Page 7 - ISORA 2019 v4

Race 4 - Viking Marine Irish Coastal Race
The first Irish Coastal race of the Viking Marine ISORA Coastal Championship 2019 took place on the 18th May with a starting time of 10.00. 21 boats from the entry list of 22 came to the start line in Dun Laoghaire.
Setting the course was difficult for the Sailing Committee as very light northerly winds were forecast for the race. To add to the difficulty, strong spring tides were also predicted. With this combination it was decided that the course should try and accommodate the tide by heading north at the start and south later in the race. It had been hoped that the course would be 40 miles by heading to South Burford, Lambay Island and back by the Kish Light. Instead, Lambay was substituted by using Howth Yacht Club’s East racing mark and North Kish Cardinal mark was substituted for the Kish Light, giving a course of 30 miles.
When this course was first published Dublin Port requested that South Burford not be used as it meant that the fleet would be crossing the TSS (Traffic Separation Scheme) at South Burford. To comply with their request, ISORA have now created a permanent virtual mark, “ISORA Dublin” mark, just south east of South Burford. It is now intended that this virtual mark will be used for all future ISORA races, acting as a Turning mark for boats entering or leaving Dublin Bay. It is also proposed that all TSS’s will be no-go areas in future races.
new ISORA mark on the chart
The wind at the start was as forecast – 4-7 knots north-easterly. The start at 08.00 was provided by NYC’s Barry MacNeaney and Grainne Ryan at the DBSC’s Pier Mark.
The fleet of 21 boats slowly moved east off the start line in a tight reach towards the new ISORA Dublin mark. Frank Whelan’s Eleuthera was the first to break from the pack but was soon overtaken by Ben Shanahan’s Ruth Chris Power-Smith’s Aurelia and Lindsay Casey’s Windjammer Just south of these, Vincent Farrell’s Tsunami was sneaking along toward the first mark.