Welcome

On behalf of Wicklow Sailing Club, home of the real Round Ireland Yacht Race,

Welcome to ‘Virtual Round Ireland 2009‘ , website of the Virtual Round Ireland Yacht Race 2009.

Bienvenue à ‘Virtual Round Ireland 2009‘, site de la Virtual Voile d’Irlande 2009.

Bienvenido a ‘Virtual Round Ireland 2009‘, sitio web de la regata de vela Virtual Ronda Irlanda de 2009.

Bem-vindo ao ‘Virtual Round Ireland 2009‘, sítio da Rodada Virtual Irlanda Yacht Race 2009.

Välkommen till ‘Virtual Round Ireland 2009‘, webbplatsen för den virtuella Round Irland Yacht Race 2009.

Benvenuti a ‘Virtual Round Ireland 2009‘, il sito web della rotonda virtuale Irlanda Yacht Race 2009.

Willkommen bei ‘Virtual Round Ireland 2009‘, Website des Virtual-Runde Irland Yacht Race 2009.

欢迎光临’虚拟回合爱尔兰2009年，网站的虚拟回合爱尔兰帆船赛2009年

The Challenge!

Could a virtual Volvo Open 70 sailing in real time, in real weather and in the same waters beat the circumnavigation of the island of Ireland 704 nautical mile (that’s approximately 1,304 kilometres) Round Ireland course record of

65 hours, 48 minutes and 47 seconds

set by Mike Slade’s ICAP Leopard 3 in Wicklow Sailing Club‘s Round Ireland Yacht Race 2008?

The inaugural Virtual Round Ireland Yacht Race 2009 was designed to answer that question. The race started on Saturday 06 June 2009 and resulted in more than one virtual Volvo 70 breaking the course record! First across the Finish Line was Paulos flying the Norwegian flag in a new (virtual) course record time of

60 Hours 23 Minutes 21 Seconds

beating Leopard 3‘s time by more than 5 hours 25 minutes!

If you’re interested in taking part in the next real Round Ireland to be held on the 19 June 2010 contact Wicklow Sailing Club. The club plans on making the 2010 Round Ireland the best yet so with luck the virtual sailors will set a new record and give the entrants in the next Round Ireland a real challenge to beat!

Email me at: sailpix@gmail.com for further information or if you are already taking part in the VORG send a message to my ‘Inbox’ – Sailpix Ireland.

Results

Just 27 boats finished  the Virtual Round Ireland 2009 Yacht Race in the allotted time.

Here they are in the order in which they finished:

Paulos (1st) | Tstar2 (2nd) | ACDC (3rd) | Super Meggy II (4th) | YACHTS OF FUN (5th) | Best11111 (6th) | AyeAye (7th) | Sailpix Ireland (8th) | Kettle of Fish 1 (9th)| Casta Diva (10th) | Braywanderer | Team WIL2WIN Round Ireland | Slugger Murphy | Phishphood | Zoot II | XRacer | Merlin IV | count de monet | Player Piano | No going back | Ptero ROI | Cabinteely | sawasawa II | Never Lost The Magic | Nofolk and Chance | Dangerous 70 | Mentalville (27th).

All 27 finishers receive a memento of their participation in the inaugural Virtual Round Ireland Yacht Race 2009 – a customized high resolution digital photograph of the Irish/Chinese Green Dragon racing in one of the in-port races in Galway on the 30 May 2009. (Link to download sent directly to ‘Inbox’ of each finisher. Email me to report any difficulty downloading the 4.5 MB file: ‘VRI Finishers’ Prize.jpg’ )