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ICRA Hat-Trick for Maybury's Joker 2 at Royal Cork Championships

11th June 2017
Hat Trick –ICRA Class One winner is John Maybury's Joker 2 from the Royal Irish Yacht Club Hat Trick –ICRA Class One winner is John Maybury's Joker 2 from the Royal Irish Yacht Club Credit: Bob Bateman

An early end to a gale-lashed ICRA National Championships series at the Royal Cork Yacht Club didn't stand in the way of John Maybury's Joker 2 from successfully defending his Division 1 title and lifting the trophy for the third consecutive season. The Royal Irish YC winner was one of five titles decided over the weekend that saw a prudent race management decision not to continue racing even inside the shelter of Cork Harbour this morning.

"I honestly hadn't given any thought to the hat-trick," admitted Maybury. "But now that we've won it, it's fantastic!" Joker 2 is already the ICRA Boat of the Year for its successful 2016 season and the national title for 2017 will make the J109 a benchmark for the remainder of the year.

"It may have been a small fleet but the pedigree of the competition was excellent," commented Joker 2's tactician, Olympic veteran Mark Mansfield. Maybury was the only successful defender at Crosshaven over the three days with new national champions in all other classes.

Equinox_howth_yacht_clubHowth Yacht Club's Ross McDonald on Equinox won the Division 2 national title Photo: Bob Bateman

Straight wins for Paul Gibbons Quarter-tonner Anchor Challenge delivered a convincing win in the ten-boat Division 3 where Howth Yacht Club's Anthony Gore Grimes was the first runner-up on Dux. However, clubmate Ross McDonald on Equinox won the Division 2 national title, taking over from fellow Howth sailor David Cullen on Checkmate XV after gear damage on Saturday ended his defence.

Anchor Challenge 3087Straight wins for Paul Gibbons' Quarter-tonner Anchor Challenge (IRL 3087) gave him the Division 3 title. Photo: Bob Bateman

Breaking the past-form of Cork/Dublin national winners, Daragh McCormack from Foynes Yacht Club celebrated his newly-acquired J24 Stouche with the Division 4 national title. The 12-fleet was the largest at the ICRA championship this year with the J24 class accounting for nine of the boats and all seven top places.

Stouche_J24Daragh McCormack's Foynes Sailing Club J24 Stouche was the Division 4 national title winner. Photo: Bob Bateman

After the sad loss of Scottish entry Inis Mór on delivery to Cork a week ago, the depleted Division 0 saw a thrilling match-race series instead between local Robert O'Leary at the helm of Tony Ackland's "We had great fun, real match-racing. They gave us a good run and in only one race did both boats finish more than four boat-lengths apart," O'Leary said while predicting a re-match at the Sovereigns Cup in ten days time and Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta in July.

Meanwhile, the results from Saturday also stood for the White Sails fleets with Denis and Anne-Marie Murphys’ Grand Soleil 40 Nieulargo topping Division A under ECHO handicap while Clodagh O'Donavan’s Beneteau 35s5 Roaring Forties won Division B.

After a weather-lashed second day, principal race officers Jack Roy and Peter Crowley again opted to race both fleets inside Cork Harbour for the final day. But in spite of strong sunshine, westerly winds gusting to gale force kicked up a heavy chop even inside the harbour so the decision was made to abandon the series with the five races already successfully sailed.

"The ICRA championships this year were as much a test of racing skills as seamanship for everyone who participated - the 2017 champions are worthy winners," said ICRA Commodore Simon McGibney. "Clearly, the sport has issues to address including the fixtures conflict and small fleets. But ICRA will consult with our sailors in the coming months to find solutions so that we can deliver an exciting championship at a great venue - Galway Bay in August 2018".

ICRA prizegiving photos are here

Published in ICRA
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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)