#HYC – Howth's Spring Warmer Series starts tomorrow and continues 'til April 20th, providing a series for Cruiser, J24, SB20, Puppeteers, Squibs and Etchells keelboat classes.

The format will be the same as last year with two windward/leeward races back to back over three Saturdays. The event is sponsored by Key Capital partners.

The Dun Laoghaire SB20 class have been canvassed to support the first event of the season, the perfect lead up to the class Eastern championships at the same venue on the 27/28 April.

#Optimist - Howth Yacht Club has announced that the annual Brassed Off Cup for Optimists scheduled to be held tomorrow 29 March (Good Friday) has been cancelled due to the persistent wintry conditions on the East Coast.

The Brassed Off Cup is normally the highlight event capping the end of the club's Brass Monkeys Spring Series - but the unseasonable snowy weather has put paid to the contest for 2013. Better luck next year!

#HYC - Next week Howth Yacht Club will host international race officer Jack Roy of the National Yacht Club, who will give an illustrated talk on his experiences in Weymouth at the London Olympics last summer.

Roy was selected by the ISAF as a technical officer, one of only seven race officers selected to supervise the UK race management teams at the Olympics.

He was also the only one of the seven who rotated through all the courses, and his talk gives a fascinating insight on how the Olympic regatta was managed.

Roy's talk takes place at the HYC on Wednesday 13 March at 8pm, and will last about 75 mins with time for questions afterwards. Admission is free, but a voluntary donation to the RNLI is expected (€5 suggested).

#modelyachtracing – Seven skippers from Howth and East Down Yacht Clubs, and Carrickfergus Model Boat Club braved a cold and wet start to the Irish 2013 IOM circuit with the first event of their series being hosted by Howth Yacht Club on Sunday 13th of January.

Competitors were kept on their toes for this first race meeting of the year with International Model Yacht Umpire Gordon Davies officiating as Race Officer. Gordon's considerable experience ensured competing skippers enjoyed true windward/leeward courses of around 350m in length with tight and unbiased start lines, despite the morning's fickle & shifty 3-6 knot Westerly which was to fall away to almost nothing later in the morning as the dreaded rain crept in. He also set up a control area on No.2 pontoon's end finger and quickly got the day's racing underway.

Howth's Gilbert Louis sailing his V6, took the first bullet closely followed by East Down's Brian O'Neill sailing his immaculately prepared wooden Swallow, with fellow Howth skipper Des Dwyer, coming 3rd with his Disco.

After this first race the morning's leader board was set to be dominated by a very close battle between Howth's Des Dwyer & Fergal Noonan; Fergal sailing his Reggae. The fickle morning breeze offered no set pattern and the best plan of action turned out to be good starts, good boatspeed and keen concentration as neither side of the course or even the central route offered and real advantage on the upwind legs. Both Howth skippers demonstrated tremendous pace as they got to grips with getting the best out of their tuning sets for the fickle conditions. At the lunch break just ¾ of a point separated them with early pace setter Gilbert Louis following in 3rd, Brian O'Neill in 4th, fellow East Down skipper Don Howes sailing his Ikon in 5th, with Bill Scott & Wayne Lavery of Carrickfergus Model Boat Club holding up the rear in 6th & 7th places sailing a MkII Stealth and a MkI Widget.

Special mention must go to Bill and Wayne - newcomers to the IOM fleet, and sailing their first competitive event. After receiving some tuning assistance from their fellow competitors, both skippers' pace improved considerably and they began to put in some impressive results as the morning progressed. It was a great pity the late morning rain put pay to Bill's radio, meaning his event was over, and Wayne too suffered gremlins with winch problems on his Widget, also meaning he had to sit out a couple of the races in the afternoon to effect repairs.

After the morning's first 6 races all of the competitors were very glad of a much-needed lunch break. Thanks must go to the superb hospitality of Howth Yacht Club, offering a varied and appetising menu of piping hot bar food with coffee. This was just the ticket to revive the cold and sodden competing skippers and helping restore their enthusiasm for the afternoon's onslaught.

After the lunch break wind & weather conditions improved considerably. The rain ceased and the breeze filled in to around 8-10 knots from the same Westerly direction, but also steadied somewhat.

In these breezier conditions Gilbert Louis' V6 came alive with the Frenchman taking 4 bullets of the 6 remaining races. Only first places taken by the two East Down boats prevented him making an afternoon's clean sweep. However, the final outcome of the event was not decided until the last race as just 4 points separated the first 4 boats going into it.

Don Howes took his first bullet of the day in this final race with his much improved Ikon, and this result enabled him to just scrape into to 3rd over all. He was followed closely by Gilbert Louis finishing 2nd in the race and this placing gave him just enough to claim the overall title. Fergal Noonan's came in 3rd, but it wasn't enough to prevent Gilbert's overall win with Fergal dropping down to 2nd on the final leader board tally.

Our thanks goes to our O.O.D. Gordon Davies, for setting superb courses, along with some sharp observations keeping us all on our toes, and also for his sound advice for all the fleet on rules interpretation. These little nuggets of information will help add to our rules knowledge base.

Thanks also to Howth Yacht Club, particularly for the very welcomed and reviving hot lunches, and finally a big thanks to our overall winner Gilbert Louis, for all the time and effort he put into organising this first event of the 2013 season and making it a thoroughly enjoyable one despite inclement weather doing its best to dampen our enthusiasm.

Some very close racing on great courses, superbly officiated was the day's winner too.

For more information on the Irish IOM Class and racing schedule please visit: http://www.iomireland.org/

Results:

Position Skipper Boat Club

1 Gilbert Louis V6 Howth YC

2 Fergal Noonan Disco Howth YC

3 Don Howes Ikon East Down YC

4 Brian O'Neill Swallow East Down YC

5 Des Dwyer Reggae Howth YC

6 Wayne Lavery MkI Widget Carrickfergus MBC

7 Bill Scott Stealth MkII Carrickfergus MBC

O.O.D. Gordon Davies

Report compiled by Brian O'Neill and photographs by Bill Scott.

#Jobs - Howth Yacht Club is seeking to recruit a person for the position of Club Manager, a new position incorporating overall responsibility for the management of the club including administration, marine and hospitality.

Responsibilities for the Club Manager will include management of all facilities and activities, direct management of all staff, contract management and regulatory complacence, financial management and marketing. The Club Manager candidate will report to the General Committee of the HYC.

The ideal candidate will have a proven track record in senior management and have strong interpersonal skills.

The closing date for applications is Friday 18 January. A full job specification and details of how to apply are available at the Howth Yacht Club website HERE.

#hyc – Howth Yacht Club's new Commodore is Breda Dillon, the first female Commodore in the 117 year history of the North Dublin Club.

Breda has been an active committee member and Flag Officer of the club for many years.

Club members attended their AGM in Howth last night in big numbers to vote for their incoming committee as well as a review of subscription levels which were radically adjusted to allow for the difficult times that all clubs are facing.

The annual subscription for categories of Ordinary (€720), Cadet (€125) and Family Membership (€1000) have all been significantly reduced while the club intends to further reduce the main Ordinary Membership subscription level to circa €500 over the coming years.

Incoming Vice Commodore Brian Turvey explained "Our aim is to increase value for all members by adjusting fees to affordable levels whilst continuing to provide the high quality and intensive level of activities and excellent facilities that is synonymous with our club. Our new phased subscription levels allows Cadet members 'step up' into full Ordinary membership more easily than ever before." At last nights AGM, Commodore Breda Dillon thanked the members for supporting the radical steps, particularly the Senior members whose fees will increase in by €90 per annum from next year. Howth Yacht Club's sailing schedule for 2013 will include the use of the ISA's Sailfleet J80s for events sich as the Keelboat Team Racing Nationals and the ISA Senior Helmsman's Championships. The eight boats will also be used by younger club members for club racing and training.

HYC's major event in 2013 will be the BMW J24 World Championships to be held in Howth in August.

#HYC - Howth Yacht Club's Sailing Committee has secured the Irish Sailing Association's Sailfleet J80 keelboats for Howth for the entirety of the 2013 sailing season, according to the club's website.

The eight boats in the J80 fleet will available to club members throughout the year and will be used for keelboat club racing and for open events as a one-design class including the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta, the Lambay Race and the Autumn League.

The fleet will also be incorporated within the club's Adult Sail Training programme and used to introduce young sailors to keelboat sailing.

Other events to feature the J80s will be the 2013 ISA National Senior Helmsmans Championships, the HYC Helmsmans Championships and the HYC Family Championships.

Details regarding the schedule and arrangements for members to borrow the J80s will be posted early in the new year. In addition, there are opportunities for corporate sponsorship of each of the boats for the year. Interested parties are asked to contact the Honorary Sailing Secretary.

Meanwhile, Howth YC has also posted its full timetable for next year's summer courses.

All courses are of 10 days' duration and run Monday to Friday 9.30am–5pm (with the exception of Taste of Sailing, Teen Dinghy, Kites & Wires 2 and Keelboat Sailing, which are all one week only). The dates are as follows:

Taste of Sailing Course: 1/8/15 July & 5 August

Start Sailing Course: 3 June, 1/8/15 July & 5 August

Basic Skills Course: 17 June, 1/8/15/22/29 July & 5 August

Improver Skills Course: 1/22 July & 5 August

Advanced Boat Handling Course: 1/22 July & 5 August

Kites & Wires 1 Course: 15 July (two-week duration)

Kites & Wires 2 Course: 29 July (one-week duration)

Teen Dinghy Sailing Course: 22/29 July (one week duration)

Keelboat Sailing Course: 3/10/17/24 June, 1/8/15 July & 5/12 August

Information on all courses and recommended pathway is available at www.hyc.ie/dinghies and queries may be directed to [email protected].

#HYC - The K25 team at Howth Yacht Club is planning for 2013, including the considerable challenge of competing in the BMW J/24 World Championships next August.

If you are interested in applying for the youth keelboat team, please attend the open evening on Tuesday 27 November at 8pm in Howth Yacht Club.

Candidates need to be under 25 on 30 August 2013 and become a cadet member of HYC for the 2013 season. Applications received on the night will be given a free drink from the bar.

See the HYC website for more details.

#hyc – The Beshoff Motors/Bloody Stream jointly-sponsored Autumn League finished in pleasant conditions for the hundreds of sailors contesting the final race in the six-race series.

The finishing order in Class 1 on both handicaps produced the exact same results in the overall standings, with Pat Kelly's Storm heading the pack ahead of Ross McDonald's Equinox on IRC and Flashback (Hogg/Breen) taking the ECHO honours from Storm.

Third place on IRC behind race winner King One (Dave Cullen) and second-placed Sunburn (ian Byrne) was enough to see Anthony Gore-Grimes' Dux head Class 2 overall ahead of Cullen and crew while on ECHO, Malahide visitor Bushwakka (O'Shea/O'Brien) maintained their consistency, winning the last race by a large margin to take the spoils ahead of Maximus (Paddy Kyne).

Starlet and Holly dominated Class 3 on both handicaps on the last day but it wasn't enough to stop Vincent Gaffney's Alliance II from winning overall on IRC, although Starlet had the consolation of winning overall on ECHO from two Malahide boats Tobago and Goyave.

In the White Sails Class 4, Colm Bermingham's Bite the Bullet beat Tiger (Hughes/Harris) in the sixth race and that gave them a one point advantage in the overall IRC standings. Another second on ECHO (behind White Lotus) though was all Tiger needed to win overall on ECHO.

The McAllister's Force Five had a good day winning the last race impressively on both handicaps but it was Harry Byrne's Alphida which headed the rankings on IRC from Demelza (Ennis/Lauden), while on ECHO it was Andy Knowles' Sandpiper on top overall by five points from Jokers Wild (Gordon Knaggs).

Michael Evans took the honours in the Etchells overall in Valkyrie, with three points to spare over Simon Knowles' Jabberwocky who took line honours in the last race. In the J/24s, Mossy Shanahan and his crew on Crazy Horse went into the last race in the overall lead and winning the final race from Scandal (Davidson/McDowell) confirmed his supremacy over Flor O'Driscoll's Hard on Port.

No Strings (Terry Harvey), Eclipse (A&R Hegarty) and Yellow Peril (Murphy/Costello) filled the first three places on both scratch and handicap in the Puppeteers but only Yellow Peril featured in the overall rankings on scratch, just a point adrift of series winner Harlequin (Clarke/Egan). On handicap, it was Mayfly (Guinan/Browne) who took the overall honours by four points from Odyssey (Byrne/Stanley).

The Squibs on the final day was a match race berween winner Too Dee (Dave Sheahan) and Shadowfax (Phil Merry) but that didn' prevent Fantome (R.MacDonnell) from winning the series by three points from Sheahan.

In the Howth 17s, Ian Malcolm enjoyed winning the last race from Pauline (O'Doherty/Ryan) but it was the latter which enjoyed the overall success, winning by the narrowest of margins from the Turvey's Isobel and Peter Courtney's Oona. On handicap, Eileen (Finucane/O'Byrne) headed the fleet overall from Sheila (M.Flaherty)

#lasersailing – With news that Finn Lynch has added a European youth title to his ISAF Youth Silver medal Irish Laser sailing is on a high with international results coming at Olympic and youth level and for the domestic scene it looks like Howth's venerable winter league is returning to some sizeable fleet numbers as the Laser emerges as the ideal recession beating boat.

Lynch is the current U17 European Champion in the Laser Radial following a great regatta in Nieuwpoort, Belgium. It ends a fantastic season for the National Yacht Club sailor.

The superb result was followed when clubmate Philip Doran won the Europa Cup Regatta U19 category on Lake Balaton in Hungary earlier in September. Doran was second overall in the international event finishing on equal points with the winner.

Howth Laser Frostbite

Among a number of top dinghy sailors are moving to the Laser dinghy next month for the Howth Yacht Club's Laser Frostbites starting on November 4th.

The low maintenance single hander is proving to be a great recession boat and making a comeback at club level on both sides of Dublin Bay with DBSC's own handicap fleet dominated by the Olympic boat.

Up to 50 Lasers are expected for the frostbite series at Howth in a few weeks time. There's a handy format of two short races each Sunday with a first gun at 10:45 am.

There's a wide range of standards entering from high ranked national level sailors to beginners. The club is reporting strong interest to the extent

it may yet end up at 1990 levels where the long running series attracted up to 80, making it the biggest laser club racing series in the world at the time.

Laser Radial Programme

With an emphasis on preparation for overseas competition a Munster and Leinster Laser Radial Academy squad has been announced along with training dates for Autumn 2012 starting this weekend. The full squads named are below.

MUNSTER

Mark Hassett

Darragh O'Sullivan

Daire Cournane

Dara O'Shea

Tadhg O'Loingsigh

Darragh McCormack

Sorcha Ni Shuilleabhain

Darragh O'Sullivan

Conor Murphy

Dermot Lyden

Aisling Keller

Ross O'Sullivan

LEINSTER

Dan O'Beirne

Rory McStay

Kevin Harrington

Cian Cahill

Patrick Cahill

Luke Murphy

Aoife Hopkins

Stephen Craig

Frank Devlin

Ronan Jones