2022 promises to be a bumper year for offshore racing, especially in Ireland with the much-awaited Round Ireland Yacht Race undoubtedly the highlight of the year ahead for many offshore sailors in Ireland.

As detailed last year, the Offshore Racing Academy has been founded as a hub of advice, training and support for offshore racing. Its founder Kenny Rumball has been racing offshore professionally for over 10 years with notable successful campaigns in Ireland and abroad including Jedi’s (J109) Fastnet Race class win, a superb season as a skipper of the Fast 40 Keronimo and three years on the Figaro circuit in France. Not just one to rely solely on racing, Kenny also won the RORC Seamanship Award for Successful recovery of MOB in the Round Ireland Race.

Learning from these successful campaigns and the intense level of training and coaching in France, the Offshore Racing Academy is bringing this training and advice to Ireland and supporting ISORA where many successful young sailors have started their offshore racing campaign.

With some boat plans well in advance for 2022, the ORA has a number of talks planned to aid preparations for the season ahead. All sessions and events will be advertised on the Offshore Racing Academy website, and Facebook pages, likewise on ISORA with a reminder article on Afloat.ie one week out from each event!

The start of an ISORA race on Dublin Bay

Most events will be on Zoom as the providers for these talks and seminars are based outside of Ireland.

The talks are as follows;

Introduction to Offshore Sailing seminar/discussion for skippers and crew Tuesday 22nd March 2022 1900-2100.

All your questions answered as to how to prepare yourself and your boat for Offshore Racing! Topics include;

• Basic Boat Preparation
• Crew Preparation
• Safety Considerations
• Managing sleep and watch systems
• Navigation and routing considerations
• New keel inspection requirements for 2022

Weather Analysis/Windy briefing by Christian Dumard. Tuesday 5th April 2022 1900-2100 on Zoom.

Windy is the most complete source of weather information available on the internet. In two hours you will learn how to use all the features and combine the different data available to get a quality forecast, whether you are sailing for a day or a multi-day trip. The course material will be sent to you at the end of the course with a series of exercises to practice.

Christian is a professional router and has worked for many skippers, including the Mini Transat, the Volvo Ocean Race, the Vendée Globe, the Atlantic Back Cruising and many other events. He accompanies more than a hundred cruising yachts every year during their crossings. He has participated in numerous races (America's Cup, Tour de France à la Voile, Admiral's Cup, ...) and has more than 100 000 miles of cruising experience.

Adrena/Expedition weather routing basics and information Tuesday 12th April 2022 1900-2100

This introduction session aims to showcase the differences between the two most popular routing software providers and provide answers to some of the myths surrounding routings and routing software.

It is hoped to give participants the advice on what program will suit them best the price considerations for both and also the necessary hardware and backup information for these systems to work on one’s boat!

Getting the most from your racing. 1900-2100 on zoom on Tuesday 29th March 2022

This more advanced information evening is for more in-depth offshore racing thoughts and aims, which this session will aim to cover.

• Boat Preparation Cat 1 & Cat 2
• Interpreting Rules
• Managing Crew roles and rest patterns
• Spares and boat preparation to avoid necessary repairs
• Weight distribution and securing arrangements.
• Use of weather and navigation routing for optimal performance.

These talks will be followed up later in the season by pre-race weather analysis and post-race performance debriefings that Kenny Rumball provided last year.

These weather and post race de-briefs were hugely successful in allowing boats, crews and skippers to understand where some boats had made winning decisions and where other boats could have improved!

Kenny Rumball on January activities of his newly formed Offshore Racing Academy 

The offshore shorthanded racing scene has exploded and is racing away without any signs of slowing down.

Countless numbers of IMOCAs and Class 40s are in build ahead of the upcoming Route du Rhum and also the next Vendee Globe in 2024, so where do we fit in?

We’re mainly focusing this year on the Figaro 3; the founding fleet for the best sailors in the offshore world! It’s almost a right of passage, to be considered competitive in the Class 40 or even IMOCA fleets first you have to have been competitive in La Solitaire du Figaro.

I  have completed one so far with no focused training before due to the outbreak of Covid in 2020, to even get on the start line that year was an achievement! With the learning from this, we’re fulfilling our aims and goals to lend a helping hand and guidance to rookies coming into the most demanding, competitive and intense one-design offshore fleet in the world!

"To be considered competitive in Class 40 first you have to have been competitive in La Solitaire du Figaro"

This January 2022, we have hit the ground running, before the obligatory Christmas break, we had assisted the Raw campaign of Conor Fogerty in delivering his Figaro 3 by sea and his cradle in the team van and trailer setup, early January saw us crack into fitting out, optimising and ensuring his boat was class legal for the season ahead. With this work in progress, we also focused some time on the water with Matthew Beecher of Kinsale by getting some one on one boat handling practise and coaching in Port La Foret, the birthplace of solo offshore racing in France.

Using our considerable network of contacts in the industry in France and with thanks to the victory of Yannick Besthaven in the last Vendee Globe who hails from La Rochelle, we were the first to hear of the new Pole La Rochelle Course au Large. In France the ‘Pole’s are sailing centres of excellence, combining all the necessary elements to compete at the highest level. State of the art classrooms, gymnasiums, coach boats and a boat support network, there is nothing that has not been thought about already.

Offshore Racing Academy Founder Kenny Rumball (left) with Matthew Beecher

But don’t take our word for it, Matthew Beecher accounts on late January;

January with The Offshore Racing Academy was busy, challenging and super rewarding. I kicked off the month with a couple of days of solo manoeuvre practice in Port la Foret, "the birthplace of solo offshore racing", on my Figaro 3 in preparation for some more one to one coaching sessions with Kenny Rumball. We then got to work preparing the boat for an intense training block with Pole La Rochelle. For my first solo passage I delivered "Han" down to La Base Lorient (the current home of short-handed offshore sailing) where I met up with Kenny once again, and a day later we started the 20 hour double handed delivery down to La Rochelle. There is a few different training groups for Figarists around France, and thankfully the Offshore Racing Academy had already established a relationship with the coach and sailors in the "Pole La Rochelle" training group.

Over a week, Coach Etienne facilitated multiple small races, speed tests, manoeuvre drills and classroom sessions. There was 4 boats and 6 sailors involved, a mixture of rookies, established class members and seasoned professionals (one of them is here to train for the Vendee Globe 2024!).

As a Figaro Rookie, all of this is new and strange to me. I feel like this massive goal for me would be completely unattainable if I were here in France on my own, especially considering my lack of French, shoreside resources, local knowledge and awareness of this completely different sailing culture that exists and thrives here in France. I am here to become the best offshore sailor that I can be, and this means I need to put my pride and ego aside and trust the experience of the Offshore Racing Academy. Kenny Rumball and Marcus Hutchinson both value the sailing culture here very highly, and are always setting up valuable introductions for me to get a better awareness of how all of this works. The resources available through the Offshore Racing Academy are absolutely invaluable. Important contacts, technical sponsors, a van, a trailer, spare equipment and most importantly people to bounce ideas off of and offer well-founded advice. I am extremely grateful for the help I have received from the Academy as I begin to find my footing in this extremely competitive industry.

Kenny and Marcus also offered me lots of valuable advice on how to approach the business side of offshore racing. Finding the money to make my solo racing dream happen consumes a lot of my time, and I feel fortunate to be able to associate my campaign with an Academy which specialises in this industry. I look forward to welcoming more partners on board with my campaign, so that I can continue to engage with the Academy and take my sailing to the next level. By the way, sailing in January is absolutely freezing!

February is upon us, no time left to waste, this week, we are with Lorient Grand Large, La Rochelle at the end of the week, and there are rumours we’ll be on the start line of the Dublin Bay Spring Chicken Series on Sunday in 1720 sportsboat!

That’s all for now!

Kenny

The Offshore Racing Academy which aims to provide professional impartial offshore sailing and racing advice to make offshore sailing and racing more fun, enjoyable and safe for sailors of all levels from the gruelling Figaro and Class 40 solo offshore circuits to national and coastal IRC sailing is delighted to announce a strategic partnership with Expedition Foods.

Established in 1995, Expedition Foods provides top quality freeze-dried meals to internationally acclaimed explorers, rowers, sailors, endurance athletes and mountaineers as well as campers, scouts, film crews, military personnel and rescue service teams all over the world.

Expedition Foods’ delicious light-weight meals provide the perfect nutrition for a wide range of outdoor pursuits. Sold globally, Expedition Foods is recognised as one of the top brands of freeze-dried meals available in today’s market. Manufactured in Britain, Expedition Foods is the expert in producing meals that retain all the nutrition of a perfectly balanced meal in a single, light-weight packet. Our meals deliver the fuel and balanced nutrition required for the most gruelling of challenges; to summit our highest peaks, to row our oceans, and to traverse the remotest wildernesses on our planet.

Kenneth Rumball of the Offshore Racing Academy has been solely using Expedition Foods for the past number of years as supplier of choice for gruelling offshore races and expeditions, in his own words, ‘Expedition Foods are perfect for offshore racing whether you are fully crewed or sailing solo. The meals are lightweight, delicious to eat and with three calorie options High Energy (800+ kcal), Regular Serving (450 kcal) and Extreme Energy (1000 kcal) you can choose how much you need right away with no wastage! The fact that all you need to do is add hot water, you reduce cooking time and mess on board which means you can eat quickly and efficiently and then get back to the racing with minimal downtime!’

Expedition Food will be the Offshore Racing Academy’s food supplier of choice with members competing in both the Classe Figaro Beneteau and Class 40 circuits this year.

The Offshore Racing Academy’s racing season is non stop this year…. Some races are literally back to back, the calendar includes;

• The Solo Maitre Coq – Figaro 3 15th-24th April – Solo Race as a qualifier for the Solitaire du Figaro
• The Normandy Channel Race 15th-20th May
• Sardinha Cup 3rd to 17th June – 2 leg double-handed race in the Figaro 3
• SSE Renewables Round Ireland Yacht Race 18th – 25th June. Members will be competing on Fully – Crewed boats for this race.
• Dhream Cup 12th – 23rd July Members will be competing in this race in both the Classe 40 and Figaro 3 boats
• Solo Guy Cotton (Solo Concarneau) 2nd-6th August Figaro 3 Qualifying Race for the Solitaire du Figaro
• Round Britain and Ireland Yacht Race 7th-14th August Class 40
• La Solitaire du Figaro 15th August – 11th September. The Infamous solo marathon in the Figaro 3

The Offshore Racing Academy is actively seeking further partners to help actively promote the values of companies, businesses and individuals who wish to gain exposure in a unique diverse platform. With events in France, the UK and Ireland this year, any company or individual who is looking to promote their business of idea will reach a very wide audience.

If you would like more information on how to partner with the Offshore Racing Academy, email [email protected]