Kinsale Yacht Club's 'Freya' is Biggest Entry in Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race

7th June 2021

Afloat.ie Team

Conor Doyle's fifty-foot X-yacht Freya is the largest entry in the 2021 Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race Credit: Bob Bateman

Kinsale Yacht Club rivals its South coast Royal Cork neighbour with four offshore entries into Wednesday's 280-mile Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race.

It's a strong turnout for the West Cork club that also has the biggest entry into the race in the form of Conor Doyle's fifty-foot X-yacht Freya.

Kinsale also has a potent double-handed entry from Cian McCarthy sailing his Sunfast 3300, Cinnamon Girl (stratospherically rated at 1.026)

Kinsale's Cian McCarthy is sailing his Sunfast 3300, Cinnamon Girl double-handed in the Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race Photo: Bob Bateman

Finbarr O'Regan's new J109 Artful Dodger will make its debut in the race and with one favourite J109 now out of the race and O'Regan's successful track record in his former Elan 333, this new Kinsale combination may be something of a dark horse in a race that will be raced along largely familiar south coast waters for the KYC crew.

The Dublin J109 Wakey Wakey has been sold to the south coast, is now known as Artful Dodger and makes her racing debut under the Kinsale Yacht Club burgee this week in the Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race Photo: Afloat

As Afloat's WM Nixon visualises here there could be a scenario where the Xp50 and the Xp44 WOW (George Sisk, RIYC) – along with other biggies like Robert Rendell's new Grand Soleil 44 Samatom – will get themselves clear ahead in a separate group and keep piling on the lead in increasingly different conditions from the rest of the fleet.

Kinsale Yacht Club Entries in the 2021 Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race

Artful Dodger J109, IRL1713, Skipper: Finbarr O'Regan, Class: IRC Racing, Rating: 1.006
Cinnamon Girl SUNFAST 3300, IRL 1627, Skipper: Cian McCarthy, Class: Double handed Racing, Rating: 1.026
Freya Xp50 IRL 5077, Skipper: Conor Doyle, Class: IRC Racing, Rating: 1.084
Meridian Salona 45, IRL 4076, Skipper: Thomas Roche, Class: IRC Racing, Rating: 1.094

Tom Roche's Meridian Salona 45 from Kinsale Photo: Bob Bateman

As Afloat reported, the race is shaping up to be a highlight of the sailing season and has attracted a formidable line-up of Irish offshore sailing talent.

38 boats are lined up for Wednesday's start at 2 pm, a date that WM Nixon is calling a Clarion Call for Ireland's 2021 Sailing Season.

Published in Dun Laoghaire Dingle, Kinsale

Dun Laoghaire Dingle Race Live Tracker 2023

Track the progress of the 2023 Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Yacht Race fleet on the live tracker above and the leaderboard below

Dun Laoghaire Dingle Race Live Leaderboard 2023

The 16th edition of the 280-mile race organised by the National Yacht Club starts at 2 pm on Wednesday, June 7th, on Dublin Bay.

Read the full 2023 race preview by WM Nixon here
Read all the D2D Race News in one handy link here
Listen to Lorna Siggins's interview with Race Chairman Adam Winkelmann on Afloat's Wavelengths here

WM Nixon will be posting regular race updates and analysis throughout the 2023 race here

Published in Dun Laoghaire Dingle

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Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Yacht Race Information

The biennial Dun Laoghaire to Dingle race is a 320-miles race down to the east coast of Ireland, across the south coast and into Dingle harbour in County Kerry.

The race is organised by the National Yacht Club.

It never fails to offer a full range of weather, wind and tide to the intrepid entrants, ranging from a 32ft cruiser to a 79ft all-out racer.

Three divisions are available to enter: cruiser (boats equipped with furlers), racing (the bulk of the fleet) and also two-handed.

D2D Course change overruled

In 2019, the organisers considered changing the course to allow boats to select routes close to shore by removing the requirement to go outside Islands and Lighthouses en route, but following input from regular participants, the National Yacht Club decided to stick with the tried and tested course route in order to be fair to large and smaller boats and to keep race records intact.

D2D Course record time

Mick Cotter’s 78ft Whisper established the 1 day and 48 minutes course record for the Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race in 2009 and that time stood until 2019 when Cotter returned to beat his own record but only just, the Dun Laoghaire helmsman crossing the line in Kerry to shave just 20 seconds off his 2009 time.