Fastnet 450 Race Capped at 25 Boat Limit; 19 Entered So Far (List Here!)

13th August 2020

Both Red Alert, the JOD of Greystones Sailing Club (foreground) and Samatom of Howth are racing the Fastnet 450 on August 22nd.

Ireland's newest offshore race, the Fastnet 450, looks like getting its full quota of 25 boats even though details of the 270-mile fixture were announced less than a fortnight ago.

19 race-boats - drawn from as many clubs - are now entered with a cap on entries now in place and eight days to go to the first gun.

The Dun Laoghaire Harbour to Cork Harbour race that incorporates the Fastnet Rock as part of the course, sets sail next Saturday lunchtime, August 22nd.

The 'pop-up' race commemorates the 150th anniversary of the National Yacht Club and the 300th anniversary of the Royal Cork Yacht Club and has been arranged in jig time by the South Coast of Ireland Offshore Racing Association (SCORA) as Afloat's WM Nixon's describes here.

Third in the Round Ireland, second in the D2D; could Aurelia top the podium of the inaugural Fastnet 450? Photo: Afloat

According to the skipper of the latest entry, Chris Power Smith's J122 Aurelia, "the allure of any race around yacht racing’s iconic Fastnet Rock is always hard to resist". The Dublin Bay skipper explained why the new race was an easy choice for him and his Royal St. George Yacht Club crew here.

Top DBSC performer Andrew Algeo is racing to Cork in his J/99 Juggerknot II Photo: Afloat

The Race Officer will be the National Yacht Club's Larry Power who is also in charge of the regular ISORA starts. The Warning Signal is 12.55 hrs on August 22.

The closing date for entries is next Monday, August 17th. The Notice of Race is here

Fastnet 450 Entry List at August 13

James	Tyrrell	Arklow Sailing club	Aquelina	J-112E
John	Harrington	RUYC and BYC	eXcession	IMX38
John	O'Gorman	NYC	Hot Cookie	Sunfast 3600
Brendan	Coghlan	George	YOYO	Sunfast3600
Rónán	Ó Siochrú	Irish Offshore Sailing	Desert Star Irish Offshore Sailing	Sunfast 37
Cian	McCarthy	Kinsale yacht club	cinnamon girl	Sunfast 3300
Robert	Rendell	Howth	Samatom	XC45
Simon	Knowles	Howth Yacht club	Indian	J109
Derek	Dillon	Foynes Yacht Club	Big Deal	Dehler 34
Grzegorz	Kalinecki	ISA	More Mischief	first 310
Peter	Coad	Waterford Harbour Sailing Club	Blackjack	Pocock 37
Andrew	Algeo	RIYC / BSC	Juggerknot 2	J/99
Rupert	Barry	Greystones Sailing Club	Red Alert	JOD35
Flynn	Kinsman	NYC	A Plus	Archambault 31
John	Conlon	Arklow	Humdinger	sunfast 37
Coleman/Coleman	David/Noel	RCYC	Blue Oyster	Oyster 37
Denis & Annamarie	Murphy	Royal Cork Yacht Club	Nieulargo	Grand Soleil 40 B+C
Riome (skipper)/ co Leonard	David/ Mark	Kinsale Yacht Club	Valfreya	Sigma 33
Power Smith	Chris		Aurelia	J122

Published in Fastnet 450 Race

K2Q - 260 mile course

K2Q - 160 mile course

'K2Q' Dun Laoghaire to Cork Race Live Tracker 2022

Track the progress of both the 160 mile and 260 mile K2Q Race fleet on the live trackers above and see all Afloat's K2Q Race coverage in one handy link here

The K2Q will consist of two combined events:

The primary race for the "The Breffni McGovern cup" will be approximately 260 miles, starting in Dun Laoghaire, passing through a virtual gate at the Cork Buoy, rounding the Fastnet Rock and finishing at Roches Point.

The "restricted" race for a still-to-be-announced trophy will start with the primary fleet in Dun Laoghaire but finish at the same virtual finish gate at Cork Buoy – approximately 150 miles.

All boats starting will be included in the "restricted" race. Boats passing through the finish gate at Cork Buoy and continuing to round the Fastnet and finish at Roches Point would also qualify for the primary K2Q event. Yachts can only win prizes in one of the events.

The race for the ISORA points will be the primary race – 260 miles.

The plan is for both 'K2Q races' to finish at the old RCYC clubhouse on the Cobh seafront.

Published in Fastnet 450 Race

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Fastnet 450

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The Kingstown to Queenstown Yacht Race or 'K2Q', previously the Fastnet 450

The Organising Authority ("OA") are ISORA & SCORA in association with The National Yacht Club & The Royal Cork Yacht Club.

The Kingstown to Queenstown Race (K2Q Race) is a 260-mile offshore race that will start in Dun Laoghaire (formerly Kingstown), around the famous Fastnet Rock and finish in Cork Harbour at Cobh (formerly Queenstown).

The K2Q race follows from the successful inaugural 'Fastnet 450 Race' that ran in 2020 when Ireland was in the middle of the COVID Pandemic. It was run by the National Yacht Club, and the Royal cork Yacht Club were both celebrating significant anniversaries. The clubs combined forces to mark the 150th anniversary of the National Yacht Club and the 300th (Tricentenary) of the Royal Cork Yacht Club.

Of course, this race has some deeper roots. In 1860 the first-ever ocean yacht race on Irish Waters was held from Kingstown (now Dun Laoghaire) to Queenstown (now Cobh).

It is reported that the winner of the race was paid a prize of £15 at the time, and all competing boats got a bursary of 10/6 each. The first race winner was a Schooner Kingfisher owned by Cooper Penrose Esq. The race was held on July 14th 1860, and had sixteen boats racing.

In 2022, the winning boat will be awarded the first prize of a cheque for €15 mounted and framed and a Trophy provided by the Royal Cork Yacht Club, the oldest yacht club in the world.

The 2022 race will differ from the original course because it will be via the Fastnet Rock, so it is a c. 260m race, a race distance approved by the Royal Cornwall Yacht Club as an AZAB qualifier.

A link to an Afloat article written by WM Nixon for some history on this original race is here.

The aim is to develop the race similarly to the Dun Laoghaire–Dingle Race that runs in alternate years.

Fastnet 450 in 2020

The South Coast of Ireland Racing Association, in association with the National Yacht Club on Dublin Bay and the Royal Cork Yacht Club in Cork, staged the first edition of this race from Dun Laoghaire to Cork Harbour via the Fastnet Rock on August 22nd 2020.

The IRC race started in Dun Laoghaire on Saturday, August 22nd 2020. It passed the Muglin, Tuscar, Conningbeg and Fastnet Lighthouses to Starboard before returning to Cork Harbour and passing the Cork Buoy to Port, finishing when Roches's Point bears due East. The course was specifically designed to be of sufficient length to qualify skippers and crew for the RORC Fastnet Race 2021.

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