A competitive eight boat fleet is building in Kinsale for the inaugural Matthews Inishtearaght Race taking place in less than a month's time. 

The race, promoted as an 'ideal shakedown race' for boats entering June's Round Ireland Race, has attracted top Dublin J/122 Aurelia from the Royal St. George Yacht Club.

Having only narrowly missed out on overall Round Ireland race victory previously, Chris Power Smith's potent ISORA entry is showing the depth of the Dun Laoghaire crew's ambitions by taking on the new Kinsale offshore challenge.

As Afloat already reported, the race will take the fleet along the coast of West Cork and Kerry, around Inishtearaght and return to finish in Kinsale.

Cian McCarthy's Sunfast 3300 Cinnamon Girl from the host club will race in May's Inishtearaght Race Photo: Dave Cullinane

The starting times are planned so that boats would stand the best chance of rounding the island in daylight.

The race was formally launched last December by KYC Commodore Matthias Hellstern. The first race will be sponsored by Matthews of Cork.

The course will be approximately 240nm long and will run along the spectacular coast of West Cork and Kerry, round Inistearaght and back to Kinsale. 

KYC Inishtearaght Race Current Entry List (April 24th)

Boat Name	Owner/Help	Boat Type	Club
Blue Oyster	Noel Colman	Oyster 37	Royal Cork YC
Cinnamon Girl	Cian McCarthy	Sunfast 3300	Kinsale YC
Mynx	Kenneth Cunnane	Swan 46	Tralee Bay SC
Chancer	Carroll Bros	Elan 40	Kinsale YC
White Tiger	Tony O’Brien	First 44.7	Kinsale YC
Aurelia	Chris & Patanne Power Smith	J/122	Royal St.George YC, RORC
Humdinger	John Conlon	Jeanneau Sunfast 37	Arklow SC
Meridian	Tom Roche	Salona 45	Kinsale YC

 

Sailing Instructions for the race will be available shortly.

The inaugural Matthews Inishtearaght Race takes place on Friday 20th May with FG 08.55hrs

To meet a growing demand for offshore racing, Kinsale Yacht Club Commodore Matthias Hellstern along with Dave Cullinane (SCORA Vice-Commodore) and Harvey Matthews representing sponsors Matthews of Cork, launched the inaugural Inishtearaght Race in Kinsale on Wednesday, December 23rd.

As Afloat reported previously, the race is a new south coast offshore race to be held biennially commencing in 2022.

The course will be approximately 240nm long and will run along the spectacular coast of West Cork and Kerry, round Inistearaght and back to Kinsale. 

The video below by Mary Malone captures the announcement by the KYC team.

 

The race will start on Friday 20th May 2022. Download the Notice of Race below.

SCORA Vice Commodore Dave Cullinane with The 150-year-old Thuillier Trophy to be presented to the line honours winner of May's Inistearaght Race Photo: Bob Bateman

The Thuillier family have kindly allowed the oldest trophy in Kinsale YC to be presented as the line honours trophy for the race. The Thuillier Cup is 150 years old, having been originally presented by the Royal Enniskillen Fusiliers in 1871 and won by Michael Thuillier. The cup was presented to Kinsale YC by the Thuillier family to acknowledge the long tradition of yacht racing in Kinsale.

Kinsale Yacht Club say sailing instructions and a race entry form will be available on www.kyc.ie closer to the date and additional information is available by emailing [email protected].

Kinsale Yacht Club and Marina - the start and finishing point for the new 240-mile Irish offshore yacht race Photo: Bob Bateman