Displaying items by tag: Royal Western Yacht Club of England

28th December 2023

Plymouth Race Week Returns in 2024 With Three Championship Events

Thursday 11 July 2024 will see the welcome return of Plymouth Race Week.

There will be three great events happening simultaneously during the four-day regatta taking place over three racecourses in Plymouth Sound National Marine Park on the south-west coast of England.

Hosted by the Royal Western Yacht Club of England, the week is guaranteed to have a strong local turnout as the race committee will be regional and national race officers from a number of the local clubs.

Racecourse A will host the IRC Southwest Championships. As with all racing over the week, this is an open event which will run from committee boat starts and managed by the RWYC.

Within the IRC class will be breakout results for RC1000 and RC900, two local initiatives which have seen some great racing over the past two years.

Following a lunchtime briefing, IRC racing will begin on Thursday afternoon with two races, followed by a maximum of four races on Friday and Saturday and finally two on Sunday.

Racecourse B will be from the Plym Yacht Club start line on the Mount Batten Breakwater and will host the SW YTC Southwest Championships.

Map of the planned racecourses for Plymouth Race Week 2024

Race 1 will be the traditional Chris Moyse Pursuit Race, followed by round-the-cans racing on Saturday and Sunday.

Racecourse C will be south of the Breakwater and the venue for the J24 National Championships. A large entry is expected for this competitive one-design class as their World Championships in 2025 are to be held here under the burgees of both the Saltash Sailing Club and Plym Yacht Club.

Known as “The Yachtsman’s Regatta”, Plymouth Race Week is unique. The Breakwater provides excellent shelter against big seas so the conditions will be the very best available anywhere. That coupled with the natural amphitheatre, being the Plymouth Sound National Marine Park, provides the best spectator vantage points in order to watch the action close up.

It is no surprise that Plymouth Sound has hosted both SailGP and America’s Cup World Series events in recent years. Now, Plymouth Race Week allows the opportunity for all visiting teams to experience racing in those same waters as seen on TV.

A full entertainment package is scheduled for the event, to include a roast, live music, barbecue, wet bar and of course a crew party — with the prize-giving on the Sunday afternoon where the J24 National Champion will be crowned along with the SW YTC and IRC Southwest champions.

For further details and entry forms, see the RWYC website. And for the latest chat and information, see the event’s official social media page.

Published in Racing

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OSTAR & TWOSTAR To Remain In Plymouth, RWYC Confirms

Plymouth’s Royal Western Yacht Club has confirmed that it will run its OSTAR and TWOSTAR transatlantic races in 2020 from Britain’s Ocean City as it has done every four years since the first race in 1960.

“These races from Plymouth to Newport, Rhode Island will continue to be sailed as originally envisaged by Cockleshell hero Blondie Hasler, a test of skipper and boat against the North Atlantic Ocean,” said the club, which will next year celebrate 60 years since it introduced short-handed oceanic racing.

The OSTAR and TWOSTAR events will also be supported by Plymouth City Council as part of next year’s Mayflower 400 celebrations.

“Unfortunately the French organisers of The Transat 2020 have now decided to start their race in Brest rather than Plymouth,” the Plymouth club added. “This deprives the skippers and public of the opportunity to meet and share in the 60th anniversary of the OSTAR.”

The RWYC explained that The Transat was first sailed in 2004 when it decided it could no longer afford the cost or responsibility of running a ‘Grand Prix’ type event for the larger, one-design, highly sponsored and professionally skippered boats.

“The RWYC selected a commercial events organisation to run this part of the race while they continued to run the OSTAR, for professional and experienced skippers alike sailing any class of boat, as the corinthian event envisaged by the original participants 60 years ago.”

Published in Offshore

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Entries Open For RWYC’s Round Britain & Ireland With June Start In Plymouth

#RB&I - The Royal Western Yacht Club of England is now taking entries for the latest Round Britain and Ireland two-handed race, which starts from Plymouth on Sunday 3 June.

This year marks the 14th running of the quadrennial yacht race, which was established in 1966 by the Cockershell hero Major Blondie Hasler.

The race comprises five legs totalling around 2,000 miles, sailed clockwise around the British Isles and Ireland leaving all islands and rocks to starboard.

The race is open to professional and amateur yachtsmen in mono and multi-hulls from 28ft to 55ft overall.

The Round Britain and Ireland race is essentially five races in one with the results decided on accumulated time (IRC corrected). The legs are relatively short stages of three or four days where time spent at the helm and minimum sleep has to be balanced with the need for solo watch keeping and precise navigation.

The race record stands at 15 days, 7 hours but sailors should allow about 23 days to complete the event, including the four 48-hour stopovers in Kinsale, Castle Bay, Lerwick and Lowestoft.

The first leg from Plymouth to Kinsale is 230 miles long, passing outside the Eddystone and Bishop Rock lights to finish at Bulman Rock. Kinsale Yacht Club is at the head of the accessible and safe harbour.

After the 48-hour stopover, competitors set sail on the second leg from Kinsale for Castle Bay on the island of Barra in the Outer Hebrides. The boats keep the Fastnet Rock to starboard at the beginning of the 440-mile second leg past the South and West coasts of Ireland. On arrival, the fleet moors or anchors in Castle Bay.

Leg three covers a distance of 420 miles. The yachts round Barra Head and sail north northwest 70 miles out into the Atlantic, aiming for the isolated volcanic archipelago of St Kilda, after which the competitors round Muckle Flugga and head to Lerwick, 61 degrees north latitude, on the island of Shetland. The Lerwick Boating Club is the host for two days of jollity and warm hospitality.

The longest leg four is 470 miles south from Lerwick to Lowestoft, which is the most easterly point of the British Isles. The Royal Norfolk and Suffolk Yacht Club provides a very hospitable stopover. Family and friends find this port the most convenient to visit being the most accessible by land.

The final leg five of 305 miles is along the South Coast to Plymouth. This leg often proves to be where the podium places are decided due to the many tidal gates. The finish line is in Plymouth Sound off the RWYC Club House.

The Notice of Race and Entry Form can be found at the RWYC website. For further details, contact the race director David Searle at [email protected] or the RWYC secretariat at [email protected].

As reported earlier today on Afloat.ie, entries are also open for the Volvo Round Ireland Yacht Race 2018, marking the 40th year of the biennial race run by Wicklow Sailing Club.

Meanwhile, the RORC has posted its Pre Notice of Race for the Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race run from Cowes on Sunday 12 August. The previous edition in 2014 was won by Irish duo Liam Coyne and Brian Flahive and their First 36.7 Lula Belle.

Published in Rd Britain & Ireland

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Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta

From the Baily lighthouse to Dalkey island, the bay accommodates six separate courses for 21 different classes racing every two years for the Dun Laoghaire Regatta.

In assembling its record-breaking armada, Volvo Dun Laoghaire regatta (VDLR) became, at its second staging, not only the country's biggest sailing event, with 3,500 sailors competing, but also one of Ireland's largest participant sporting events.

One of the reasons for this, ironically, is that competitors across Europe have become jaded by well-worn venue claims attempting to replicate Cowes and Cork Week.'Never mind the quality, feel the width' has been a criticism of modern-day regattas where organisers mistakenly focus on being the biggest to be the best. Dun Laoghaire, with its local fleet of 300 boats, never set out to be the biggest. Its priority focussed instead on quality racing even after it got off to a spectacularly wrong start when the event was becalmed for four days at its first attempt.

The idea to rekindle a combined Dublin bay event resurfaced after an absence of almost 40 years, mostly because of the persistence of a passionate race officer Brian Craig who believed that Dun Laoghaire could become the Cowes of the Irish Sea if the town and the local clubs worked together. Although fickle winds conspired against him in 2005, the support of all four Dun Laoghaire waterfront yacht clubs since then (made up of Dun Laoghaire Motor YC, National YC, Royal Irish YC and Royal St GYC), in association with the two racing clubs of Dublin Bay SC and Royal Alfred YC, gave him the momentum to carry on.

There is no doubt that sailors have also responded with their support from all four coasts. Running for four days, the regatta is (after the large mini-marathons) the single most significant participant sports event in the country, requiring the services of 280 volunteers on and off the water, as well as top international race officers and an international jury, to resolve racing disputes representing five countries. A flotilla of 25 boats regularly races from the Royal Dee near Liverpool to Dublin for the Lyver Trophy to coincide with the event. The race also doubles as a RORC qualifying race for the Fastnet.

Sailors from the Ribble, Mersey, the Menai Straits, Anglesey, Cardigan Bay and the Isle of Man have to travel three times the distance to the Solent as they do to Dublin Bay. This, claims Craig, is one of the major selling points of the Irish event and explains the range of entries from marinas as far away as Yorkshire's Whitby YC and the Isle of Wight.

No other regatta in the Irish Sea area can claim to have such a reach. Dublin Bay Weeks such as this petered out in the 1960s, and it has taken almost four decades for the waterfront clubs to come together to produce a spectacle on and off the water to rival Cowes."The fact that we are getting such numbers means it is inevitable that it is compared with Cowes," said Craig. However, there the comparison ends."We're doing our own thing here. Dun Laoghaire is unique, and we are making an extraordinary effort to welcome visitors from abroad," he added. The busiest shipping lane in the country – across the bay to Dublin port – closes temporarily to facilitate the regatta and the placing of six separate courses each day.

A fleet total of this size represents something of an unknown quantity on the bay as it is more than double the size of any other regatta ever held there.

Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta FAQs

What is Dun Laoghaire Regatta?

Dun Laoghaire Regatta is Ireland's biggest sailing event. It is held every second Summer at Dun Laoghaire Harbour on Dublin Bay.

When is Dun Laoghaire Regatta?

Dun Laoghaire Regatta is held every two years, typically in the first weekend of July.

Where is Dun Laoghaire Regatta held?

As its name suggests, the event is based at Dun Laoghaire Harbour. Racing is held on Dublin Bay over as many as six different courses with a coastal route that extends out into the Irish Sea. Ashore, the festivities are held across the town but mostly in the four organising yacht clubs.

How big is Dun Laoghaire Regatta?

Dun Laoghaire Regatta is the largest sailing regatta in Ireland and on the Irish Sea and the second largest in the British Isles. It has a fleet of 500 competing boats and up to 3,000 sailors. Scotland's biggest regatta on the Clyde is less than half the size of the Dun Laoghaire event. After the Dublin city marathon, the regatta is one of the most significant single participant sporting events in the country in terms of Irish sporting events.

How old is Dun Laoghaire Regatta?

The modern Dublin Bay Regatta began in 2005, but it owes its roots to earlier combined Dublin Bay Regattas of the 1960s.

How many boats compete at Dun Laoghaire Regatta?

Up to 500 boats regularly compete.

How many yacht clubs are represented at Dun Laoghaire Regatta?

Up to 70 different yacht clubs are represented.

Where do the yachts come from to compete at Dun Laoghaire Regatta?

The Channel Islands, Isle of Man, England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Ireland countrywide, and Dublin clubs.

How many boats are visiting boats at Dun Laoghaire Regatta?

Nearly half the sailors, over 1,000, travel to participate from outside of Dun Laoghaire and from overseas to race and socialise in Dun Laoghaire.

What type of yachts race in Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta?

21 different classes are competing at Dun Laoghaire Regatta. As well as four IRC Divisions from 50-footers down to 20-foot day boats and White Sails, there are also extensive one-design keelboat and dinghy fleets to include all the fleets that regularly race on the Bay such as Beneteau 31.7s, Ruffian 23s, Sigma 33s as well as Flying Fifteens, Laser SB20s plus some visiting fleets such as the RS Elites from Belfast Lough to name by one.

What famous sailors race in Dun Laoghaire Regatta?

Some sailing household names are regular competitors at the biennial Dun Laoghaire event including Dun Laoghaire Olympic silver medalist, Annalise Murphy. International sailing stars are competing too such as Mike McIntyre, a British Olympic Gold medalist and a raft of World and European class champions.

How much does it cost to enter Dun Laoghaire Regatta?

There are different entry fees for different size boats. A 40-foot yacht will pay up to €550, but a 14-foot dinghy such as Laser will pay €95. Full entry fee details are contained in the Regatta Notice of Race document.

Where can spectators view Dun Laoghaire Regatta?

Spectators can see the boats racing on six courses from any vantage point on the southern shore of Dublin Bay. As well as from the Harbour walls itself, it is also possible to see the boats from Sandycove, Dalkey and Killiney, especially when the boats compete over inshore coastal courses or have in-harbour finishes.

How does Dun Laoghaire regatta compare to international regattas?

Very favourably. It is often compared to Cowes, Britain's biggest regatta on the Isle of Wight that has 1,000 entries. However, sailors based in the north of England have to travel three times the distance to get to Cowes as they do to Dun Laoghaire.

Why is Dun Laoghaire Regatta so unique?

Dun Laoghaire Regatta is unique because of its compact site offering four different yacht clubs within the harbour and the race tracks' proximity, just a five-minute sail from shore. International sailors also speak of its international travel connections and being so close to Dublin city. The regatta also prides itself on balancing excellent competition with good fun ashore.

Who organises Dun Laoghaire Regatta?

The Organising Authority (OA) of Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta is Dublin Bay Regattas Ltd, a not-for-profit company, beneficially owned by Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club (DMYC), National Yacht Club (NYC), Royal Irish Yacht Club (RIYC) and Royal St George Yacht Club (RSGYC).

What does Dun Laoghaire Regatta contribute to the local economy?

The Irish Marine Federation launched a case study on the 2009 Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta's socio-economic significance. Over four days, the study (carried out by Irish Sea Marine Leisure Knowledge Network) found the event was worth nearly €3million to the local economy over the four days of the event. Typically the Royal Marine Hotel and Haddington Hotel and other local providers are fully booked for the event.