It's only 160 km by road but the passage north from Dublin Bay for the twelve Cruising Association of Ireland crews who set out for Belfast Lough was a great deal more. With stopovers in Carlingford Lough and Ardglass on the way to Bangor and Belfast, those sailors who persisted in what turned out to be mostly disappointing weather conditions were rewarded with a warm welcome in all the marinas visited. It has been three years since the fleet came North and new members were welcomed to the CAI fold.

Led by Commodore Vincent Lundy in Timballoo, the 14-boat fleet mustered at Malahide Yacht Club where they were treated to a Barbecue hosted by Commodore Dan Flavin and his wife Therese. From there, aided by CAI Secretary John Leahy's regular forecast maps, some of which were so highly coloured there could be no mistake about what they told, two left for Carlingford – John McInerney's Nos na Gaoithe and Noel Lappin's Rhiannon. The rest had a lay day.

Friday saw the rest of the fleet head for Carlingford Lough and for those winds were generally NNE and 12 knots with a sloppy sea but relief came when the turn to port at the Hellyhunter Buoy off Cranfield Point brought some sunshine and calm seas. The destination was the marina on the County Louth shore, in that beautiful fiord like lough, where they enjoyed an evening meal.

Cruising Association of Ireland yachts arrive in Carlingford Lough during the cruise from Malahide to Belfast Lough

Early morning at Carlingford Marina

The next stop was the fishing town of Ardglass on the south Down coast. With the dire forecast of Storm Ellen for the end of the week, three chose the discretion option and planned to head back to Dublin Bay. After Ardglass it was on North to Belfast Lough.

Ardglass Marina is the only marina between Carlingford and Bangor. It is one of the safest small harbours on the east coast of Ireland thanks to its two breakwaters and deep water.Cruising Association members at Ardglass are (from left) Clifford Brown, John McInerney and Gerry Dunne

By Wednesday seven of the fleet were tucked up in Bangor – Timballoo, Rhapsody, Rhiannon, Aldebaran, Seod na Farraige, Nos Na Gaoithe and Enigma (John Murphy had the shortest passage having come from his home port of Carrickfergus on the opposite shore). There was plenty of room for Nanuq owned by Pat McCormick, Commodore of Carlingford Yacht Club and Simon Parker's Asile in the sparsely populated Belfast Harbour Marina with surely the most stunning backdrop in Titanic Belfast. And another northern member, David Meeke was in Bangor without his boat, having picked an unfortunate time to antifoul in Carrick! 

The stunning backdrop of the Titanic Belfast

Royal Ulster Yacht Club was the venue for the end of cruise dinner where on Wednesday evening the gathering assembled, suitably socially distanced, with Vice Commodore Alan Espey welcoming the crews.

Commodore Vincent Lundy reflected on the event." It is very difficult to organise any event which complies with COVID 19 regulations. The CAI is very particular to the point that they applied a high degree of Health and Safety over and above the recommended guidelines. The majority of CAI crews are family groups and we were able to put in place an alternative short cruise to replace the original planned for the West Coast of Scotland. At each of the main stops in Malahide, Carlingford and Bangor, the reception was welcoming and friendly. This was a worthwhile effort".

For the second weekend running in August, anglers on the south shore of Dublin Bay have been taking a bountiful supply of mackerel on feathers, especially on the southern tip of the Bay at Dalkey Island where shoals of sprat on which the mackerel feed are plentiful.

Anglers are positioning themselves on the backs of both Dun Laoghaire Harbours East and West piers and also at Dalkey on the rocky outcrops at Coliemore Harbour, Bulloch Harbour and Killiney Bay.

There is also a fleet of small sea angling boats out on the Bay, primarily all using feather rigs and enjoying great catches.

A good catch of Mackerel from Dublin Bay Photo: Afloat

Dublin Bay Old Gaffers Association invites you to join their next Zoom session on Historic Dublin Bay Gaff Rigged Vessels from Maritime Paintings and Photographs, which will be given by Cormac Lowth on Thursday 16th July.

Dublin’s leading maritime historian Cormac Lowth has assembled a fine collection of 19th and early 20th century paintings and photographs showcasing the gaff and square-rigged vessels that graced Dublin Bay. These images include fishing boats, of which there were a great many based in Ringsend, together with cargo vessels - including schooners, brigantines and ketches - and of course sailing yachts, both cruising and racing. The wide variety of these gaff-rigged working and pleasure vessels provided interesting subject matter for Dublin’s artists and photographers during the second half of the 19th century and the early part of the 20th century. With his extensive knowledge of Dublin’s maritime past Cormac will guide us through this unique collection of images which will interest sailors, historians, painters, photographers and anyone fascinated by Dublin’s maritime past.

Cormac’s session will start at 19.30, but you are requested to join the Zoom meeting at 19.00 for general chat before the Q&A session. Joining early will also ensure that any connection issues can be sorted out well before 19.30.

The details of this Zoom meeting are:

• Topic: Historic Dublin Bay Gaff Rigged Vessels from Maritime Paintings and Photographs • Time: Thursday, July 16th 2020, at 19.00
• Link to join the meetng: hOps://us02web.zoom.us/j/85751800759
• Meetng ID: 857 5180 0759

This is all the information you need to join the meeting - there will be no additional details required or provided on the day of the session, and you do not need a password to join.

If you join the Zoom meeting by clicking the link above, you will not need the Meeting ID, which is only required if you want to join the session through other means

Tuesday evening Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) dinghy racing got off to a great start in Dun Laoghaire Harbour tonight with a bumper Laser fleet competing.

As Laser Class Captain Gavan Murphy predicted on Afloat a fortnight ago, there was a super turn out of single-handers for the first race of the COVID delayed season. 

The 50-boat Laser fleet enjoyed ten-knot southerly winds for the in harbour racing run from DBSC's Freebird Committee Boat.

Also racing were RS Aeros, Fireballs and PY dinghies.

Part of the 65-strong DBSC Laser fleet

DBSC Results for 30/06/2020

All results Provisional & Subject to Review

Race 1

PY Class: 1. B Sweeney, 2. N Butler, 3. B Foley

Fireball: 1. F Miller, 2. 14865, 3. N Miller

Laser Standard: 1. R Wallace, 2. D Maloney, 3. R O'Leary

Laser Radial: 1. M Norman, 2. R Geraghty-McDonnell, 3. K O'Connor

Laser 4.7: 1. A Daly, 2. C Byrne, 3. H Turvey

Race 2

PY Class: 1. B Sweeney, 2. N Butler, 3. B Foley

Fireball: 1. F Miller, 2. C Power/M Barry, 3. 14865

Laser Standard: 1. R Wallace, 2. R O'Leary, 3. G O'Hare

Laser Radial: 1. P O'Reilly, 2. K O'Connor, 3. R Geraghty-McDonnell

Laser 4.7: 1. A Daly, 2. E Dempsey, 3. Z Hall

During a “COVID 19” garage clean out recently, a box of unclaimed prizes was found for the Irish Dragon keelboat class.

These, according to the inscriptions thereon, were to be awarded at the prize-giving for the East Coast Dragon Championships 1985 to the 3rd, 5th and 6th places overall. Apparently, as 1st, 2nd and 4th were presented, there was no one there to receive the others. In fact, no one has any idea how they came to be.

After some debate, it was decided to try and find who the recipients might have been.

By delving through the Dragon Class records, the Dublin Bay Dragon Fleet Captain’s Report Season 1985 revealed the following relevant information:- “Congratulations to the East Coast Dragon Championships winner Conor Doyle and his crew in Alphida and runner-up Alan Crosbie and his crew in Isolde. Other placings were 3rd John Kidney (Hikari), 4th Gerry Owens (Titan), 5th Peter & Susan Gray (Andromeda) and 6th Dan O’Connor (Leprechaun).

It was then decided to arrange a belated prize giving, albeit 35 years late, for the rediscovered prizes. This took place in accordance with COVID 19 protocol on Thursday 25th June.

Prizes were presented by the owner of the garage in question, former Dragon ace Michael Cotter.

Some offshore racing enthusiasts may have been hoping that the historic re-enactment of the “Kingstown to Queenstown" Race of 1860 – the first proper offshore event in Irish and British waters – might still have been staged in some very muted form, with minimal shoreside interaction in order to comply with post-COVID-19 restrictions. But those directly involved have now made a clear decision that to do so would be entirely at variance with the spirit of the race, which is to be a celebration of offshore racing both in Ireland and internationally, with a highly sociable shore-side element in Cobh after the finish.

The leading race organiser at the Cobh finish, South Coast Offshore Racing Association Commodore Johanna Murphy, has issued an informal statement outlining the thinking behind the way things will go, as plans take shape to stage the race in 2022:

“The Kingstown to Queenstown Race is postponing to 7/7/22 in light of COVID-19. The race is being run by Cove Sailing Club and the National Yacht Club, and will start from the NYC and finish at the Old Yacht Club (now the Sirius Centre) in Cobh. After the finish, there’ll be festivities on the Cobh waterfront, including of course a talk on the history of the iconic race by the one and only Eddie English. The prize-giving will follow, and I will be organising a barbecue in the Quays, while now that CSC marina is up and running, there will be visitor berthing available.

All the mechanics of the race will be worked out nearer the time, but it’s definitely one for the diary - after all, what’s another two years when we have waited since 1860? The June-July programme for 2021 is already solidly booked, so to do this iconic and historic race justice, we need to make the clean break to 2022. It deserves the chance to be a fantastic race, and will I feel it be a popular event nationally and internationally, and a chance for the Clubs and sailors to come together - which is what much of sailing is all about. And It will also tie in nicely with Cork Week 2022, which is 11th – 15th July 2022."

Dublin Bay Sailing Club Club (DBSC) has laid some of its race marks on Dublin Bay in anticipation of the Summer Series getting underway next month.

As Afloat previously reported, DBSC aims to race from July 20th.

Outer guard marks and seven conical marks in the 'Northern circle area' are now laid in the Bay so, when the go-ahead for racing is given, the marks will already be in place.

This could see DBSC's first Thursday race of the season start on July 23rd and Saturday racing from July 25th, some three months later than originally scheduled due to COVID-19 restrictions.

The club is the largest yacht racing club in the country and provides yacht racing for all of Dun Laoghaire Harbour's yacht clubs, a combined fleet of over 200 boats and some 2,000 sailors or more.

Dublin Bay Sailing Club aims to race from July 20th, according to an update from DBSC Commodore Jonathan Nicholson this morning.

This could see DBSC's first Thursday race of the season start on July 23rd and Saturday racing from July 25th, some three months later than orginally scheduled due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Nicholson says 'While there is still a lack of clarity', DBSC is finalising plans to get racing going as soon as practical after the restrictions have been lifted by the government and Irish Sailing. 'The current working assumption is racing will re-commence in phase 4, which is currently scheduled for 20th of July", he says.

Club marks, as Afloat reported here, will be deployed over the next few days specifically the larger outer guard marks and seven conical marks so, when the go-ahead for racing is given, the marks will already be in place.

DBSC Entries

The club is the largest yacht racing club in the country by some distance and in order to process considerable administrative task to process the entries, the Commodre is urging those who have yet to enter to do so immediately through its online form.

Almost all of the club’s revenue comes from entry and membership fees, DBSC says it anticipates that the curtailed season will result in a substantial loss this year. Nevertheless, the committee is considering offering a rebate on the entry fees and a mechanism to facilitate this. Nicholson says any rebate of entry fees can only be calculated when there is a clear view of the Club’s results for the season.

After an absence of over a month, sails made a welcome return to the Dublin Bay horizon this morning after the Coastguard advisory was lifted and Dun Laoghaire marina reopened to boat owners.

Almost as soon as Phase One of the government easing restrictions came into force, four sailing cruisers emerged from Dun Laoghaire Harbour by 9 am this morning. Three headed south on the tide past the Forty Foot bathing place with one anchoring in Scotsman's Bay.

They're the first sailing boats seen on the Bay since April 12th when two visiting UK yachts arrived into Dun Laoghaire Harbour to escape a north-east gale.

Sailing with a crew made up from the same household is now possible subject to the constraints of taking leisure pursuits within five km from a person’s home and returning to the harbour of departure.

Yacht club forecourts at the country's biggest boating centre will also reopen this morning with limited access to boatowners preparing boats for launching at the end of this month.

Also expected to make a return to the water at Dun Laoghaire is household-based sailing crews, solo sailing and the Olympic team from their High Performance base.

See: live Dublin Bay webcam

Despite the Irish Coast Guard advisory asking members of the public not to go to sea for recreational purposes, Dun Laoghaire RNLI all-weather lifeboat was launched on Saturday afternoon (May 16) following a request from the Coast Guard, to assist an 18ft speedboat with three people on board which had reported engine failure half a mile north of Dun Laoghaire Harbour’s West Pier.

The all-weather lifeboat was launched under Coxswain Mark McGibney with four crew members on board and made its way to the scene arriving at 3:02 pm. The all-weather lifeboat took the vessel in tow and brought it back to Dun Laoghaire Harbour, all on board were wearing lifejackets and no medical attention was required.

Weather conditions at the time were described as good with a light wind and good visibility.

Speaking following the call out, Mark McGibney, Dun Laoghaire RNLI lifeboat Coxwain at the time said: ‘The casualties did the right thing calling for help once they knew they were in difficulty. I would like to take this opportunity to remind everybody to make sure that their vessel engines and safety equipment are checked and in working order before taking to the water.’ ‘Dun Laoghaire RNLI remains on call and is fully operational during the Coronavirus pandemic. While there is no crew training or exercises taking place, our volunteers are here if people need us.’

The Coast Guard revised its 'no boating' statement on Friday stating that Under Phase 1 of the Roadmap to Recovery (commencing 18 May), people are permitted to engage in outdoor sporting and fitness activities on an individual basis.