Dublin Bay has been in sunny form for the second day of the UNIO ICRA Nats 2024 from the Royal Irish Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire, with today (Saturday's) only change from Friday being that the wind has been more directly from the southeast to east, recorded at 120 degrees.

John & Suzie Murphy's defending overall champion, the J/109 Outrajeous of Howth (or more precisely the Royal Hills of The Naul YC), has been buzzing in Class 1 with Neil Spain driving and Ross McDonald trimming. They go into Saturday night with a scoreline of (2), 2, 1, 1, 1.

John & Suzie Murphy's defending overall champion, the J/109 Outrajeous of Howth Photo: Afloat

Saturday has been the day in Cruisers 1 in which Outrajeous has hit top form against the rash of J/109s, taking three straight wins on IRC to make her name seem all too appropriate. The first win bore this out, as she was all of two minutes and one second ahead of second placed White Mischief at the finish, with John Maybury's Joker II third, and seven minutes covering the entire class.

Barry Cunningham's J109 Chimaera from the Royal Irish Yacht Club Photo: Afloat

On ECHO, Jalapeno from Kinsale brought reward for the distinguished Donegan name with a win in this first race of the day by 30 seconds from White Mischief, with Outrajeous being performance corrected to third despite a race rating of 1.126.

That had become 1.138 by today (Saturday's) second race, but the Murphy team rode with it to win on ECHO, with Jalapeno second. In the day's third race, we saw ECHO machinations at work again, as it was won by Simon Knowles' J/109 Indian with John Minnis's Archambault 35 Final Call II from Belfast Lough in third.

John Maybury's J109 Joker II Photo: Afloat

INFLEXIBLE IRC

In the inflexible world of IRC ratings, all the J/109s seem to be closely bunched between 1.001 (Indian) and 1.007 (Chimaera), so Saturday's racing for Cruisers 1 under this system saw Outrajeous hanging in or better in front, while the podium places astern were filled by sister-ships White Mischief, Joker II, Storm and Chimaera, though Colin Byrne's X boat Bon Exemple did almost make it with a fourth in the day's first race astern of Outrajeous, White Mischief, and Joker II.

Tim and Richard Goodbody's J109 White Mischief Photo: Afloat

There's talent, and then some, among these J/109s. The Prof is sailing on Chimaera, while Mark Mansfield is back with regular shipmates on Joker II. So it looks as though, going into the final day, Rope Dock has the sailmakers tied in knots.

A tightly packed Class One fleet head downwind on day two of the Unio ICRA National Championships on Dublin Bay Photo: Afloat