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Irish Cruiser Racing Association (ICRA) News & Updates
Royal Irish previously hosted the ICRAs, one of the key fixtures of the Irish sailing season, in 2006 and 2014, featuring a 100-boat-plus fleet
Following last week's ICRA announcement that the 2024 Cruiser Nationals will return to the Royal Irish Yacht Club in September, ICRA Commodore Dave Cullen has confirmed the Dun Laoghaire dates as 6th-8th September.  As Afloat previously reported, the RIYC hosts the ICRA's for the third…
Yachts competing at the 2022 ICRA National Championships under the IRC rule
 In the first two months of this year, over 1300 new IRC 2023 certificates have been issued to boats from 24 different countries, with Irish certificates issued so far numbering 78 in the Republic and 13 in Northern Ireland. A…
Having successfully hosted the Irish Cruiser Racer National Championships in 2006 and 2014, Dun Laoghaire's Royal Irish Yacht Club will host the 2024 ICRAs on Dublin Bay
The Irish Cruiser Racer National Championships return to the Royal Irish Yacht Club for the third time in 2024, the ICRA conference heard on Saturday.  The event will mark the event's 20th anniversary, and the sixth time the championships will…
Home Are The Heroes. Howth YC Commodore Neil Murphy with Team Snapshot for their welcome home complete with ICRA
Co-skippers Mike & Richie Evans of ICRA Boat of the Year, the J/99 Snapshot, had a relaxed and celebratory winding-down with crew, friends, family, and fellow Howth YC members when they returned to base from the ICRA AGM & Annual…
MarkSetBot - the world's first robotic buoy is planned for use at Ireland's biggest sailing event, Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta in July on Dublin Bay.  The MarkSetBot offers robotic buoys and integrated course-setting technology for yacht racing that makes race management simple, accurate and sustainable
July's Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta aims for a 400-boat fleet when Ireland's biggest sailing event resumes for the first time since 2019, today's ICRA Conference heard. COVID forced the cancellation of 2019 and 2021's biennial event, but Dun Laoghaire's waterfront…
The Irish Cruiser Racer Association's (ICRA) new committee for 2023
The Irish Cruiser Racer Association's (ICRA) new committee for 2023 was elected at Saturday's national conference agm in Dun Laoghaire. Commodore Dave Cullen announced to the hybrid meeting – online and in attendance at the Royal St George Yacht Club…
Tony O'Brien's J109 Tighey Boy from Schull Harbour Sailing Club is entered for June's Volvo Dun Laoghaire Dingle Race
With the news that the Volvo 70 Wizard has already entered June's Volvo Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race, organiser Adam Winkelmann of the National Yacht Club told this morning's ICRA Conference in Dun Laoghaire that the biennial offshore race has 20…
ISORA's 2023 Offshore Series has been designed to provide a challenging series with a variety of ports and a complexity of courses and plenty of coastal races
Today's ICRA conference at Dun Laoghaire heard from ISORA Chief Peter Ryan, who outlined his 2023 programme emphasising coastal racing.  "Coastal racing is alive and kicking, and the best of it is in ISORA", he told the cruiser-racer gathering. ISORA has finalised…
Mike and Richie Evans new J/99 Snapshot was an instant success with victory in the 2021 Sovereigns Cup in Kinsale
Ever since Fintan Cairns of Dun Laoghaire and the late Jim Donegan of Cork brought the Irish Cruiser-Racer Association into being twenty years ago, ICRA’s Annual Conference & AGM has provided a fascinating overview of the state of play in…
The J99 ICRA Boat of the Year 2022 will feature in this Saturday's national cruiser tracer conference at the Royal St. George Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire Harbour
ICRA Boat of the Year winning skipper Mike Evans of Howth Yacht Club headlines this Saturday's National Conference at the Royal St. George Yacht Club, Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin. Evans — co-owner of the successful J99 Snapshot, ICRA Boat of the…
ICRA National Conference & AGM 2023 poster
The ICRA National Conference & AGM for 2023 will take place next Saturday 4 March at the Royal St George Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire. Following on from the success of keynote addresses in previous years, ICRA is pleased to…
Yachts competing at the 2022 ICRA Nationals raced as part of Cork Week in Cork Harbour
The Irish Cruiser Racing Association’s survey of members has identified the biggest barriers to racing as being the costs involved in travelling to events and the lack of crews. The online survey asked members their views “to improve, support and…
September's Irish Cruiser Racer National Championships at Howth Yacht Club will be contested from 8th to 10th September 2023
Due to low spring tides, September's Irish Cruiser Racer National Championships (ICRA) at Howth Yacht Club will move forward one week. The 2023 Championships will now take place in the north Dublin port from 8th to 10th September 2023. "Due…
ICRA cruiser-racing on Dublin Bay
The results of the Irish Cruiser Racing Association’s (ICRA) national survey of members to get their views about racing are being compiled. They are expected to be completed and released within the next week. The survey has been carried out…
Irish boats for one and two - the all-conquering Headcase (4247) hounds the Greystones boat Hard on Port on the way to her second victory of the day in the J24 Europeans in Howth
Cillian Dickson and the crew of the J24 Headcase raced in the 2022 J24 European Championships hosted by Howth Yacht Club. Here Dickson reflects on the incredible 2022 season for the class and for him and the crew aboard Headcase. 2022…
The start of the 2019 National YC Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race, with eventual overall winner Rockabill VI (JPK 10.80, Paul O’Higgins RIYC) just ahead of Mick Cotter’s 94ft Windfall, which took line honours and established a new course record. The 30th Anniversary D2D starts in Dublin Bay on June 7th 2023
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 Irish Cruiser Racing Association (ICRA) Information

The creation of the Irish Cruiser Racing Association (ICRA) began in a very low key way in the autumn of 2002 with an exploratory meeting between Denis Kiely, Jim Donegan and Fintan Cairns in the Granville Hotel in Waterford, and the first conference was held in February 2003 in Kilkenny.

While numbers of cruiser-racers were large, their specific locations were widespread, but there was simply no denying the numerical strength and majority power of the Cork-Dublin axis. To get what was then a very novel concept up and running, this strength of numbers had to be acknowledged, and the first National Championship in 2003 reflected this, as it was staged in Howth.

ICRA was run by a dedicated group of volunteers each of whom brought their special talents to the organisation. Jim Donegan, the elder statesman, was so much more interested in the wellbeing of the new organisation than in personal advancement that he insisted on Fintan Cairns being the first Commodore, while the distinguished Cork sailor was more than content to be Vice Commodore.

ICRA National Championships

Initially, the highlight of the ICRA season was the National Championship, which is essentially self-limiting, as it is restricted to boats which have or would be eligible for an IRC Rating. Boats not actually rated but eligible were catered for by ICRA’s ace number-cruncher Denis Kiely, who took Ireland’s long-established native rating system ECHO to new heights, thereby providing for extra entries which brought fleet numbers at most annual national championships to comfortably above the hundred mark, particularly at the height of the boom years. 

ICRA Boat of the Year (Winners 2004-2019)