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Displaying items by tag: Aegean to Fastnet Race 2017

#Presentation - Friends of Glenua are to hold a presentation entitled: “From the Aegean to the Fastnet Race 2017-Trom agus Éadrom”

The presentation by Dermot Cronin will take place on Thursday 1 March (20:00) at the Poolbeg Yacht & Boat Club, Ringsend, Dublin 4. There will be an entry fee of €5 in aid of the RNLI.

The 2017 Rolex Fastnet Race attracted a record-sized fleet of 362 boats, six more than in 2015. The 605 mile continues to be the world’s largest offshore yacht race, defined by the rounding of the Fastnet Rock with its iconic lighthouse. 

Dermot Cronin of Malahide Yacht Club, competed in the 2017 Rolex Fastnet Race in his yacht, Encore, a First 40.7. The preparations included the 2,500 mile passage of Encore from her winterage in Greece to Malahide, during which she encountered heavy weather both in the Mediterranean and in the Atlantic (the ‘Trom’ of the title).

In his illustrated lecture, Dermot will give a practical insight into the preparation and logistics required to get his boat to the starting line at Cowes followed by the competitive intensity experienced in a huge international fleet. The events of the Fastnet race itself which, although more benign in the weather (the Eadrom of the title), provided some close racing.

Dermot’s first sailing course was with Glenans in Bere Island in 1979. Being an active racing member of Malahide Yacht Club since 1989, he progressed to Round Ireland racing, D2D’s and Fastnet in 2003. He participated in the Middle Sea Race in 2013 and 2014 in his fully crewed Encore. He finally struck gold in 2015 with his son Paddy, winning the Double-handed division of the 2015 Middle Sea Race in Encore.

Published in Coastal Notes

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)