Virgin Media Ireland AM weatherman Deric Hartigan delivered the latest weather news and interviewed VDLR Chairman Don O’Dowd from a RIB in Dun Laoghaire Harbour, chatting about the regatta’s first-ever Bay Race, which looks set to be held in some plentiful sunshine.
Singer Neil Young’s superyacht may have sailed away, but Dun Laoghaire is about to rock again this Thursday as European champions are among 100-plus cruiser racers competing for IRC honours as part of Ireland’s biggest sailing event, Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta 2025.
A host of excited foreign accents can already be heard on the waterfront as crews fly in for the Inaugural Melges 15 Europeans Championships, which will be held on the Hyland Shipping course at the Volvo Dun Laoghaire regatta.
If you find yourself missing a crucial piece of kit, or fancy some official merch to remember the regatta by, pop into the store at The Pavilion — just metres from the Dun Laoghaire Waterfront — or order online at vikingmarine.ie.
The countdown is on to the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta 2025, which sets sail on Thursday, 10th July, with the firing of two historic guns by the Irish Defence Forces to mark the start of a brand-new Bay Race
Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta 2025 Race Officer Con Murphy cheerfully admits that the concept of the “Bay Race”, getting this week’s biennial four-day sailfest off to a flying start on Thursday, July 10th, is to some extent a “Work in Progress,” and all in my head.
>The big Lombard 46 Pata Negra of Andrew and Sam Hall took the size advantage to win line honours and the overall handicap prize in the Lyver race, the twelfth race of the ISORA Viking Marine Musto Championships
Among the northern boats competing are two Sigma 33s, which made the short passage from Howth to Dun Laoghaire after the Irish Championships. Paul and Emma Prentice’s Squawk were fourth in the Gold Fleet, and Elandra (Victoria and Martin Dews) third in the Silver Fleet, and they look forward to battling it out in the ten-strong one-design fleet.
The Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta 2025 gets under way next Thursday July 10th, introducing four days of racing to provide a continuation of rivalries which have been bubbling along with increasing vigour since the Scottish Series in May. Back then, the Hall family’s J/109 Something Else from the National Yacht Club emerged as top boat overall, with clubmate Johnny Treanor’s newer J/112eGP ValenTina next in line.
Twelve boats, including the overall 2025 series leader and her near rival sistership, will compete in ISORA’s Royal Dee Offshore Championship, which is being sailed as part of next week’s Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta, kicking off this Saturday (July 5th) with the cross-channel Lyver Trophy Race.
