ISORA's first event of its “Viking Marine Coastal Series at Dun Laoghaire Harbour yesterday mustered a high powered IRC fleet of 13 for a 35-mile course.
Starting in a testing south-easterly breeze of 18 to 20 knots at 0955 am, the coastal crews got the best of the day's Dublin Bay winds.
ISORA is running this month's training series in advance of a return to competition on June 7th as sailing is now considered a safe, non-contact sport with no material difference between training and competition under COVID-19 guidelines.
As Afloat reported previously, the fleet was joined for the first time by Frank Whelan's new Greystones Sailing Club J-boat, Kaya.
It's a sister ship of the top-performing Royal St. George J/122 Aurelia skippered by Chris Power Smith.
Rockabill VI (left) returns to the line after a premature start in the first outing of ISORA's Viking Marine Coastal Series
In a fleet representing a who's who of Irish Sea offshore talent, eager defending 2020 coastal champion Paul O'Higgin's Rockabill VI got off to a premature start at the committee boat end of the Dun Laoghaire Outfall buoy line.
Rockabill returned to the line as the rest of the fleet negotiated an upwind leg past Dun Laoghaire Harbour and across the Scotsman's Bay shoreline on their way to the East Kish turning buoy.
Exiting the south of the Bay at Dalkey Island, it was on to Bennet buoy, an ISORA Dublin Virtual Mark to finish at the Dun Laoghaire pier heads.
Great breeze for the first of the ISORA Viking Marine Coastal Training Events
It turned out to be a great course that delivered a beat, a tight reach, a tight reach and a dead run with ISORA fortunate that the forecast for the breeze to drop completely in the afternoon did not materialise and the fleet came home in an 8 to 10-knot easterly.
Provisional IRC results released by organisers initially showed John Gorman's Sunfast 3600 Hot Cookie on the pace with a win on IRC in the training event.
Second is John Murphy and Richard Colwell's J109 Outrajeous from Howth and Andrew Algeo's J99 Juggerknot II of the Royal Irish Yacht Club in third place.
UPDATE: Results were updated on Sunday, May 16 as Afloat reports here to show Outrajeous as the winner and Hot Cookie second.
Provisional results from the first ISORA Viking Marine training event
ISORA will be running further training events this month ahead of the first big Irish offshore fixture of the season, the 320-mile NYC Dun Laoghaire-Dingle Race on June 9th. The training events will allow boats to get boats up to speed for the biennial offshore race, which is run under the auspice of the National Yacht Club.
