Mike & Richie Evans’s well-starred J/99 Snapshot (Howth YC) got the best of it in today’s first race ahead of John Maybury’s frequently-winning J/109 Joker (RIYC), with northern star Final Call II, John Minnis’s A35 helmed by Gareth Flannigan (RUYC & RNIYC) in third.
The tough first race of IRC Two at Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta saw the rugged veteran X-302 Dux (Gore-Grimes family, HYC) loving it, but as things settled down a bit, Olympian Andy Beadsworth in James Dwyer’s legendary Half Tonner c (Royal Cork YC) found his mojo to record 4,4,1 against Dux’s 1,7,3, while Stephen Quinn’s J/97 Lambay Rules (HYC) lies third on 2,1,10.
Joe Smyth’s Yikes from the Royal Irish Yacht Club won the breezy first race of the Beneteau 211 class of the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta on Dublin Bay, but the race was not without drama as one yacht was dismasted.
With the 2023 Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta starting for dinghies this Friday, the GP14 Ireland fleet will use the event as their 2023 Leinster Championships. This is not the first time the Leinsters have been run as part of Volvo, and former winners Ger Owens and Mel Morris will be on the start line to try and retain their Leinster crown, having won in Mullingar last year.
Dublin Port Harbour Master Capt. Michael McKenna, Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta Events Director Paddy Boyd and Dun Laoghaire Harbour Master Capt. Harry Duggan were at the opening of the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta today ahead of the first races of the biennial event.
The National Yacht Club’s Tom Galvin and Cormac Bradley were the winners of Thursday’s first Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta race in the Flying Fifteen class. As southerly winds topped 30 knots, only five starters from a fleet of 22 came to the startline of the Salthill course area in the northwest of Dublin Bay.
The first day of the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta saw the cancellation of nearly all racing due to strong winds. Five of the six courses at Ireland’s largest sailing event were cancelled as the southerly breeze on Dublin Bay reached 38 knots.
Sixteen Fireball dinghies are lined up to compete in the Volvo Dun Laoghaire regatta this long weekend. The relatively large Fireball entry has taken even the class committee by surprise. It is clear now that the resurgence spurred on by last year’s Worlds in LDYC Dromineer is here to stay.
To ensure the safety of all concerned and to facilitate the management of such a large sailing event, the South Burford Traffic Separation Scheme will be closed to all commercial traffic on Thursday 6 July between noon and 6.30pm, and Friday 7, Saturday 8 and Sunday 9 July between 10am and 6.30pm.
Within 24 hours of the first races of Ireland’s biggest sailing event at Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta, Division One IRC gets hotter with the unconfirmed report that a Hong Kong crew skippered by Jamie McWilliam has entered the 24-boat fray on a J109.
