Porsche Centre Dublin, renowned for their commitment to excellence and luxury, will take centre stage as the headline sponsors for Howth Yacht Club’s Wave Regatta, scheduled from May 24th to 26th, 2024. Their support underscores the significance of this event in the sailing calendar, drawing enthusiasts from Ireland and beyond.

Gavin Hydes – CEO of Porsche Centre Dublin – commented at the launching: “I am thrilled to announce Porsche Centre Dublin’s partnership as the title sponsor of Wave Regatta 2024 at Howth Yacht Club. This prestigious event perfectly aligns with our commitment to excellence and innovation. We are excited to support the sailing community and showcase the thrilling synergy between precision engineering and exhilarating performance. Let's set sail for an unforgettable experience together."

WAVE REGATTA BUILDING ON SUCCESS

The biennial Wave Regatta has become a thrilling spectacle on Ireland’s East Coast. It invites sailors to compete in a showcase keelboat-racing event designed to ensure top quality racing and unrivalled après-sail for a range of keelboats, including the top-end high-performance ones, local one-designs - such as the record-setting Howth 17s – and the increasingly popular ‘White Sail’ fleet.

Putting the team together – Gavin Hydes (Porsche), Neil Murphy (HYC) and Dave Cullen (Wave Race Director)

The 2024 edition promises three days of exhilarating racing, camaraderie, and celebration. To be held this year on May 24th - 26th (a week earlier on the calendar than previous iterations), Wave Regatta is renowned as one of the highest quality keelboat racing events in Ireland, combining a spectacular racecourse area along Fingal’s beautiful coastline, Howth Yacht Club’s unrivalled race management teams afloat, and the Club’s award-winning facilities and staff that ensure an unsurpassed experience ashore.

COMMODORE’S WELCOME

Commodore Neil Murphy enthusiastically welcomed Porsche’s decision saying: “We are delighted to welcome Porsche Centre Dublin as our headline sponsors for Wave Regatta 2024. Their commitment to excellence and innovation aligns perfectly with our Club’s values. This partnership ensures that Wave 2024 will maintain the regatta’s established reputation as a top-class national event and we look forward to working with Porsche in delivering the regatta that the sailing community looks forward to getting the 2024 sailing season underway.”

It’s a deal! Gavin Hydes and Neil Murphy fronting the new poster which tellls of just some of the attractions at Wave 2024.

Online entry for the event is open and entries are building for both the 3-day event and the Saturday-only Lambay Races option, and discounted entry for participating keelboats has been extended to the 7th of April.

See here for full details of the racing, the weekend festival, and for online entry.

Howth Yacht Club is set to host the biennial Wave Regatta in May 2024, inviting sailing enthusiasts from Ireland and beyond to compete in a showcase keelboat-racing event.

The three-day regatta welcomes all cruiser-racing class boats competing under current IRC and ECHO handicap ratings, providing an opportunity for seasoned sailors and rising stars to test their mettle against the best competition in Ireland.

As Wave Regatta organiser Brian Turvey told Saturday's ICRA cruiser-racer Conference at Dun Laoghaire, for those who prefer a Saturday-only event, the famous Lambay Races promise exhilarating action on the water and the unique and serene backdrop of Lambay Island. One-design keelboats will join the fray, ensuring a diverse and competitive fleet.

Wave Regatta's prestigious trophy

But Wave Regatta isn’t just about keelboat racing; it’s a celebration of all things nautical during the event weekend. There will be opportunities for anyone not competing in the main regatta to learn to stand-up-paddleboard, wing-foil and cheer on rowing competitors as they battle it out on the shore.

The event promises to deliver a legendary three-day party, with an outdoor festival bar serving refreshing drinks and party cocktails, a catering village providing delectable bites all-day, and non-stop music from top bands and DJs, including the incomparable Mark Covell and Howth’s own Vogue Williams.

Party time. Wave Regatta features live performances: Non-stop music to the beat of top bands like Riff Shop and top DJs, including the incomparable Mark Covell and Howth’s own Vogue Williams, spinning tunes that bridge continents

Online entry is now open at waveregatta.com, with an early entry discount available, but act swiftly, as time moves fast! 

Wave Regatta is organised by Howth Yacht Club, one of Ireland’s largest and most famous sailing clubs. Since its inception in 2018, Wave Regatta has become a highlight of the Irish sailing calendar, attracting sailors, spectators, and thrill-seekers from Ireland and around the world.

With the almost melancholy passing of Mid-Summer’s Day, the sailing season is taking on a different look, a distinctly-changed mood and flavour. For in normal times – if anyone can remember when you could talk of such things – there is a tendency to pack events into late May and throughout June for at least two reasons.

One of these is the feeling that it’s a good idea to tick as many event boxes as possible early in the season, for fear that even odder and more awful weather than usual might turn up on the day, meaning that in the case of a weekend happening, there’s still the possibility for a complete re-scheduling before the summer is over.

Challenging weather during Wave Regatta at Howth with First 50 Checkmate XX (Nigel Biggs & Dave Culllen) and Sunfast 3600 Searcher (Pete Smyth) in a dicing match. Photo: Annraoi Blaney

The other reason is the changing mood of the sailing community with the swing of the seasons. People are full of vim and vigour in May and June and early July. But then with August approaching, there’s a natural slowing down of the mood in what Patrick Kavanagh so effectively captured as “the tremendous silence of mid-July”.

It hasn’t got to us yet in this, the busy first weekend of July. Dromineer is a-buzz with the Lough Derg end of the Shannon One Designs’ Two-part Centenary Regatta, Dublin Bay is alive with the Frank Keane BMW RStGYC Regatta, somewhere between Dublin Bay and Cork Harbour sundry boats are re-racing an offshore race originally sailed in 1860 (repeat, 1860) in order to be on station for Volvo Cork Week in six days’ time. And throughout the land on lake, sea and river, club events are being staged in the hope that next week’s expected good weather will arrive a little earlier than anticipated.

Summertime on Lough Derg – the 1874-vintage iron-built Phoenix (John & Sandra Lefroy) off Dromineer with a selection of Water Wags (1900) and Shannon One Designs (1922).

For there’s no doubt that, taken overall, June’s weather was a decidedly mixed bag. Yet although there were major happenings that saw rough days on which the smaller classes weren’t allowed to race, the fact is that skilled race officers frequently managed to get comprehensive results in a more-than-satisfactory way.

Thus within Irish sailing there were many successful crews and skippers who merited inclusion in the long list for the Afloat.ie “Sailor of the Month” title, and when we add in achievements abroad, it’s impossible to reduce it below this short list of four top achievements.

Rob Dickson & Sean Waddilove are Sailors of the Month (Olympic) for June

The 2022 Hempel World Cup Allianz Regatta at the beginning of June in Almere on the Ijsselmeer in The Netherlands saw Ireland’s Rob Dickson and Sean Waddilove racing their 49er to victory in the final medal race. But by that stage, the top Dutch crew were so well positioned that overall they took the Gold, but the Irish team secured Silver to continue their progress through a demanding selection programme aimed at the 2024 Olympics.

Rush to the top….Pat Kelly (centre) and his all-conquering crew from the J/109 Storm at RUYC in Bangor.

The Kelly family of Rush are Sailors of the Month (Regatta) for June

Sailing is often promoted as a family sport for all ages. But if anyone doubts that this can be happily achieved with racing success thrown in, then they only have to consider the Kelly clan of Rush SC with their J/109 Storm. Aboard Storm, the patriarch Pat Kelly heads a multi-talented crew which includes three generations of his family, and they clearly demonstrated they’d lost none of the successful touch shown in previous years by winning overall in the four day Bangor Town Regatta on Belfast Lough.

Mike & Richie Evans J/99 Snapshot was top Irish boat in the SSE Renewables Round Ireland Race 2022, missing first overall by just five minutes. Photo: Afloat.ie

Mike & Richie Evans are Sailors of the Month (Offshore) for June

June saw the staging of a truly vintage SSE Renewables Round Ireland Race from Wicklow. But for those who think that success in events like this 704-mile marathon is only for seasoned sailors with many comparable races logged, the fact that the top Irish boat was the J/99 Snapshot (Mike & Richie Evans, Howth YC) was an eye-opener, as this was their first offshore major. And they almost won it, pacing just five minutes behind the overall winner after out-performing many comparable boats in the final very difficult miles. 

Dermot Skehan is Sailor of the Month (Regatta) for June

The Howth Wave Regatta created some sort of record for the mixture of weather it packed into its three day format, and how anyone found the energy for the legendary Saturday night party suggests superhuman stamina. With a rugged Lambay Race in its midst, Wave was for heroes, and it was the heroic Dermot Skehan - racing as ever with a crew of longtime friends and shipmates on his MG34 Toughnut - who emerged as overall winner and a worthy Sailor of the Month for June.

HYC Commodore Paddy Judge and Wave Regatta overall winner Dermot Skehan at centre of the crew of the victorious Toughnut

It's great to be back! Huge congratulations to the team at Howth Yacht Club, led by the mighty Brian Turvey delivering the first major inshore event in Ireland since 2019.

The competition was awesome, the race management excellent, the craic ashore was ninety and to see so many sailors afloat and ashore was just tremendous!

The event was a true test of boat speed/VMG and reliability. There were windward leewards, the iconic Lambay Race and "round the cans" courses in conditions ranging from 8 - 12 knots on Friday, 15 - 25 knots on "big Saturday" and 10 - 18 knots on Sunday.

Given the easterlies, we were racing in a short confused seaway which necessitated a somewhat fuller and more twisted and forgiving upwind sail set-up. Downwind, spinnaker design and fabric selection help deliver stability, easier trimming and thus better VMG.

"Storm II" flying her North Sails 3Di RAW Code 3 jib and North Sails 3Di RAW Mainsail Credit: Annraoi Blaney

Here at North Sails Ireland, were we proud and honoured to see so many of our wonderful customers winning so many classes and filling the podium slots. Well done everyone and thank you!

My North Sails Ireland colleague Shane Hughes had a busy event, working long into the night repairing all makes of sails to keep you, the sailors, firing on all cylinders the next day. He was repairing sails from all sailmakers - a testament to his and the North Sails regatta service commitment.

His midnight toiling was not easy given that he was also racing aboard the Wright's beautiful new Cape 31 "Adrenaline" during the day! Well done "Shano" for the massive effort.

Cape 31 "Adrenalin" flying her North Sails 3Di RAW Mainsail and Code 3.5 jib Credit: Annraoi Blaney

I was racing aboard Andrew Craig's J109 "Chimaera" and after a tough battle, we came through to 3rd overall in IRC 1, 1st J109 and 1st in the J109 East Coasts. We flew our North Sails 3Di RAW Mainsail, Code 1, Code 2 and Code 3 jibs and also our A GRADE Superkote A2 and A4 kites.

"Chimaera" flying her North Sails A GRADE Superkote A2 asymmetric and North Sails 3Di RAW Mainsail Credit: Afloat

We salute our wonderful customers and their great sailing teams - well done everyone.

Roll on WAVE Regatta 2024!

North Sails Results below:-

IRC 0

Class 0 winner "Jelly Baby" flying her North Sails 3Di RAW Mainsail and Code 2 jib Credit: Afloat

1. "Jelly Baby" - Jones Family - Royal Cork YC - *North Sails
2. "Searcher" - Pete Smyth - Jeanneau Sunfast 3600 - National YC - 100% North Sails
3. "Prima Forte" - Burke / Lemass - Beneteau First 40 - Royal Irish YC - *North Sails

IRC 1

"Final Call" flying her A GRADE Superkote 60 S1.5 Symmetric Spinnaker and her North Sails 3Di RAW Mainsail

1. "Final Call" - John Minnis - Archambault 35 - RUYC / RNIYC - 100% North Sails
2. "Snapshot" - Mike and Richie Evans - HYC - 100% North Sails
3. "Chimaera" - Andrew Craig - RIYC - 100% North Sails

IRC 2

"Lambay Rules" flying her North Sails A GRADE Superkote A4 asymmetric and her North Sails 3Di RAW Mainsail Credit: Annraoi Blaney

1. "Lambay Rules" - Stephen Quinn - HYC - 100% North Sails
2. "King One" - David Kelly - half tonner - *North Sails
3. "Ghost Raider" - Norbert Reilly - half tonner - 100% North Sails

IRC 3

2. "No Excuse" - Wormald, Walsh, O'Neill - X302 - Howth Yacht Club - *North Sails
3. "Maximus" - Paddy Kyne - X302 - Howth Yacht Club - *North Sails

IRC 4

2. "Bite the Bullet" - Colm Bermingham - Elan 333 - Howth Yacht Club - 100% North Sails

IRC 5

2. "Demelza" - Steffi Ennis - Shamrock - Howth Yacht Club - 100% North Sails

J24

Craig Usher calls the start line aboard "Jumpin' Jive" flying her North Sails NPL Xi genoa Credit: Annraoi Blaney

1. "Jumpin' Jive" - Mark Usher - Greystones Sailing Club - 100% North Sails

J80

1. "Mojo" - Patrick O'Neill - Howth Yacht Club 100% North Sails

Sigma 33

"Insider" flying her North Sails 3Di 330 Mainsail and No. 1 Genoa Credit: Annraoi Blaney

1. "Insider" - Stephen Mullaney - Howth Yacht Club 100% North Sails
2. "Flyover" David Marchant - Waterford Harbour Sailing Club *North Sails
3. "Boojum" - Steph Bourke / Gus Legge - Royal St. George Yacht Club *North Sails

* denotes partial inventory

Wave 2022 at Howth, with main sponsors the Wright Hospitality Group, has been a three-day regatta of all the seasons, including today’s (Sunday) localised attempt at a mild monsoon. But the most important ingredient of wind was always present - albeit almost to excess for Saturday’s Lambay Race - and Senior Race Officer David Lovegrove and his teams furnished Organising Committee Chairman Brian Turvey with a very complete set of results.

In an event of such diversity, settling on an overall champion is decided by various semi-secret formulas. But after considering a bewildering array of data, the Committee came down in favour of seasoned local skipper Dermot Skehan with the veteran MG34 Toughnut, who not only won Class 5 overall with minimum points but collected the Lambay Lady for best performance in the central event while he was on his way to the longterm success.

David Maguire’s Cape 31 Valkyrie was racing with input from Crosshaven talent. Photo: Annraoi Blaney

Yet the racing provided something for everyone. On Belfast Lough, a rugged nor’easter is regarded as “a good sailing breeze”. And certainly it was an all-conquering performance in precisely those conditions during yesterday’s (Saturday) Lambay Race which propelled John Minnis’s A35 Final Call II (RUYC & RNIYC) to the front of the fleet in Class 1 in Wave, with another couple of handy Minnis wins today – raced in the sometimes very damp but eminently servicable easterly – confirming that one of the top prizes heads very definitely north.

Pete Smyth’s Sunfast 3600 won Class 0 in the Lambay Race, and finished second overall. Photo: Annraoi Blaney

Nearer home, Clontarf is so named because it means Bull’s Roar, and that’s the noise the non-nautical natives in the distant past reckoned they were hearing from their beach on Dublin Bay in an onshore gale. Since then, Clontarf folk have got to grips with seafaring, and Pete Smyth of those parts – but now sailing out of the National YC with his Sunfast 3600 Searcher – likewise got profitably to grips with the Lambay breeze to place him nicely to place second Class 0 overall astern of Crosshaven’s Jelly Baby after today’s results were collated.

The Jones family with Jelly Baby put together an extremely convincing series. Last year, when Crosshaven’s Nieulargo won the Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race, the Royal Cork revived a 19th Century tradition by giving her a nine gun salute as she returned to Crosshaven. Jelly Baby surely deserves something similar.

Class 0 Champion, the J/122 Jelly Baby (Jones family RCYC), deserves the ancient traditional 9-Gun salute when she returns to Crosshaven Photo: Afloat

For some crews, a soothing rainfall today was just the ticket to put a bit of colour back in their cheeks after the Wave’s fierce entertainment of an Ibiza Night to round out Saturday’s hectic sport afloat with matching high decibel and high intensity socialising ashore – genteel Set Dancing this was not.

CLASS 0

It was raced to the end, for though Searcher (Peter Smyth) had emerged as a force to be reckoned with, the early consistency of Crosshaven’s Jones family with the J/122 Jelly Baby provided the foundation for them to take the title with a win in today (Sunday’s) second and final race, making it 4.5 points over Searcher. Patrick Burke’s First 40 Prima Forte (RIYC) was a solid performer, discarding a 6th even if she never got a win, and she came home 6 points behind Searcher.

The J/109s turned out in strength in Class 1, and made it their Eastern Championship with Andrew Craig’s Chimaera (RIYC), below, winning. Photo: Annraoi Blaney

CLASS I

Going into this regatta, the main billing for Class I was as the Eastern Championship for the J/109s, and they certainly were there in droves. But they proved to be the largest group of bridesmaids ever assembled. Once John Minnis’s Final Call II had found form after a 4th in the opening race, the advance of the Archambault 35 was unstoppable and her two wins today (Sunday) gave her a massive victory of 10.5 points to the hard-won 20.00 of Mike & Richie Evans gallant little J/99 Snapshot (HYC), with Andrew Craig’s Chimaera (RIYC) first of the J/109s in third to take the Easterns as a bonus.

John Minnis’s Final Call II, an Archambault 35 proved unstoppable on the final day Photo: Afloat

CLASS 2

Finding herself in among a group of hot Half Tonners failed to dent the dogged persistence of Stephen Quinn’s J/97 Lambay Rules (HYC), but in this class there was extra pain with any no-show in the Lambay Race carrying its own unavoidable penalty of 9 points. Thus although Dave Dwyer’s recently-acquired classic Bruce Farr Half Tonner Swuzzlebubble (RCYC) was undoubtedly the form boat by the series end, she’d demurred at the Lambay Race fence to knock her points total astray, making it doubly ironic that a boat called Lambay Rules (which are about something else altogether) should take the win by a massive margin. Just 9.5 points to the 20 of Dave Kelly’s Half Tonner King One (Rush SC) and the 22.5 of Nobby Reilly’s Ghost Raider (HYC), a former Checkmate. 

CLASS 3

Class 3 with 14 boats completed two races, and it was seasoned X class Dux (Caroline & Nico Gore-Grimes HYC) took the overall win on 6.5 points from No Excuse (Wormald, Walsh, O’Neill, HYC) on 14.5 in second and another X class, Paddy Kyne's Mazximus third on 20 points.

Dux (Caroline & Nico Gore-Grimes HYC) was the Class Three winner Photo: Afloat

Calling the start in the J/24s. Photo: Annraoi Blaney

CLASS 4

This was an overall win for Malahide in the form of David Greene’s White Pearl, which had it by just one point from Colm Bermingham’s Elan 333 Bite the Bullet (HYC), with Kieran Jameson’s Sigma 38 Changeling (HYC) in third.

David Greene’s Elan 333 White Pearl Photo: Afloat

CLASS 5

Dermot Skehan continued on top form with two further wins in the renowned MG34 Toughnut (HYC) to give him net points of 5.5, the lowest in all classes and thus the overall title too. Steffi Ennis was second with the equally historic Demelza, and yet another blast from the past, Terry McCoy’s First 38 Out & About, was third.

Wave Supreme Champion Dermot Skehan and his crew with HYC Commodore Paddy Judge (centre). Photo: Christina Knowles

J/24

Mark Usher from Greystones with Jumpin’ Jive had such a run of firsts that he didn’t need to sail the final race, yet he was four points better at the finish than Brian McDowell of Malahide, with Howth’s K25 crew third.

J/80

This was largely inter-varsity sailing, but private owner Paddy O’Neill with the internationally successful Mojo was right there to win overall, UCD1 taking second, TUD (the new Dublin Technical University) taking second, and UCC getting third. 

SIGMA 33

Howth’s Stephen Mullaney with current Irish Champion Insider continued ahead right to the end, but David Marchant of Dunmore East continued his upward gradient as the regatta progressed, and a 3rd and 1st today (Sunday) saw him firmly in second overall with Flyover, third going to the RStGYC’s Boojum (Stephanie Bourke & Gus Legge.

The RStGYC third-placed Sigma 33 Boojum rounding Lambay. Photo: Annraoi Blaney 

COPING WITH VOLATILE WEATHER PATTERNS

Wave 2022 was sailed in the kind of weather when, each evening, the television weather presenters seemed to introduce a new meteorological development which hadn’t been mentioned at all the day before. Yet for the competitors who could stick the pace, there was racing – lots of it – to be had every day, And when everyone is nice and warm and dry and the bruises have started to fade, the memories of the hyper-bright times of sunshine will take over from the grey of the final day.

Howth Yacht Club Committee Boat 'Star Point' was on duty for Wave Regatta 2022 Photo: Afloat

But either way, it couldn’t have been done without a large voluntary input. Brian Turvey and his team had assembled a corps of 57 volunteers and enthusiastic sponsors to keep this particular show on the road through some tough circumstances. We salute them all.

The final day may have been grey, but the big screen was always bright. Photo: Brian Turvey

Full results here 

With a real edge to the nor’easter of 25 knots plus (very plus at times) and the tide flooding north against it, the second day of Howth’s Wave Regatta proved to a case of Waves Plural and then some in the Lambay Race. But it made for a very special day’s sailing for those boats allowed to go.

For the powers-that-be had reckoned all the smaller One-Designs should be kept safely in port. But the biggies with real lids – or most of them - went out and bruised and battered their crews in this annual highlight around the beloved island on a standalone basis, as the original plan for an extra windward-leeward morning race had been dropped in face of the earlier adverse conditions.

Big boat weather. Photo: Annraoi Blaney

We said “or most of them” advisedly, as some owner-skippers decided that big damage this early in the season was not a good career move. Yet the many who did take on the challenge had some remarkably close racing throughout, and were rewarded by a slight softening with the sunny conditions in mid-afternoon before the wind - undiluted from Scandinavia - settled rawly in again for the evening.

CLASS 0

It was a case of “local boy makes good” in the exalted environs of Class 0, for although Pete Smyth sails his Sunfast 3600 Searcher from the National YC these days, the Smyths are a Clontarf clan and he cut his sailing teeth with family racing from Howth. Searcher revelled in the surfing conditions and carved out an IRC win of nearly three minutes from the Jones family from Crosshaven with the J/122 Jelly Baby, who nevertheless retain the overall lead, while Patrick Burke (RIYC) stayed in the hunt with third for his First 40 Prima Forte under IRC.

Patrick Burke’s Prima Forte (RIYC) took third in Class 0. Photo: Annraoi Blaney

CLASS 1

Belfast Lough being “Nor’easter Central”, John Minnis’s A35 Final Call II (RUYC & RNIYC) was revelling in the familiarly rugged going, and opened out a 4.5 minute lead on the water in this long race from Mike & Richie Evans’ J/99 Snapshot (HYC), which translated into a four minute win. It was good going for Snapshot, as she finished ahead of all the J/109s, of which the best – in third overall – was Andrew Craig’s Chimaera.

Robert Rendell’s Grand Soleil 44 Samatom clears the east point of Lambay. Photo: Annraoi Blaney

CLASS 2

Among the highly-tuned Half Tonners in Class 2, two of the top ones – Dave Cullen’s Checkmate XV and Dave Dwyer’s Swuzzebubble – decided to sit this one out. But the former Paul Elvstrom-campaigned Half Ton World Champion King One (Dave Kelly, Rush SC) gave it a real lash in the heart of her home waters and won by 17 seconds from the Wright family’s Half Tonner Mata, which in turn was just two seconds – that’s TWO seconds - ahead of overall leader Lambay Rules, Stephen Quinn’s J/97 (HYC)

The Wright brothers new Cape 31 Adrenaline. Photo: Annraoi Blaney

CLASS 3

Class 3 was yet again a case of getting all the Dux in a row – the veteran Gore-Grimes X boat from Howth had it by two minutes and 17 seconds from Paddy Kyne’s Maximus, also from HYC, as too was the third-placed No Excuse (Wormald, Walsh & O’Neill).

CLASS 4

Class 4 IRC was reduced to a select few for this demanding contest, and seasoned skipper Kieran Jameson revelled in the going with his Sigma 38 Changeling to win by two minutes from David Greene’s White Pearl from Malahide, with John Beckett & Andy George (HYC) taking third with Spashdance.

As the weather improved, the veteran Sigma 38 Changeling (Kieran Jameson) found she was in a winning position. Photo: Annraoi Blaney

CLASS 5

Numbers were also down with Class 5 IRC, but Dermot Skehan’s MG34 Toughnut lived up to her name with an outstanding win of 15 minutes from Terry McCoy’s veteran First 38 Out and About, third slot going to Arcturus (Peter & Declan McCabe)

SIGMA 33

The only One-Designs provided with a race, the Sigma 33s proved well up to it, and current Irish champion Stephen Mullaney (HYC) was more up to it with Insider than the rest, he recorded another win. However, a new name entered the frame with Dunmore East’s David Marchant (WHSC) taking second with Flyover while Boojum from RStGYC (Stephanie Bourke and Gus Legge) was third.

When the going became good, it was very good indeed Photo: Annraoi Blaney

The traditional way of calculating the winner of the overall trophy - the Lambay Lady - is for it to go to the winning boat with the biggest margin on the second place. On these figures, it’s Dermot Skehan with Toughnut. But past experience has shown that, with the vast array of other handicap systems being applied, a new winner may emerge some time next week.

Meanwhile, although there are some very tired crews in Howth this (Saturday) evening, Wave Regatta 2022 is far from finished. With Monday being a Bank Holiday, racing is possible until 3.0pm tomorrow (Sunday), and they may even manage three more contests before the final results are announced and some very special prizes given out.

Full results here 

“A perfect nor’easter” may sound like a good contender for Oxymoron of the Week, but that’s what they had today (Friday) for the three opening races of the Howth Wave Regatta. And evidently Old Sol hadn’t been reading the script, as he wasn’t meant to appear until tomorrow. But as the racing progressed, the bright June sun became increasingly prominent, and by the time the fleet returned to Howth Harbour for some intriguing intermingling in the berthing situations among top offshore racers and the local fishing fleet, it was wall-to-wall sunshine and Factor 50 all round.

In previews, we’d talked of a “small but strong” Cork contingent, and they lived up to that billing, stamping their mark at the sharp end of the fleets where they were present. The first day’s racing was almost entirely focused on the heavy metal, as the smaller classes and most ODs are saving their fire for Saturday’s “one race and then the Lambay” combination. But as it happens, they may regret missing today’s sport – it was pure gold.

CLASS 0

The Jones family’s new version Jelly Baby from Cork is a J/122, and they’re clearly already right on top of J/122 sailing skills, putting down three clear but close wins, the margins in the three races from Robert Rendell’s GS 44 Samatom (HYC), Patrick Burke’s First 40 Prima Forte (RIYC) and Samatom again being respectively nine seconds, 18 seconds and a much clearer 1 minute 50 in the day’s final contest.

The J/122 Jelly Baby from Royal Cork is skippered by Brian Jones Photo: Afloat

Robert Rendell’s GS 44 Samatom (HYC) Photo: Afloat

Patrick Burke’s First 40 Prima Forte (RIYC) Photo: Afloat

Much interest focused on the two Cape 31s racing, but they’re on a learning curve, and with the highest (by far) ratings in the class, their proper setting is surely in One-Design Racing.

David Maguire's Cape 31 Valkyrie Photo: Afloat

The Wright family Cape 31, Adrenaline Photo: Afloat

CLASS 1

In a 15-strong fleet, John Maybury’s J/109 Joker (RIYC) was on a familiar track with a scoreline of 5, 1 and 3 to top the table, but local star Simon Knowles with J/109 Indian found form with a 3rd, 2nd and 6th, putting him on level pegging at the end of the day with northern invader John Minnis’s A35 Final Call II (RUYC)

Simon Knowles' Howth Yacht Club J109 Indian lies second overall after three races sailed Photo: Afloat

Final Call II (John Minnis) from Royal Ulster RUYC lies third (but tied on points with second) in Class One IRC Photo: Afloat

CLASS 2

Here be hot Half Tonners in a fleet of 14 boats, but although the eternally-interesting Swuzzlebubble - newly-acquired by Royal Cork’s Dave Dwyer - was a source of fascination, it was solid performer Stephen Quinn’s J/97 Lambay Rules (HYC) which set the pace in a class of 14 boats with two bullets and a second. But “The Bubble” was there with a scoreline of 3,2,1 which suggests Saturday is going to be very interesting, third slot overall going to ICRA Commodore Dave Cullen (HYC) in his immaculate Checkmate XV on 2,2,6.

Royal Cork Half Tonner Swuzzlebubble skippered by Dave Dwyer Photo: Afloat

CLASS 3

Class 3 with 14 boats completed two races, and it was seasoned X class Dux (Caroline & Nico Gore-Grimes HYC) which slotted in a second and first to take the overall lead from Vincent Gaffney’s Laser 28 Alliance II (HYC) on a first and fifth, while it was back to the classic X stable for third and No Excuse (Wormald, Walsh, O’Neill, HYC).

X 332 Dux (Caroline & Nico Gore-Grimes HYC) Photo: Afloat

Vincent Gaffney’s Laser 28 Alliance II (HYC) Photo: Afloat

No Excuse (Wormald, Walsh, O’Neill, HYC) Photo: Afloat

CLASS 4

Class 4 had a familiar name in front with Colm Bermingham’s Elan taking the double bullet in their two races, Dun Laoghaire’s Paul Tully with White Lotus being next in line with a 3rd and 2nd, while Malahide’s David Green matched hi overall with a 2 & 3 for White Pearl.

Colm Bermingham’s Elan 333 Bite the Bullet Photo: Afloat

Dun Laoghaire Elan White Lotus skippered by Paul Tully Photo: Afloat

CLASS 5

Class 5 Non-Spinnaker was very local with the MG34 Toughnut sailed by local hero Dermot Skehan (telly super-chef Donal is known only as Dermot’s young fella on the peninsula) notching two wins in the two races sailed, with the history-laden Club Shamrock Demelza (Steffi Ennis) second and Joe Carton’s Dehler 34 Voyager third.

J/24 CLASS

Mark Usher’s Jumpin’ Jive from Greystones grabbed the three wins from Brian McDowell’s Scandal from Malahide on three seconds, the locals in K25Howth getting a look in to place third overall

J/80s

Racing was quite close in the small fleet of J/80s, but Paddy O’Neill’s Mojo (HYC) showed she’d lost none of the form shown on the few international outings permitted last summer, and had a couple of firsts and a third.

SIGMA 33

Stephen Mullaney’s Insider (HYC) is current Irish Champion, having taken the title in 2021 in Dun Laoghaire, and he’s still on form, three wins to keep him ahead of Boojum (Bourke & Legge RStGYC) and Razzamatazz (David Townend, RIYC). 

Tomorrow (Saturday) will see the fleet expanding and extra classes involved thanks to the enduring appeal for the Lambay Race. But the sailing and weather conditions will have to be very good indeed to match this glowing opening day of Howth Wave Regatta 2022.

Full results here 

How can you make sense of a sport which features at least 143 World Championships? It’s a question which was first asked many years ago when the then International Sailing Federation (now World Sailing) accorded official “International” status to two more globally-distributed racing boat classes, thereby entitling them to stage their own World Championships.

Admittedly nowadays a growing class really does need genuine international strength to be so recognised. But some venerable classes still cling to that distinction despite being very much a leftover minority interest surviving over many decades in just a few countries. Thus while top level international sailing moves on with new versions of multi-class world championships in addition to the Olympics, these supposed relics of a bygone era cling on to their status - and the inalienable right to stage their own World Championship - with the all the determination of super-charged limpets.

The J/109 Mojito (Vicky Cox & Peter Dunlop, Pwllheli SC) will be contending the J/109 Easterns as part of Howth’s Wave Regatta

Add to that the fact that sailing is a highly individualistic vehicle sport in which many participants sail regularly but don’t actually race at all, and you begin to appreciate how difficult it is to explain the basics of sailing’s structure, even to the most favourably-inclined enquirer.

But even by the standards of sailing’s great mysteries and complexities, this Bank Holiday Weekend is in a league of its own, though a comparison with the Superbowl is only to give an impression of the potential scale, as the ’Bowl is very much venue-focused whereas a typical hyper-busy Irish sailing weekend is literally all over the place.

Lough Ree YC – current MG Motor “Club of the Year” hosts Clinkerfest 2022

In addition to its fine clubhouse, Lough Ree YC – which is on a six acre site – provides extensive berthing, haulage and marina facilities

Add to that the fact that some boats and crews are oddly reluctant in this post-pandemic phase to pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and start all over again, and sometimes numbers are less than you’d expect. Yet equally, there are organisations – such as the Irish Sea Offshore Racing Association – which seem to have leapt into top-gear action from the off.

The Shannon One Designs – celebrating their Centenary Year – will be the stars of Clinkerfest. They attract sailors from every background – sailing this boat is Olympic Silver Medallist Annalise Murphy, with her mother Cathy Mac Aleavey, an Olympian in 1988, in the crew.

Anway, if it’s variety which is the touchstone, we do well with the Wave Regatta under way at Howth, the Clinkerfest getting going at Lough Ree Yacht Club, and the Dublin Bay Old Gaffers two-day regatta at Poolbeg.

Add to that the usual Dublin Bay SC Saturday racing at Dun Laoghaire – a regatta in itself – the continuing movement in Galway Docks with the fleet in the Round Britain & Ireland Race 2022 being moved on after their separate 48-hour stopovers, plus regular club racing at many centres, and we get increasing life on the water.

Two of the new Cape 31s tuning up off Howth, with David Maguire’s Valkyrie in the foreground, and Dan O’Grady’s boat beyond. Unfortunately a bout of Covid means that O’Grady will not be competing in Wave. Photo: Annraoi Blaney

Nevertheless, we’re not out of the woods yet. As the fleet gathered for yesterday’s first race of Wave, conspicuous by her absence was Dan O’Grady’s new Cape 31, which had been keenly anticipating a three way debut with David Maguire’s Valkyrie and the Wright brothers’ boat. But Dan the Man has contracted Covid, and is out of circulation and the weekend’s racing with it. Unfortunately, we cannot print the first expletive reaction to this frustrating news on a website with a family readership, but it burnt the paintwork.

Howth Yacht Club wants to brighten up its clubhouse interior in time for the Wave Regatta — and is calling on all members with artistic talent to contribute artworks of merit next Sunday 22 May.

The artwork needs to be ready for hanging (optimum dimensions W50cm x H40cm) and clearly labelled on the back with the following details:

1. Title

2. Artist’s Name

3. Contact Details (Sales will be conducted directly with the artist)

4. Medium

5. Price or NFS (not for sale)



Artworks can be delivered to Trish Nixon in the Boyd Room on Sunday 22 May from 10.30am to noon. Queries can be directed to Trish at [email protected].

You need to be several different people at once in order to thrive in Howth sailing. A classic case in point is former HYC Commodore Brian Turvey. His current highest-profile role - ahead of other deeply committed personal involvements - is as Chairman of the Organising Committee for the upcoming Wright Hospitality Group-sponsored Howth Wave Regatta from 3rd to 5th June.

Thus yesterday, former Commodore Turvey - together with current incumbent Paddy Judge - jointly hosted a lunch in the clubhouse for their special event’s main and subsidiary sponsors, which also include the highly-supportive Fingal County Council, as well as CKS the specialist finance group, Euro Car Parks, Cassidy Travel, Sail Training Ireland, and WD-40 as the flagship product for Euro Car Parts.

Inevitably some of the talk was of the morning’s news about the cancellation of the Scottish Series at Tarbert because of a lack of volunteers for mark-laying duties at the remote venue. The special 2022 date in Scotland had clashed directly with Howth’s schedule, and thus this negative development across the North Channel should swell the already healthy Howth entry numbers. Yet in truth there was a sympathetic fellow-feeling for the frustrated Scottish race officers, for the HYC team are only too well aware of the demands and the top standards expected, with any major event being high-profile in these over-communicated days, bringing ill-informed online comment with it.

Brian Turvey’s experience ranges over international offshore achievement and local One-Design success

But by healthy contrast, earlier in the week Brian Turvey had put aside his high-powered concerns about how best to implement an event which will include some very sharp end racing - including the Irish debut of the Mark Mills-designed Cape 31s as the hottest of hot OD classes - and instead had shipped with his brother Conor aboard their jointly-owned Howth 17 Isobel for a brisk evening race. And they won, sailing in this very special local class that made its debut in 1898.

Yet around Howth Harbour, nothing is ever as simple as it seems. For Isobel is semi-unique in being one of only two Howth 17s which have actually been built in Howth. Back in 1987, a small group led by Peter Courtney (whose family have been involved through several generations in Howth 17s racing since 1907) organised the fund-raising for two new boats to be built in a shed at Howth Castle. There, the St Lawrence family would have regarded the Howth 17s as a new-fangled concept, as they had been in continuous residence on the rambling estate since 1177.

Howth Harbour and Village – a complex little place where nothing js quite as it seems

Thanks to the expertise of master-shipwright John O’Reilly – who had learned his boat-building skills in the Dublin Port workshops under the legendary John B Kearney – the new boats Isobel and Erica were launched into successful careers in 1988. And Howth Castle then reverted to its apparently unchanging slumber and interests of a more landbound type, such as the first – and very successful - public golf course in Ireland.

But now, as we emerge from the deceptive pandemic paralysis, we find that the basic structures of Howth have undergone revolutionary change since the previous biennial Wave Regatta, which was staged in 2018. For after only 844 years around the place, the St Lawrence family have vamoosed from Howth, headed into the depths of Kidare and Kilkenny. Thus the premier families in Howth re-emerge as those formerly Danish seafaring tribes – the Harfords, Ricards, Waldrons and Thunders - who were already in residence when the St Lawrences arrived in August 1177, and continued to quietly stay on, hidden in plain sight in the little fishing village.

Meanwhile, the Howth Estate has been bought in its entirety by Tetrarch Group, best known for their sympathetic re-development of the Mount Juliet Estate in County Kilkenny, where there’s another marine connection thanks to a direct link with the 1895 Dunraven challenge for the America’s Cup.

However, if we go any further down that particular road, we’ll disappear, and anyway there’s enough going on back in Howth. For the new arrangements there mean that Tetrarch Capital are now in a partnership with the Wright Hospitality Group for the re-development of the old castle as a hospitality and special interest destination in its own right. And as its history includes an interaction with the Pirate Queen of Connacht Grace O’Malley back in 1576, there are other nautical links to be explored as part of Howth’s quirky history.

Classic Howth Regatta scene – vintage Howth 17 and modern cruiser crossing tacks. Photo courtesy HYC

Time was – and it wasn’t such a very long time ago – that if you wished to travel in relative safety and convenience northeastwards from Dublin city to Howth’s hilly peninsula, then the sensible way was to take the Howth wherry from the ancient quays of Abbey Street on the north banks of the then largely-unwalled River Liffey in the heart of the city. The old bucket of a boat could sail fairly directly across the northwest corner of Dublin Bay to a rough pier on the Sutton shore at the foot of what is still named as Old Castle Avenue, and from that landing place you’d proceed along “the avenue” towards Howth Castle itself, and the village beyond.

In those days, in acknowledgement of this fact of local travelling reality, the façade of Howth Castle faced southwest in almost exactly the opposite direction to that which obtains today. For then as now, Howth Castle was such an architectural mixture from different centuries that each generation of the St Lawrence family could pretty well choose which way their stately home faced if they’d sufficient funds to build a new main doorway.

The reason for going by boat was because, to the west beyond the sandy Sutton isthmus, the very rudimentary roads around Raheny and adjacent areas towards Dublin town were such a hotbed of highwaymen and brigands that to get in relative safety to or from Howth, it was worth the hour or so of discomfort in some questionable boat, rather than risk being stripped of your possessions and maybe held to ransom by villains who bore no resemblance whatsoever to the courteous highwaymen of romantic novels.

A place apart. The independent Republic of Howth is barely connected to nearby Ireland

What this all meant was that for centuries, Howth was never thought of as being part of Dublin. And that attitude still lives on in the sailing and fishing village’s mental furniture today. For although three of the more southern councils which currently administer the Greater Dublin area are in favour of the city having a trendy elected Lord Mayor with executive powers, the fourth northern area of Fingal – of which Howth is very proudly a part – wants nothing whatever to do with the single Dublin authority notion and the new Executive Mayor to go with it, as Fingal Council is doing very well on its own, thank you.

Thus there are Howth people who occupy positions of distinction in global business and national activities when at work in Dublin, yet they cease to be Dubliners as they pass homeward bound through Sutton Cross, and instead become Peninsular People. Such apparent eccentricity gives Howth added appeal, so much so that one explanation of the title of Wave Regatta is that it’s all about waving at nearby Ireland in a friendly but decidedly independent way.

Make of that what you will. But there’s no doubt that when the Howth squad in last year’s restricted season made the best of it to dominate the Sovereign’s regatta in Kinsale with Samatom (Robert Rendell), Snapshot (Mike & Richie Evans), and Outrajeous (Johnny Murphy and Richard Colwell), there was a very pointed demonstration of HYC Peninsular Psychological Power in the Kinsale YC compound after the prize-giving.

The crew of overall winner Snapshot (HYC) with the Great and the Good in Kinsale at the conclusion of the 2021 Sovereigns Regatta

And it’s all given added emphasis through the fact that the defending overall champion in Wave is new ICRA Commodore Dave Cullen’s Classic Half Tonner Checkmate XV (HYC). For although he may be moving into joint campaigning of a First 50 with Nigel Biggs, he’ll continue to race Checkmate XV up to and including the Worlds at Cowes in mid-August.

New ICRA Commodore Dave Cullen’s Classic Half Tonner Checkmate XV is defending champion at Wave in Howth, and will continue to campaign under his ownership until the conclusion of the Half Ton Worlds in Cowes in mid-August. Photo courtesy HYC

Meanwhile, Wave 2022 is shaping up as a multiple choice event for the 12 keelboat classes involved, as it’s built around Howth’s annual Lambay Race, which dates from 1904. But for some of the hotter IRC divisions, the Lambay circuit is almost incidental to the challenging courses being made available by PRO David Lovegrove and his team, with the on-water umpiring squad being headed by Emmet Dalton.

Despite this serious element, Wave Regatta is unashamedly being billed as “a sailing event wrapped inside a big party”. Certainly, with yesterday afternoon’s long-forecast sunshine finally arriving in full strength to bring Howth Harbour colourfully and warmly to life, all things seemed possible.

Ding-dong. The X332 Equinox (Ross & Aoife McDonald, HYC & RCYC) at close quarters with champion Checkmate XV in the 2018 Wave regatta Photo: Afloat.ie/David O’Brien

The Wave Sponsors Lunch in HYC yesterday - now you know why the Fingal coast needs so many lobster pots.......