17/09/2024
Story by Rear Commodore Sailing, Colin Galavan
The RIYC’s triage of events came to a conclusion with the Maples Group RORC IRC European Championships with four days of windward leeward and tight round the cans races in Dublin Bay.
The weather gods looked favorably on the event and the full schedule of nine races were completed. It followed the Northern Trust J Cup and the Unio ICRA National Championships on each of the preceding weekends.
Karl Kwok’s TP52 Beau Gest graced our waters and was the winner of Class 0. She came all the way from Hong Kong and it was a delight to see her glide across the bay at breakneck speed, Americas Cup eat your heart out. Second place was Nigel Biggs' Checkmate XX and third was John Treanor’s Valetina. John & Suzie Murphy’s J109 Outrageous won Class 1 and the overall European IRC trophy but was closely followed by John Maybury’s J109 Joker 2 in second place and John Minnis’s Final Call II in third. Class 2 was dominated by Boardman, Kelly & O'Leary’s half tonner 2 Farr, closely followed by James Dwyer’s Swuzzlebubble and Colin Kavanagh’s General Lee. Rory Gorvez’s J24 Hard On Port took the title in Class 3 followed by the half tonners Snoopy and Insider. Full results here.
The Race Officer, Michael Tyrrell and his team that included Theresa Tyrrell, managed to complete the full compliment of 9 races under some challenging and variable weather conditions. A team of volunteers from RIYC assisted with rescue and mark laying under the guidance of the Director of Racing, Joe Conway. Full credit to the staff at RIYC who stepped up to the plate to provide a great service and maintain the high standards that are attained at the RIYC. The competitors departed for home well satisfied after a superb series of Regattas.
A special thanks also goes to Patrick Burke, a co-owner of the First 40 Primaforte, who chaired the steering committee and was ably assisted by Fintan Kearns and Paul McCarthy.
Footage from lensfromaboveireland.ie