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!
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!