Royal Irish JPK 10.80 Rockabill VI Reigns in Cross-Channel ISORA Race

15th May 2022

ISORA race yachts Wild Haggis skippered by Nigel Ingram (left) and Brendan Coghlan's Yoyo pass anchored Tall Ships Pelican and Maybe on their was to the finish off Dun Laoghaire Harbour.

ISORA race yachts Wild Haggis skippered by Nigel Ingram (left) and Brendan Coghlan's Yoyo pass anchored Tall Ships Pelican and Maybe on their way to the finish off Dun Laoghaire Harbour Credit: Afloat

Royal Irish JPK 10.80 Rockabill VI skippered by Paul O'Higgins reigned in Saturday's first ISORA cross channel IRC race for over two years but with a winning margin of less than a minute after nine hours on the water.

The Dun Laoghaire yacht – which has won all its ISORA fixtures this season – had just 52 seconds over Welsh rival J109 Mojito, skippered by Peter Dunlop and Vicky Cox.

The yachts finished under spinnaker in light airs at tea time at Dun Laoghaire Harbour with respective corrected elapsed times of 9 hours 34 minutes and 28 seconds and 9 hours, 35 minutes and 20 seconds.

14 ISORA boats raced across the Irish Sea on a 59 mile course from Holyhead to Dun Laoghaire Screenshot: YB Tracker 17 ISORA boats raced across the Irish Sea on a 59-mile course from Holyhead to Dun Laoghaire Screenshot: YB Tracker

From a pre-race billing of over 20, a fleet of 17 came to the line at Holyhead in North Wales on Saturday morning with 13 finishers of the Musto sponsored race on Dublin Bay.

The fleet sailed into fog off the Irish coast that reduced visibility so severely that it led to the cancellation of the bulk of DBSC racing on Dublin Bay but cleared briefly around 6 pm to let the leaders at least finish in relatively clear conditions.

The line honours winner was the Grand Soleil 44 Samatom (Robert Rendell) of Howth, who finished on a corrected time of 9.46.35 to take third overall on IRC.

The line honours winner was the Grand Soleil 44 Samatom (Robert Rendell) Photo: Afloat

With IRC Zero victory going to Rockabill VI, second in the big boat division was Rendell's Samatom, with Andrew Hall's Pwhelli based J125 Jackknife second.

The J109 Mojito (Peter Dunlop and Vicky Cox) was second in the line honours race at Dun Laoghaire Harbour Photo: Afloat

Second to Mojito in IRC One division was Paul Sutton's sistership and Pwhelli clubmate, Jaydreamer. In a J109 clean-up in that division, Simon Knowles was third in the Howth Yacht Club J, Indian.

IRC Class 2, Pwllheli Sailing Club's Pete Ashworth's Sunfast 3200 beat Mark and Jo Thompson's Sunfast 3200i.

Irish Sea Offshore Racing Association Results Race 05 - Class 0/1/2 IRC/ECHO

Live Dublin Bay webcams here

Published in ISORA, Royal Irish Yacht Club

Published in ISORA

Tagged under

About The Author

Afloat.ie Team

Email The Author

Afloat.ie is Ireland's dedicated marine journalism team.

Have you got a story for our reporters? Email us here.

We've got a favour to ask

More people are reading Afloat.ie than ever thanks to the power of the internet but we're in stormy seas because advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news sites, we haven’t put up a paywall because we want to keep our marine journalism open.

Afloat.ie is Ireland's only full–time marine journalism team and it takes time, money and hard work to produce our content.

So you can see why we need to ask for your help.

If everyone chipped in, we can enhance our coverage and our future would be more secure. You can help us through a small donation. Thank you.