Reigning ISORA Champion Rockabill VI (Paul O'Higgins) took a one-minute 35-second margin on corrected time to win the second ISORA Viking Marine Coastal Race on Dublin Bay this afternoon.
The JPK10.80 was the IRC overall and Class Zero winner according to provisional results published by ISORA via the association's tracker that are subject to official confirmation.
XP 44 WOW overtakes the Greystones JOD 35 Red Alert shortly after the reaching start
Second overall was the Howth Yacht Club J109 Indian (Colm Buckley and Simon Knowles) who was also the Class One winner.
Howth Yacht Club J109 Indian (Colm Buckley and Simon Knowles) was the Class One Winner
The fleet contained a number of new entries for the second of the four-race mini-series including the new First 40 to Dublin Bay, Prima Forte and the Channel 32 Wavetrain from Greystones Sailing Club.
The gleaming varnish of the Channel 32 Wavetrain from Greystones takes the Committee Boat end at the start of the second ISORA Viking MarineCoastal Race
Rockabill VI (Paul O'Higgins) going well in the light winds under symmetric spinnaker
O'Higgins of the Royal Irish Yacht Club gave a fine display on how to navigate Dublin Bay's tidal currents even though hugging the Dublin Bay shoreline did not always look like the right move in the fickle sub-ten-knot westerlies as the 19-boat fleet started from the Dun Laoghaire Harbour's outfall Mark in Seapoint Bay.
The First 40 'Prima Forte' on its first ISORA race
Early into the 24-mile race, it appeared that boats such as first race winner George Sisk's WOW, an XP44, had secured the best pressure in the centre of the course in the light westerlies as the feet raced towards the first mark at the Muglins at the southern tip of Dublin Bay.
It became obvious though as the fleet exited the Bay that O'Higgins's ploy to hug the Scotsman's Bay shore in the south of the Bay in the last of the ebb tide was a race-winning move.
John Treanor's Grand Soleil 34 Justina from the National Yacht Club
Second in Class One was the Grand Soleil 34, Justina, skippered by John Treanor, from the National Yacht Club who followed a similar strategy.
The Royal St. George Yacht Club J97 Windjammer steered by Fireball ace Noel Butler
Class Two in the four-hour race was won by Leslie Parnell's First 34.7 Black Velvet who won from the Royal St. George J97 Windjammer.
