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Dublin Bay

It was here, on Dublin Bay, that the sport of yacht racing began, pre-dating the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) itself by 30 years.

Around the world, the modern sport of sailing is governed by rules that were formulated here in Dublin in 1874.

The clubs in Dun Laoghaire established Dublin Bay as one of the world's key sailing centres. Regattas here were glorious affairs, involving the whole community. Giant yachts of the America's Cup class competed regularly here in the 1920s.

But Dublin faded from grace after the world wars, and by the early 1960s, regattas in Dun Laoghaire were only local affairs.

But over subsequent decades, Dun Laoghaire sailing has been fighting back from a magnificent base of four waterfront clubs all located in one of the largest man-made harbours in the world.

It has been helped by an increase in the amount of people taking to the water and the increased popularity of sailing but nationally this island nation has still some way to go.

In spite of our miles of coast (and a further 500 miles of navigable rivers and lakes), Ireland has one of the lowest ratios of boat ownership in Europe: one boat to 158 people. The European average is one boat to 42 people.

Lack of facilities is to blame around the coast but that's not the case in the country's largest boating centre where facilities, thanks to the 200-year old harbour are world class.

Each of the Dun Laoghaire yacht clubs stages an annual regatta and each club calendar boasts regular international fixtures of world and European dinghy and keelboat championships. In 1999, for example the Royal St. George (RSGYC) hosted

ISAF's Team Racing World Championships and last season the Topper worlds were hosted by the National Yacht Club (NYC).

The Bay's Racing organisation Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) boasts a weekly turn-out of up to 200 yachts across 21 classes, one of the biggest weekly turnouts in Europe.

The increase in leisure boating has been greatly assisted by the arrival of the town's marina in 2001, with 850 berths it's Ireland's largest.

In 2005 all four waterfront clubs joined together to put Dun Laoghaire back on the sailing map. A combined clubs regatta was organised, aiming to attract thousands of sailors back to the cradle of racing.

The revival was an immediate success and now the 600-boat biennial Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta is the largest such regatta in the Irish Sea.

This kind of team spirit is behind Dun Laoghaire's staging of the ISAF Youth World Championships which bodes so well for its future prospects.

Although Dun Laoghaire's had its fair share of waterborne visitors and hosted many top-notch events (with some home spun successes too) it has never seen the flags of 63 nations flying from its harbour walls before.

But that changed in 2012 when Dublin Bay filled with sails and a huge dinghy fleet leftDun Laoghaire harbour, marking not just the start of the 2012 Youth Worlds but the return of Dublin Bay to the world yachting scene, just as it was 140 years ago.