Richard Colwell and Johnny & Suzie Murphy are the Irish Independent/Afloat.ie “Sailors of the Month ” for November on the strength of their Corby 25 Kinetic becoming the new Irish Cruiser Racing Asociation “Boat of the Year”.
ICRA’s supreme title is a coveted honour. It celebrates the boat, crew and season-long campaign held in highest regard by their peers, the other enthusiasts actively engaged in the Association’s nationwide programme at the most intense level.
So when ICRA Commodore Barry Rose announced the choice at the recent Annual General Meeting in Kilkenny, it rounded out a season in which Kinetic from Howth had won her section – Class 2 – in the National Championships on Tralee Bay, and had also been at the top of the fleet in other major events on every Irish coast.
It was a win on many fronts, both in sailing terms, and for management and crewing. At 25ft, Kinetic may seem like a nice manageable little boat. And so she is in some ways. If time is not available to sail her to the next big event, she is of a size that can be conveniently road trailered. But doing that involves de-rigging after each championship, and then re-rigging and re-tuning at the next venue. It’s always a logistical and technical challenge, particularly for a non-professional crew who lead busy lives.
And all that is before you start sailing. Although only 25ft long, Kinetic races among generally larger boats in Class 2, yet she is one of the higher rated participants. She’s narrow and sleek, but carries an enormous spread of sail. The sea poet John Masefield may have talked of the ocean wind as being like a “whetted knife”, but compared to many offshore racers, Kinetic is very much the wetted knife.
Anything she can’t go over, she goes straight through, and at speed. As for the mighty masthead spinnaker which zaps her along off the wind, that is definitely not for the faint-hearted. But for those with the nerve for it, the Corby 25 provides a formidable package which is well suited to these straitened times.
As too is ICRA. It was established seven years ago at an exploratory meeting in Kilkenny, and last month they returned to the same venue to celebrate seven years in which the Association has become one of the pace-makers in Irish sailing. It was an idea whose time had come. And in Kilkenny with Kinetic, they celebrated a team and a boat which personified their ideal.
