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AS NUMBERS of Irish sailors continue to flock towards bigger yachts in the main sailing season of April to October, next weekend will see the annual gathering of the Irish Cruiser Racing Association in Athlone where the stage will be set for the 2009 season. As a non-Commodore's Cup year, club racing will once again be to the fore.

Now entering its seventh year, the association has become the focus for the largest division of the sport in Ireland, that of handicapped racing boats and numbers of certificates under both IRC and ECHO systems continue to rise indicating this growth. That augurs well for the annual championships in mid-June while it also fulfils a long-standing promise to the strengthening western seaboard fleets to hold the series on the Atlantic Ocean: Fenit Sailing Club in Co Kerry is the venue. Breaking the traditional Cork-Dublin axis of influence on the sport has been a long time in the making but organisers hope that careful timing of the event may overcome any resistance to the more distant venue.