First raced in 1966, the four-yearly multi-stage 2000-mile Round Britain & Ireland Race - sailed clockwise from the Royal Western Yacht Club in Plymouth - has always featured an Irish stopover. But this coming weekend, when the fleet starts westward from Plymouth on Sunday, May 29th, for the first time that key initial stage-post will be the Port of Galway.
It’s a stopover which will have its own sponsor in the shape of locally-based multi-national IT company Genesys, who are also supporters of the rising Connacht rugby team. With that Genesys muscle behind them for the RB&I Race, Galway Harbour Master Captain Brian Sheridan and the reception team from Galway Bay SC, working together with the city’s hospitality groups, will be able to offer something very special indeed, taking full advantage of the fact that each boat has a mandatory 48-hour stopover.
The 2022 RB&I Course – starting from Plymouth, Galway is Stop 1, Lerwick is Stop 2, and Blyth is Stop 3
As the fleet ranges in size and type from multihulls and 50-footers right down to a vintage 25ft Vertue cutter, they’ll already be well spread out by the time Galway is reached. So with the 48 hours factored in – with each boat then having its own set starting time to begin the next extra-long leg to Lerwick in the Shetland Islands – having the RB&I boats in town will be an expanding feast.
Cover girl. O’Brien Kennedy sailing his new own-designed Leitrim-built 6-ton 26ft Kerry sloop, as seen on the cover of the June 1970 Irish Yachting & Motorboating, the predecessor of Afloat.ie. A fifth place in the large-fleet 1970 Round Britain & Ireland Race established the Kerry’s credentials as a seaworthy performance cruiser.
This year’s race has three notable firsts. Where it had always previously been a two-handed event, 2022 will see a division for fully-crewed entries. After last weekend’s stunning victory by two-handers Cian McCarthy and Sam Hunt in the Sun Fast 3300 Cinnamon Girl in the inaugural Kinsale YC 240-mile Inishtearaght Race, it’s a moot point whether being fully-crewed confers truly significant advantages. But in order to accommodate increased personnel numbers, the competing boats – while staying with the same skipper throughout – are allowed a crew change at either Galway, Lerwick or the third stopover at Blyth in Northumberland.
2022’s third notable “first” is quite something, as the age of the youngest skipper – having been at 21 since 1988 – has now seen a significant reduction to 19 thanks to the finalization of the entry by young Welsh sailor Lou Boorman from Pembrokeshire and her shipmate Elin Jones with the Contessa 32 White Knight.
Lou Boorman’s White Knight is a Contessa 32
Round Britain & Ireland Race Entry List
The entry list as of 24-05-22 is here
It reveals some special Irish interest. Conor Fogerty of Howth, now racing the Figaro 3 Raw, is renewing his involvement with the RWYC which enabled him to become Ireland’s 2017 “Sailor of the Year” after his success with the Sunfast 3600 Bam in the RWYC Single-Handed Transat, though quite how he’s managing to fit this time-hungry circuit into an already busy 2022 season remains to be seen.
Changing of the Guard. Conor Fogerty becomes Ireland’s “Sailor of the Year” 2017, seen here with 2016 title-holder, Olympic Silver Medallist Annalise Muphy. Photo: Brian Turvey
The Isle of Man’s Kuba Szymanski, a noted ISORA contender, is also in the lineup with his First 40.7 Polished Manx, and while much is being made of Lou Boorman’s Welsh connections, as her home port is in Milford Haven we can also bring her and White Knight in under the Irish Sea umbrella, giving us three entries of special Irish interest if they’re all there on the line on Sunday.
IRISH INVOLVEMENT IN TIMES PAST
It’s a race with a history of Irish involvement which makes up in quality what it lacks in quantity. Two notable contenders in times past were O’Brien Kennedy with his Leitrim-built Kerry 6-tonner in 1970, and Brian Law and Dickie Gomes of Strangford Lough with the Dick Newick-designed 38ft trimaran Downtown Flyer in 1982.
O’Brien Kennedy placed a very commendable fifth in one of the smallest boats in the fleet in 1970, thereby achieving his aim of establishing his Kerry Class as very seaworthy performance-oriented cruiser, something done with such notable success at a quiet international level that the Kerry now has her own enthusiastic entry on German Wikipedia.
Downtown Flyer’s plans were classic Dick Newick
As for Downtown Flyer, created by a building team headed by Brian Law in Lisburn, she became a legend. She won her class in the 1982 RB&I, and went on to many other successes which reflected the fact that she was well able to sail the 140-mile passage from the Tuskar Rock to Land’s End in eight hours.
Downtown Flyer building in Lisburn in January 1982. Photo: W M Nixon
While Newick trimarans may look distinctive to the point of oddness nowadays, they continue to have their enthusiasts, and Downtown Flyer – now called Panache - was seen as recently as 2018 in Gibraltar in good sea-going order, a reminder that forty years ago, this remarkable machine came storming out of Strangford Lough to a achieve a litany of international success.
The former Downtown Flyer, now known as Panache, seen at La Linnea in Gibraltar in 2018
So who knows what long-term history will be in the making as the fleet heads for Galway from Plymouth next Sunday. Spare a special thought for Matteo Richardi and Alexandra Robasto in the little Vertue 25 Mea. By the time the fleet gets to Blyth, the comfortable Mee could well be weeks rather than days behind the leaders…….
In the heart of Ireland’s Atlantic seaboard, the Port of Galway is geared up for hospitality
