Volvo Round Ireland 2022

It was my and Josh’s first ever 2 Handed offshore race together, and a first 2 handed race for me
entirely. The morning of the start we left Dun Laoghaire nice and early in order to get down to the
start in plenty of time. We used this time to do some downwind practise and to get set up for our
start.

We arrived outside Wicklow Harbour and set about getting dialled in. It was a short line between
the harbour wall and a committee boat with a massive committee boat bias. We set ourselves up to
cross the line in clean air about midline. On the minute mark we popped the kite and started racing
for the line. It was a busy first 20 minutes having to short gybe to get out of the foul tide and around
Wicklow head. Once clear of the headland we settled into a big drag race for Tuskar rock. Here we
saw a bit of a split in the fleet. With Wild Pilgrim and Cinnamon girl hugging the coast while
ourselves and Bellino taking the offshore approach.

With patchy wind all the way down to Tuskar it was hard to see which route had paid off. Cinnamon
girl came out only a little bit ahead of us coming into Tuskar and just about getting around before
the first shut down on the course. We managed to float our way around Tuskar rock before the tide
turned and hooked into a new bit of breeze where we hoisted our FR0. At this point we still had
phone signal and looked on the YB Races app and were delighted to have gotten around the rock as
we saw many boats behind us get stuck in foul tide and no breeze struggling to get around the rock.

We didn’t have the FR0 up for very long as the halyard failed pretty soon after we hoisted. We
managed to get the sail down and carry on. We decided that the wind was light enough that we
could get away with our MH0. In the sub 10 knots it was a great sail that we were able to pull a bit of
distance back from Cinnamon girl. Overnight the breeze started to build to a peak of 25 knots. We
managed to light the boat up and were averaging high teens with a top speed of 21 knots.

We came around the Fastnet rock the next day and were in our upwind mode from here on out it
seemed! With a forecast for a building breeze, we had peeled to our Medium/Heavy headsail before
coming around the rock. This decision would later pay off massively. It was an uneventful leg from
the Fastnet to Gull rock. As we approached Gull rock, we knew the wind was building as the forecast
was for big breeze and big swell coming from the Northwest Atlantic. As we came past Gull rock, we
reefed our jib and put in two reefs into our main. A decision we most were grateful for. With a max
gust of 38 knots and a heavy sea with waves of 3.5/4 meters we were glad to have been
appropriately powered.

It was during this time that myself and Josh felt seasick for the first time ever. I have always been
sympathetic to people who get seasick having never suffered from it. My appreciation for not
getting seasick has since grown.

Round Ireland race report
We managed to do quite well on this leg taking a big offshore hitch before tacking in towards Kerry
for the Skelligs. We decided we wanted to keep offshore as the forecast was due to die off and get
light in shore first. As we approached our very wide rounding on the Skelligs it was good to see some
of the bigger boats turn up again on our AIS. A big boost to our confidence after getting hammered
by the conditions for 24 hours.

Along the West coast we maintained our position and continued pushing on. We knew there would
be light patches along the Northwest coast so we had to try really push it to give ourselves some
breathing room from the guys behind.

As we rounded Tory Island the breeze had shifted a bit and we ended up having a pretty one sided
beat. A good rounding and we were still sitting 2 nd in class a mile behind Cinnamon Girl, and 3 miles
in front of Bellino and Wild Pilgrim. We were in a good position and one we were delighted to be in.
As we got closer to Rathlin Island the boats behind began to compress and we had a down wind
gybing battle with Wild Pilgrim in order to keep in good tide.

Continuing down the coast the breeze began to shift forwards and we had to drop the kite. This
began one of the longest 130 miles of racing we would do. If there was a wind hole on the course,
we would find it. This was particularly disheartening as it was now that we began to fall down the
rankings. As we got past Dublin the breeze began to build and we had a good beat to Wicklow ahead
of us.
We finished in 5 days, 7 hours 14 minutes and 19 seconds. With 4 th in the 2 handed class, 8 th in IRC
and 12 th overall it was a good result that we can be happy with.
I cannot thank Ross and GOEWellness enough for giving myself and Josh the opportunity to do the
race. It was an exceptional experience and I look forward to doing more racing with the team in the
future!

Conor.