Seven of the nine entries so far in the big boat class at July's Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta (VDLR) are visitors, but a brand new J112e from the home port will add extra spice to the Cruisers Zero fleet (boats greater than 12 metres in length). 

The National Yacht Club's Johnny Treanor will debut the new J112 at the country's largest regatta from July 6-9.

Irish Sea regulars, the J125 Jackknife (Andrew Hall from Pwllheli in North Wales) and Howth Grand Soleil 44, Samatom (Robert Rendell), have both entered the biennial Dublin Bay event. Also coming from Howth is Nigel Biggs and Dave Cullen's First 50 Checkmate XX.

Both HYC entries are also entered into the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Dingle Race that will be staged from the harbour a month earlier on June 7th and is also reporting a strong turnout.

ISORA has a busy offshore season planned in 2023 that includes Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta's Coastal races Photo: Afloat

The offshore flavour of the big boat class is coming from ISORA's busy 2023 calendar. In conjunction with the Royal Dee Yacht Club, the offshore body is running the RDYC Irish Sea Offshore Championship again this year as part of the VDLR. This will include the Lyver Race and the four coastal races in the VDLR. As a result, Liverpool Yacht Club's Prima 38, Max Too (Neil Thomas) is an early entry. 

Two boats travel from Northern Ireland with Royal Ulster's John Minnis in Final Call II and Strangford Lough's Stuart Cranston sailing in the Ker 32, Hijacker. 

Over 150 entries are already in for the 22-class regatta. An early bird entry discount closes in five days and is available until midnight on 31st March. 

The Howth Yacht Club Grand Soleil 44, Samatom of Robert Rendell Photo: Afloat

With less than a week to go until the reduced early bird entry fee for July's Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta expires, you could be in with a chance to win a Dubarry holdall and backpack set in the regatta's latest competition prize.

To avail of this opportunity and discounted entry fees, enter here before March 31st, and you will be entered into the raffle for some of the latest Dubarry kit.

All paid-up entries received by midnight Friday, March 31st, will be entered in the draw.

"Early entry is not only a great help to us as we plan for this year's VDLR, but it is so much cheaper for entrants and gives them a chance to win some great kit too!, Event Director Paddy Boyd told Afloat.

Over 140 entries are now in for Ireland's largest regatta that runs from July 6-9, according to Boyd.

The early bird entry discount for Ireland's largest regatta at Dun Laoghaire closes on March 31st 

As an added incentive, the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta organisers will raffle off a great high-capacity Duffel Bag between all paid-up entries received before midnight Sunday, March 19th.

Ireland’s largest regatta will take place from Thursday, July 6th to Sunday, July 9th 2023 and is planned to coincide with ‘Coastival’, a new week-long festival celebrating Dun Laoghaire’s Maritime heritage.

One Designs Dragons and Sigma 33s lead the early entries, with IRC classes reporting entries across the Irish Sea area. 

Regatta Director Paddy Boyd told Afloat, "Entries are building, but, as with all events of this nature, it greatly helps the planning process to have as early an indication as possible of the final entry-level". 

Enter here

July's Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta aims for a 400-boat fleet when Ireland's biggest sailing event resumes for the first time since 2019, today's ICRA Conference heard.

COVID forced the cancellation of 2019 and 2021's biennial event, but Dun Laoghaire's waterfront yacht clubs will welcome the massive fleet again this July from 6-9.

New VDLR Event Director Paddy Boyd has been in charge of some new developments for 2023 and told ICRA that there would be 36 competing VDLR classes ranging from small 14-foot dinghies up to ocean-going 50-footers.

In a strengthening of ties between the clubs and the local community, VDLR 2023 will dovetail with a weeklong 'Coastival' festival at the south Dublin venue starting July 1.

Boyd described it as an 'amazingly positive thing for marine leisure in Dun Laoghaire' to have Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council involved as a regatta supporter and also in charge of the town's harbour.

Cape 31

Boyd also told Saturday's conference the event will see the Irish Cape 31 class centre stage when it makes its high-profile debut at the regatta. As Afloat reported previously, up to ten Cape 31s are expected to compete.

The Cape 31s will launch off the town's Carlisle Pier for Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta Photo: Afloat

Manage2sail

In a drive towards a paperless regatta, the organisers are now using the international Manage2sail programme for entries with an early bird discount operating before the end of March. 

VDLR will also employ the 'Sportity' app, a digital info board that keeps all event or club-related information in one place and well structured. Any new information reaches all users simultaneously, which can be deployed for changes to the four-day programme.

MarkSetBot

On the water, VDLR plans to deploy the world's first robotic buoy on Dublin Bay. Boyd says the 'MarkSetBot' offers robotic buoys and integrated course-setting technology for yacht racing, making race management simple, accurate and sustainable. It is likely the new marks will be deployed by a race officer via mobile phone on one VDLR course, most likely the RS21s. 

So far, the biggest early entries are coming from across the IRC classes with a champion Quarter tonner and Northern Ireland boats already signed up. In the one-design fleets, Sigma 33s and Dragons lead the early bird entries.

Boyd was speaking at the Royal St. George Yacht Club hosted ICRA Cruiser-Racer Conference at Dun Laoghaire Harbour, where key Irish regatta organisers unveiled 2023 sailing season plans.

Courtown Sailing Club's 2021 ICRA Class Three Champion Snoopy returns to Dublin Bay this July, where she is an early entry for Ireland's biggest regatta, the 2023 Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta. 

Martin Mahon's Wexford campaign boat (with Royal Ulster connections) became the ICRA Divison 3 National Champion at the first attempt last September after a superbly sailed series on Dublin Bay in 2021.

The 1979 Joubert-Nivelt Quarter Tonner is entered into Cruisers Three IRC (between the rating of 0.820 and 0.912) for the four-day event co-hosted by all of Dun Laoghaire's waterfront yacht clubs. 

Sailing with Mahon will be his regular crew of Joanne Hall, David Switzer, Jonathan Sutton, Brian Allen and Sean Mahon. 

Martin Mahons' Quarter Tonner Snoopy leads IRC 3 in the 2021 ICRA Nationals. The boat returns to Dublin Bay in 2023 for July's Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta Photo: Afloat

In her 2021 campaign, Snoopy was also runner-up in Calves Week in West Cork and Greystones East Coast Regatta.

VDLR Cruisers Three division looks like it is shaping up to be a strong contest with four boats already entered, including Charisma, a Mini Tonner from West Lancashire.

As well as Dun Laoghaire, Mahon told Afloat, "Team Snoopy is back to take on all the big events in 2023, including the Sovereigns' Cup, the Quarter Ton Cup [at Royal Cork], the ICRA Nationals and maybe HYC's Autumn League".

The first Northern Ireland boats to enter the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta in July are Stuart Cranston’s Ker 32 from Strangford Lough Yacht Club and John Minnis’s Final Call II, an Archambault A35 from Royal Ulster on Belfast Lough.

By the Dun Laoghaire date, both will have competed in the Scottish Series at the end of May and the new RC35 event hosted by Minnis’s club, Royal Ulster, at Bangor in June. In addition, Final Call II skippered by Gareth Flannigan will also have raced in Kip Regatta in mid-May.

Final Call II also aims to compete in the Irish Cruiser Racing Association (ICRA) National Championships at Howth in early September.

North Wales ISORA champion Mojito is one of the first entries into July's Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta. 

The Pwllheli J109 of Vicky Cox and Peter Dunlop is a regular visitor to the Irish east coast and was a big winner on the south coast of Ireland last year too. 

The Mojito crew are entered into what is expected to be a hot Cruisers One division at Ireland's biggest regatta, where a combined fleet of up to 500 boats will compete.

After a successful 2022 Irish campaign that included wins in the 260-mile K2Q race from Dun Laoghaire to Cork Harbour and a Cork Week coastal win in July, the top Welsh J109 returned home to dominate the IRC Welsh National Championships in August before being crowned ISORA champion in September.

As Afloat reported, VDLR 2023 has issued its notice of race and is open for entries.  A class captains' information evening for the regatta's 22 competing classes will be held on January 11th.

Dun Laoghaire Harbour's combined waterfront yachts clubs have announced the continued title sponsorship by Volvo Car Ireland of next July's Dun Laoghaire Regatta and published the Notice of Race (NOR) for Ireland's top sailing event in 2023.

Ireland's largest regatta will take place from Thursday, July 6th to Sunday, July 9th 2023  and, as the NOR reveals, the biennial regatta is planned to coincide with 'Coastival', a new week-long festival celebrating Dun Laoghaire's Maritime heritage, presented by Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council.

Volvo Car Ireland has been the title sponsor of Ireland's largest sailing event since 2007 and is again joined by Spirit Motor Group, the premier dealership for Volvo. 

The Notice of Race of the 2023 Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta is downloadable below as a pdf file

"It is truly wonderful to have Volvo Car Ireland back on board for 2023. The VDLR regatta is now in its 10th edition and Volvo's participation has been a key to its success", Don O'Dowd, VDLR Chairman, said.

The well-proven format will be used once more for the 2023 Dublin Bay event, with up to five race courses in operation.

Since it first set sail in 2005, Dun Laoghaire Regatta has grown biennially and showcases the very best of Irish sailing action on the water. A regatta of this size also brings a lot of shoreside summer colour and significant economic benefit to the town of Dun Laoghaire, O'Dowd said. 

Growing over the last 18 years, the regatta is now proudly one of Northern Europe's greatest shows on the water, eclipsed only by the UK's Cowes Regatta, one of the longest-running regular regattas in the world Photo: Afloat

Sailors have been quick to get on board with plenty of expressions of interest from 22 racing classes seeking to race again as part of the four-day sailing festival.

The NOR is downloadable below as a PDF document.

The last edition in 2019 comprised over 300 sailing races across 30 classes and 2,500 competitors ranging from Olympic and world-class professionals to weekend sailors drawn from Ireland and overseas.

Regatta registration will open on December 26th 2022, at www.dlregatta.org

Did we really manage it? Did we really cram all those major special and routine regular sailing events into the one season of 2022? And all that despite its three main months afloat experiencing decidedly mixed weather? And also despite the fact that many folk had simply got out of the way of packing lots of active racing and hectic après sailing into an already complicated way of life?

Yes, it was the Bounce-back Summer and no mistake, making up for the Pandemic’s lost time with major international events running back-to-back, and all that in the midst of a crowded programme on the local front, with some clubs finding that – thanks to their prime restriction-compliant place at the heart of the community – they were actually emerging into the new reality with more members than they’d had going into the plague years.

Thus we’re a bit like someone who resumes swimming after an absence, and begins by diving off an excessively high board which leaves them gasping as it is, yet they persist in swimming determinedly on with excessive speed and enthusiasm for fear that some new restrictions will suddenly bring it all to a sudden end.

BREATHLESS WITH ACHIEVEMENT

In other words, at the moment the sailing community is simply breathless with exhaustion and achievement. And it takes an extra effort to contemplate the season of 2023, at a time now - in November/December - when many of the more sociable clubs are still holding frequent functions to celebrate the remarkable amount of sailing – and successful sailing at that – which has been done at home and abroad during 2022.

So in contemplating the 2023 season at this stage, we’ll take a fairly broad-brush approach. What will be the pillar events, and what will be the main underlying themes?

 Secret waters. The usually private Shannon One Desigs went public for their Centenary in 2022

As ever with Irish sailing’s long history, there’ll be significant commemorations to be marked. 2022 saw the Centenary of the Shannon One Designs, celebrated by that normally rather private class with very public festivities on Lough Ree and Lough Derg during July, following which they were able to go back into their time-honoured closed-shop mode during August’s traditional lake regatta weeks.

SAOIRSE CIRCUMNAVGATION CENTENARY

In 2023, the big One Hundred to be marked is the Centenary of the start from Dun Laoghaire on the 20th June 1923 of Conor O’Brien of Limerick’s pioneering voyage around the world south of the great Capes in his new own-designed Baltimore-built 42ft ketch Saoirse.

Conor O’Brien’s new Saoirse takes her departure for the Great Southern Ocean from “Dunleary” on June 20th 1923

As Saoirse was to become the first sea-going vessel to fly the ensign of the newly-established Irish Free State, everyone – but everyone – quite rightly feels that they own part of this remarkable achievement. Yet as a consequence, those who have been quietly flying the O’Brien voyaging achievement banner for decades, trying to ensure that it is all properly placed in a national and global context, found that they were in danger of being swamped by new enthusiasts who wanted to make a complete circus out of the entire affair.

The re-created Saoirse newly-launched at Oldcourt in September 2022 - looking good, but with too much work still to be completed for a full programme in 2023. Photo: John Wolfe

However, reality has intervened. The West Cork summer resident who has a Saoirse re-build being created at Oldcourt has indicated that the boat won’t really be in a properly tried and tested seaworthy condition for any Dun Laoghaire celebration planned for June 2023. And in any case he tends to feel that it is more appropriate to keep her in West Cork in celebration of that area’s often-overlooked contribution to the magnificent O’Brien circumnavigation of a century ago, and his subsequent success with the 56t ketch Ilen.

REALISTIC CENTENARY CELEBRATION SAILING ILEN

But as the 1926-built O’Brien-designed 56ft Ilen has been sailing again as a multi-purpose vessel for some years now, thanks to a meticulous restoration programme by Gary MacMahon of Limerick and the Ilen Project working with Liam Hegarty’s boatyard in Oldcourt near Baltimore, a more realistic commemoration scenario has been devised by the Irish Cruising Club in co-ordination with the Ilen Project.

Saoirse’s “big sister”, the 56ft Ilen, has been recruited to take on a celebratory role for the Saoirse Centenary. Photo: Gary Mac Mahon

The ICC was not founded until 1929, but one of its first acts was to make Conor O’Brien its first Honorary Member. However, during his voyage it had been the 1880-founded London-based Royal Cruising Club which gave him enthusiastic support through the regular award of its premier trophy, the Challenge Cup.

This was done three years in a row in 1923, ’24 and ’25 as his voyage progressed to its successful conclusion in Dun Laoghaire exactly two years to the day after departure. And the RCC’s leading officer was also very encouraging in the promotion of O’Brien’s book of his voyage, Across Three Oceans, which in terms of its genre, became a best-seller.

All this was in a time of political turmoil in Ireland with Dublin/London conflict, when O’Brien, moreover, was entering the international sailing arena with a personal history of having been one of the 1914 gun-runners in favour of Irish Home Rule, along with Erskine Childers and Sir Thomas Myles. Thus it was courageous and generous to come out so openly in London in his support, and in recognition of this, the ICC will be joining the RCC with he Ilen as flagship in a Centenary cruise-in-company from Dun Laoghaire to Madeira and back, while the two clubs will be joining forces in publishing a re-introduced re-print of Across Three Oceans.

Cape Horn pioneer Conor O’Brien as portrayed by his wife, the artist Kitty Clausen, in 1930

DUBLIN BAY SAILING CLUB JOINED CELEBRATION

This neat solution to what was shaping up to be a possible clash of viewpoints as to how best the Centenary of the beginning of Conor O’Brien’s Saoirse voyage should be marked is further enhanced by realising that the major celebration should really be on the Centenary of his return, on June 20th 2025. It happened to be a Saturday back in 1925, yet Dublin Bay Sailing Club cancelled its legendary Saturday racing programme in order that its complete racing fleet could welcome Saoirse home.

That in itself was such a totally unprecedented gesture by the 1884-founded DBSC that its Centenary deserves celebration in its own right. So maybe harmony can be maintained by everyone anticipating some special celebration on June 20th 2025, when a sense of completeness might be possible with the more relaxed presence of the re-created Saoirse.

THIRTY YEARS OF THE DUN LAOGHAIRE-DINGLE RACE

Meanwhile, 2023 is already very Dun Laoghaire-focused with the 30th Anniversary staging of the biennial Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race from the National Yacht Club on Wednesday, June 7th, and the all-clubs four day Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta from July 6th to 9th. The Regatta Director this year is Paddy Boyd, whose extensive sailing experience and interaction with Dun Laoghaire and Dublin Bay are so intertwined as to be part of his DNA.

Paddy Boyd is bringing an unrivalled wealth of Dublin Bay sailing and administration experience to the challenge of the VDLR 2023. Photo: Robert Bateman

Nevertheless, it will take all the expertise and enthusiasm of Paddy and his team to get the VDLR machine up and running at full blast again. It’s a formidable setup when it gears fully into smooth action, which made it a doubly-cruel blow when it all had to be pandemic-dismantled early in 2021. Back then, Don O’Dowd (who will continue as Chairman for 2023) was heading the large group of volunteers who finally learned that their already much-worked-at and intensely-sociable VDLR 2021 simply wasn’t going to happen.

SOVEREIGNS AT KINSALE WILL MAKE COMEBACK

In their racing to Dingle, the D2D competitors - with the Murphy family’s Grand Soleil 40 Nieulargo of the Royal Cork YC the defending champion, having been welcomed back to Crosshaven after her victory in 2021 with a full gun salute by Admiral Colin Morehead – will be battling past Kinsale, which hosts its own battles with Sovereign’s Regatta on June 21st to 24th.

Every major regatta in Ireland – whether it be Bangor Town on Belfast Lough, Wave at Howth, the VDLR in Dun Laoghaire, Volvo Cork Week in Cork Harbour, the Sovereigns in Kinsale, or Calves Week at Schull – manages to have its own unique character, partly because those seven premier sailing centres somehow all manage to be completely different in character from the other six.

Kinsale. Every major regatta centre in Ireland is unique, and the special charms of Kinsale are obvious Photo: Wikimedia

Yet the Sovereigns at Kinsale - sponsored in 2023 by Simply Blue - will have at least one significant carry-over from 2022’s Volvo Cork Week. The 1720 Euros were the highlight of Crosshaven last July with a crack fleet of 42 boats, many of them with superb restoration and re-spray jobs which belied their class’s 1994 origins. The Crosshaven-Howth team of the English and McDonald talents combined on Atara to come out tops, which means that at Kinsale they’ll be the target boat, while the other target is to push the fleet of these eternally attractive boats through the 50 mark.

After thirty years, the Cork 1720 Sportsboat is as attractive as ever. They’ll be hoping for a fleet of 50-plus at Kinsale next June for their Euros as part in the Sovereigns Regatta

THE INTERNATONAL SCENE

We’ll be taking a much more comprehensive look at the international prospects for 2023 in a future SailSat, but anyone who thinks that the Irish representation afloat for the 2024 Olympics in Paris (with the sailing at Marseille) will be selected by the end of 2023 might be surprised when some of it goes right down to the wire in April 2024, which has happened in times past.

Be that as it may, on the offshore scene 2023 gets going early with the Caribbean 600 in February – there’s almost invariably Irish involvement, and we’ve collected more than our fair share of its silverware since it was inaugurated in 2009.

The dream of thousands – racing in the RORC Fastnet Race. 2023’s edition - the 50th – will start earlier than usual, on July 22nd. Photo: Kurt Arrigo

But inevitably the focus will mainly be on the Fastnet Race 2023, which unusually for this 50th Edition, will be starting in July, on Saturday 22nd July from Cowes, but taking in the new extended course to finish at Cherbourg. Presumably this timing is partly to allow the heavy brigade to take in Cowes Week itself in August, but meanwhile, looking ahead to the Fastnet Centenary in 2025, we still don’t really know if the old course to finish at Plymouth will be acknowledged and used. But either way, Ireland certainly has skin in the game as the first racing of the new course in 2021 saw Irish Offshore Sailing’s vintage Sun Fast 37 Desert Star from Dun Laoghaire - skippered by Ronan O Siochru - put in an appropriately stellar performance to take a close second in Class IV and an impressive 14th overall in a huge fleet.

Stellar performance – the crew of Desert Star (Ronan O Siochru on right) have a nano-second of relaxation towards the end of the 2021 Fastnet Race, as it becpmes increasingly clear they are second in class and 14th overall in a fleet of hundreds

INSS & THE DUN LAOGHAIRE PHENOMENON

The fact that Desert Star’s success was just one of many achievements being logged by the continually-developing Dun Laoghaire sailing and training scene – both commercial and in the clubs – reflects the new interest that sailing attracted as the first small easings of the pandemic began to apply in the local context.

Ultimately, it’s all about the numbers game. The Rumball family of the multi-function and high-achieving Irish National Sailing School are originally from Malahide, while Ronan O Siochru of IOS took his first serious steps afloat in Kinsale. But in facing business realities, they all realised that the population package right beside good sailing water which Dun Laoghaire and South Dublin offers made it no contest in deciding to base their locations around The Old Granite Pond, and sailing history has proven them right.

“THE HOWTH PRODUCT”

That said, the slightly quirky appeal of Howth Harbour, which prides itself on NOT being part of Dublin Bay, proved to have its new and established adherents in considerable numbers as sailing emerged from the plague years. The modern HYC clubhouse/marina reaches the end of 2022 with 2,173 members when you include all categories, and they look forward to a 2023 season which is fascinatingly book-ended by the National Youth Championship from 13th to 16th April 2023, and the ICRA Nats from 1st to 3rd September.

For those who try to take in all the information they can from developing situations, it w be fascinating in getting an overview of sailing development to see how many juniors who take part in their own multi-class championships in April then reappear in some crewing or helming capacity in the ICRA Nationals at the beginning of September.

HOWTH SEVENTEENS’ 125th ANNIVERSARY TO BALTIMORE

Meanwhile Howth’s eternal 17ft OD Class - founded in 1898 - continues to attract all ages, and they celebrate their 125th Anniversary in 2023 with many events, a highlight being a week’s “one class” regatta visit to Baltimore in mid-June.

They’re no strangers to West Cork, as master-shipwright Rui Ferreira of Ballydehob has done significant work on some of the boats, and back in 2003 no less than 15 of them decamped en masse to the Glandore Classics Regatta, dropping out of the regular programme to take in circuits of the Fastnet Rock and other eccentricities.

The Howth 17 Leila (Roddy Cooper) at the Fastnet Rock during the Glandore Classics 2003. The 1898-built Leila was already six years old when the Fastnet Lighthouse began signalling in 1904. Photo: W M Nixon

In fact, when the Howth Seventeens are hunting as a pack, it’s really easier for everyone if they do their own thing, and even then you need to be tuned in to their system of in-class communication, which supposedly relies on a WhatsApp, but in practice seems to be utilizing some form of supernatural telepathy.

So my thoughts are with anyone with a bigger boat with an auxiliary who happens to be detailed off to be the Mother Ship to the Seventeens in June. For as we learned in in 2003, you’re called the Mother Ship because the Mother is always the last to know.

Thus the fleet found themselves on a foggy windy morning in Castlehaven when - just along the coast in Glandore - the rest of the Classics fleet were being confined in-harbour for their racing. But the Seventeens’ race plan for that day was a slightly offshore sprint from Castlehaven to Glandore, with the winner being the first boat to have a crewperson down a pint in Casey’s of Glandore, thereby throwing in a brief but intense bit of hill running to add to the sailing sport.

With the poor visibility and the brisk onshore wind, the Mother Ship was assured that they’d take the more sheltered route inside High Island. But once we’d cleared the entrance to Castlehaven, it was quite clear that the class was determined to face the more challenging seas running outside High Island.

Summertime in West Cork. The Casey’s Pint Race from Castlehaven to Glandore, July 2003, with Aura (1898, left), and Deilginis (1907, right), shaping up to use the breaking Copper Rock off High Island as the weather mark. Photo: W M Nixon

Moreover, they seemed to have agreed among themselves that it was safe enough to chance going over or inside the submerged Row Rock, and therefore the half-tide Copper Rock southwest of High Island became the weather mark.

When you see a bunch of Howth 17s racing flat out past the Copper Rock as the seas break over it within a metre or two of the boats, you know you’re dealing with a bunch of total free-thinkers. So good luck to whoever is the Mother Ship in June next year, twenty years down the track from that first Casey’s Pint Race.

The RS Elite Association has announced the RS Elite Open Tour will include Ireland's biggest regatta at Dun Laoghaire in July.

Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta has proved popular with RS Elite, particularly since the UK National Championship was held there in 2019. The regatta organisers have confirmed that they will provide a separate start for RS Elites if there are six or more entries.

The Elite tour combines all events open to RS Elite Association members in 2023, ranging from championship to training events, in a single framework. This will reinforce the RS Elite’s status as a national fleet in the UK and encourage sailors to support events in clubs other than their own.

An RS elite startline at Cowes Photo: Paul Wyeth

RS Elite Association Chairman Jo Hewitson has commented: “The committee have worked hard and creatively to provide an exciting programme of events to enable as many of us as possible to benefit from training, super competitive racing in some of the best locations possible. I look forward to seeing you on the water and in the bar.”

Open Training Events at the Royal Burnham Yacht Club, Strangford Lough Yacht club and Hayling Island Sailing Club

The RS Elite association will provide open weekend training events at these venues, and, in the case of Hayling Island, open sprint racing on the second day where visitors will join the club’s RS Elite sprint racing. All RS Elite Association members are welcome, whether or not they are members of the host club. The dates are:

• Royal Burnham Yacht Club, Burnham-on-Crouch – 15-16 April 2023
• Strangford Lough Yacht Club, Strangford Lough, Northern Ireland – 22-23 April 2023
• Hayling Island Sailing Club, Hayling Island – open training – 20 May 2023
• Hayling Island Sailing Club, Hayling Island – open sprint racing – 21 May 2023

Southern Area Championship at Hayling Island Sailing Club – 27-29 May 2023

Held as part of Hayling Island Sailing Club’s Whitsun Regatta on the weekend following the training and sprint event at HISC. Visitors doing that event will be able to leave their boats at the club to take in the Southern Area Championship as well. In this incarnation the Southern Area Championship has become an increasingly popular event with top class race management and a vibrant social scene.

Irish National Championship at Royal Ulster Yacht Club – 24-25 June 2023

This two day event is being held on Belfast Lough on the weekend before the UK National championship at nearby Strangford Lough. Visitors from the UK Mainland will be able to do both events by moving their boats to Strangford Lough Yacht Club between events. It is suggested visitors stay in the Strangford Lough area. A bus will be provided on the Saturday and Sunday to enable sailors to enjoy the Royal Ulster hospitality to the full!

UK National Championship at Strangford Lough Yacht Club – 28 June – 1 July 2023

The UK National Championship returns to Ireland in 2023 with a full programme of races and socials at the popular Strangford Lough Yacht Club., with plenty for the non-sailor too. The two events in Ireland in 2023 have been timed to allow visiting boats from the UK Mainland to easily take part in both. Accommodation is being arranged in Irish members’ second homes or in homes they are temporarily vacating, so it is important that visitors register their interest early.

Dun Laoghaire Regatta 6-9 July 2023

Dun Laoghaire Regatta has proved popular with RS Elite, particularly since the UK National Championship was held there in 2019. The regatta organisers have confirmed that they will provide a separate start for RS Elites if there are six or more entries.

Chichester Harbour Race Week – 16-18 August 2023

RS Elites participate in the last three days of Chichester Harbour Race Week (Wednesday, Thursday, Friday). Racing for this popular event is on a separate racecourse from the Race Week dinghy events with two races per day over windward-leeward courses, normally in Bracklesham Bay or Hayling Bay.

Eastern Area Championship at Royal Burnham Yacht Club – 26-28 August 2023

With courses on the River Crouch, the Eastern Area Championship is held over the three days of the August Bank Holiday as part of Burnham Week.

Tønsberg Seilforening Norway – 31 August – 2 September

Tønsberg Seilforening in Norway will host an international match racing event in Norway. Situated close to the entrance to Oslo Fjord, the club is host to a fleet of RS Elites and club boats will be made available for the match racing event. Accommodation for visitors will be available in members’ houses, so it is important that those wishing to go should inform the RS Elite class secretary through https://rselite.org/contact. International visitors will have to organise their transport to Norway, but everything else will be taken care of by the host club.

September Regatta at Royal Southern Yacht Club – 16-17 September 2023

RS Elites will be given a separate start in this prestigious multi-class regatta, provided we can muster a minimum of 6 boats to take part.