The Irish Cruiser Racing Association (ICRA) has today announced that it will provide funding to encourage cruiser racing participation, in the form of discounts to help cover the costs of reducing ECHO and IRC certs from the 1st August.

Conscious that yacht owners are only now starting to get back on the water, for what will be truncated season, ICRA has worked with Irish Sailing and RORC, to provide funding for discounted certs, in order to do what it can to encourage boats to take out certs and take part in racing events.

ICRA says it receives all of its funding through Irish Sailing, from a ring-fenced proportion of cruiser cert fees, after RORC and administration costs are removed.

So far this year ICRA has also allocated and funded close to €10,000 supporting the continued development of under 25 team participation in clubs across the country.

This has come in the form of capital grants, trickle grants for teams already set up, and coaching. They also provide regional support grants, in order to help support cruiser racing across Ireland, which is paid to WIORA and SCORA. The funds also help ICRA to manage and deliver a successful National Championships each year and provide support and development of ratings systems and results.

The once-off COVID 19 cert discounts will allow for yachts to avail of an ECHO cert from the 1st August ongoing to the end of 2020, for less than half the current price, at just €20 per cert.

ICRA has also arranged to provide a 20% discount off any IRC cert purchased between the 1st of August and the 1st September. While they have also confirmed with RORC, that from the 1st of September boats will be able to avail of half-price IRC certs.

However, owners should bear in mind that the turnaround time for standard IRC certs from Irish Sailing is 2-3 weeks, and while every effort will be made to turnaround certs as quickly as possible, this may well be too tight to have your cert 5 days before Wave/ICRA Nationals starts unless an expedited service is paid for.

ICRA hope these discounts, funded as a once-off for 2020 as a response to COVID 19, will help to encourage boats to take out certs and enter open events being staged from now until the end of the season.

In particular, ICRA is keen to encourage boats to have certs in order to be in with a chance to compete for the number of ICRA National Championship titles up for grabs in Corinthian/White Sail, ECHO and IRC classes, at the Wave Regatta from the 11th-13th Sep – with great racing planned for all levels and experience. A very strong entry for the ICRA National Championship 2020 / Wave Regatta is already in, and we would encourage all boat owners to enter what promises to be the highlight of the shortened season.

Richard Colwell, ICRA Commodore, “We don’t have huge budgets at ICRA, as I am sure most are aware, and these are provided by those taking out their certs each year.

However, at our recent committee meeting their was unanimous support to try and do what we can to encourage as many boats to go racing as possible. Driving participation in our sport at all levels remains our core mission.”

ICRA understand that many boats have already applied and paid for certs, and we would like to thank these cruiser-racer owners for continuing to be active participants and supporters of the wider the sport. We had to make a call to apply this discount from a point in time, and unfortunately, discounts can’t be backdated, but we hope this small funding gesture helps to encourage as many yachts as possible to take part in racing for the remainder of 2020.