According to provisional tracker results, reigning Irish ISORA Champion Paul O'Higgin's in the JPK 10.80 Rockabill VI was the winner of yesterday's 35-mile Dublin coastal race. 

There was a fine turnout of 14 competitive boats for Race Ten of the series to and from Dun Laoghaire Harbour that featured Lambay Island as a turning mark.

The fleet favoured the pin end for the the start of ISORA's Coastal Race Ten off Dun Laoghaire Harbour

Local knowledge of the Fingal coast gave Simon Knowles's Howth J/109 Indian second overall with the line honours winner, Chris Power Smith's J122 Aurelia from the Royal St. George in third place.

Simon Knowles's Howth J/J109 Indian was second overall

Chris Power Smith's J122 Aurelia

The IRC 2 podium was a Beneteau affair, the winner was Leslie Parnell's First 34.7 Black Velvet with the Grzegorz Kalinecki skippered First 310 More Mischief second and a second 34.7, Magic Touch third.

Leslie Parnell's First 34.7 Black Velvet

Kalinecki's plucky More Mischief also won the Two-handed and silver fleet prize. 

Grzegorz Kalinecki skippered First 310 More Mischief

Provisional results are here via tracker

Race Ten ISORA Photo Gallery

There is a 'quality' fleet now assembled for Saturday's 35-mile Viking Marine sponsored ISORA race that starts and finishes at Dun Laoghaire Harbour.

With entries still open for race ten of the season, the Irish fleet is back to full strength after a busy June that saw many boats opt-out of last weekend's 64-miler.

As Afloat previously reported, there will be three Sunfast 3600s and two J122s racing as part of the fleet that currently stands at 15. 

The Grand Soleil 34 Justtina has dropped out, but the arrival of a second First 34.7, Magic Touch, will be more competition for Leslie Parnell's Black Velvet sistership from the Royal Irish Yacht Club.

Early forecasts indicate light south-easterly winds for Saturday.

The latest entry for ISORA Race Ten totals 15 boats

The race start is at 10.00 am. Entry is still open here

14 strong and competitive entries have been received for Saturday's ISORA Race ten of the Musto Irish Coastal Series including potent Greystones 2021 debutante, Frank Whelan's new J122, Kaya.

The July 10th race will be to and from Dun Laoghaire to Dun Laoghaire with a target distance of 35 miles starting at 10 am.

ISORA boss Peter Ryan says he is confident of even more starters by the weekend with Dublin Bay numbers back up to full strength after last month's trip south with both the D2D Race and the Sovereign's Cup at Kinsale. 

Two J122s

Chris Power Smith's Aurelia – last Saturday's line honours winner in the 64-mile offshore – can expect more competition from her J122 Wicklow sistership and a few more new entries besides including the overall leader Rockabill VI (Paul O'Higgins).

Pete Smyth's new Sunfast 3600, Searcher

Three Sunfast 3600s

There will be no less than three Sunfast 3600s racing with Pete Smyth's new Searcher making her return to ISORA after the Dingle Race. Currently placed third overall in the offshore points series, John O'Gorman's 3600 Hot Cookie from the National Yacht Club is racing as is Brendan Coghlan's Yoyo from the Royal St. George Yacht Club. 

The entries so far for Saturday's tenth ISORA Coastal Race

Link to race entry form here

Reigning ISORA Champion Rockabill VI Paul O'Higgins leads this season's ISORA Irish points series after Saturday's 64-mile offshore race from Dublin. The Royal Irish JPK 10.80 also leads in the overall combined UK and Irish ISORA league.

As regular Afloat readers know, ISORA organisers have been forced to separate the Musto sponsored leagues for a second year given the ongoing restrictions due to COVID that rules out cross channel racing. 

Last Saturday's line honours winner of race eight at Dun Laoghaire Harbour, the J122 Aurelia (Chris & Patanne Power Smith) of the Royal St. George Yacht Club is 32.3 points behind Rockabill VI overall with John O'Gorman's Sunfast 3600 Hot Cookie from the National Yacht Club in third place.

The overall Irish Series position is here

The Welsh Sunfast 3200i Jac Y Do (Mark and Jo Thompson) trails Rockabill VI by just 6.1 points in the overall combined UK and Irish league. Third is former ISORA Champion, the J109 Mojito of Pwllheli Sailing Club (Peter Dunlop & Victoria Cox)

The overall combined UK and Irish position is here

Paul O'Higgin's JPK10.80 Rockabill VI from the Royal Irish Yacht Club was the IRC winner of ISORA's race eight over a 64-mile course off Dublin Bay yesterday with Chris Power Smith's corinthian crew on the J122 Aurelia taking line honours at Dun Laoghaire yesterday evening.

A much reduced but nevertheless strong fleet of five boats contested the race, the first since last month's Dun Laoghaire Dingle Race. 

The ISORA fleet is recovering from an intensive June that saw some of the boats also contest Kinsale's Sovereign's Cup.

The 64-mile course saw the ISORA fleet head out of Dublin Bay at 8 am

The 64-mile course saw the fleet head out of the bay at 8 am leaving the Muglins to Starboard, then to North India (P), Taylors Rock (P), (Lambay was NOT a mark on the course), ISORA Dublin (S) and a finish between Dun Laoghaire Pier Heads that evening at 6 pm.

The reigning Irish Sea Coastal Champion Rockabill VI (Paul O'Higgins of the Royal Irish Yacht Club) got the upper hand on second-placed J122 Aurelia with the Sunfast 3600 Hot Cookie in third place.

ISORA Race 8 IRC Overall from the race tracker

This article was updated to include the IRC and line honours winners

There are six proposed starters for Saturday's first ISORA race since June's big offshore Dun Laoghaire Dingle Race including the 2021 Irish Sea Coastal Champion Rockabill VI (Paul O'Higgins of the Royal Irish Yacht Club). 

The Archambault 31 A Plus, the Beneteau More Mischief, the Sunfast 3600 Hot Cookie and Howth J109 Indian, all D2D competitors, are slated for the 0800 am start from the Dun Laoghaire Harbour Outfall Buoy for race eight of the Viking Marine Coastal Series.

ISORA's proposed 64-mile course from Dun Laoghaire for Race 8 of the Viking Marine Coastal Series

The 64-mile course will see the fleet head out of the bay leaving the Muglins to Starboard, then to North India (P), Taylors Rock (P), (Lambay is NOT a mark on the course), ISORA Dublin (S) and a finish between Dun Laoghaire Pier Heads.

Meanwhile, Lyver Race (ISORA) from Liverpool to Pwllheli also has a six-boat fleet mustered for it Friday evening start on the other side of the Irish Sea.

Billed as the last training event before June 9th's Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race, a fleet of 11 boats turned out on Saturday morning for a light wind training run but after 12 hours of racing over a 50-mile course, only four finishers were recorded on ISORA's YB race track app (see full list below).

In an update, to the tracker results, it appears only the three big boats Aurelia, Rockabill VI and Prima Forte finished the course with Sunfast 3600 Searcher counted as a finisher but was in fact a retiree.

Sunfast 3600s Hot Cookie and Searcher, both retired around 11 pm when the tide turned against them after rounding Kish lighthouse on the edge of Dublin Bay.

The rest of the fleet bar the front runners had all retired prior to that.

The ambitious course set in 5 mph easterly winds out of the bay attracted some strong competition including ISORA Champion Rockabill VI (Paul O'Higgins) of the Royal Irish Yacht Club who will defend his 2019 D2D crown in ten day's time. 

Though a smaller fleet than anticipated mustered at the outfall buoy at 10 am, it did include no less than three Sunfast 3600s with some new arrivals, including black-hulled 'Searcher' making her Dublin Bay debut.

Dufour 45se Blaoga

Also race training for the first time under the ISORA burgee was Howth Yacht Club Dufour 45se Blaoga.

Chris Power Smith's J/122 Aurelia, O'Higgins' Rockabill VI, Patrick Burke's Prima Forte and newcomer Searcher are all recorded as finishers.

(above and below) The light air start off the Outfall Buoy at the back of Dun Laoghaire's West Pier

Justtina, a Grand Soleil 34, negotiates a strong flood tide at the start of the ISORA training race at the back fo the East Pier at Dun Laoghaire

John O'Gorman's Sunfast 3600, Hot Cookie from the National Yacht Club

ISORA Race training on the Beneteau 40.7 Tsunami

Patrick Burke's Prima Forte - the Best new DBSC yacht of 2020 - is racing to Dingle on Jun 9th

On deck on the Sunfast 3600 Searcher at 10.30pm, some 12.5 hours after the start....

Provisional results from the YB app

Update: May 30 2021. 10.50 am : This article was updated to reflect the retiral of the Sunfast 3600, Searcher 

A 17-boat fleet can expect light winds for Saturday's ISORA Training Race as part of the Viking Marine Coastal Series off Dun Laoghaire Harbour.

The race is the last before June 9th's Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race and thus provides an opportunity for some race practise before the 320-miler in 12 days time.

Joining the ISORA Coastal fleet on Dublin Bay for the first time is Searcher, a new Sunfast 3600 to the bay. 

Another new addition is Blaoga, a Dufour 45se from Howth Yacht Club.

The 17-boat ISORA fleet for the Dublin Bay Coastal training race

The 35-mile race is forecast to get underway at a new start time of 10 am in East South East winds of less than 5 mph. 

George Sisk's XP44 Wow is ISORA training tomorrow Photo: Afloat

The course is as follows:

• STARTING LINE at Dun Laoghaire Outfall Buoy.
• ISORA Dublin Virtual Mark (P) N53 17.110 W6 00.100
• Kish Light (S)
• Virtual Mark 1 (P) N53 19.000 W5 35.500
• Kish Light (P)
• ISORA Dublin Virtual Mark (S) N53 17.110 W6 00.100
• FINISH LINE at Dun Laoghaire Pier Heads.
• RL Sailing briefing this evening 20.00

The ISORA training race course from Dun Laoghaire to Dun Laoghaire

Live Dublin Bay webcams

ISORA boss Peter Ryan has described next Saturday's training race as 'the last chance for skippers to ensure their crew are offshore battle-hardened and have recent offshore experience' before the Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race on June 9th. 

Ryan has published the Sailing Instructions (downloadable below) and current entry list for a 50-mile offshore training next Saturday 29th May.

The start and finish lines will be located off Dun Laoghaire Harbour with a start time of 8 am.

George Sisk's WOW, an XP44 from the Royal Irish Yacht Club, is listed for next Saturday's ISORA 50-mile training run to and from Dun Laoghaire Harbour Photo: Afloat

As Afloat reported previously, four new boats are expected to join the 16-boat fleet listed by organisers below. Online entries are still open.

Ryan told Afloat, "I also expect Robert Rendell’s new Grand Soleil 44 and I'd be happy with a 20-boat fleet". 

ISORA entries to date for race training on May 29th 2021

ISORA Champion Rockabill VI (Paul O'Higgins) Photo: Afloat

Leslie Parnell's First 34.7 Black Velvet Photo: Afloat

ISORA's first event of its “Viking Marine Coastal Series began on May 15th and it mustered a high powered IRC fleet of 13 for the 35-mile course.

ISORA is running this month's training series in advance of a return to competition on June 7th as sailing is now considered a safe, non-contact sport with no material difference between training and competition under COVID-19 guidelines.

 The Archambault 31 A Plus from the National Yacht Club

"Sailing is a lifestyle activity which evolves as an expression of a vehicle sport afloat". There you go. So now you know. And please note that it's "lifestyle" and not "lifetime", though the latter also applies. Yet you were thinking it was just boats and sailing………….

This definition is a Sailing on Saturday distillation of several attempts at pinning down our sometimes incomprehensible aquatic interests for a wider world, and it results from many nautical minds devoting themselves to some deep thought during the pandemic lock-downs.

The irony is that those who are good at sailing in its competitive aspects will probably seldom think at all – in fact, probably not at all - about what exactly they're doing in the broader sense. For them, focus on specific performance-improving actions is totally dominant, they just get on with it, with their absorption in activity so totally involving every aspect of their being in the moment, and in what they're doing, that it effectively excludes any mental space for self-indulgent semi-philosophical reflection.

Nevertheless, the effects of the pandemic, the way we handled it while it was at its height, the way various organisations in sailing and boating made the best of the situation as it obtained at different stages, plus the way we're coping as we somewhat unevenly emerge (and let's hope we are emerging, for a Civil War in Japan over the Olympics wouldn't surprise us at all) tells us much about ourselves and our sailing and boating interests.

Going down the mine? At such times, the lone sailor is unlikely to be reflecting on whether or not sailing is a lifestyle activity that evolves as an expression of vehicle sport afloat 

Overall, the abiding impression in Ireland has been of a notably cohesive and responsible society. Oh for sure, there were those who selfishly transgressed - some quite spectacularly. But in general, and certainly among those in the sailing and boating community, the sense was of a shared responsibility to keep things under control in a self-policing way, without requiring some government agency to mount some sort of patrols.

Yet equally, there was an obligation – and it really was an obligation – to get in as much sailing as possible when it was permitted during periods of easing. But even here, there were those who indicated that they preferred to sit it out until the complete all-clear was confirmed, and sailors were good at understanding and respecting the wishes of their fellow-enthusiasts who saw it that way.

In terms of achieving activity afloat, it became a case of the smaller and more specialist the organization and form of sailing involved, the more nimble it could be in having sailing while complying with the regulations of the moment. Single-handed dinghies made hay, with the Lasers in Dun Laoghaire a particular case in point, while two-handed races found their time has come, with Howth's annual Aqua Restaurant Two-Hander in July having its best turnout ever.

Just add water – Drascombes gathered on one of Ireland remotest waterways, on the uppermost Shannon where it enters Lough Allen. Thanks to a mastery of communications, the compact Drascombe Association are well able for what are in effect pop-up events.

But in a very different area of sailing interest, the Drascombe Association in Ireland had one of their busiest seasons. It's a curious reality that the more quaint the boat involved, the more up-to-speed at within-class communications are those involved with sailing them.

The diverse standing army of Drascombe fans may not be completely happy with their prides-and-joy being described as "quaint", so let us assuage them by commenting that when the time is right, all you need to do is add water for an efficiently organised smoothly-communicated Drascombe gathering to take place, and 2020's expeditions up the River Boyne and into the remotest corners of Lough Corrib were classic cases in point.

The larger class organisations such as the notably effective GP 14 Association of Ireland found themselves more restricted, particularly as their originally-planned seasons had involved bringing international fleets to Ireland. But they maintained good lines of communication to members, which leaves them well-placed to accelerate into action when sailing resumes full time.

Thanks to 136 years of race organisation experience, Dublin Bay SC was able to demonstrate how to get "the mostest boats out there the fastest" whenever restrictions were raised. Photo: Afloat.ie/David O'Brien

When many restrictions were lifted for two months last summer, Dublin Bay Sailing Club got the mostest afloat the fastest, and for sheer effectiveness in these unprecedented circumstances, it's the groupings which amount to virtual organisations which have proven themselves the most nimble in providing sport, but it sometimes seemed the fewer involved in the actual running of events, then the more effective it became.

Rudyard Kipling once wrote an odd poem called Winners, whose sentiments were dismissed by George Orwell as being vulgar. Be that as it may, its regularly drummed-home theme was in the two lines:

"Down to Gehenna, or up to the Throne,
He travels the fastest who travels alone".

It's natural to think of its sentiments as coarse selfishness. Yet in running the Irish side of ISORA, Peter Ryan has been largely travelling alone, but it has been for the most unselfish of reasons – the speedy provision of events which comply with regulations yet provide the necessary training buildup for the glamour event which we hope will signal that as good a sailing season as we can reasonably expect in 2021 is getting underway, and that's the National YC's Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race on June 9th.

The smile on the face of the tiger…..Peter Ryan of ISORA says little but does a lot - largely working on his own – such that suddenly the offshore fleet finds itself with viable training races.  

We're now in a sort of limbo for the next two weeks with "Training Racing" permitted, but full-blown sport afloat not permissible until Monday, June 7th, and even then there will still be restrictions ashore, which means that effectively only half of our "lifestyle activity" can be fully activated.

Quite what a "Training Race" involves could be a matter of debate, and there were those who commented that last weekend's vigorous 35-mile ISORA Training Race from Dun Laoghaire looked very much like proper racing under another name.

The inaugural ISORA Training Race 2021 last weekend reinforced the feeling that the best training for offshore racing is going offshore racing. Photo: Afloat.ie/David O'Brien  

"Not so" say those who took part. Many crews were very surprised by just how rusty they were at various sail changing exercises, which normally ran as smoothly as a frequently-rehearsed ballet movement in the old days. And then as further proof it was "just training", the result was changed after the first post-race announcement when it was discovered that Outrajeous, the J/109 part-owned by Irish Cruiser-Racer Association Commodore Richard Colwell, was racing with an outdated and higher rating than was actually the case. In real racing, you usually expect the results to be based on the rating you enter with, but in Training Racing, it seems you're cut a bit of slack.

(Richard Colwell writes: Reading your article this morning. A point of order required. Outrajeous did enter under our correct rating, it was provided to the organisers 5 days before the training event happened, but was NOT updated by the event organisers in their files till afterwards! )

Ben Colwell and his father Richard (ICRA Commodore) aboard the J/109 Outrajeous.

Nevertheless, when the venerable Dublin Bay Water Wags went out in Dun Laoghaire for their first two "Training Races" on Wednesday of this week – a weekly programme for which 21 boats have signed up – it looked for a while as though officialdom at the highest level was keeping an eye on them to see if their training is for real. For the Naval Service's LE George Bernard Shaw came into port in such a way that the word is the "Training Race Officer" had to cancel the first race because of "an obstruction on the course".

"What's going on here then?" We are assured that the Naval Service's LE George Bernard Shaw was not on a Training-Not-Racing Patrol when she arrived into Dun Laoghaire on Wednesday in the midst of the Water Wags' first Training Race of the season.

"Power gives way to sail…." The view from the bridge on the LE George Bernard Shaw as a Dun Laoghaire Water Wag nips across.

However, the whisper on the waterfront is that every so often the navy ships are in Dun Laoghaire on a mock gunnery exercise to see how quickly they could level the still-controversial DLR Lexicon in the same way as the Helga did in the GPO in 1916. And the experience gained in such training could of course be re-directed to eliminating the proposed superstition-rejecting 13-storey apartment block supposedly approved for the Dun Laoghaire waterfront.

Be that as it may, sending a gunboat to check out whether or not the Water Wags really were on a Training Race would be an absurd waste of resources at a time when the Russians are clearly softening up the country – through preliminary cyber-attacks – for some sort of invasion. For as one experienced Water Wag sailor observed:

"In a fleet as diverse in sailing style as the Water Wags, it is always easy to discern a significant number of boats which are quite clearly involved in some sort of training exercise, rather than in any serious racing".

Nevertheless, the Water Wags can now cherish an unprecedented entry to their lengthy record of racing, which goes back to 1887:

Wednesday, May 19th 2021:

Training Race 1: Cancelled mid-race due to intervention of gunboat.

Training Race 2: Cancelled mid-race due to lack of wind.

Ominous sunset. Despite the calm which stopped the Water Wags second attempt at a Training Race on Wednesday, the late evening sky gave every sign of Thursday's approaching storm.