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Displaying items by tag: Quokka

"Quokka" is the "small" boat on this year's Commodore's Cup team and we had a fantastic week in Les Voiles De St. Barths. We managed to win the regatta with straight bullets but were pushed hard all the way by a well sailed J111 and an A40 writes Maurirce O'Connell.

"Quokka" was was chartered for the week by an Irish consortium headed by ex "Blondie" owner Eamon Rohan, his sister Sonia and her husband. It was fun to race with Eamon again, not having raced together since the "Blondie" days. She was renamed "Ramanessin" for the week.

From an Irish perspective, in addition to Sonia (pit assist) and Eamon (trim) aboard, we also had North Sails colleagues Jeremy Elliott (trim) and Nigel Young (tactics), "Jump Juice" team-mate Colm Dunne (mainsheet) and "Fever" team-mate Keith Glynn (bow). We had 13 team members in total aboard and the craic was mighty.

It was an invaluable boat familairisation week because we will be racing the same boat in June and July under Michael Boyd and Niall Dowling's leadership for the assault on the Brewin Dolphin Commodore's Cup.

Published in Commodores Cup
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#commdorescup – An American and a British yacht will join Royal Cork's Antix to form the 'Green Team' to win the Commodore's Cup for Ireland it has been officialy announced. The three boat team is Catapult, a Ker 40 owned by Mark Glimcher of the United States; Anthony O'Leary's Ker 39, Antix from Royal Cork; and the RORC Yacht Quokka, a Grand Soleil 43, being chartered by Royal Irish sailors Michael Boyd and Niall Dowling. There will be a strong Irish crew involvement on all three boats comprising of sailors who first won the Cup for Ireland in 2010. Crew list announcements are expected to follow.

In what was sailing's worst kept secret of the year so far the Irish Cruiser Racing Association (ICRA) finally announced this morning the Irish team line–up for this Summer's Cup. Details of the team were previously reported on Afloat.ie

ICRA has been working for some time to assemble a top level Irish Team for this year's event, taking place off Cowes, Isle of Wight between 19th and 26th July 2014.

Catapult has won the US IRC Nationals, Cork based Antix is a seasoned and successful campaigner and a winning Commodores' Cup team member in 2010. Quokka is an extremely competitive IRC boat with a strong track record. The Team's campaign will begin with the Warsash Spring Series in the Solent followed by various other regattas including the UK IRC Championship in mid-June.

ICRA Commodore, Norbert Reilly welcomed the development of such a high calibre team. ICRA also say they have serious interest from a fourth boat to form a second team and are inviting interest from another two boats to form Ireland Orange Team.

Published in Commodores Cup

The 2024 Vendée Globe Race

A record-sized fleet of 44 skippers are aiming for the tenth edition of the Vendée Globe: the 24,296 nautical miles solo non-stop round-the-world race from Les Sables d’Olonne in France, on Sunday, November 10 2024 and will be expected back in mid-January 2025.

Vendée Globe Race FAQs

Six women (Alexia Barrier, Clarisse Cremer, Isabelle Joschke, Sam Davies, Miranda Merron, Pip Hare).

Nine nations (France, Germany, Japan, Finland, Spain, Switzerland, Australia, and Great Britain)

After much speculation following Galway man Enda O’Coineen’s 2016 race debut for Ireland, there were as many as four campaigns proposed at one point, but unfortunately, none have reached the start line.

The Vendée Globe is a sailing race round the world, solo, non-stop and without assistance. It takes place every four years and it is regarded as the Everest of sailing. The event followed in the wake of the Golden Globe which had initiated the first circumnavigation of this type via the three capes (Good Hope, Leeuwin and Horn) in 1968.

The record to beat is Armel Le Cléac’h 74 days 3h 35 minutes 46s set in 2017. Some pundits are saying the boats could beat a sub-60 day time.

The number of theoretical miles to cover is 24,296 miles (45,000 km).

The IMOCA 60 ("Open 60"), is a development class monohull sailing yacht run by the International Monohull Open Class Association (IMOCA). The class pinnacle events are single or two-person ocean races, such as the Route du Rhum and the Vendée Globe.

Zero past winners are competing but two podiums 2017: Alex Thomson second, Jérémie Beyou third. It is also the fifth participation for Jean Le Cam and Alex Thomson, fourth for Arnaud Boissières and Jérémie Beyou.

The youngest on this ninth edition of the race is Alan Roura, 27 years old.

The oldest on this ninth edition is Jean Le Cam, 61 years old.

Over half the fleet are debutantes, totalling 18 first-timers.

The start procedure begins 8 minutes before the gun fires with the warning signal. At 4 minutes before, for the preparatory signal, the skipper must be alone on board, follow the countdown and take the line at the start signal at 13:02hrs local time. If an IMOCA crosses the line too early, it incurs a penalty of 5 hours which they will have to complete on the course before the latitude 38 ° 40 N (just north of Lisbon latitude). For safety reasons, there is no opportunity to turn back and recross the line. A competitor who has not crossed the starting line 60 minutes after the signal will be considered as not starting. They will have to wait until a time indicated by the race committee to start again. No departure will be given after November 18, 2020, at 1:02 p.m when the line closes.

The first boat could be home in sixty days. Expect the leaders from January 7th 2021 but to beat the 2017 race record they need to finish by January 19 2021.

Today, building a brand new IMOCA generally costs between 4.2 and €4.7million, without the sails but second-hand boats that are in short supply can be got for around €1m.

©Afloat 2020

Vendee Globe 2024 Key Figures

  • 10th edition
  • Six women (vs six in 2020)
  • 16 international skippers (vs 12 in 2020)
  • 11 nationalities represented: France, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Hungary, Japan, China, USA, New Zealand (vs 9 in 2020)
  • 18 rookies (vs 20 in 2020)
  • 30 causes supported
  • 14 new IMOCAs (vs 9 in 2020)
  • Two 'handisport' skippers

At A Glance - Vendee Globe 2024

The 10th edition will leave from Les Sables d’Olonne on November 10, 2024

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