I was on Dun Laoghaire Marina and in the Royal Irish Yacht Club on Saturday night to greet both the JPK 1080 "Rockabill VI" and J122 "Aurelia" into Dun Laoghaire after the ISORA grand finale - the Pwhelli to Dun Laoghaire race writes Maurice O'Connell
Both teams were tired but in good form after the all-day sprint which culminated in a light air crawl for the last few miles. What a season-long effort by two tremendously well-prepared boats.
"Rockabill VI" won the series overall and "Aurelia" finished 2nd overall and both are powered by North Sails. They also finished 1st and 2nd in IRC 0. Fantastic job guys! It has been a pleasure and privilege for us to travel the ISORA journey with you!
I spoke with Paul after the race and here is what he had to say - "this year has been an amazing year for us winning the Dun Laoghaire Dingle Race, ICRAs, Calves Week and now the ISORA series. Kieran Tarbett, our helmsman loves our new 3Di Code 1 and Code 2 jibs! Our original 2016 3DL offshore mainsail that we use for ISORA continues to perform really well and of course, our "Leinster" A3 reaching kite is such a great sail. Massive thanks to the North Sails Ireland team for helping us achieve such success."
It was also good news for us in IRC 1. Last year's winner, Peter Dunlop and Victoria Cox's always competitive J109 "Mojito" won the class convincingly. This year the ISORA races tended, on average, to favour the bigger boats but "Mojito" hung in there really well all season, often in tough conditions. I swapped Whatapps with Peter and Vicky last night just after the final race. "Mojito" had been looking good to win it but the "shutdown" on Dublin Bay at the end, combined with a strengthening foul tide was a tough one for them. Well done though guys. You have been fantastically consistent over the past few ISORA seasons.
Mojito flying her North Sails Superkote A2 Asymmetric spi & North Sails 3Di Mainsail
In IRC 2, Denis Power and Lindsay Casey's North Sails-powered J97 "Windjammer" repeated her 2018 victory by winning by a large margin from Joe Conway's Sigma 33 "Elandra" with Grzegorz Kalinecki's First 310 "More Mischief" in third. I raced with "Windjammer" few weeks ago, they are a top team and put a big effort into their ISORA racing.
Aboard Windjammer flying her North Sails 3Di Offshore mainsail and North Sails 3Di Code 1 Jib
From the team here at North Sails Ireland, sincere congratulations and THANK YOU to all our ISORA customers. Your results are below:-
OVERALL
1. "Rockabill VI" JPK 1080 Paul O'Higgins NORTH SAILS*
2. "Aurelia" J122 Chris Power-Smith NORTH SAILS
IRC 1
1. "Mojito" J109 Peter Dunlop and Vicky Cox NORTH SAILS
2. "Daydreamer" J109 Paul Sutton NORTH SAILS
3. "Jetstream" J109 Nigel Ingram NORTH SAILS*
IRC 2
1. "Windjammer" J97 Denis Power and Lindsay Casey NORTH SAILS
2. "Elandra" Sigma 33 Joe Conway NORTH SAILS
3. "More Mischief" First 310 Grzegorz Kalinecki NORTH SAILS
*denotes partial inventory
