There’s a remarkable inherited experience of staging regattas in Dun Laoghaire, reinforced by the shared skill in running races of appropriate type and length, which comes through from the unrivalled memory bank of what is and isn’t reasonably possible, passed down through the ages by the huge store of knowledge that is always available from Dublin Bay Sailing Club.
It stays the same in that the objectives are always the same. The repeated ambition is to maximize sport afloat while also permitting plenty of time to avail of the unrivalled socialising opportunities offered by four active harbourside clubhouse, three of them right on the main waterfront in prime positions to demonstrate that they’re very much open and active for hospitality for anyone involved with the sailing in any way whatever.
OPEN HOUSE IN EACH CLUB FOR ALL COMPETITORS
In normal times, clubs, by their very nature – however close to each other they may physically be - have to maintain a certain level of dignified privacy for the personal benefit and enjoyment of their members. But the intense four day format of the VDLR (in 2023, it’s from July 6th to 9th), which has been in place since the regatta was re-constituted in 2002, leads to a relaxed approach to boundaries in a shared enthusiasm for sailing races in boats of all types.
2023 Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta launch - Dermot Ferris -DLR Chamber President, Alan Cowley -Acting MD Volvo Cars Ireland, Councillor Mary Hanafin, Don O'Dowd -Chairman VDLR and Frank Curran Chief Executive of Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Co Council at the joint launch of the 9th Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta, Ireland’s largest regatta which takes place from July 6th - July 9th 2023 and the brand new Coastival Festival which runs from 1st-9th July 2023 Photo: Brian McEvoy
When everyone becomes a winner – as the sociable post-race banter builds, the perception of the actual results can become ever more rosy. Photo Courtesy VDLR
That has always been the ambition of the organisers, but the social and sporting changes which have taken place since the first Regatta took place in 1828 – when the massive new harbour which made it all possible was still very much Work in Progress – have seen the format change out of all recognition.
In 1828, actual personal involvement in yachting was very much a minority interest, but being at major regattas to socialise and spectate and see and be seen was a significant part of the annual summer season. And that first regatta in 1828, under the benign patronage of the liberal, generous and very sailing-minded Viceroy, the Marquess of Anglesey, was an outstanding success in terms of good weather, fashionable socializing at an intense level, and clean sport afloat.
All was sweetness and light for this first regatta in 1828, with good weather and clean sport afloat despite the new harbour building still being Work in Progress. But the very future of any regular regattas as a fashionable fixture came into doubt the following year, with foul weather and fights among competing crews
A BAD-TEMPERED YEAR
But the following year of 1829 was the bad-tempered year of Catholic emancipation, and the pro-emancipation Anglesey had been side-lined. The weather was bad tempered too, so much so that the cream of Dublin society may have made their way in greater numbers than ever to enjoy the party, but a total deluge saw them returning to town completely soaked and in a foul mood, loudly declaring that they would never go near one of these wretched yachting festivals again.
And indeed, even afloat it was eminently forgettable, for by now the crew were getting significant prize money, and inter-yacht fights broke out in 1829 before they’d even cleared the harbour. For in those days the idea was that the crowds would politely witness the start as the big yacht raced away from an in-harbour start for long races round the bay and out to the Kish, leaving the specators to increasingly hectic socialising either al fresco or in very temporary pavilions, to such an extent that many had forgotten the existence of a yacht race by the time the leaders returned.
A new peak is reached by the 1870s as seen in this magnificent impression by Richard Brydges Beechey of the Royal St George YC regatta of 1873, with a race-course turning mark in the harbour right beside the clubhouse, and exceptional skill required in handling the large cutters competing. Photo courtesy RStGYC
ERA OF NEW CLUBHOUSE BUILDINGS
1829’s unhappy experience rather dampened the regatta enthusiasm for a few years, but with the building of clubhouses with the Royal St George YC from 1838 onwards, and the Royal Irish YC - in one fell swoop in 1850 to become the world’s first complete purpose-designed yacht club building - a new focus was provided, where the elite members and their guests could gather at the clubhouses while the racing and its associated festivities continued apace.
With the new clubhouses actively in being, inevitably a “them and us” situation develops. Here, while racing proceeds in the Bay, members and guests at the Royal St George YC are being entertained by in-harbour sports…
…..while the public day-trippers brought in by special railway excursions have to make do with the distant view of racing from the end of the East Pier. Photo courtesy Cormac Lowth
RAILWAYS GET IN ON THE ACT
As for everyone else, the expanding railway companies saw an opportunity for spectators viewing from the natural grandstands at the end of the piers, so not only did they offer special day excursions, but they put up extra regatta prizes to stimulate added sport and interest afloat to bring the crowds out from town.
The inherited folk memory of this yacht race spectating, which continued – albeit in a fading form – until the early 1930s, when the J Class occasionally visited to provide the impressive sight of big boat racing at close quarters, is still so much part of some areas of Dun Laoghaire thinking that making yacht racing spectator-friendly almost always comes up on the agenda.
A new era was ushered in after the establishment of Dublin Bay Sailing Cub in 1884. Active participation afloat was everything, and One-Design racing was becoming all the rage. Yet simply being at the Dun Laoghaire Regatta was more popular than ever, and anchored cruisers filled the harbour. It’s all summed up in this photo of the 1903 Royal Irish YC regatta, as the Viceroy Lord Dudley, in order to complete his win at the finish line at the club, has to thread his way in his new Dublin Bay 25 Fodhla through closely-anchored large yachts while overtaking the also-racing new 1900-version boats of the 1887-founded Water Wag Class
Yet such an approach overlooks several facts, not least that other forms of spectator arena sport provide more immediate and accessible action, while many yacht races are so inherently complex that the only way to watch them with any real interest is to be a participant yourself, and here again Dun Laoghaire has been in the front line of development.
FIRST “MODERN” REGATTA WEEK WAS IN 1860
The first recognisably modern Regatta Week at what was then known as Kingstown was in 1860, following which the fleet broke even more unexplored ground by having the first identifiably modern offshore race with a significant overnight element, 120 miles from Dublin Bay to Cork Harbour.
And then in 1870 the new-formed Royal Alfred Yacht Club in Kingstown put direct participation further up the agenda by organising races for amateur crews in which the only professionals allowed on board were the ladies’ maids and the stewards.
That was obviously for larger craft, but the birth of the Dublin Bay Water Wag OD Dinghy Class in 1887, and the small-boat-oriented Dublin Bay Sailing Club in 1884, tipped the balance irreversibly further. Dublin Bay yacht racing in all its forms was now for active participants. If anyone wanted to be a spectator, well, good luck to them, but taking part was now what it was all about.
ACTIVE PARTICIPATION AFLOAT BECOMES ALL-IMPORTANT
And it has remained so ever since. As a result of this, regatta organisers have to be constantly alert to changing tastes in both the kind of racing that’s expected during the day, and the kind of social programme that works for participants in the post-race evenings and nights as the après sailing bandwaggon rolls cheerfully on.
A very blurred Box Brownie schoolboy snap of Dun Laoghaire Regatta Week 1955. Photo: W M Nixon
Thus in many ways the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta has had to change in order to stay the same, and since 2002 there had been a rotating yet continuous and renewing management group which is in permanent existence to keep tabs on the sporting and social requirements of thousands of sailors in one very intensive biennial four day sportsfest. That in turn is now the culmination of the new week-long Dun Laoghaire Coastival which – on the water - gets under way with the Parade of Classic Sail round the East Pier and along the coast to Sandycove on Sunday July 2nd.
Still in the hot seat. Having had to oversee the pandemic cancellation of 2021, Don O’Dowd is soldiering on in 2023 and is pictured this week with the outgoing Event Secretary, Ciara Dowling, at a special presentation to mark her retirement after 16 years with the regatta from 2005 to 2021. Photo courtesy VDLR
VDLR people – the dedicated team who have built the VDLR to its present eminence include (left to right) Tim Goodbody, Adam Winkelmann, Ciara Dowling, Phil Smith and Brian Craig. Photo: Courtesy VDLR
After the painful hiatus of pandemic cancellation in 2021, it says everything for the spirit of the organising group that longtime member Don O’Dowd, already busy as Chairman as 2021’s stoppage approach, has willingly stayed up at the reins. For although for continuity the Chairman usually sees through the staging of two VDLRs over a four year period, the lockdown has meant something of a new scenario, as longtime and very able Director Ciara Dowling has moved on to fresh fields, but she has been replaced by Paddy Boyd, and anything that Paddy Boyd doesn’t know about the ins and outs of Dublin Bay racing simply hasn’t been discovered yet – and if something new is discovered, we can be fairly sure that it is Paddy who is making the discovery.
A wealth of experience – Regatta Director Paddy Boyd Photo: Robert Bateman
Inevitably the glamour interest will focus on the very international IRC 1 and the RC35 division within it, while the idea of the Cape 31s – designed just up the road by Mark Mills in County Wicklow – having their National Championship in Dublin Bay certainly has very special excitement. But for me, the appeal in the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta is that each and every class – and there are many – will have its moment of glory. And thanks to the re-assessment of ECHO handicaps after every race in classes where handicaps apply, the feeling of continuous total involvement at every level is heart-warming.
It may currently still feel crisp enough in mid-May, but come July the VDLR really can bring Mediterranean sailing to Dublin Bay, as seen here with Scenario Encore from Fleetwood. Photo courtesy VDLR/David Branigan
I first saw a very basic of Dun Laoghaire Regatta Week in 1955 when we happened to be on a family holiday in Dun Laoghaire, when the preponderance of gaff rigs with topsails was still something of note, and the hottest boat in the show was Peter Odlum’s completely new 8 Metre Cruiser/Racer Namhara. A couple of very blurry schoolboy photos show that it did indeed happen. But by 1962, not only was I sailing as crew on Namhara in Clyde Week, but I also found myself helming the Dublin Bay 21 Geraldine in the class’s final season under their original gaff rig.
Another blurred schoolboy Box Brownie image – Peter Odlum’s new 8 Metre Cruiser/Racer Namhara at Dun Laoghaire Week in 1955. Within a few years, the tyro photographer was crewing Namhara in Clyde Week, and helming Dublin Bay 21s in Dun Laoghaire. Photo: W M Nixon
Thereafter, there were to be many Dun Laoghaire Regattas in many forms, but it has to be said that the VDLR as it is today is a very successful modern distillation of this most ancient sporting event, as it offers something for everything. But then I would say that, having been involved with the restored and returned Huff of Arklow from Dartmouth when she won the Boat of the Regatta trophy in 2015, and tangentially associated with the wonderful 1897-vintage Myfanwy from Milford Haven when she did the same thing in 2017.
That’s the great thing about the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta. Absolutely everybody is in with a chance.
Something for everyone in the fleet….in the 2017 VDLR, the top trophy went to Rob Mason’s wonderful 1897-vintage cutter Myfanwy from Milford Haven. Photo Afloat.ie/David O/Brien
- See a photo gallery from this week's launch of the 2023 Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta here
