Racing crews face a busy summer schedule

Sailing Column: As one of two flagship national sailing events for the 2004 season, the forthcoming BMW Round Ireland Race is certain to dominate attention during the month of June to be followed by Cork Week spectacular in July.

Crews opting for a less demanding schedule have plenty of alternatives including, for the east coast, the Dublin Bay regattas and on the West Coast, WIORA Week returns to Tralee Bay Sailing Club in Fenit, Co Kerry.

This year's event marks the 30th annual gathering of crews to contest for the overall prize the of the Tommy O'Keefe trophy, dedicated to one of the greatest sailors ever known in the west of Ireland. The format for this year's event follows the established format of round the cans and coastal races against the beautiful backdrop of Tralee Bay.

Organisers confidently predict an entry of 50 yachts from Galway, Clifden, Westport, and Sligo along with a number of enthusiasts in the inland sailing centre of Iniscealtra S.C. on Lough Derg and will compete in three classes with results and prizes for IRC and ECHO handicaps. Further prizes will be presented to the best performing Beneteau, X-yacht, and Sigma production boats while this year sees the introduction of prizes for the crew of the overall winner.

In the background, the parlous state of the national fixtures list, riddled with conflicting dates is old news. The West of Ireland Offshore Racing Association - WIORA - is obliged to stage its event in the week preceding the Round Ireland start to avoid clashing with the Crosshaven event the following month.

In time, the onerous task of developing a smooth transition between events will fall to the recently formed Irish Cruiser Racer Association that represents the bulk of serious club racing owners in Ireland.

Nevertheless, it is still early days to expect a clash between a classic offshore circum-navigation and a regional event aimed at a similar market to be quickly resolved.

In many respects, the reality facing bodies such as the ICRA, WIORA and the Northern Offshore Racing Association (NORA) is a massive East-West divide, splitting the country from west Cork to north Dublin.

In the Eastern half, numerous clubs with good cruiser-racer fleets. In the west, emerging clubs with strong local support and growing fleets but lacking sufficient clout at national level.

The remoter clubs on the Atlantic sea-board are simply too distant for many crews to make the journey and a delivery to the west followed by a week of racing and a return passage would probably involve a three-week commitment to one event.

"Its very unfortunate that these two events conflict but what we are looking forward to is working with the ICRA towards ensuring this doesn't happen in future," said Simon McGibney, WIORA chairman. In dealing with the distances involved, he agrees that the widely held belief is that in the near future, if the southern and eastern fleets could be persuaded to make the effort once in every four or five year cycle, then this would be a significant boost for the WIORA clubs.

The annual West Of Ireland Offshore Racing Association Regatta will be hosted by Tralee Bay SC on June 23rd to 26th 2004. Further information at www.traleebaysailingclub.com