Irish Offshore Sailing News. Training Courses, Lessons, & Race Results
Royal Irish Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta Offshore Champion 'Mermaid' To Defend Title
5th January 2021 Volvo Regatta
The defending Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta offshore champion is among the first six entries into that division for July’s regatta, a class that looks set to become one of the biggest fleets of the biennial event again. As regular Afloat…
Claims That Would-Be Round-the-World Record-Setter’s Yacht Left to Rot by Maritime Museum
20th December 2020 Offshore
Mail Online is reporting that the yacht used by would-be round-the-world record-setter Jessica Watson has been left to rot outside the maritime museum where it has resided for almost a decade. In 2009, then 16-year-old Watson, from Australia, sailed her…
Offshore Chief Expresses Disappointment Over World Sailing's 'Possible Loss' of Keelboat for Paris Olympics
10th December 2020 Mixed Offshore Keelboat
A leading offshore sailor and former Admiral of the Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) in London says because of the 'possible loss' of the new offshore keelboat at the Olympics he questions whether it is worth sustaining the connection of…
Global circumnavigator Bill King of Oranmore Castle in Galway had lived to be 102 when he died – still very fit – in 2012. Yet he’d led such an extraordinary life of adventure and danger ashore and afloat and under…
Kenny Rumball & Pamela Lee Aiming for Paris 2024 in New Mixed Offshore Keelboat Class
29th November 2020 Pamela Lee
Dun Laoghaire Harbour's Kenny Rumball and Pamela Lee of Greystones Harbour have restated their goal to represent Ireland at Paris 2024 in the new Olympic Mixed Offshores Double Class. "We're absolutely focused and excited and working towards Paris 2024, but…
Plans have emerged for a new round-the-world event for ocean racing yachts which could set off from the starting line next October. As Yacht Racing Life reports, a provisional Notice of Race has been published for what’s being called the…
Round Ireland Sailing Record by Pamela Lee & Catherine Hunt Just Gets Better & Better
14th November 2020 Pamela Lee
The Round Ireland Sailing Record is a bit like Ireland herself. It's complicated by Partition. It's a case of there being not one but two sets of records, two elephants in two rooms. But for interested parties, the relevant elephant…
Latest IMOCA Technology Advances Expected to Deliver New Vendée Globe Record Time
5th November 2020 Vendee Globe
The Vendée Globe will likely see a new record time set in the edition which starts this Sunday 8 November, with Hugo Boss skipper Alex Thomson suggesting a finish “between 59 and 70 days depending on the weather”. Such a…
Promoted
Kenny Rumball & Pamela Lee Set the Scene for Irish Offshore Sailors with North Sails Set-up
3rd November 2020 Pamela Lee
Rookie Kenny Rumball competed in his Figaro debut this autumn, reaching as high as 15th in the third stage in the notoriously tough French solo marathon event that saw the Dubliner end up 33rd from 35 starters overall. It marked the first…
Sydney Hobart Race New Two-handed Division Not Eligible for Overall Win
3rd November 2020 Sydney to Hobart
This year's Rolex Sydney Hobart Race, the 76th running of the Australian race, welcomes a new division of boats and sailors to the world-renowned racecourse with the Two-Handed division included for the first time. After witnessing the worldwide increase in…
The new Round Ireland Two-handed Record Holders, RL Sailing's Pamela Lee of Greystones SC and Catherine Hunt, are acclaimed as October's "Sailors of the Month" after a superbly-executed circuit of our island home which went way beyond their initial challenge…
Marcus Hutchinson of Kinsale & Howth in the Thick of it in Vendee Globe Management
31st October 2020 W M Nixon
Marcus Hutchinson has been having a good Autumn in his role as a sort of benign marine Svengali with an Irish flavour, operating largely behind the scenes at the sharp end of the French big-time offshore racing scene. But it…
Dublin Sailor Publishes Adventures Solo Sailing the Atlantic & Caribbean in a Hallberg Rassy 352
28th October 2020 Cruising
Dublin sailor Alan McMahon has published a book on his solo sailing adventures aboard a Hallberg Rassy 352 which he sailed across the Atlantic and back in 2018/19. 'Sailing Away' is an autobiographical account of one man's 13-month adventure, sailing…
Maltese Yacht 'Elusive 2' Repeats Middle Sea Success in Consecutive Years
22nd October 2020 Middle Sea Race
1700 CEST: It is the year that just keeps on giving. By midnight on Wednesday, 15 of the 50-boat fleet had completed the course. Ten of those were competing under IRC for the overall Rolex Middle Sea Race Trophy and…
Podesta's Maltese First 45 Elusive 2 is Middle Sea Race Overall Winner
22nd October 2020 Middle Sea Race
At 15:00 CEST today (Thursday, 22 October 2020) the winner of the 41st edition of the Rolex Middle Sea Race was announced as the Maltese First 45 Elusive 2, skippered by Aaron, Christoph and Maya Podesta. As Afloat reported earlier,…
Class One Win for Nin O'Leary as Elusive 2 Maintains IRC Overall Lead to Finish of Middle Sea Race
22nd October 2020 Middle Sea Race
A strengthening breeze from the southeast has brought the key middle group of top handicap win contenders in the 41st Rolex Middle Sea Race from Lampedusa through the night and the early hours of this morning to the finish at…