Finishing in a sub-one-day elapsed time frame, Royal St. George Yacht Club's Chris Power Smith, on board his J122 Aurelia, won line honours and IRC victory on Saturday in Kinsale Yacht Club's eight-boat offshore Inistearaght Race.
Having won line honours in 2023, the sole Dublin boat in the race returned and went one better in 2025 and took the overall title ahead of defending champion Cian McCarthy's Sunfast 3300 Cinnamon Girl of the host club.
This year's race was shortened to the Bull Rock due to the weather forecast reducing the distance from approximately 230 to 170 nautical miles.
The race down to the Bull was spectacular, but as the fleet reached the rock, conditions changed. It was a tough beat and fetch home to Kinsale in gusts of over 30 knots and a large sea.
Aurelia finished with a corrected time of one day, zero hours, 57 minutes and 5 seconds, just 16 seconds ahead of Cinnamon Girl on 1d 0h 57m 21s corrected.
Chris Power Smith's J122 Aurelia is the 2024 Inistearaght Race champion Photo: Afloat
Third was Royal Cork yacht X-yacht Alpaca, skippered by Eddie Tingle on 1d 1h 53m 33s corrected who was the ECHO winner.
The Aurelia crew completed the ISORA Coastal Series in April and the early-season DBSC series on Dublin Bay. They will consider the Inistearaght Race victory an important indicator of their form for next month's 700-mile Round Ireland Race from Wicklow.
