a new prize for the best-performing female helm in June Photo: Bob Bateman

One of the earliest entries was Kinsale'a own Under 25 crew J24, Kinsailor, which sailed to success in Howth in 2022.

There are three weeks until the end of the Early Bird Entry Fees. Enter online here. KYC will hold an official launch on March 24th.

Kinsale Yacht Club has 30 registered entries to date for its biennial Sovereign's Cup 2023 Regatta. 

One of the latest entries for the Simply Blue sponsored Cup from 21st to 24th June is George Sisk and Tim Kane's Dun Laoghaire-based Wow! 

The Royal Irish Yacht Club XP 37 Extreme will most likely join the coastal division like Ron O'Hanley of the New York YC with his Cookson 50, also one of the early entries for the West Cork event.

George Sisk and Tim Kane's Royal Irish YC Extreme 37 WOW will compete at the 2023 Sovereign's Cup in Kinsale Photo: Afloat

 Entries are coming in at a healthy rate for the 2023 Sovereigns, with the classes including the Europeans for the 1720s, which last year at Volvo Cork Week attracted a crack fleet of 42 boats, with the win going to the Crosshaven/Howth English/McDonald squad on Atara.

There are cruiser-racing enthusiasts in Ireland who dream of living in a world of non-stop activity in 2023, making the most of a dedicated traditional schedule in which they swing into action with the Scottish Series - back on Loch Fyne at the end of May as Nature intended - and then keeping going with a judicious mixture of event campaigning, offshore races and brisk delivery cruises until mid-August. By then, they’ll find themselves in West Cork, recovering from Calves Week, and working out how best to get back to the Irish Sea and the final ISORA races and the ICRA Nats at Howth in the first weekend of September.

WALES SPRINGS FORWARD FOR RC35s

But before Scotland’s time-honoured classic, there are those who now dream of starting even earlier in 2023, as the Welsh IRC Championship is currently listed for Pwllheli from 12th to 14th May, when Cardigan Bay’s fine sailing waters should have their magnificent backdrop of Snowdonia still dusted with snow (what else, after all?), and the action afloat is sharpened by the presence of the highly-focused RC35 Class, who are using the Welsh series as part of their season-long count-up to their Celtic Cup.

Summertime at Pwllheli. This year, its major IRC season begins in mid-May with the Welsh Open Championship

This single-minded approach by the RC35s is something which has to be considered by several major regatta organisers, as the class – for boats in the IRC Rating Range of 1.010-1.040 – is building on its inherent strength to such an extent that it is a self-contained force, like the International 505s were in Ireland many years ago. Thus one of the features of the 2023 programme is a stand-alone RC35 two-day regatta on Belfast Lough, hosted by Royal Ulster YC at Bangor on the weekend of June 24th & 25th.

The RC35s can be good for your civic status. When the class last raced at Bangor (as here), it was still a town. When they return this June, they’ll find that Bangor has become a city, but crews will not be expected to wear ermine robes when racing

THRIVING CATCHMENT AREA

With the class’s current healthy catchment area extending from Dun Laoghaire to the southwest all the way to the Upper Firth of Clyde in the northeast, with sailing centres on both sides of the Irish Sea and the North Channel much involved, the top boats from the Irish side are currently John Minnis’s A35 Final Call II from Bangor, and Pat Kelly’s J/109 Storm from Rush. So Bangor is a reasonably central and accessible venue for those who wonder if meeting endless logistical challenges has to be an inherent part of campaigning a cruiser-racer.

The rush from Rush…… a view of Pat Kelly’s J/109 Storm (Rush SC) which is all-too-familiar to RC35 competitors. Photo: Afloat.ie/David O’Brien

The short answer is: “Yes, you do have to be a logistics genius”. But meanwhile, other sailors live in a world of an alternative reality, where having your boat at the other end of the country can become demanding to the point of irritation, as there are inevitably other reasonable and non-negotiable domestic requirements increasingly encroaching on your time.

And anyway, what’s the point of being home-based in an agreeable sailing area with plenty of good local racing challenges, when you insist on expending season-long energy in going to only slightly more glamorous alternative locations simply because some hyper-vocal opinion-formers and commentators in sailing will insist on telling you: “This Is Where It’s At. Ya Gotta Be There.”

Born again….once upon a time, this was Paul O’Higgins’ Corby 33 Rockabill V of the RIYC. Now she has a completely new look and identity as a successful contender in the RC35 class. Photo: RC35 Class

WHEN LONG VOYAGING TO EVENTS WAS A BADGE OF HONOUR

Now admittedly, there was a time - maybe around forty or fifty years ago - when many of the main pillars of the modern sailing programme in and around Ireland were being put in place. In those early days, being prepared to travel long distances to take part in a location-specific major event was regarded as a badge of honour.

And, of course, by the nature of some events, this was unavoidable.

Thus that great pioneer of support for Wicklow’s Round Ireland Race, Dave FitzGerald of Galway Bay SC, knew that in entering his Holman 41 Partizan he was committing himself to sailing round Ireland twice. Equally, in the days when the Scottish Series was leading the pace in the numbers game with entrants running into several hundreds, boats like Partizan and Donal Morrissey’s GK34 Joggernaut from Galway, and Martin Reilly’s First from Sligo, made the long haul up round Donegal to get to Tarbert.

Dave Fitzgerald’s Partizan from Galway comes out of the dawn to finish the first Round Ireland Race at Wicklow in 1980. Participation in this classic meant she sailed round Ireland twice. Photo: Wicklow SC

This was a level of dedication occasionally outdone by a bunch of hard men from Tralee Bay SC in Fenit, who weren’t too sure which way round Ireland was the faster to Loch Fyne from Kerry with their Sigma 33 Black Pepper, but they got there nevertheless.

O’LEARY’S HYPER-ACTIVE CORBY 36 ANTIX

And then in the course of time, Anthony O’Leary of Royal Cork and his largely family crew with the Corby 36 Antix seemed to be winning everything everywhere, accumulating a score-sheet which indicated a level of dedication you’ll seldom see emulated nowadays. For even the current Antix - a Cape 31 with her first American title already logged in the Florida Keys – looks to be setting up for a leisurely American progress northwards with the new summer, bound for various event-offering venues.

Rather different to Loch Fyne in the Spring – Anthony O’Leary racing the latest Antix (red hull) to success with the Cape 31s in the Florida Keys

The possibility of a reaction against a hectic season-long and multi-venues programme may in its way be a small reflection of the increasing questioning of the benefits of globalisation. For sure, there are many aspects of life and business which get universal benefit from globalisation. But when carried to extremes, globalisation can mean that one area’s success inevitably brings another area’s impoverishment. 

LIMITED TIME WINDOWS

There are only so many weekends and free weeks available in the most popular period for major racing events, even if experience indicates that a championship of maximum four days is what the punters want for anything other than a Worlds. So, far from working with a clean sheet, any club or organisation looking to introduce a new event into the schedule is almost inevitably going to find they’re clashing with something important somewhere else.

Thus the two outstanding clashes in 2023 are the RC35s on Belfast Lough with RUYC in that last weekend of June going completely head-to-head with the Sovereign’s Cup in Kinsale, and the WIORA Championship 2023 at the intriguing venue of Kilronan on Inis Mor in the Aran Islands from 5th to 8th July, up against the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta 2023 in Dublin Bay from 6th to 9th July.

America comes to Ireland… one of the most successful contenders in the Sovereign’s Cup in Kinsale in recent years has been Kieran Collin’s Olson 30 Corace IV from Crosshaven, a mini “Transpac sled” of Californian inspiration. Photo: Robert Bateman

With the less-crowded West Coast programme, some East Coast sailors were bewildered by WIORA’s choice of dates, but those in the know say that Kilronan is committed to other events – some with a significant shoreside input – on any alternative weekend, and the little port town can only cope with a certain amount of overnight visitors, as the regular air service and the fast ferries from Rossaveal mean that most incomers are only day visitors.

JACKEENS VERSUS CULCHIES AFLOAT

Yet the Dublin spin on it all continues the Jackeen versus Culchie interface in its usual mildly malicious forms. They know that few if any WIORA boats will be interesting in racing in the VDLR in any case, but they point out that national travelling classes such as the J/24s might be keen to do both, but are now prevented. So they take it a stage further and say that the WIORA folk are keen to keep out East Coast interlopers, as the Westerners subscribe enthusiastically to the idea that if you’re keen to run your own regatta, then there’s little point in doing so unless you make reasonably sure that a local boat wins the main trophy…..

Kironan on Inis Mor in the Aran Islands, venue for the WIORA Championship 2023 from 5th to 8th July. Pontoons will be installed in the outer harbour to host the fleet, which totalled 43 boats in 2017 when last at the same venue

As “local boats” for WIORA means craft drawn from fleets as far north as Killybegs and as far south as Bantry, the scope is already broad in its catchment area. But we wouldn’t be at all surprised to find that some crews in Schull, Kinsale and even Crosshaven are thinking that they might as well turn right as left when they put out to sea in early July to head for a distant regatta, and if they were bound for Kilronan that might put a South Coast cat or two among the West Coast pigeons at Inis Mor.

WE CAN’T APPLY PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS OF INVOLVEMENT TO AN AMATEUR SETTING

Despite that, we take a sanguine view of these “fixture clashes” by pointing out that some amateur sailors are mistaken in trying to take their levels of involvement and time-consuming participation from the examples of headline-dominating resources-dominated super-star events. For the top pros find themselves having to think boats and sailing and personal promotion day and night, and it can be an unhealthy mental environment leading to burnout.

Place of potential pressure: Houston Yacht Club in Texas, where they’ve so much sunshine that boat-owners are prepared pay extra to be berthed under a sun-shading roof. 

We learned of an eloquent instance of this last season when the Irish ILCA squad – with Eve McMahon setting the pace towards another Gold Medal - were doing their stuff in style at the Houston Yacht Club in Texas. For the Houston YC is where John Kolius emerged – yes, that John Kolius, of Volvo Ocean and America’s Cup and sailmaking fame.

HOUSTON, WE HAVE BURNOUT

He makes no secret of the fast that at Houston YC, he was the classic young “clubhuse rat” from a newly-joined family, and mad keen to show he could sail well with any family who were going out when his own family weren’t afloat. And my goodness, could he sail.

He was so good at it that they wanted him here, there and everywhere, winning international races at the very highest level and at such a hectic pace that in time he burnt out, and he knew it. So he sold his sailing business in 2011 and he and his wife have gone private to the point of anonymity with an easygoing sports fishing operation in the Bahamas. 

ICRA “BOAT OF THE YEAR” IS OUR SALVATION

So those who would seek a non-clashing yet continuous season-long programme at a permanent championship pace should maybe be careful of what they wish for. There are times when Less is More. And in Ireland, we now have a rather good solution. Over the years, the formula for selecting the ICRA “Boat of the Year” has been refined until it has produced a set of requirements that can provide a meaningful result within a civilized level of sporting activity afloat.

The J/99 Snapshot (Mike & Richie Evans, Howth YC) is the current ICRA “Boat of the Year”. The continuing refinement of the Boat of the Year formula has gone some way to relieving pressure on any fixtures clash in a typical sailing season

At its best, it facilitates Corinthian-type sailing, even if semi-professionals are sometimes involved. It’s not perfect, but it really is working quite well. And those of us who fail to see the sport in “sports fishing” reckon that any approach which keeps people happily sailing is something to be welcomed.

The latest entry to register for the Simply Blue Sovereign's Cup 2023 at Kinsale from 21st to 24th June is a prime example of one of the most enduringly-successful designs in modern offshore racing. In fact, the Cookson 50 dates back to the previous millennium, when innovative boat-builder Mick Cookson of New Zealand took what has proven to be a timelessly competitive Bruce Farr 50ft hull design in 1996, and fitted it with his own take on a canting keel to create a marque - the Cookson 50 - which has been winning offshore majors ever since.

Ireland got involved with the Cookson 50 early in the new century, when Ger O'Rourke of Limerick commissioned Chieftain from new, and won his class and placed fourth overall (despite it being big boat-favoured event) in the 2005 Sydney-Hobart Race. Then he won the 2007 Fastnet Race overall, the first Irish boat to do so since the Dubois 40 Admirals Cupper Irish Independent in 1987. And then, as Adrian Lee's Lee Overlay Partners (RStGYC), the former Chieftain won the inaugural RORC Caribbean 600 Race in 2009. 

But by this time, other teams were notching Cookson 50 success, and since 2006 Ron O'Hanley of the New York YC has been one of the most consistent and enthusiastic with Privateer. Now, 17 years later, he's still with the same boat, but with a well-filled trophy cabinet which includes first in the 2013 Caribbean 600 and a very close second overall in the 2017 Fastnet, plus many others prizes, for if there's a big race on and Privateer is in the entry list, then we can be fairly sure she'll figure on the podium in some position - overall or by class - at the finish.

Robert Rendell's Grand Soleil 44 Samatom (HYC), defending champion in the Coastal Divsion in the Simply Blue Sovereign's Cup from 21st to 24 June at Kinsale. Photo: Annraoi Blaney

Thus the fact that Privateer has now stepped up to the plate for the Coastal Division in June's Simply Blue Sovereign's Cup 2023 is going to add greatly to the interest for this class, which in 2021 was won by Rebert Rendell's Grand Soleil 44 Samatom from Howth. Entries are coming in at a healthy rate for the 2023 Sovereigns, with the classes including the Europeans for the 1720s, which last year at Volvo Cork Week attracts a crack fleet of 42 boats, with the win going to the Crosshaven/Howth English/McDonald squad on Atara.

There's an entry discount until January 31st, when there'll be a draw for a case of wine among all the Early Birds. Enter here

Meanwhile, as Privateer is presumably headed for the Fastnet Race 2023 in July after competing at Kinsale in June, might she find the time to take in the Volvo Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race on June 7th?

The sponsors of the Sovereign's Cup at Kinsale are to hold a public consultation meeting about their Emerald Floating Offshore Wind Project in the town next Thursday.

This is proposed for a location 35 km south of the Old Head of Kinsale, with the "potential to power over 1 million homes," according to the Simply Blue Group.

It will be of significant interest to the people of Kinsale and the South Coast.

Construction is not expected until the end of the decade, possibly around 2030. The public information event will take place at the Temperance Hall, Emmet Street, Kinsale, on Thursday next, January 19, from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. The company has issued an “all welcome” public invitation.

The Emerald Project is currently at ‘scoping’ stage, which is Stage 2 of an Environmental Impact Assessment.

“The EIA report provides an outline of the proposed approach and offers an opportunity for public feedback,” Simply Blue Group says.

Did we really manage it? Did we really cram all those major special and routine regular sailing events into the one season of 2022? And all that despite its three main months afloat experiencing decidedly mixed weather? And also despite the fact that many folk had simply got out of the way of packing lots of active racing and hectic après sailing into an already complicated way of life?

Yes, it was the Bounce-back Summer and no mistake, making up for the Pandemic’s lost time with major international events running back-to-back, and all that in the midst of a crowded programme on the local front, with some clubs finding that – thanks to their prime restriction-compliant place at the heart of the community – they were actually emerging into the new reality with more members than they’d had going into the plague years.

Thus we’re a bit like someone who resumes swimming after an absence, and begins by diving off an excessively high board which leaves them gasping as it is, yet they persist in swimming determinedly on with excessive speed and enthusiasm for fear that some new restrictions will suddenly bring it all to a sudden end.

BREATHLESS WITH ACHIEVEMENT

In other words, at the moment the sailing community is simply breathless with exhaustion and achievement. And it takes an extra effort to contemplate the season of 2023, at a time now - in November/December - when many of the more sociable clubs are still holding frequent functions to celebrate the remarkable amount of sailing – and successful sailing at that – which has been done at home and abroad during 2022.

So in contemplating the 2023 season at this stage, we’ll take a fairly broad-brush approach. What will be the pillar events, and what will be the main underlying themes?

 Secret waters. The usually private Shannon One Desigs went public for their Centenary in 2022

As ever with Irish sailing’s long history, there’ll be significant commemorations to be marked. 2022 saw the Centenary of the Shannon One Designs, celebrated by that normally rather private class with very public festivities on Lough Ree and Lough Derg during July, following which they were able to go back into their time-honoured closed-shop mode during August’s traditional lake regatta weeks.

SAOIRSE CIRCUMNAVGATION CENTENARY

In 2023, the big One Hundred to be marked is the Centenary of the start from Dun Laoghaire on the 20th June 1923 of Conor O’Brien of Limerick’s pioneering voyage around the world south of the great Capes in his new own-designed Baltimore-built 42ft ketch Saoirse.

Conor O’Brien’s new Saoirse takes her departure for the Great Southern Ocean from “Dunleary” on June 20th 1923

As Saoirse was to become the first sea-going vessel to fly the ensign of the newly-established Irish Free State, everyone – but everyone – quite rightly feels that they own part of this remarkable achievement. Yet as a consequence, those who have been quietly flying the O’Brien voyaging achievement banner for decades, trying to ensure that it is all properly placed in a national and global context, found that they were in danger of being swamped by new enthusiasts who wanted to make a complete circus out of the entire affair.

The re-created Saoirse newly-launched at Oldcourt in September 2022 - looking good, but with too much work still to be completed for a full programme in 2023. Photo: John Wolfe

However, reality has intervened. The West Cork summer resident who has a Saoirse re-build being created at Oldcourt has indicated that the boat won’t really be in a properly tried and tested seaworthy condition for any Dun Laoghaire celebration planned for June 2023. And in any case he tends to feel that it is more appropriate to keep her in West Cork in celebration of that area’s often-overlooked contribution to the magnificent O’Brien circumnavigation of a century ago, and his subsequent success with the 56t ketch Ilen.

REALISTIC CENTENARY CELEBRATION SAILING ILEN

But as the 1926-built O’Brien-designed 56ft Ilen has been sailing again as a multi-purpose vessel for some years now, thanks to a meticulous restoration programme by Gary MacMahon of Limerick and the Ilen Project working with Liam Hegarty’s boatyard in Oldcourt near Baltimore, a more realistic commemoration scenario has been devised by the Irish Cruising Club in co-ordination with the Ilen Project.

Saoirse’s “big sister”, the 56ft Ilen, has been recruited to take on a celebratory role for the Saoirse Centenary. Photo: Gary Mac Mahon

The ICC was not founded until 1929, but one of its first acts was to make Conor O’Brien its first Honorary Member. However, during his voyage it had been the 1880-founded London-based Royal Cruising Club which gave him enthusiastic support through the regular award of its premier trophy, the Challenge Cup.

This was done three years in a row in 1923, ’24 and ’25 as his voyage progressed to its successful conclusion in Dun Laoghaire exactly two years to the day after departure. And the RCC’s leading officer was also very encouraging in the promotion of O’Brien’s book of his voyage, Across Three Oceans, which in terms of its genre, became a best-seller.

All this was in a time of political turmoil in Ireland with Dublin/London conflict, when O’Brien, moreover, was entering the international sailing arena with a personal history of having been one of the 1914 gun-runners in favour of Irish Home Rule, along with Erskine Childers and Sir Thomas Myles. Thus it was courageous and generous to come out so openly in London in his support, and in recognition of this, the ICC will be joining the RCC with he Ilen as flagship in a Centenary cruise-in-company from Dun Laoghaire to Madeira and back, while the two clubs will be joining forces in publishing a re-introduced re-print of Across Three Oceans.

Cape Horn pioneer Conor O’Brien as portrayed by his wife, the artist Kitty Clausen, in 1930

DUBLIN BAY SAILING CLUB JOINED CELEBRATION

This neat solution to what was shaping up to be a possible clash of viewpoints as to how best the Centenary of the beginning of Conor O’Brien’s Saoirse voyage should be marked is further enhanced by realising that the major celebration should really be on the Centenary of his return, on June 20th 2025. It happened to be a Saturday back in 1925, yet Dublin Bay Sailing Club cancelled its legendary Saturday racing programme in order that its complete racing fleet could welcome Saoirse home.

That in itself was such a totally unprecedented gesture by the 1884-founded DBSC that its Centenary deserves celebration in its own right. So maybe harmony can be maintained by everyone anticipating some special celebration on June 20th 2025, when a sense of completeness might be possible with the more relaxed presence of the re-created Saoirse.

THIRTY YEARS OF THE DUN LAOGHAIRE-DINGLE RACE

Meanwhile, 2023 is already very Dun Laoghaire-focused with the 30th Anniversary staging of the biennial Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race from the National Yacht Club on Wednesday, June 7th, and the all-clubs four day Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta from July 6th to 9th. The Regatta Director this year is Paddy Boyd, whose extensive sailing experience and interaction with Dun Laoghaire and Dublin Bay are so intertwined as to be part of his DNA.

Paddy Boyd is bringing an unrivalled wealth of Dublin Bay sailing and administration experience to the challenge of the VDLR 2023. Photo: Robert Bateman

Nevertheless, it will take all the expertise and enthusiasm of Paddy and his team to get the VDLR machine up and running at full blast again. It’s a formidable setup when it gears fully into smooth action, which made it a doubly-cruel blow when it all had to be pandemic-dismantled early in 2021. Back then, Don O’Dowd (who will continue as Chairman for 2023) was heading the large group of volunteers who finally learned that their already much-worked-at and intensely-sociable VDLR 2021 simply wasn’t going to happen.

SOVEREIGNS AT KINSALE WILL MAKE COMEBACK

In their racing to Dingle, the D2D competitors - with the Murphy family’s Grand Soleil 40 Nieulargo of the Royal Cork YC the defending champion, having been welcomed back to Crosshaven after her victory in 2021 with a full gun salute by Admiral Colin Morehead – will be battling past Kinsale, which hosts its own battles with Sovereign’s Regatta on June 21st to 24th.

Every major regatta in Ireland – whether it be Bangor Town on Belfast Lough, Wave at Howth, the VDLR in Dun Laoghaire, Volvo Cork Week in Cork Harbour, the Sovereigns in Kinsale, or Calves Week at Schull – manages to have its own unique character, partly because those seven premier sailing centres somehow all manage to be completely different in character from the other six.

Kinsale. Every major regatta centre in Ireland is unique, and the special charms of Kinsale are obvious Photo: Wikimedia

Yet the Sovereigns at Kinsale - sponsored in 2023 by Simply Blue - will have at least one significant carry-over from 2022’s Volvo Cork Week. The 1720 Euros were the highlight of Crosshaven last July with a crack fleet of 42 boats, many of them with superb restoration and re-spray jobs which belied their class’s 1994 origins. The Crosshaven-Howth team of the English and McDonald talents combined on Atara to come out tops, which means that at Kinsale they’ll be the target boat, while the other target is to push the fleet of these eternally attractive boats through the 50 mark.

After thirty years, the Cork 1720 Sportsboat is as attractive as ever. They’ll be hoping for a fleet of 50-plus at Kinsale next June for their Euros as part in the Sovereigns Regatta

THE INTERNATONAL SCENE

We’ll be taking a much more comprehensive look at the international prospects for 2023 in a future SailSat, but anyone who thinks that the Irish representation afloat for the 2024 Olympics in Paris (with the sailing at Marseille) will be selected by the end of 2023 might be surprised when some of it goes right down to the wire in April 2024, which has happened in times past.

Be that as it may, on the offshore scene 2023 gets going early with the Caribbean 600 in February – there’s almost invariably Irish involvement, and we’ve collected more than our fair share of its silverware since it was inaugurated in 2009.

The dream of thousands – racing in the RORC Fastnet Race. 2023’s edition - the 50th – will start earlier than usual, on July 22nd. Photo: Kurt Arrigo

But inevitably the focus will mainly be on the Fastnet Race 2023, which unusually for this 50th Edition, will be starting in July, on Saturday 22nd July from Cowes, but taking in the new extended course to finish at Cherbourg. Presumably this timing is partly to allow the heavy brigade to take in Cowes Week itself in August, but meanwhile, looking ahead to the Fastnet Centenary in 2025, we still don’t really know if the old course to finish at Plymouth will be acknowledged and used. But either way, Ireland certainly has skin in the game as the first racing of the new course in 2021 saw Irish Offshore Sailing’s vintage Sun Fast 37 Desert Star from Dun Laoghaire - skippered by Ronan O Siochru - put in an appropriately stellar performance to take a close second in Class IV and an impressive 14th overall in a huge fleet.

Stellar performance – the crew of Desert Star (Ronan O Siochru on right) have a nano-second of relaxation towards the end of the 2021 Fastnet Race, as it becpmes increasingly clear they are second in class and 14th overall in a fleet of hundreds

INSS & THE DUN LAOGHAIRE PHENOMENON

The fact that Desert Star’s success was just one of many achievements being logged by the continually-developing Dun Laoghaire sailing and training scene – both commercial and in the clubs – reflects the new interest that sailing attracted as the first small easings of the pandemic began to apply in the local context.

Ultimately, it’s all about the numbers game. The Rumball family of the multi-function and high-achieving Irish National Sailing School are originally from Malahide, while Ronan O Siochru of IOS took his first serious steps afloat in Kinsale. But in facing business realities, they all realised that the population package right beside good sailing water which Dun Laoghaire and South Dublin offers made it no contest in deciding to base their locations around The Old Granite Pond, and sailing history has proven them right.

“THE HOWTH PRODUCT”

That said, the slightly quirky appeal of Howth Harbour, which prides itself on NOT being part of Dublin Bay, proved to have its new and established adherents in considerable numbers as sailing emerged from the plague years. The modern HYC clubhouse/marina reaches the end of 2022 with 2,173 members when you include all categories, and they look forward to a 2023 season which is fascinatingly book-ended by the National Youth Championship from 13th to 16th April 2023, and the ICRA Nats from 1st to 3rd September.

For those who try to take in all the information they can from developing situations, it w be fascinating in getting an overview of sailing development to see how many juniors who take part in their own multi-class championships in April then reappear in some crewing or helming capacity in the ICRA Nationals at the beginning of September.

HOWTH SEVENTEENS’ 125th ANNIVERSARY TO BALTIMORE

Meanwhile Howth’s eternal 17ft OD Class - founded in 1898 - continues to attract all ages, and they celebrate their 125th Anniversary in 2023 with many events, a highlight being a week’s “one class” regatta visit to Baltimore in mid-June.

They’re no strangers to West Cork, as master-shipwright Rui Ferreira of Ballydehob has done significant work on some of the boats, and back in 2003 no less than 15 of them decamped en masse to the Glandore Classics Regatta, dropping out of the regular programme to take in circuits of the Fastnet Rock and other eccentricities.

The Howth 17 Leila (Roddy Cooper) at the Fastnet Rock during the Glandore Classics 2003. The 1898-built Leila was already six years old when the Fastnet Lighthouse began signalling in 1904. Photo: W M Nixon

In fact, when the Howth Seventeens are hunting as a pack, it’s really easier for everyone if they do their own thing, and even then you need to be tuned in to their system of in-class communication, which supposedly relies on a WhatsApp, but in practice seems to be utilizing some form of supernatural telepathy.

So my thoughts are with anyone with a bigger boat with an auxiliary who happens to be detailed off to be the Mother Ship to the Seventeens in June. For as we learned in in 2003, you’re called the Mother Ship because the Mother is always the last to know.

Thus the fleet found themselves on a foggy windy morning in Castlehaven when - just along the coast in Glandore - the rest of the Classics fleet were being confined in-harbour for their racing. But the Seventeens’ race plan for that day was a slightly offshore sprint from Castlehaven to Glandore, with the winner being the first boat to have a crewperson down a pint in Casey’s of Glandore, thereby throwing in a brief but intense bit of hill running to add to the sailing sport.

With the poor visibility and the brisk onshore wind, the Mother Ship was assured that they’d take the more sheltered route inside High Island. But once we’d cleared the entrance to Castlehaven, it was quite clear that the class was determined to face the more challenging seas running outside High Island.

Summertime in West Cork. The Casey’s Pint Race from Castlehaven to Glandore, July 2003, with Aura (1898, left), and Deilginis (1907, right), shaping up to use the breaking Copper Rock off High Island as the weather mark. Photo: W M Nixon

Moreover, they seemed to have agreed among themselves that it was safe enough to chance going over or inside the submerged Row Rock, and therefore the half-tide Copper Rock southwest of High Island became the weather mark.

When you see a bunch of Howth 17s racing flat out past the Copper Rock as the seas break over it within a metre or two of the boats, you know you’re dealing with a bunch of total free-thinkers. So good luck to whoever is the Mother Ship in June next year, twenty years down the track from that first Casey’s Pint Race.

Sovereign's Cup Regatta Director Tony Scannell has published the Notice of Race (downloadable below) for next June's 15th Cup for Cruisers, Coastal and White Sails fleets.

Scannell confirmed Kinsale Yacht Club is looking forward to welcoming everyone back to a 'full-strength' regatta in the town post-COVID.

The biennial regatta, one of the most important south coast regattas, will run from 21st to 24th June 2023, and, as Afloat reported previously, it will incorporate the 1720 sportsboat European Championships and has attracted a new sponsor.

The 1720s will stage their 2023 European Championships as part of the Sovereign's Cup at Kinsale Yacht Club in June Photo: Bob Bateman

The West Cork club confirmed the Blue Economy Project Developer, Simply Blue Group, headquartered in Cork, as the title sponsor, a welcome boost first announced by Scannell at the Cork Week 2022 prizegiving in July.

Kinsale Yacht Club Regatta Director Tony Scannell is looking forward to a bumper 15th edition of the Sovereign's Group with a new title sponsor, Simply Blue Group Photo: Bob Bateman

The Notice of Race for Cruisers, Coastal and White Sails fleets and the 1720 Euros are available to download below.

The fleet's in - the 2021 Sovereign's Cup fleet gathered at the Kinsale Yacht Club marina in West Cork. The 2023 edition will be held from 21st to 24th June Photo: Bob Bateman

Registration is now open for 2023 Simply Blue Group Sovereign’s Cup here.

Scannell says there is a substantial Early Bird discount across all the fleets. An Early Bird Draw will take place on 15th March. Details of regatta fees are outlined in the NOR and the registration form.

Kinsale Yacht Club has announced a new title sponsor for its biennial Sovereign's Cup and is aiming for a full 100-boat fleet for the 2023 event.

The offshore energy company Simply Blue was unveiled as the new sponsor by Sovereign's Cup Director Anthony Scannell at the Cork Week prizegiving at Royal Cork Yacht Club last Friday.

The full title of the cruiser-racer event is the 'Simply Blue & Emerald Sovereign's Cup 2023', reflecting the energy company's Emerald project on the site of the former Kinsale Gas fields.

Scannell, who was competing on his yacht Hansemer at Cork Week, was appointed Cup director by the West Cork club in May, and signed the new title sponsorship two months later.

"There's great 'harnessing the wind' synergies between Simply Blue and the Sovereign's Cup, so we are delighted to have them on board", Scannell told Afloat.

The regatta will take place from 21st to 24th June 2023.

"The club is very much looking forward to returning to the pre-covid number of entrants," according to KYC Commodore Matthias Hellstern.

The 2023 event will be the 15th edition of the biennial event.