It says much about the busily-compressed early season programme of 2026 that we can make a realistic award for Sailors of the Month (Offshore) for racing on the deep seas during May. Yet thanks to Kinsale YC’s biennial Cantor Fitzgerald Inishtearaght race finishing neatly in time on Sunday, May 31st, we have a real result for a very real offshore challenge.
Anyone who has ever sailed in the seas around the most westerly Blasket Islands will know this is a formidable bit of ocean. Yet 21 boats set out from Kinsale to sail through this decidedly grown-up area, insouciantly using the group’s lighthouse island of Inishtearacht as a handy turning mark. And when the results were tabulated, it was John Malone and Emmet Sheridan of Lough Ree Yacht Club with their crew on the JPK 1030 Loinnir who had done best to be worthy “Sailors of the Month (Offshore)” for May 2026.

















































