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ICRA Announces Title Sponsor for Royal St. George National Championships

23rd May 2019
J109s will be part of the Frank Keane BMW ICRA National Championship fleet on Dublin Bay next month J109s will be part of the Frank Keane BMW ICRA National Championship fleet on Dublin Bay next month Credit: Afloat.ie

ICRA has announced a sponsor for its forthcoming national championships at the Royal St George Yacht Club running from June 6-9 on Dublin Bay.

Frank Keane BMW & Mini will be the title sponsor for the cruiser championships that is on course to field a fleet of 100 boats drawn from all four provinces.

Event Chairman Ian Simington and ICRA Commodore, Richard Colwell commented “we are honoured to partner with such a prestigious sponsor and brands. Frank Keane has supported sailing for many years and it is fitting that such huge brands team up with this major event. Whilst the focus is on racing, shoreside there will be much to entertain all participants, friends and family and the Royal St George Yacht Club has a highly inviting social programme lined up for all.

Frank Keane said "We feel very proud to be sponsoring the 2019 ICRA National Championships. It strengthens a well-established association between Frank Keane BMW and the Royal St. George Yacht Club since the opening of our Blackrock branch in 2010".

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)