#isora – Three different Beneteau models filled the top three places in ISORA's 35–mile offshore day race on Saturday. The light air race from Dún Laoghaire to Tailor's Rock, Loughshinny and back off Dublin's East coast was won by the Beneteau First 40.7 Tsunami skippered by ISORA commodore Peter Ryan of the National Yacht Club. Second in the 13–boat fleet was the Royal Irish Yacht Club's Mermaid IV, a Beneteau First 50. Third was First of September, a First 43.5. Full results available to download below as a png file.

The next ISORA race is the KONA offshore Race from Dún Laoghaire to Pwllheli on 26th July. This is also the feeder race for the IRC Welsh Nationals on 1st to 3rd August.

Additional report by Peter Ryan, ISORA

With many of the ISORA regulars recovering after the recent Round Ireland race and also taking part in Cork Week, 13 of the 15 entries came to the start line at Pier Mark for the ISORA Lighthouse Day Race.
The forecast for the day was light winds from the south strengthening around midday and reducing again in the evening and veering west. The original plan for the course was to round or pass the main lighthouses around Dublin – Baily, Rockabill, Kish, Muglins and Dun Laoghaire lighthouses. This would have produced a course of 45 miles. When the course was being decided just prior to the pre-race briefing, Dublin Bay was like a mill pond with little or no wind. Another factor in deciding the course was the strong tides on the day – HW at 12.20.

The Sailing Committee set the course to give a shortened race of 35 miles using Tailors Rock Cardinal just north west of Lambay instead of Rockabill. The course was:
Baily (P) – Tailors Rock (S) – Kish (S) – Muglins (S) – Finish at Dun Laoghaire – (35 miles)

Commodore of the NYC, Larry Power, sent the fleet of 13 boats off under spinnaker in 10 knots of wind towards Baily Lighthouse at 10.00. The wind was as per the forecast, from the south giving a dead run to Tailors Rock. The fleet was lead past Baily lighthouse by "Mermaid IV" with "Tsunami", "First of September" and "Adelie" in close contact. As the fleet passed by Ireland's Eye and Howth the winds became fickle with a slightly steadier wind seeming to exist out to sea.

As the fleet approached Tailors Rock, "Mermaid IV" was the first to round. As a celebration of their rounding they sent one of their crew up to the top of the mast, probably looking to find more wind!!!! This event was photographed and the picture is similar to the famous "Hugo Boss" photograph of the mast walker.

At this stage the entire fleet were well bunched and the race was there for anyone to take. ISORA debutante "Hypermene" a Mini Transat 6.5 was expected to dominate the race but Skipper, Graham Barker, had gear difficulties and was unable to live up to expectations in this race.

The leg to Kish was a beat and the leading boats "Mermaid IV" and "Tsunami" extended their lead ahead of the following fleet. The winds had started to strengthen as forecast and varied from 12-15 knots from the south.

The leg to the Muglins was a tight reach and by that time "Mermaid IV" was well clear of "Tsunami". However, the "Dalkey Island Curse" was present to stop the progress of "Mermaid IV". She passed the Muglins and appeared to sail into the "hole" and then made little progress against the strong south going tide at the rock. The wind also backed to south east and reduced producing another dead run to the finish. "Mermaid IV" opting for the line close to the land to avoid the tide, found only fickle winds. "Tsunami" approaching the Muglins observed the difficulties "Mermaid IV" was having and gybed immediately out towards Baily and steadier winds but stronger tide after rounding Muglins. This move paid off for "Tsunami".

This was not the end of the problems for the leading boats and the following fleet. A "hole" had also formed around the finish area at the pier heads and what winds were there veered and backed continuously. The bad luck had not ended for "Mermaid IV" who parked in front of the finish line for several minutes before crossing and taking line honours. "Tsunami" who benefitted from "Mermaid's" experiences crossed the line very shortly after in a filling breeze taking Overall and Class 1. "First of September" took Class 2 and "Big Deal" took Silver Class. The last boat crossed the finish line at 17.22 after a very pleasant race.

The usual "Apres Sail" took place in the NYC.

The next race is the KONA Dun Laoghaire to Pwllheli Race on the 24th July. This is the feeder race to the Welsh IRC Nationals in Pwllheli from 1st -3rd August. The sponsors of the race KONA are providing the perpetual KONA Offshore Trophy for the winner of the race and the winner also receives a replica of the trophy to keep. The Royal Dee Yacht Club have also provided a trophy, "The Tidal Cup" for the winner of the feeder race.

It is hoped that as many of the ISORA boats take part in the Welsh Nationals. KONA will be providing a crew bus back to Holyhead to take those participants in the KONA feeder race and who are leaving their boats in Pwllheli for the IRC Nationals. A crew bus will also be provided to take those same crew back to Pwllheli on the following Thursday evening for the IRC event. The KONA prize giving for the feeder race will take place on the Thursday evening of the IRC Nationals when the crew bus from Holyhead arrives. A reception is also being provided for those who took part in the feeder race.

I hope to see all the ISORA boats supporting PSC for the IRC Nationals. This promises to be a great racing and social event.

#nyc – National Yacht Club (NYC) Commodore Larry Power says last week's Sports Capital Grant award of €77,000 from the Government will 'enhance the status of the National Yacht Club as a community based sailing club in Dun Laoghaire'. 

The Dublin Bay based club, the home of Olympic sailing star Annalise Murphy, will spend the grant on upgrading the NYC's boats and Ribs which will allow the NYC to provide top class facilities for its Junior Section, and an expanded Adult Sail training programme.

According to Power, the adult sailing programme has been singularly successful this year thanks to the vision and commitment of Sailing Secretary, Alan Dooley.

'The adult sailing course is a local based community facility, as it offers the opportunity for adults to both learn and enjoy the sport of sailing', says Power.

The club encourages participants from the local area and the wider community to enrol for this course and have received a very positive and enthusiastic response for all its courses.

The NYC also runs a school transition programme in attracting young adults from the local schools to experience the fun and excitement of sailing.

The most recent NYC sailing initiative is to encourage women on the water to participate in the DBSC Tuesday Club racing series using Club 1720 boats.

#sportsgrants – Two of Ireland's biggest yacht clubs shared top awards in a €500,000 payout to 16 Irish Sailing Clubs in the Government's Sports Capital Programme announced last week. The full list of beneficiaries is below.

Dublin's Howth Yacht Club and National Yacht Club both got €77,000 in the Governments main vehicle for supporting the development of sports facilities and the purchase of non-personal sports equipment.

National Yacht Club Commodore Larry Power says his Dublin Bay club, one of the top six yacht clubs in the country, 'is privileged to receive this high level of funding from the Sports Capital Programme'. Power says the money will be spent on an upgrade of club boats to 'enhance the NYC status as a local community club in Dun Laoghaire'.

In Howth, Commodore Brian Turvey says the north Dublin Club 'intends to use this valuable and most welcome grant on the development of keelboat sailing', youth academy and HYC's own 'introduction to sailing' programme.

The Minister of State for Tourism & Sport Michael Ring announced grants of €40.5 million for 880 sports projects across the country last week, sailing getting a small share in the divvy up. The Sports Capital Programme is the Government's main vehicle to distribute funds. The facilities being funded range from small-scale equipment grants, to regionally significant centres of sporting excellence.

2014 Sports Captial Grant Allocations

Crookhaven Harbour Sailing Club € 32,000.00

Glandore Harbour Yacht Club € 12,000.00

Clontarf Yacht and Boat Club € 29,063.00

Dublin Bay Sailing Club € 23,778.00

Howth Sailing and Boating Club € 33,635.00

Howth Yacht Club € 77,000.00

Malahide Yacht Club € 44,149.00

Sailing in Dublin € 25,000.00

Skerries Sailing Club € 10,552.00

Swords Sailing and Boating Club € 11,646.00

National Yacht Club € 77,902.00

Tralee Bay Sailing Club € 20,000.00

Wexford Harbour Boat and Tennis Club € 56,000.00

Blessington Sailing Club € 24,000.00

Bray Sailing Club € 18,000.00

Greystones Sailing Club € 9,000.00

#irishmoth – In another first for Irish sailing, a Bray, County Wicklow design and build of one of the world's leading edge dinghy types will make its debut on Saturday at the BMW Frank Keane Royal St. George Yacht Club regatta on Dublin Bay. Pioneering International Moth Sailor John Chambers will compete in the new foiling hull, from the design board of Chris Allen, against a burgeoning 12–boat Irish fleet that has attracted a range of top Irish dinghy sailors to its ranks.

In recent years, the International Moth, a development class, has literally take flight with the advent of lifting hydrofoils on daggerboard and rudder, which lift the entire hull and skipper above the water surface, dramatically reducing drag and increasing speed. Now Ireland is set to play its role in future development.

'It's a displacement hull, so not designed to foil in anything under six knots', says Allen of the new craft, that took its maiden sail at the National Yacht Club on Wednesday. 

Top speeds of Moths can be above 30 knots. Last month, a former American Fireball dinghy sailor  became the fastest dinghy sailor in the world, clocking up a time 36.5 knots This high speed is reflected in the International Moth's RYA Portsmouth Yardstick of 600, the fastest of any sailing dinghy or multihull.

The key features of the Irish design is that when the breeze is above six knots it will reach its foiling speed more easily than some existing designs. According to Chris, the Irish hull is a progression of existing designs and the hope is that its 'lift speed' will be quicker so the boat 'flies' sooner.

The design also features a new look at foil control systems with a smoother and more direct automatic adjustment. 

The new hull is also 'more boat shaped than boxed shape' says Chris, who claims it is is stiffer than rivals because it has more shape, more rocker and rounded in the sides.

Constructed entirely in carbon fibre and weighing under eight kilograms, the boat will compete at the 2014 World Championships at Hayling Island in the UK in a fortnight in a fleet of 140 boats.

Depending on its world championship performance, Chris hopes the new hull called 'Voodoo' will be the first of many international orders.

The cost of the boat is comparable to other production Moths at approximately €12,000, depending on choice of rig and equipment.

Nine  SB20s battled it out in Scotsman's Bay for the 2014 NYC regatta title. With a persistent veer forecast, OOD Harry Gallagher had his work cut out setting a course that would provide a good test over the course of the day. Fortunately, Harry and his team were in top form and they managed to set a great test for the competitors.

Race 1 started in 10-12 knts of breeze and with a substantial pin end bias on the line. Should Be... (Michael, Owen and Gavan) took the pin with Bad (Dave, Gerry and Jimmy) close on their hip with early season pace-setters Alert Packaging (Justin et al) and Venuesworld (Ger, Chris and Rory) further up the line. With better breeze out right and a forecasted veer, boats were eager to get out to the right hand side of the course quickly after the start and one by one the boats began to peel away onto port tack. The wind held steady for the first beat though and as the boats converged at the weather mark, Should Be... led by a few boatlengths from a congested pack including Bad, Alert Packaging, Probably (Ian, Billy and Tom) and visitors from HYC, Monkey (Keith Cassidy et al). Down the run, there was quite a spread across the course as each of the boats tried to find their own patch of clear air but coming to the leeward gate, it was clear that the left hand side of the course down the run had paid. Should Be... Bad and Monkey had made gains on the fleet by going left down the run and those three boats would keep their lead and those positions for the remaining three rounds to the finish. Behind them, there was a real dogfight for places with Venuesworld and Odin (James, Ted and Stroud) both having to come from deep early on in the race to keep their hopes alive in the two race series. At the finish, Alert Packaging held on to fourth ahead of Venuesworld (5th), Probably (6th) and Odin (7th) with Smoke on the Water (Bob et al) holding onto 8th ahead of Seriously Bonkers (Peter et al) in 9th.

After a short break for lunch, Race 2 got off in a lighter breeze of 8-10 knts. Again the OOD set the line with a pin-end bias although this time the bias was less pronounced. Should Be... again took the pin with Bad to weather and trucking. Once again, the emphasis was on getting out to the right hand side of the course as quickly as possible and Alert Packaging, Venuesworld and Odin were the first to get out there followed by Bad and Probably. This time, the forecasted veer did arrive and both Should Be... and Monkey, early pace setters from race 1, were further down the pack with work to do. At the weather mark, Venuesworld led from Alert Packaging and Odin. Just behind them, disaster struck Bad when they had a tiller extension malfunction mid-tack and hit the weather mark in the flooding tide. By the time that they had exonerated themselves they had lost several places and importantly, both Should Be... and Monkey had snuck ahead of them. Down the run, Venuesworld had their work cut out covering boats going either side of them down the run but they skilfully kept in the gusts in the middle to maintain their lead down the run. At the leeward mark, Venuesworld led by the narrowest of margins from Alert Packaging with Should Be... rounding just ahead of Odin and Monkey. There were few place changes to speak of on the next beat and run however all was to change on round three up the final full beat...

As the boats went around the leeward mark onto the last round, Alert Packaging, in second place, seeing better breeze on the right tacked off to the right hand side of the course while Venuesworld in first continued left followed by Should Be... in third and Odin in fourth. Monkey and Probably rounded approximately 10 boatlengths further behind in 5th and 6th with Bad, having recovered from their earlier misfortune, nipping at their heels. Shortly after Monkey and Probably had rounded the leeward gate, there was a massive right hand shift with the wind that Alert Packaging had expertly spotted and it seemed that the persistent right hand shift had finally arrived in spades. Venuesworld and Odin continued on in the hope of a left hander further up the course while Should Be... tacked back onto port and took the transoms of both Probably and Monkey. At this stage, Alert Packaging was in a regatta winning position, but only just! As if things weren't hotting up enough, Bad had come right back into it and trailed Monkey and Should Be... by only a couple of boatlengths so it was all to play for between these three boats up the final beat! The wind continued to clock further right, Alert Packaging made massive gains on the fleet and both Odin and Venuesworld had suffered large losses. Alert Packaging led around the weather mark by a distance. Somehow, Venuesworld managed to find a patch of private breeze to come back towards the fleet from the far left corner and held on to second place ahead of a bunch that included Should Be..., Monkey, Probably, Odin and Bad, all within a couple of boatlengths of each other. Those five boats tacked, ducked and crossed their way up the final quarter of the beat and at the mark it was Should Be... in third ahead of Monkey, Odin, Bad and then Probably. From there, after the significant right-hand shift, it was a drag race to the leeward mark and the last short beat to finish. Uncharacteristically, Venuesworld had failed to take into account the massive right-hander up the beat and rather than doing a gybe set, continued on in a nice patch of breeze after the weather mark. When they gybed back onto port, they couldn't hold their kite and dropped back to seventh as the boats with kites above sailed over the top of them en route to the leeward mark. At the finish, it was Alert Packaging by a country mile, followed by Should Be... (2nd), Monkey (3rd), Odin (4th), Bad (5th), Probably (6th), Venuesworld (7th), Seriously Bonkers (8th) and Smoke on the Water in ninth.

Overall, the regatta results were 1st Should Be, 2nd Alert Packaging, 3rd Monkey, 4th Bad, 5th Odin.

Just a reminder that there will be an SB Social evening in the RStGYC this Thursday after sailing. The fleet will gather for a drink on the balcony after sailing followed by sailing supper @ c. 9.15pm. Looking forward to seeing as many of you there as possible. Also, next Sunday (29th June) is SB Sunday No. 5. Let's hope the weather holds!

#nyc – The National Yacht Club's J109 Something Else (John Hall) was the IRC class one winner of today's National Yacht Club Jelly Bean sponsored regatta on Dublin Bay. Official results sheets for all classes are downloadable below in powerpoint format.

The NYC boat skipper beat club mate Ruth, a sistership skippered by Liam Shanahan. Third was Royal Irish XP–33 yacht Bon Exemple (Colin Byrne) in the 13–boat fleet.

25 different classes were racing in the biennial event, a highpoint of the Dublin sailing season.

In the Flying Fifteen one design keelboat class, one of the most popular of the National Yacht Club fleets, the event was won by past national champions David Gorman and Chris Doorly in new boat, Betty.

Official results sheets for all classes are downloadable below in powerpoint format.

#flyingfifteen – As the Flying Fitteen's get close to the longest day of the year, the DBSC PRO certainly made sure they had the longest race of the year in light N/NE winds with an extremely strong ebbing tide. After the excitement of going to the FF Northerns at Cushendall last weekend it was back to bread and butter racing on the Bay. This first series was won by Tom Galvin, with Alan Dooley second aided by guest driver Jonathan ORourke finishing one point ahead of Doorly/Green, Tom Leonard finished fourth.

Back to last night's race, the pin end was favoured, there appeared to be more wind uptide out on the left and the two boats that stayed left came in to the first mark first and second. Green missed the mark allowing Jonathan & Carol in to take the lead. Downwind Green went right and got through to lead but it was to be short lived as Jonathan regained it on the next beat.

The wind was light and it looked like we wouldn't finish within the time but we all kept going. On the last beat out to East mark, Jonathan covered Green all the way up the beat on the right side allowing Tom & Geraldine to hit the left side, where there was consistently more wind, Tom came in at the mark into second place and this was how it stayed, Jonathan first, Leonard second and Green third with series winner Tom Galvin fourth. Well done Tom!

This Saturday the NYC regatta takes place and we are expecting a large turnout.

#flyingfifteen – British Flying fifteen ace Charles Apthorp will lead a training day for one of Dublin's biggest one design keelboat fleets on Saturday, June 7th. 

The former World and British champion from Hayling Island Sailing Club will focus initially on the critical area of mast set-up in the 20–foot keelboat. 

The training will start at 10am at the National Yacht Club before on the water tuition that will lead into DBSC racing where the class has been achieving turnouts of up to 18 boats for Bay competition.

#j109 – After several seasons of success on both inshore and offshore circuits, the Irish J109 class is expanding and hopes are high that the Irish title to be decided in Dun Laoghaire and not Cork as previoulsy announced, will be a 14–boat event.

London 2012 Olympic race officer Jack Roy will be in charge of the National Championships from Friday 18th July to Sunday 20th July at the National Yacht Club. Wires were previously crossed when a January piece indicated Cork Week would be the 2014 venue.

The Irish J109 fleet is expanding with two new new boats joining the Irish fleet this year.

There is now also a number of J109s from Wales and the West coast of UK participating in Irish events.

The 'Celtic Sea' area now boasts16 boats and the Irish class has forged much closer ties with UK sailors to promote a competitive sailing scene for the J109s.

The hope is to have at least 14 boats on the start line for the Dublin Bay Nationals.

#isora – It's a busy weekend for offshore sailors with both British and Irish crews heading on separate key races counting towards overall series points in the RORC and ISORA programmes but as well as the forthcoming fixtures the most pressing matter for offshore sailors this week is the hope of finding four fellow racing sailors alive in the Atlantic Ocean. As Afloat reported last night, renewed calls have been made for authorities to resume a search for a Brtitish crew from a 40–yacht returning from racing in the Caribbean.

On the UK South coast, a fleet of 40 yachts from five nations will compete in RORC's Myth of Malham Race while on the Irish east coast up to 20 are expected on ISORA's 100–mile race from Dún Laoghaire to Holyhead sailed under the burgee of the National Yacht Club.

One boat that will miss the start is Isle of Man regular, Polished Manx, a Sigma 33 that was dismasted and rescued a fortnight ago in a punishing race off Holyhead. It had been hoped that the yacht would be back on the startline on Friday but instead the aim now is to be ready for the Liverpool race on May 28th. Still not a bad turnaround!

The exact Irish Sea course to be sailed on Saturday will not  will be published until the eve of the race, next Friday evening, and may include one of ISORA's innovative new virtual marks. 

The race, which is also one of the qualifying races for next month's Round Ireland Race from Wicklow, will start in Scotsman's Bay in Dublin Bay between the DBSC 'Pier' mark and an adjacent committee boat flying a NYC burgee.

According to the Sailing Instructions, (downloadable below as a pdf file) the finish line off the Welsh coast shall be between the end of the Holyhead breakwater and the Clippera Buoy – 0.6 miles off pier head, bearing 067(T).