SAILING:THE TURNOUT for next week's Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta is now expected to exceed 400 boats as the official entry deadline was reached yesterday.
However, the organisers have confirmed that late entries will still be accepted until 5pm on Monday.
Last night, 407 boats had entered with more expected still. Allowing for the usual non-arrivals, beating the 400-mark will be welcome confirmation that the four-day format is a worthwhile formula that is also now being copied at overseas venues.
In excess of 2,000 competing crew will be afloat each day, in addition to the army of volunteer organisers and race management teams.
The biennial regatta is now in it’s fourth edition and has managed to keep the recession-related drop in entries to less than 10 per cent while other traditionally popular events have seen a drop-off of up to 30 per cent.
With the Irish Cruiser Racing Association national championships concluded at Crosshaven last month, the pressure is off among all of the new crop of national champions who won’t be competing next week.
The exception is Anthony O’Leary, the Class Zero title-holder, though his Ker 39-footer Antix will remain in Cork while he joins his son Robert on board their converted 1720 Sportsboat Antix Beag, racing under IRC handicap in Class One.
At 14 boats, Class Zero will still feature it’s largest fleet to date this year, and is also expected to be the first competitive event for George Sisk’s much anticipated Wow, a new J111.
The delivery of the boat was delayed, which meant the crew from the Royal Irish Yacht Club missed both the ICRA nationals and Sovereigns Week last month.
Another well-known sailor who is anticipating getting back into the fray is David Cullen of Howth YC, whose re-vamped half-tonner King One is a certain prospect for the leaderboard in Class Two under IRC.
“Having missed a lot of racing this year already due to weather, damage and injury, we’re really looking forward to getting stuck-in next week,” Cullen told The Irish Times.
“I’m hoping we can improve on our third place in 2009 when we were part of a Howth hat-trick along with Kinetic and Dux.”
The King One skipper is also looking forward to the big-fleet racing, with 25 boats in his class alone, which will be useful preparation for the Half-tonne Cup next month.
But if big fleets are the draw, the 38-strong Class Three division may well prove the most action-packed.
Flor O’Driscoll’s Hard On Port is a likely front-runner, but seeing a J24 one-design racing under IRC handicap is no longer as unique as when the Royal St George YC boat first started what has become more common-place, and three more Js will be in the class next week.
About half of the overall regatta turn-out will be composed of one-design and dinghies, with healthy turn-outs in most classes defying the myth that this department of the sport is under pressure in Dublin Bay.
Not unexpectedly, the Laser SB3 class is the biggest of these, with more than 30 boats entered and basing themselves ashore at the National YC.
Ben Duncan, Brian Moran and Rick Morris’ Sharkbait, from Howth, is the boat to beat in this class, though home-waters advantage could give an edge to several of the Dun Laoghaire front-runners.
Among the dinghies, the IDRA 14-footers have rallied a big turn-out for next week, with half the 15-boat class based at the Dun Laoghaire Motor YC, along with good support from travellers from Sutton Dinghy Club and Clontarf Yacht Boat Club.
