Round Ireland Race 2024 – superb performances by the Royal Cork Yacht Club boats
The 2024 edition of the 704nm concluded last weekend, where it began, back in Wicklow. The Royal Cork were proudly represented by two boats, the Murphy family’s Grand Soleil 40, “Nieulargo” and the Radleys aboard the eternal “IMP”. This year’s Round Ireland brought all conditions to fully challenge all 54 boats and their crew. Both of the RCYC boats did extremely well with Nieulargo winning in Class 3! IMP also did extremely well by finishing 4th in class 4. Huge congratulations to both!
Please read below a personal account from each boat:
Molly Murphy, Nieulargo:
Nieulargo headed off from Wicklow with a forecast of no breeze and had a reef in within a couple of hours. We saw every wind strength and direction and lost count of sail changes after day 1! We raised eyebrows by heading off to Greenland and unfortunately our tracker malfunctioned on day 4. But our amazing crew pulled it out of the bag and after a hard final 24 hours of 30 knots up wind we made it safely into Wicklow on Thursday night after 5 days and 10 hours 1st in class 3 and 8th Overall. We had amazing people on board, with great craic and good food what more could you ask for. Thank you to everyone who watched us on the tracker, sent us messages of encouragement and especially those who came to see us as we passed cork harbour! Until next time….
George Radley, IMP:
As 2024 was my 9th Round Ireland, I was hoping for an easy one. As Donal McClement said, “when you are over 60 you should only do an ocean race on a boat 10 feet longer than your age!”
From the start, for 4 days, everything was going swimmingly well. Dry IMP, dry clothes, no rain. Day 5 – easy fetch from Rathlin to finish, however I forgot I was in Ireland! Suddenly IMP turned into a washing machine! Cold water everywhere which resulted in IMP and all aboard her being wet, gusts of 40 shots in a short chop. That was a dose of reality! Wouldn’t change anything..
The post Round Ireland Race 2024 – superb performances by the Royal Cork Yacht Club boats appeared first on Royal Cork Yacht Club.