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ICRA 'Overwhelmed' By Response to Under-25 Programme Initiative

20th December 2019
An under 25 team racing in a RStGYC J80 keelboat on Dublin Bay An under 25 team racing in a RStGYC J80 keelboat on Dublin Bay Credit: Afloat

The Irish Cruiser Racing Association (ICRA) says it has been 'overwhelmed' by the response it has received to its new Under 25 Support Programme.

The application period ended at midnight on the 19th December and is now closed for 2020.

As Afloat reported previously, ICRA is aiming to encourage young sailors to stay active in the sport and to foster their continued commitment as members of clubs. A programme has been devised by clubs to encourage and deliver a pathway from dinghy to cruiser racing.

Over the next three years, ICRA will deliver support funding that will provide successful applicant clubs with an initial Capital Grant that will help them buy a keelboat for their U25 squad. The scheme will then continue to provide an annual allowance to assist the same clubs to run their U25 programme until it is well established.

"The cruiser-racer body also received expressions of interest, from another ten clubs"

ICRA’s Brian Raftery who is overseeing this initiative has received applications from nine existing programmes at Rush, Malahide, Foynes, Tralee, Sligo, Howth, Baltimore and two Dun Laoghaire clubs. The cruiser-racer body also received expressions of interest, from another ten clubs including Lough Swilly, Mullaghmore, Greystones, Clifden, Westport, Kinsale, Kilrush, Crookhaven, Royal Cork and the Royal Irish Yacht club in Dun Laoghaire, all wishing to start new U25 programmes during the next season.

Brian commented “It is great to see so much enthusiasm across the sailing community to build structured programmes to keep our young adult sailors active in our sport. We will have a busy January, meeting with each of the clubs that have applied for support in 2020, before a final evaluation of applications takes place during February.”

Published in ICRA
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The Irish Cruiser Racing Association (ICRA) Information

The creation of the Irish Cruiser Racing Association (ICRA) began in a very low key way in the autumn of 2002 with an exploratory meeting between Denis Kiely, Jim Donegan and Fintan Cairns in the Granville Hotel in Waterford, and the first conference was held in February 2003 in Kilkenny.

While numbers of cruiser-racers were large, their specific locations were widespread, but there was simply no denying the numerical strength and majority power of the Cork-Dublin axis. To get what was then a very novel concept up and running, this strength of numbers had to be acknowledged, and the first National Championship in 2003 reflected this, as it was staged in Howth.

ICRA was run by a dedicated group of volunteers each of whom brought their special talents to the organisation. Jim Donegan, the elder statesman, was so much more interested in the wellbeing of the new organisation than in personal advancement that he insisted on Fintan Cairns being the first Commodore, while the distinguished Cork sailor was more than content to be Vice Commodore.

ICRA National Championships

Initially, the highlight of the ICRA season was the National Championship, which is essentially self-limiting, as it is restricted to boats which have or would be eligible for an IRC Rating. Boats not actually rated but eligible were catered for by ICRA’s ace number-cruncher Denis Kiely, who took Ireland’s long-established native rating system ECHO to new heights, thereby providing for extra entries which brought fleet numbers at most annual national championships to comfortably above the hundred mark, particularly at the height of the boom years. 

ICRA Boat of the Year (Winners 2004-2019)