The latest news on the Dun Laoghaire waterfront is that the J/109 Europeans 2024 will be part of this year’s intense series of cruiser/racer regattas at the Royal Irish YC in late August and early September. It’s an organisational breakthrough in line with the club’s overall thinking, as voiced by RIYC Sailing Manager Mark McGibney.
He reckons that if you get a visiting boat and crew to commit to one event, the fact that another is then readily available in a matter of days means that they’ll probably do that as well. They’ll thereby optimise the return on the significant logistical efforts that have been required to have the boat and crew in the right place at the right time and in proper order too.
Mark McGibney has been Sailing Manager of the Royal Irish YC for 31 years of continual improvement in the club’s functioning, while somehow also finding the time to be cox’n of the Dun Laoghaire lifeboat
In this options-rich but time-scarce era, sailing shares the problem of all participant sports in that it has to keep finding new event formats - or at least fresh ways to re-develop established championships - in order to facilitate the mutating interests and decreasing free time of those taking part.
At its most simple, it is easy to think it’s only a matter of finding a concentrated gold standard regatta concept, and then you simply add water. If only. For if we take a couple of steps back from our modern way of sailing, we realise that it’s wholly a vehicle sport. The additional and often challenging logistics of location precision for vehicle and crew alike indicates much personal effort and planning, as it can begin from a considerable distance if a campaign is planned in an event at another leading sailing centre.
The ICRA Nationals fleet (seen here in their 2023 championship at Howth) will start the three-event programme with their three-day Nationals on Dublin Bay on 30th August-1st September. Photo: Afloat.ie/David O’Brien
A CHALLENGE EVEN WITH ROAD-TRAILING
This is difficult even when the boat is easily road trailed. But when it’s a sizeable cruiser-racer, it sometimes happens that the racing itself is less effort and definitely more sport than the voyaging necessary to get the boat there.
This was fine when the boats really were cruiser-racers, and longer holiday periods meant you could cruise properly in relaxed style in getting to the next start. But in these days of 24/7 work attention for many folk, a ten day complete break is regarded as self-indulgence, and the three or four day long weekend format has taken over many once week-long events. Consequently time-constrained delivery trips are just that, and nothing more.
ROYAL IRISH CHAMPIONSHIP PROGRAMME GIVES GREAT VALUE IN A FORTNIGHT
The line-up at the RIYC indicates some even greater time compression, with the headline events shaping up as:
- IRISH CRUISER/RACING ASSOC. NATIONALS: 30th Aug – 1st September 2024
- KEY YACHTING J CUP IRELAND (INC J/109 EUROS) 7th-8th September 2024
- RORC IRC EUROS: 10th-15th September 2024
This means that although at first it seems as if you have the entire tail end of the season packed with top level events at the RIYC, the reality is that boats from elsewhere will only need to think of being in Dun Laoghaire for slightly more than a fortnight.
The underlying theory stems from the review undertaken by Ric Morris’s special committee some years ago to analyse which locations best suited the staging of the ICRA Nationals. He summed up their findings in the terse statement: “Follow The Numbers”. In other words, the ICRA Nats should preferably be staged in Top Tier sailing centres where there are many potential entrants already based. In terms of contemporary reality, this means Kinsale, Crosshaven, Dun Laoghaire and Howth.
The Scottish J/109 Jings has it every which way, as that symbol at the top of her mainsail indicates she is eligible to race with the RC35 fleet. She can also race as a J/109 either on IRC or One-Design, and beyond that she is eligible for the Round Ireland, the Dun Laoghaire-Dingle, and the Fastnet Races
For the fact is that, unlike many other keen sailing countries, the average Irish sailor prefers to have his or her boat based almost within walking distance. We find it odd that people like a two-hour travel gap between home and boat in order to get in the right frame of mind to go sailing. And we find it even odder that there’s such an organisation as the Chipping Norton Yacht Club, remotely rural in England’s Cotswold Hills, with the members gathering mid-week in an ancient country pub, attired in their sailing clothes, to discuss the previous weekend’s RORC race in the English Channel.
But today we’ll by-pass the corollary of that, which might be the conclusion that if you have to regularly travel for some hours to go racing under sail, then you’ll put more effort into it than those who are only minutes from home. For if someone living in the greater Dun Laoghaire area happens to have a J/109, in 2024 they’re getting the best of many worlds, often within sight of home.
J CUP AN INSTANT SUCCESS
One of 2023’s new events was the Key Yachting J Cup Ireland in late August, also at the RIYC. J/Boat people are something of a tribe within themselves. For sure, most of their larger craft can be comfortably cruised, and many do, but there’s no doubting that the majority are in it for the racing game. Thus when the J Cup Ireland was first proposed, it was assumed that such a bright idea must have arisen years ago, but for some reason had failed to ignite.
Not so, although there was some post-covid delay. Yet it simply arose for the 2023 season, and in jig time achieved the instant success which made for one of the highlights of the year despite its compressed two day format, with J Boat crews feeding off each other’s enthusiasm to such an extent that we now feel it has been on the go for years.
History in the making. J/80 skipper Pat O’Neill (HYC) is the first winner of the J Cup Ireland after 2023’s tough championship at the RIYC. He is seen here (left) with Mark Mansfield (J Boats Ireland, and Commodore Jerry Dowling (RIYC). Photo: Key Yachting
Yet the fact is that now Pat O’Neill of Howth is written into the sailing records as being the first overall winner of the J Cup Ireland with his internationally-successful J/80 Mojo, while Barry Cunningham of the host club won the hyper-hot J/109s under the One-Design format with Chimaera, and Johnny Murphy from Howth with Outrajeous won the IRC division, and then went on to win the ICRA Nationals at his home port.
CONCENTRATION OF LATER EVENTS BALANCES EARLY SEASON PROLIFERATION OF MAJORS
Another factor in the need to pile so much into a fortnight-plus in late season reflects the time-consuming reality of established early and mid-season pillar events. Late May sees both the Wave Regatta at Howth, and the Scottish Series at Tarbert. Then in June there’s the SSE Renewables Round Ireland race from Wicklow, while July has Volvo Cork Week at Crosshaven, with an early July re-staging of the 1860-founded Kingstown to Queenstown Race – aka the Dublin Bay to Cork Harbour Race – being run as a useful feeder of enormous historical significance,
After Volvo Cork Week, before anyone has a chance to get focused on positioning boats in Dun Laoghaire for some or all of the Royal Irish late season offerings, there’s Calves Week at Schull. This is something of a wolf in sheep’s clothing, as it portrays itself as a modern take on the easygoing West Cork Regattas of yore, but the racing is razor sharp.
EVERYTHING TO BE IN PLACE AT ROYAL IRISH
All of this does mean that by the time the SailFest gets going back in Dun Laoghaire, there’s a danger that some competing folk might already have becoming jaded, but by making the focal point the Royal Irish YC, with its unique location right on Dun Laoghaire Marina where it provides such comprehensive facilities that noted racers such as Paul O’Higgins’s JPK 10.80 Rockabill VI and Pete Smyth’s Sunfast 3600 are dry-sailed, they can guarantee a world class regatta base.
RIGHT PEOPLE ON THE JOB
But even with the best of facilities in place, it’s not worth a row of beans without experienced can-do experts in the key roles, and in addition to having the multi-talented Mark McGibney permanently in his overall managerial role, they have the hugely experienced Fintan Cairns chairing a small but powerful Overall Committee which will be keeping a close eye on how the three big events are taking shape, and when and if synergies can be activated between them.
Fintan Cairns when he stood down after serving his term as Commodore Dublin Bay SC twenty years ago. He continues to serve sailing in Ireland in many capacities
We did a profile on Fintan a while back here, and he continues to be a quiet force for the good in Irish sailing. It was typical of him that when he stood down from being Commodore of Dublin Bay Sailing Club in 2002, he promptly set about with the late Jim Donegan of Crosshaven and Denis Kiely of Kinsale to bring the Irish Cruiser-Racer Association into being, thereby providing an effective focal point for a large but amorphous sector in Irish sailing, while today in Dun Laoghaire his organisational interests include the annual Turkey Shoot series leading up to Christmas, and the Spring Chicken series which gets under way again next month.
SPECIALIST SUB-COMMITTEE CHAIRMEN
Each event will have its own organisational setup, with ICRA being much-involved in its own championship, while the RIYC’s Paul McCarthy is Chairing the Committee running the J/Cup and Euros, and former RIYC flag officer Patrick Burke of the keenly-sailed First 40.7 Prima Forte heads up the group running the big one, the IRC Europeans.
Patsy Burke is a serious person, yet his favourite selfie is this cheerful sunrise person aboard Prima Forte, saluting the dawn with the Royal Irish colours. Photo: Patrick Burke
GOLD AND SILVER FLEETS IN IRC EUROS?
Admittedly with the J/109 Europeans now added to the J Cup Ireland, the overall architecture of this very important fortnight has been somewhat re-balanced in terms of event significance. But by having the IRC Europeans in the heart of a large-fleet sailing centre, Patsy Burke has had to develop some innovative thinking to give some locally-focussed boats an extra incentive to take part, with a selection of mid-fleet awards.
When I suggested that this would amount to Gold and Silver fleets, he demurred, as there would be no formal fleet-placing division at mid-series. But nevertheless that’s the way the ordinary sailors are going to see it. In fact, with some very hot-shot overseas boats and crews bringing the IRC Euros at the Royal Irish YC on Dublin Bay in September into focus, the waterfront pundits will be suggesting that there should be Gold, Silver, Bronze and Leather Divisions in the final tally to make sure that some of the trophies stay at home.
Follow the Numbers….By staging three major events in close succession at Dun Laoghaire, the Royal Irish YC underlines just how conveniently its location relates to a large population and a good sailing area
