Top Dublin Bay skipper Johnny Treanor is eyeing up the French Admiral's Cupper Albator for next season, a Round Ireland Race year.
Treanor, who won Cork Week 2024 overall with his J112e Valentina campaign, confirmed to Afloat that he is working on a deal to buy the 43 offshore IRC racer and is 'almost' there.
Designed by Bernard Nivelt & Alexis Muratet (Nivelt-Muratet Design) and campaigned by Philippe Frantz for the Yacht Club de France, Albator figured prominently throughout July's AC2025 and, in the Fastnet Race leg, placed 2nd in AC2 on corrected time, just 2 min 45 s behind the winner Jolt 6.
"Having enjoyed some success on ValenTina over the last 2 seasons, I wanted to find a boat that would be a significant step up from ValenTina but that could be sailed well by my existing core crew, " Treanor told Afloat.
Included in Valentina's trophy haul were some key awards at Dublin Bay Sailing Club's 141st Prizegiving Gala, as Afloat reports here.
The original design brief for Albator in 2017 was to design an extreme racing machine but then step it back a bit to make it sailable by regular club sailors and looking at the boats historical performance its seems that the brief was well met with previous results including a 5th IRC overall in the Fastnet Race. Other notable results include the RORC Caribbean 600: Class winner (IRC One) in 2018 and again in 2025.
"Undoubtedly, the boat is more offshore orientated and that will shift our focus towards major offshore events like the Round Ireland, D2D, ISORA and the Coastal Fleet in events like Sovereigns, Cork, and Calves week, Treanor said.
"We will continue to compete in DBSC and day regattas but, given the nature of the boat, we will probably struggle in short round the cans races" he reckons.
However, an interesting design feature of the boat is that it has a twin steering gear arrangement. The current offshore twin-rudder setup can be swapped for a single rudder configuration, which would be better for the bigger inshore events, Treanor says.
"It is a complex boat to sail and we will have to work hard to get the maximum performance out"
2026 will definitely be a learning experience, 2027 might see the boat doing more of the classic RORC events, he says.
Treanor told Afloat that all going well, Albator will arrive in Dun Laoghaire next March.
It's buoyant news for the Dublin offshore scene, especially with the recent return of a J122 to the capital's waters and the news that another East Coast owner is reported to be close to finalising another 40-foot race boat.
