SAILING: ONE OF the biggest fleets of the 2012 Irish sailing season received Government approval in Howth last night when Minister for the Marine Simon Coveney lent his support to the 123-boat BMW Irish Cruiser Racer (ICRA) National championships that race for seven national titles this afternoon.
Last year’s championship winners in the first four divisions will be in Howth to defend their titles and 80 per cent of competitors are visitors to the north Dublin port.
Commodore’s Cup champion Anthony O’Leary’s Antix from Royal Cork will be the favourite in Class 0 but there are challenges from his own clubmates, Jump Juice (Denise Phelan) and Dublin Bay’s WOW (George Sisk) while Richard Fildes’s Impetuous from Wales had a useful warm-up on the race track in winning last weekend’s nine boat Corby Cup.
ICRA’s boat of the year, Pat Kelly’s Storm (HYC Rush) won Class 1 in Cork last year and tomorrow there are six other J109s in the line-up. Six of the 21 entries are from outside Dublin.
In Class 2, Brian Goggin’s Corby 25 Allure from Kinsale was the winner last year and is expected to be a front runner in the biggest fleet (31 boats) in the championships, the majority of which are visitors. Of the local entries, Dave Cullen’s King One, Ian Byrne’s Sunburn and Anthony Gore-Grimes’s Dux are contenders.
The Irish Sea Offshore fleet is also well represented, with at least five offshore yachts entered although the winning yacht from last weekend’s race from Pwhelli to Howth is not racing. Stephen Tudor’s Sgrech (another J109 design) will instead be focusing on next month’s 700-mile Round Ireland race. The modified quarter-tonner Tiger (Neil Kenefick) from Cork is undoubtedly the boat to beat in Class 3, having been the outstanding vessel in this division over the past couple of years.
In spite of the buoyancy of the domestic fleet in Howth it is still unclear whether ICRA will defend the Commodore’s Cup in three months’ time.
Earlier this month ICRA commodore Barry Rose issued a final plea to any skippers interested in defending the cup to come forward amid speculation that hope of mounting the defence is now unlikely.
In west Cork, two clubs launched three events for the region this summer, with the prestigious Brewin Dolphin Dragon Gold Cup headlining the season in Kinsale in September. This club will also host the Davy Optimist National Championships in July.
A presentation was also made by Kinsale Yacht Club, outlining the benefit of the town marina to the local economy and how it might be developed in these challenging times.
Also this week Schull Harbour Sailing Club launched a “compact” version of its traditional Calves week regatta for 2012 with sponsorship from Cork Dry Gin for the four-day event starting August 7th.
Meanwhile, the Crosshaven boating community is mourning the loss of yacht captain Philip Scully who died this week on passage from Antigua to the UK.
The owner of yacht Starry Night, the well travelled Oyster 82, advised of the sudden death of its long-term captain on Tuesday. According to reports the rest of the crew are well and conditions are good and the yacht is on its way to Bermuda and relevant authorities have been informed.
