WIORA 2025: Delays and Drama Mark First Day of Racing on Clew Bay

18th June 2025

Afloat.ie Team

Westport welcomes WIORA competitors for the 50th anniversary celebrations of Mayo Sailing Club

WIORA 2025 kicked off with a briefing for the 41 skippers at Mayo Sailing Club at 09.30 on Wednesday, June 18.

MSC Commodore Pat Aylward welcomed the competitors to the club while WIORA Commodore Ray McGibney recalled winning his class on a Ruffian in his first WIORA event. Race Officer Scorie Walls from Howth YC briefed the skippers on the main points in the Sailing Instructions. The boats all set out for the 30-40 minute sail to the race course in beautiful Clew Bay.

Unfortunately, the wind gods were not delivering sufficient wind to start a race, so the Race Committee hoisted the AP at 12.00 and announced a delay until the wind filled in and settled.

Waiting for the wind on the first day of WIORA 2025 at Mayo Sailing Club on Clew Bay

The competitors drifted around in warm sunshine until 14.30 when the wind eventually started to fill in.

The RO got class one away, with classes 2 and 3 (white sails) starting 5 minutes later. The 16-boat Ruffian fleet was next up, but in their eagerness to start, the Race Officer called a general recall. She went into a second Ruffian start under a U flag. With just over a minute to go, she abandoned race 1 for all classes due to a massive wind shift.

She reset the course and announced that all classes would start under a U flag to get the racing underway. In class 1 two boats were penalised and recorded UFD. In class 3, one boat was recorded UFD, while the Ruffians got away to a clear start.

Conditions were lively with winds gusting in the high teens.

Race 2 got underway at 15.43 with three rounds for classes 1 and 2, and for all other classes.

Frank Bradley’s Ripples from the DMYC was Ruffian Day prize winner with a 1st and a 4th.

John Collins in Ibaraki from Galway Bay Sailing Club leads Class One IRC with a 1, 2 scored in the seven-boat division.

A seven-boat Class Two IRC is comprehensively led by Chinook Cormac Murphy's Chinook of Tralee Bay Sailing Club with two race wins.

The competitors returned to the clubhouse for refreshments, live music and the daily prize-giving before heading to Matt MoIlloy’s pub for an evening get-together.

Results are below

Race Results

You may need to scroll vertically and horizontally within the box to view the full results

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