Head Coach Thomas Chaix updates on a happening weekend for National Yacht Club sailors both at home and abroad

At home, the final two races of the junior September series were completed. Close to 50 NYC juniors had entered the series in the Optimist (the largest fleet with 48 entries), ILCA 4, ILCA6, Feva and Toppers.

The sailors secured a very good 1-2-3 in the Optimist fleet, with Aurele Dion edging out his brother Basile for the top prize. Max Neary completed the podium.

NYC was also on top in the Topper class, with Ben Doherty taking the top prize. Third place went to Leonardo Errico.

The National also had sailors racing in the other classes falling short of podium finishes. Well done to all participants and organiser Henrietta Senkowski.

The National Yacht Club on Dun Laoghaire's East Pier

NYC also had a few sailors taking part in events around the country.

As afloat reported earlier, Rio Olympian Finn Lynch enjoyed some home sailing at the ILCA7 end-of-the-season regatta, winning all six races in the Royal St. George hosted ILCA event. 

Sam Ledoux and Conor Staunton competed in the ILCA6 category. The 37-boat fleet was very competitive, and Sam secured second place overall after a solid series. In Schull, Ben O Shaugnessy and Ethan Spain were competing at the Junior invitational All Ireland championships ending their challenge as runners-up. William Walsh was also competing.

The final Topper traveller saw 60 boats competing. Ella Fitzgerald took the top Lady prize in 4th overall.

Abroad, the van Steenberge's siblings were racing in Hungary at a 29er Eurocup. After ten races in a very competitive fleet, they secured third overall, which constitutes their best Eurocup finish to date, contributing to tightening their grip on a top 10 and the mixed category overall prize with just one Eurocup to go (Italy in October).

NYC Training programmes

NYC instructors in training had a great weekend progressing their skills with a mix of theoretical sessions and time afloat in order to get their advanced instructor endorsement.

The Optimist Performance programme was launched with three excellent sessions afloat in top conditions. The Feva training was also in session with four boats taking the water on Sunday morning."

Coach James Delaney ran yet another successful morning of training for our ILCA Masters. Frostbites racing is in sight!

Thomas Chaix has been appointed Head Coach overseeing Sailing Development in the National Yacht Club, one of the country's most prominent clubs.  

The new role has been created due to a comprehensive workshop regarding the club's needs and direct feedback from members.

It is anticipated that Chaix will be involved with all the club's racing classes and the junior dinghy classes; Chaix will also coach, among others; the Water Wags, Flying Fifteens, SB20s, Ruffian 23s and J109s that all race from the east pier club at Dun Laoghaire Harbour.

He will lead a broad range of performance coaching activities and programmes in the club under the direction of the Junior Organiser, Sailing Secretary and Class Captains.

Chaix started sailing in Brittany in the late eighties and took a love for the sport at a young age competing in Optimist, then Lasers in the regional Brittany squad.

Despite focusing on his Laser career at national and international levels with many significant performances and wins, he sailed and raced many other classes and prides himself as a very versatile sailor.

Since 2005 he has been professionally coaching and advising sailors in racing skills, equipment, sport psychology, fitness and nutrition. Thomas has worked for individuals, clubs, Irish Sailing and class associations, delivering effective coaching and helping sailors to deliver their potential, whether as a club sailor or a future olympian. He has continued sailing himself - recently winning the Fireball nationals last month and competing at the worlds in Lough Derg.

Thomas Chaix on the wire for Chris Bateman at the 2022 Fireball World Championships on Lough Derg Photo: Con Murphy

"I am looking forward to being part of the National Yacht Club team as Head Coach, bringing years of expertise in the role and delivering to all members improving sailing and racing skills and knowledge, continuing the club tradition around delivering excellence at various events from grassroots to Olympics, from dinghies to cruisers, whilst keeping the family spirit leading to the enjoyment of our great sport and activity."

In one of his first moves, Chaix has called a  meeting on October 6th for all NYC Laser sailors of all fleets (including Junior fleets and adults), where he will discuss and set out his plans for developing the class.

At the weekend, a fleet of twenty-six boats and fifty-two sailors descended on the National Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire for the RS Feva East Coast Championships.

Race Officer Larry Power delivered six races in sunny sailing conditions over two days. The wind off Scotsman’s Bay was light on Saturday, with the first race reaching a maximum of 12 knots but dropping dramatically as the day progressed. Day 1 tested the teams to the full with light, shifty winds making it very tricky for sailors not used to racing in light winds. Sunday brought more consistent wind reaching 10+ Knots, with the Feva Spinnaker bringing many colours to Dublin Bay.

Dun Laoghaire sailors Mia – Mai Hooper and Tom Flannery from the RIYC were in top form over the two days and took 1st Place in the Gold Fleet.

National Yacht Club Commodore Conor O'Regan (left) with First in Bronze, Silver & Gold fleets were Lewis Mc Connell & Maxim Zaramenskiy, Isabella Clarke - Waterman & Aoibhe Killeen, Mia Mia Hooper & Tom Flannery  Photo: Michael Chester

Runners up were Jules Start and Grace Gavin from RStGYC, followed up by local sailors at NYC, Lucas Browne and Felix Dion, who took third place in a very completive finish. To say the racing at the top was tight would be an understatement. Indeed, the standard across the fleet improved dramatically over the two days.

RS Feva events have become more popular across Ireland, with a major emphasis on enjoying the events and having fun. We had sailors from seven clubs from across Ireland compete in three Fleet categories, Gold, Silver, and Bronze. Competitors praised the well-organised event, which was sponsored by Marine Services, and the warm welcome they received from the National Yacht Club.

Overall RS Feva East Coast Championship Results

Gold Fleet

1 Mia Mai Hopper & Tom Flannery (RIYC)

2 Jules Start & Grace Gavin (RSGYC)

3 Lucas Browne & Felix Dion (NYC)

Silver Fleet

1 Isabella Clarke – Waterman & Aoibhe Kileen (RCYC)

2 Jacob Browne & Zara Whelan (NYC)

3 John Healy & Daniel Burns (INSS)

Bronze Fleet

1 Lewis McConnel & Maxim Zaramenskiy (GSC)

2 Eliot Wright & Hugo McConnell (GSC)

3 Kealan Reilly & Oisin O Reilly (INSS)

RS Feva East Coast NYC Prizegiving Photo Gallery by Michael Chester  

Ida Kiernan's election as Commodore of the National Yacht Club on the 25 March 2000 marked a firm shattering of the glass ceiling that limited the role of women in sailing.

Only in the late 1970s were women admitted to full membership of Yacht Clubs – despite many making considerable contributions to the Clubs and sport long before that.

Ida was the first Commodore of a 'Category One' Club – generally defined as one with large premises, full-time staff and over 1,000 members – in Ireland, the UK, and maybe the world.

But her trailblazing in sailing started long before the Millennium year.

In her twenties, she "shelved her safe and comfortable nine to five job in the civil service to make her living at the mercy of the truculent sea", as an article in the Evening Herald in July 1977 described the founding of her Dun Laoghaire Sailing School. Up to this point, Glenans provided summer sailing schools in the South and West of Ireland – but no school was open to the general public in Dublin.

Ida Kiernan was a member of the National Yacht Club for over 50 years

Her base was the Coal Harbour – where her fleet grew to twelve Mirrors and a few 420s and Herons. She had tremendous organisational and marketing flair – launching her annual programme in the Burlington Hotel one year and working closely with principals of the numerous local schools.

Ida ran the school successfully for several years until Alister Rumball took it over and grew it into today's highly successful Irish National Sailing School (INSS).

Ida was a member of the National Yacht Club for over 50 years and was an expert sailor – especially in Mermaid class, and helped train many of the Club's Junior sailors.

Author Donal O'Sullivan described her most famous pupil: "This is Cathy MacAleavey, born in Mexico, who was brought by her mother to Ireland when her father died unexpectedly."

Cathy was the first Irishwoman (with Aishling Byrne) to sail in the Olympics (Seoul, 1988), while her daughter, in turn, was the first Irish woman sailor to win an Olympic medal (Silver at Rio 2016).

In a tribute to Ida Kiernan, DBSC held a minutes silence before the start of its Wednesday Water Wag Race. The DBSC Race Committee Boat Freebird flew 'I' and 'K' flags hoisted fully before dipping to half-mast Photo: DBSC

Ida was born and educated in Dun Laoghaire and started her career in the Revenue Commissioners. When she left state service to set up the Sailing School, she also developed an expertise in Marketing and Organisation. She acted as a professional support for a number of trade organisations. Highly innovative and efficient, she worked closely with CTT, The Export Board.

Most notably, following the 1988 Lockerbie Pan Am 747 Bomb, American buyers were not coming to Europe, so she organised for the Federation of Jewellery Manufacturers of Ireland (FJMI) to Showcase their products in New York. That Group Trade Mission & Exhibition continued successfully for many years. She also acted for a number of Irish clothing and fashion houses in a similar way.

After serving as Commodore of the National Yacht Club, she volunteered incessantly and effectively in many roles. She was on the Dublin Bay Sailing Club Committee Boat Mac Lir weekly during the season. She organised, with Jackie Flynn, the Club Bridge Society, and each Christmas assembled the team which ran a significant charity fashion show in the Club.

She was out on Mac Lir three weeks ago and then went into hospital but was terminally ill at that stage.

Many tributes have poured in from the sailing and commercial worlds, where her fearless, innovative contributions will be sorely missed.

Ida is survived by her brothers Michael and Gerard, and sister-in-law Angela.

MMcC

Read the DBSC tribute to Ida here

Afloat.ie regrets to record the death yesterday of Ida Kiernan, the first woman Commodore of the National YC in Dun Laoghaire from 2000-2002, and a popular pioneer of sailing instruction in the harbour.

We will publish a full appreciation in due course, but meanwhile, our thoughts and condolences are with her family and friends.

This coming weekend, the Irish Flying Fifteen community have their biggest regatta of the year, the National Championship of Ireland, hosted by the National Yacht Club. A seven-race programme is on the agenda over Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 2nd, 3rd and 4th September.

This year’s regatta will see two new trophies donated to the regatta by the family of the late Jack Roy and by the Dun Laoghaire Flying Fifteen Fleet in memory of the late Gerry Donleavy, respectively. Both gentlemen had strong connections with the host club and the Flying Fifteens as competitors and supporters of the class in Dun Laoghaire and further afield.

Jack will also be fondly remembered as a Race Officer for DBSC and for the Flying Fifteen fleet and, in particular, for his most recent race management of the 2019 Flying Fifteen Worlds in Dun Laoghaire.

The Roy Family’s trophy will be awarded to the first National Yacht Club boat in all Nationals going forward and the Gerry Donleavy Memorial Cup will go to the winners of Race 1 at all future Nationals.

In terms of the runners and riders, there is a wide field of potential winners and occupiers of podium places to be considered and the best place to start with the speculation on these places is with the current holders, John Lavery and Alan Green. With a wealth of experience on board, supplemented by an early summer of contesting events in the UK and closing with the Europeans in Cowes last week, where they finished 15th, they must surely be considered the boat to beat sailing in their home waters.

David Gorman's Flying Fifteen Fomo

On the domestic regatta scene, we would have to look at the events sailed this year, in Whitehead, N. Ireland and Dunmore East. The common denominator in these two events is Peter Kennedy (3920) who won the Northerns with Stephen Kane and was placed second in the Southerns with Peter Chamberlain. Others who filled podium places at these two events include 2021 Northern Champions Stuart Harrison & Conor Brennan (3892), 3rd in Dunmore East, Bryan Willis & John McPeake (4074), 2nd in Whitehead, Lee Statham & Andy Paul (4070), 3rd in Whitehead. And, given their performance in Dunmore East, where they won three races, the O’Briens, Niall and Ronan, (4092) from the Connemara Flying Fifteen Fleet can no longer be considered “dark horses”.

New Flying Fifteen regional champions, Ronan (l) and Niall O’Brien (R) from Connemara Photo by Niall Meagher

If we then look at the Dun Laoghaire fleet, there are a number of boats that warrant attention in this exercise. Last Thursday, Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (4028) closed out the DBSC’s Thursday Overall Series with a comfortable margin and given that this far out the forecast is for light winds, that brings this combination into the equation of consideration. David Gorman (4099) has dominated the DBSC’s Saturday Overall Series with a number of crews and, for this weekend, teams up with Chris Doorly, a positive development, so they too warrant consideration. And an exercise such as this would not be complete without mentioning the potent combination of Ian Mathews & Keith Poole (4094). While Ian has been abroad for the majority of the season, he has come home in good time for a crack at this title.

Ian Mathews & Keith Poole

And of course, there is a host of DBSC regulars who will be “itching” to knock some of those mentioned above off their pedestals.

Andy McCleery & Colin Dougan (4037)

Reports of low club numbers in the northern fleets should not dissuade consideration of the likes of Andy McCleery & Colin Dougan (4037) or Bryan Willis & John McPeake.

The regatta, sponsored by CMI and Thomson Process Equipment & Engineering will be under the race management of Eddie Totterdell, with the first race warning signal on Friday 2nd September due at 13:55.

With Ireland's diverse selection of women sailors achieving an extensive range of success locally, nationally and internationally during 2022, interest in getting involved is running at a high level across the population generally, and this Friday evening (August 26th), the busy National YC in Dun Laoghaire is the focal point for an introductory weekend for the continuing Women on Water initiative, with the inaugural theme being on Choosing Your Own Route Into Sailing.

There are so many ways and experiences that can contribute to the process, yet there's no linear approach. To hear more, the initial invitation for Friday from the Women at the Helm Weekend at the NYC is for an evening in the company of five exceptional Irish female sailors to share some of the highlights of their sailing journeys so far - the hurdles they faced, the support they welcomed, and the goals they have set.

The opening symposium will welcome Joan Mulloy representing Offshore Sailing and her Vendée Globe goal, Laura Dillon sharing an insight to her Inshore Sailing experience, Diana Kissane with Team Racing, Christine Heath on Cruising Adventures, and rising star Clara Fagan sharing her experience on the Women in Sailing Menteeship with Pamela Lee. A complete programme of events afloat will then follow through the weekend.

Foil safe? Joan Mulloy of Mayo will be one of the star speakers at Friday night's introductory symposium in the National YC

The National Yacht Club's own Sunfast 3600 Searcher skippered by Pete Smyth was the winner in the IRC Zero division of the club's Davy-sponsored biennial regatta on Dublin Bay on Saturday.

Smyth earned two wins from two races in medium north westerlies to beat the Royal Irish First 40  Prima Forte skippered by Sean Lemass.  Third in the four-boat fleet was Kyran McStay in the X35 D-Tox. 

IRC One victory went to Richard Goodbody's RIYC J109 White Mischief in an eight boat turnout. The NYC J109 Something Else (Brian & John Hall) finished second with clubmate Barry O'Sullivan in Jalapeño third. 

As Afloat reported earlier, the Dun Laoghaire waterfront regatta season is a highlight of the Dublin sailing season and Saturday saw a great programme of entertainment ashore and racing on the water across 20 different divisions.  

One Design keelboats 

David Gorman's brand new Flying fifteen Fomo scored a 4 and a 1 in a turnout of 13 boats to win his class. Second was Ben Mulligan's Enfant De Marie with Tom Murphy's Fflagella third. 

David Gorman's Flying fifteen Fomo

Coming immediately after last weekend's All Ireland Ruffian 23 Team Racing Championships, Brendan Duffy in Carmen was the regatta winner counting a 1,2 to be a point clear of Frank Bradley's Ripples. National Champion Ann Kirwan in Bandit was third overall on five points in the six-boat turnout.

James Gorman of the host club sailing Black was the double race winner in the three-boat SB20 sportsboat class. Patrick McGrath's Smoke On The Water was second with Sneaky B, Nicole Hemeryck in third place. 

Royal St. George's Ian Simington was the J80 winner with two wins from Cooney/Kneafsey in Joyride. Marie Barry and Fiona Curran were third in Jamiroquoi.

Two wins for Billy Whizz (James Conboy-Fischer) in the Beneteau 211 gave him the scratch division title from Andrew Bradley's Chinook. Third was Rowan Fogarty's Ventuno in a five boat turnout

Dinghies

In a 14-boat entry, Marco Sorgassi took wins in all three races in the ILCA 6/Laser Radial class. Brendan Hughes was second with Judy O'Beirne third in a clean sweep at the top for the Royal St. George Laser fleet. 

Three wins from three starts gave the National Yacht Club's Stephen Oram a clear win in a four-boat RS Aero class. In second place was Sarah Dwyer and Damien Dion was third. 

Sarah Dwyer was second in the RS Aero class Photo: Afloat

As previously reported by Afloat, the Water Wag class raced for NYC Regatta honours as part of its Wednesday night racing, results are here.

See full 2022 Davy NYC Regatta individual and overall results in all classes here

Three live Dublin Bay webcams featuring some NYC race course areas are here

The well supported 2022 ILCA/Laser Master Championship 2022 at the National Yacht Club, Dun Laoghaire Harbour saw a combined fleet of 56 boats - including UK visitors - for the weekend championship in the south of Dublin Bay.

Six races were sailed in light to medium winds in both the ILCA 6 (Radial) and ILCA 7 (Standard rig) rigs over trapezoid courses.

There was a combined fleet of 56 boats for the ILCA Masters Championships made up of 32 ILCA 6 rigs and 24 ILCA 7s Photo: Afloat

Prizes were awarded for age categories in each rig type; 30 years to 44 – Apprentice, 45 to 54 – Master, 55 to 64 – Grand Master and 65 to 74 – Great Grand Master.

Wicklow helmsman Michael Norman is the 2022 Great Grandmaster ILCA 6 champion

Wicklow helmsman Michael Norman is the 2022 Great Grandmaster champion in the 32-boat ILCA 6 class. The Grandmaster titleholder is Sean Craig of the Royal St. George Yacht Club and his Dun Laoghaire clubmate Brendan Hughes is the Master champion.

Brendan Hughes is the ILCA 6 Master champion Photo: Afloat

The ILCA 6 Apprentice title was won by Malahide's Darren Griffin. 

In the ILCA 6 Female fleet, a closely fought battle for national champion saw Judy O'Beirne of the Royal St George Yacht Club win over her clubmate Shirley Gilmore. Alison Pigot of the National Yacht Club was third female. 

Royal Cork's Nick Walsh is the Grandmaster champion (above) Photo: Afloat

Royal Cork's Nick Walsh wins the pin end in a start at the ILCA Masters on Dublin Bay Photo: Afloat

In the ILCA 7, Charlie Taylor from Balyholme Yacht Club takes the Great Grandmaster title while Cork sailors took the rest of the silverware. Royal Cork's Nick Walsh is the Grandmaster champion. Dan O'Connell is the Master Champion and Apprentice champion is Kieran Dorgan of Cove Sailing Club. 

Results are here

Saturday’s (April 9th) Lift-in of yachts and boats at Dun Laoghaire Harbour in perfect calm and sunny conditions marked the opening of the 2022 summer sailing season on Dublin Bay. 

In the harbour, the National Yacht Club and neighbouring Royal St. George YC lifted in approximately 30 sailing cruisers apiece using mobile cranes in the day-long operation. 

The boats had wintered ashore on hardstanding at the club premises.

After the weekend lift-in, the summer sailing season will commence on Dublin Bay with a 35-mile ISORA coastal race and the Dublin Bay Sailing Club summer season, starting on April 23rd.

The annual lift in of boats at the Royal St. George Yacht Club

At Ireland's biggest boating centre, the fine Spring weather and good sailing breezes have seen several yachts based at the town marina already back on the Dublin Bay race track.