The Irish Cruiser Racer National Championships return to the Royal Irish Yacht Club for the third time in 2024, the ICRA conference heard on Saturday. 

The event will mark the event's 20th anniversary, and the sixth time the championships will have sailed on the Dublin Bay race track.

Royal Irish previously hosted the ICRAs, one of the key fixtures of the Irish sailing season, in 2006 and 2014, with both events featuring a 100-boat-plus fleet.

Like this year's edition scheduled for Howth, 2024's event will run in the first week of September.

The Royal Irish Yacht Club is situated in a central location in Dun Laoghaire Harbour with excellent access, and visiting sailors can be sure of a special welcome. 

The clubhouse is located in the prime middle ground of the harbour in front of the town marina, and it is Dun Laoghaire's oldest yacht club. 

Fenit for 2025?

ICRA Commodore Dave Cullen also announced at Saturday's conference that the association is seeking applications for its 21st event in 2025.

Cullen confirmed at least one application had been received; Tralee Bay Sailing Club in County Kerry has sought the event for its Fenit Bay race track, a venue that previously hosted in 2009 and 2013.

Video has recently surfaced online of ocean researchers’ encounter in the Atlantic with an abandoned Dun Laoghaire yacht — one that was the subject of headlines a decade ago.

It’s nearly 10 years since Alan McGettigan and crew were rescued from their Swan 48, Wolfhound, some 70 miles off the coast of Bermuda in February 2013.

McGettigan — who died in November 2022 — was joined by fellow Royal Irish Yacht Club members Declan Hayes and Morgan Crowe as well as Tom Mulligan from the National Yacht Club on the yacht, which had suffered both power and engine failure amid stormy conditions while en route from Connecticut to that year’s RORC Caribbean 600.

Some time later in 2013, a vessel from the Ocean Research Project happened upon the ghost yacht “somewhere in the Atlantic”.

Unaware of the previous incident, the team — including experienced solo circumnavigator Matt Rutherford — noted the boat’s “strange behaviour” before approaching and boarding to learn more about its fate.

“I’m afraid to open doors and cabinets,” says Rutherford as he explores the cabin, fearful that he might happen upon the remains of an unfortunate sailor.

Rutherford and his crew mate set up a tow to bring the stricken Wolfhound some 800 miles to Bermuda, but as he explains in the video they were forced to cut it loose following difficulties of their own, which left them becalmed in the Doldrums for nearly four weeks.

IrishCentral has more on the story HERE.

Afloat.ie regrets to record the death of John Sisk of Dun Laoghaire, the youngest brother in a notably successful three-brother generation of a remarkable sailing family.

After childhood sailing in the family setting, his successful racing career began with Team Racing in UCD, and he went on to achieve in many areas of our sport.

A full appreciation will appear in Afloat.ie in due course. Meanwhile, our thoughts are with his family and friends and his many former shipmates in their sad loss.

Update (8/9/2022): Please click to read Afloat's John Sisk Appreciation here

Provident CRM has been announced as the title sponsor of September's Royal Irish Yacht Club hosted SB20 World Championships 2022 at Dun Laoghaire Harbour.

The RIYC will host the event on Dublin Bay from the 5th to the 9th of September.

Ireland hosted the first edition of the SB20 World Championships in 2008, with 143 entries, and the event returns 14 years later.

There are over 60 confirmed boats from twelve countries for the 2022 Championships on the Bay.

Countries attending include Ireland, UK, Netherlands, France, Australia, Dubai, Singapore, Portugal, Liechtenstein, Belgium, Finland, Italy & Ukraine SB20 Ireland.

The Royal Irish Yacht Club won the bid to host the 2022 World Championships following the success of the 2018 European Championships, run by the same team at this venue. 

Headquartered in Dublin, Provident CRM is an independent CRM and Digital Transformation solutions consultancy dedicated to delivering bespoke technologies to drive customer success. For nearly 20 years,

Provident has been an implementation partner of industry-leading technology vendors, including Salesforce, SugarCRM, HubSpot and monday.com.

John Malone, CEO of Provident CRM, said, "We are pleased to see the SB20 World Championships return to Ireland and be the title sponsor of this year's edition. The SB20 is sailed by 3-4 sailors and offers high-performance asymmetric sportsboat sailing, making it highly competitive and fun to watch and sail. We at Provident CRM believe that working together keeps us moving forward - a great sailing analogy for professional life."

The SB20 World Championships official website is now open to enter the competition: www.sb20worlds2022.com.

Joe Conway, Rear Commodore, RIYC (left) and John Malone, CEO Provident CRM, at the recent Dun Laoghaire Cup prize-giving for SB20s at which the sponsorship was announced

The warm-up Schedule for the SB20 World Championships in Dublin is as follows:

• 6/7 Aug: Pre-World Coaching Session & Dublin Bay Sailing Club Racing
• 27/28 Aug: Irish East Coast Championships (Sat/Sun Before Pre-Worlds, incl coaching)
• 4 Sept: Practice Race (Sunday Before Worlds)
• 5-9 Sept: World Championships

Saturday's much anticipated Drumshanbo Gin Royal Irish Yacht Club regatta racing at Dun Laoghaire has been cancelled due to strong winds.

Race officers went to sea to check the conditions and reported strong southerly winds gusting to 33 knots on the Dubin Bay race courses.

As Afloat's WM Nixon relates despite this weekend's packed sailing fixture list sailors are heading for the high stool as gales sweep the country and cause wholesale cancellations.

Live Dublin Bay webcams are here

We can only be wishing this morning that the traditional-type low pressure areas which march across the Atlantic from New England towards Old Ireland could take aboard some of the strict Sabbatarianism of the regions they’re passing through in their developing stages, and give due regard for the attitudes imbued in such God-fearing places by the time they get here.

In other words, with one of the busiest weekends of the 2022 Irish sailing season upon us, everything is being affected by the remorseless approach of a low pressure area which will be squatted right upon us on Sunday. Now if it was a proper Ten Commandments-compliant depression, it would make Sunday a day of rest. But instead it will be working away with the Cong-Galway race on Lough Corrib postponed, the Shannon One Designs’ two-day long distance race from Lough Ree to Lough Derg adversely affected, and the final stages of events like Bangor Town Regatta on Belfast Lough, the Royal Irish YC Drumshanbo Gin Regatta on Dublin Bay, and the Bandon Co-op Squib Championship at Kinsale having – at the very least – to take note.

The many Squibs at Kinsale have had some good racing and better weather than most. Photo: Robert Bateman

DEEPENING LOW PRESSURE & HIGH STOOL DAYS

For of course it’s today (Saturday) with the Low approaching and deepening that we could see the greatest turbulence. If it does sit down over Ireland on Sunday, there could be much rain but little enough wind, yet always with the chance that a gale could strike at any moment.

In other words, it has all the makings of what, in the west of Ireland, they’d nominate as A High-Stool Day. So before we contemplate the ramifications of this, let us do things in an even more back-to-front style than usual. For today, after a very intense week of closely following the progress of the SL Renewables Round Ireland Race, we’d originally had thoughts of giving a sonorous overview of it all.

But after something like 16 continuous reports which led on from one to the other in such a processing of information that brain burnout resulted, I’m not sure that Sailing on Saturday has anything more to say, whereas the bare bones results – with the proper details of the boats involved - speak for themselves, and as we’ve already said somewhere, there seems to be something for nearly everyone in the audience.

She came, she saw, she conquered – the French J/121 SL Energies Fastwave (Laurent Charmy) overcame at least two tactical reversals to become overall winner of the 2022 Round Ireland Race. Photo: Afloat.ie/David O’Brien  

SSE RENEWABLES ROUND IRELAND YACHT RACE FROM WICKLOW 2022

Line honours: 1st Kuka3 (Cookson 50, Franco Niggeler, Switzerland); 2nd Green Dragon (Volvo 70, Conor Ferguson & Enda O Coineen, Galway Bay SC); 3rd Influence (Class40, Andrea Fornaro, Italy); 5th Samatom (Grand Soleil 44, Robert Rendell Howth Yacht Club) 6th Kite (Class 40, Greg Leonard, USA).

IRC Overall: 1st SL Energies Groupe Fastwave (J/111, Laurent Charmy, France); 2nd Snapshot (J/99, Michael & Richard Evans Howth YC; 3rd Artful Dodjer (J/109, Finbarr O’Regan. Kinsale YC), 5th Darkwood (J/121, Michael Boyd, RIYC); 6th Samatom.

Line honours and IRC Z:1st Kuka3 (Cookson 50, Franco Niggeler, Switzerland)

IRC Z: 1st Kuka3; 2nd Green Dragon: 3rd Telefonica Black (Volvo 70, Lance Shepherd, RORC).

IRC 1: 1st Darkwood skippered by Michael Boyd (with trophy)

IRC 1: 1st Darkwood; 2nd Samatom; 3rd Jackknife (J/125, Andrew Hall, Pwllheli SC), 4th Luzern eComm U25 (Figaro 3, Lorcan Tighe, Irish National SC), 5th Ca Va (Pogo 12.50, Tony Rayer, Cardiff Bay YC); 6th Fuji (OCD40, Ari Kansakoski, Cherbourg)

IRC 2: 1st SL Energies Fastwave; 2nd Rockabill VI (JPK 10.80, Paul O’Higgins, RIYC); 3rd Aurelia (J/122, Chris & Patanne Power Smith, RSTGYC); 4th Black Magic (First 44.7, Barry O’Donovan, Waterford Harbour SC & HYC).

IRC 3 1st Snapshot (J/99, Michael & Richard Evans Howth YC)

IRC 3: 1st Snapshot; 2nd Artful Dodjer; 3rd Bellino (Sunfast 3600, Rob Craigie, RORC), 4th Nieulargo (Grand Soleil 40, Denis & Annamarie Murphy, Royal Cork YC; 5th Cinnamon Girl (Sunfast 3300, Cian McCarthy & Sam Hunt, KYC); 6th Wild Pilgrim (Sunfast 3300, Daniel Jones RORC).

IRC 4: 1st Pyxis (X332, Kirsteen Donaldson, RORC)

IRC 4: 1st Pyxis (X332, Kirsteen Donaldson, RORC); 2nd Blue Oyster (Oyster 37, Alan Coleman, Royal Cork YC); 3rd Cavatina (Granada 38, Ian Hickey RCYC); 4th More Mischief, (First 310, Grzegorz Kalinecki, Dun Laoghaire).

ISORA: 1st Samatom (Robert Rendell)

ISORA: 1st Samatom; 2nd Rockabill VI; 3rd YoYo (Sunfast 36, Graham Curran/Brendan Coghlan, RStGYC); 3rd Indian (J/109. Simon Knowles, Howth YC), 4th Aurelia; 5th Black Magic.

ICRA: 1st Snapshot; 2nd Artful Dodjer; 3rd Samatom; 4th Nieulargo; 5th Cinnamon Girl: 6th Rockabill VI.

Class40: 1st Influence (Pamela Lee)

Class40: 1st Influence; 2nd Kite; 3rd: Fuji.

Two-Handed: 1st Bellino (Rob Craigie)

Two-Handed: 1st Bellino; 2nd Cinnamon Girl; 3rd Wild Pilgrim; 4th Asgard (Sunfast 3300, Ross Farrow, Hamble).

Cruising: 1st Blue Oyster; 2nd Cavatina; 3rd Shindig (Swan 40, Tony Kingston. KYC).

Corinthian: 1st Artful Dodjer (Finbarr O'Regan)

Corinthian: 1st Artful Dodjer; 2nd Bellino; 3rd Indian; 4th Aurelia, 5th Black Magic; 6th Hiro Maru, S & S 47, Hiroshi Nakajima, New York YC).

Overseas: 1st SL Energies Fastwave; 2nd Bellino; 3rd Wild Pilgrim; 4th Asgard; 5th Hiro Maru; 6th Pyxis

Services: Prime Suspect (Mills 36, Keith Millar, Kilmore Quay).

Sailing Schools: 1st Lynx Wild West Sailing (Mullaghmore). (Reflex 38, Cian Mullee, Sligo YC); 2nd Arthur (First 40, Jim Bennett, RORC); 3rd Jezebel (J/111, Chris Miles, Conwy N.Wales).

The Round Ireland Tracks on the final day – they got beaten up on the west coast, and beaten down on the east while some “interesting” new weather approached from the west.

The combined results are possibly the greatest advertisement for the Rod Johnstone-inspired J/Boat range that there has ever been. And with just five minutes between first and second overall (the number crunchers tell us it is 0.005 per cent) this was a race which had everyone on the edge of their seats right to the end.

And while Laurent Charmy and his crew are offshore-hardened toughies, you’ll note that although Mike & Richie Evans with Snapshot are also in the ICRA Division, they’re not in the ISORA section, as they aren’t regular offshore racers. In fact, this was their first crack at a major. Ponder that.

Little boat, big achievement – on their first major offshore race, Mike & Richie Evans with the 33ft J/99 Snapshot (HYC) missed the overall win in the Round Ireland by just five minutes. Photo: Afloat.ie/David O’Brien

Meanwhile, attention is now swinging towards other events, not least Belfast Lough and Bangor Town Regatta, where senior Race Officer Con Murphy is trying to cram the sport in before the meteorological top comes off tonight.

Most of the official material was in place when it was suddenly announced that Bangor was going to become a city. It was greeted in the former borough with mixed feelings, for the whole point about Bangor – having spent the first 18 years of my life there – is that it doesn’t feel remotely like a city, and that’s one of the best things about the place.

Regatta star - John Minnis’s A35 Final Call racing at Bangor Town Regatta. After winning her class at Howth Wave, she s now performing at Bangor, and will then be racing in Volvo Week in Cork in July

Yet if it all becomes accepted, next time round we’ll be talking of the City of Bangor Regatta, which as sure as God made little apples will become COBRA. They’re not at all enthusiastic about that up Bangor way. Indeed, muted enthusiasm used to be a Bangor characteristic, even if some photos from the current regatta suggest otherwise.

As it is, one dyed-in-the-wool Bangorian - on observing the charts of the weather currently approaching the new City of Bangor - was heard to assert that they never had adverse sailing weather like this when Bangor was just a town.

When Bangor was just a town, they always had weather like this

The Water Wag Royal Irish Yacht Club regatta race prize was won on Wednesday night by the club's Bairbre Stewart and Pam McKay in light airs in Dun Laoghaire Harbour.

The prize was presented by club Commodore Jerry Dowling to the crew of Freddie at Wednesday's glorious RIYC's pre-regatta reception on the clubhouse balcony, ahead of Saturday's Drumshanbo Gin regatta.

Bairbre Stewart and Pam McKay sailing Water Wag Number 43, Freddie to a RIYC Regatta race win. See vid below Photo: Brendan Briscoe

Swallow sailed by Justin Geoghegan and Alison Hackett of the Royal St.George Yacht Club Photo: Brendan Briscoe

Second place was Swallow sailed by Justin Geoghegan and Alison Hackett of the Royal St.George Yacht Club. Clubmates Vincent Delany and Emma Webb were third in Pansy.

A great Water Wag turnout for the inside Dun Laoghaire Harbour RIYC Regatta race on Wednesday evening Photo: Brendan Briscoe

Overall, after nine races sailed in the Wag's Jubilee Cup Series, and with three discards in play, RIYC's Guy and Jackie Kilroy lead the 42-boat entry.

As Afloat previously reported, The main RIYC regatta on Saturday promises a jam-packed day ashore on Saturday as well as on the water in Dublin Bay with music, food and of course cocktails.

Details of the day’s entertainment options can be found below and on the RIYC website HERE.

National Dragon Champion Neil Hegarty of the RStGYC took the East Coast title after six races sailed at the Royal Irish Yacht Club hosted event. 

Overnight leader on Saturday, Hegarty sailing with crew Kevin O’Boyle and Charlie Bolger clinched the championship with a final race win on Sunday.

Winds were easterly and shifting between 60 and 90 degrees up to 12 knots with a short chop off Dun Laoghaire Harbour.

(Above and below) Overall winner Neil Hegarty (225) takes the pin end in race five of the Dragon East Coast Championships Photo: Afloat

Sailing with four up, Kinsale Yacht Club's Brian Goggin and crew Sean Murphy, Daniel Murphy and John O Connor broke the overnight tie with Ruan O'Tiarnaigh, Stephen Boyle and John Burke in the Sutton Dinghy Club entry 'Phantom Capital' to take second overall on 13 points.

Kinsale Yacht Club's Brian Goggin and crew Sean Murphy, Daniel Murphy and John O'Connor on Whisper Photo: Afloat

The SDC crew took third overall in the 13-boat fleet on 18 points. 

Ruan O'Tiarnaigh, Stephen Boyle and John Burke from Sutton Dinghy Club were third

Kinsale will host the prestigious 2024 Dragon Gold Cup, a high point on the calendar after the disappointing cancellation of the 2020 Cup at that venue due to COVID. 

Results are here

National Dragon Champion Neil Hegarty of the Royal St. George Yacht Club leads this weekend's class East Coast Championships at the Royal Irish Yacht Club at Dun Laoghaire Harbour. 

After four races sailed in light westerly winds, Hegarty sailing with Kevin O’Boyle and Charlie Bolger leads by two points from Dragon newcomers Ruan O'Tiarnaigh in Phantom Capital sailing with Stephan Boyle and John Burke of Sutton Dinghy Club.

After one discard applied, Kinsale Yacht Club visitors Brian Goggin, Sean Murphy, Daniel Murphy and John O Connor are tied on seven points with O'Tiarnaigh in the 13-boat fleet. 

Two races are left to sail on Sunday. Results are here

The Royal Irish Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire Harbour hosted 'An Evening with Tracy Edwards MBE' on Wednesday, May 18th. 

The legendary Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race skipper was welcomed by RIYC Commodore Jerry Dowling and Flag Officers. 

Edwards gave a talk to members and guests from the original Maiden Project through to the Maiden Factor, a global foundation that inspires women and girls all over the world.

In 1989 Edwards skippered Maiden, the first all-female crew, in the Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race, achieving second overall in Class and becoming the first woman to receive the Yachtsman of the Year Trophy.

Tracy Edwards is presented with a Royal Irish burgee by Commodore Jerry Dowling during her Dun Laoghaire visit. Photo: Rachel Fallon Langdon/Ocean Images