#rayc – There were Class One IRC wins for outgoing Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) Commodore Tony Fox in the The Royal Alfred Yacht Club Superleague this year and victory too for former Royal Irish Yacht Club (RIYC) Commodore Peter Redden in Class Zero IRC sailing Loose Change. The prizes will be presented at the RAYC Annual Black Tie Dinner in the National Yacht Club on Friday, 30th November, a highlight of the Dublin Bay sailing season.

The Superleague series for keelboats was revived in 2012. This series combines the results of the 5 Dun Laoghiare Regattas with 5 designated Dublin Bay Sailing Club race days. With 10 days racing in the series, with the 6 best counting for the final results, the SuperLeague has proved to be a successful and engaging addition to the Dublin Bay Sailing Club's programme of summer racing. Without adding to an already crowded sailing calendar, the RAYC Superleage provides a summer-long series, adding an 'extra frisson' of interest to racing in Dun Laoghaire.

The spread of ten races with a generous four discards meant that for this revived edition, almost 60 boats took part, a good percentage of the yachts that race on a regular basis. In most classes, winners winners were decided on the last or second last race of the series. However, "Supernova" was the clear leader from early on and never looked likely to give up their pole position.

The Royal Alfred Yacht Club has attached particular importance to awarding Superleague prizes not only the Skipper but also to the crew of winning yachts. These small mementoes are a reminder to us all that without the efforts of the crew there would be very little activity in the Bay !

The Royal Alfred Yacht Club Superleague will be sailed again in 2013. A special effort will be made to persuade those classes that did participate this year to join in this enjoyable extension to the racing programme.

Royal Alfred Superleague 2012 Results

Cruisers 0 IRC

1. Loose Change M.Mitton, P. Redden

2. WOW George Sisk

3. Tsunami Vincent Farrell

Cruisers 0 Echo

1. Tsunami Vincent Farrell

2. Loose Change M.Mitton, P. Reddan

3. WOW George Sisk

Cruisers 1 IRC

1. Gringo Tony Fox

2. Xtravagance Colin Byrne

3. Jalapeno P.Barrington, D. Baker et al

Cruisers 1 Echo

1. Jump the Gun M Monaghan, J. Kelly

2. Gringo Tony Fox

3. Powder Monkey Chris Moore, Mark Byrne et al

Cruisers 2 IRC

1. Smile P. O'Connell, E. Healy, B. O'Sullivan

Red Rhum Johnathan and Christopher Nicholson

Bendemeer Lindsay Casey, Denis Power

Cruisers 2 Echo

1. Bendemeer Lindsay Casey, Denis Power

2. Smile P. O'Connell, E. Healy, B. O'Sullivan

3. Peridot Jim McCann, Hugh O'Donnell et al

Cruisers 3 IRC

1. Supernova K. Lawless, P. Shannon, S. McCormack

2. Quest B. Cunningham, J. Skerrit

3. Asterix Counihan, Meredith and Bushell

Cruisers 3 Echo

1. Supernova K. Lawless, P. Shannon, S. McCormack

2. Quest B. Cunningham, J. Skerrit

3. Asterix Counihan, Meredith and Bushell

Beneteau 31.7

1. Prospect Chris Johnston

2. Attitude D. Owens, J. Sugars

3. Extreme Reality P. McSwiney, E. O'Rafferty

Ruffian 23

1.Paramour L. Power, D. Russell

2. Crescendo Loran Balfe

Shipman

1. Whiterock Henry Robinson

2. Gusto Christine Heath

White Sails IRC

1. Act Two M. O'Leary, T. Roche, D. Andrews

2. Vespucci S. & K. O'Regan

3. Calypso Howard Knott

White Sails Echo

1. Act Two M. O'Leary, T. Roche, D. Andrews

2. Vespucci S. & K. O'Regan

3. Calypso Howard Knott

The prizes will be presented at the RAYC Annual Black Tie Dinner in the National Yacht Club on Friday 30th November.

All members and friends of the RAYC are welcome and booking can be made directly with Mr Tim O'Brien, the Club Manager at 2805725.

#RAYC – It was only in the last race that Andrew Sarratt's Jedi from Dun Laoghaire moved from second to win the 2012 Royal Alfred Yacht Club (RAYC) Coastal Series run over three races in association with ISORA. Full results for the Dublin Bay based series are available for download below as an MS Word document.

It is another offshore win for the J109 class, a design that has proved unbeatable offshore this season.

The RAYC has awarded two trophies for the coastal series - one for the Gold fleet and another for the Silver fleet.

African Challenge, a Beneteau First 42, won the silver fleet.

The Royal Alfred Yacht Club Dinner and Prize-giving takes place on Friday 30th November in the National Yacht Club.

#isora – J boats look set to continue their success in ISORA next weekend when the Irish and Welsh offshore fleets come together for a night time coastal race. J boats that have dominated both ISORA and the Round Ireland race this season (see below) are entered for next Friday's race including top rated Sgrech, Joker II and Jedi.

After a break in proceedings since the Round Ireland race at the end of June ISORA has published the sailing instructions and provisional entries for the ISORA/RAYC Night Race for Friday 27th July starting at 8pm. This popular night race along the scenic east coast down to Wicklow and back is 35 miles long.

This ISORA race will be run with the Royal Alfred Yacht Club 2012 Offshore Series race using the same start, course and finish. Boats may enter both series. Boats entered in the ISORA series only shall not be scored in the RAYC series nor are eligible for prizes in that series.

Full sailing instrcutions and a provisional entry list are downloadable below as attachments.

J Boats take top four at Round Ireland Yacht Race

For the thirty-six boats that entered the Round Ireland Yacht Race, the majority of crews found the course as tough as ever. Conditions ranging from 3 knots of wind close to the shore to ripped sails and seasickness on day two, combined with the island's large tidal gates made for some great offshore racing.

J Boats dominated IRC3, with Stephen Tudor's J/109 Sgrech taking the lead. In second was John Maybury's J/109 Joker 2, with Andrew Sarratt's J/109 Jedi in third. Nick Martin's J/105 Diablo-J took fourth place.

Though he's undertaken the Fastnet Race it was Stephen's first Round Ireland Yacht Race, with only two of his eight strong crew having entered before. Commenting on Sgrech's performance Stephen said 'as expected the race was challenging but fantastic. We got off to a cracking start and then kept the boat driven hard and managed to extend our lead. The boat and sails handled and performed superbly in all conditions, keeping speed and cross tacking amongst the bigger boats. The conditions were varied, from light winds at the start to a tough beat under a force 6 on the nose towards the end of the week. It's a great race, I can see us competing to keep our title in 2014.'

The success of the IRC3 J Boats was furthered by their achievement of securing top ten places overall. Jedi owner Andrew commented; 'This was great racing between the 3 J/109s as we were only 5 miles apart and swapping positions – Jedi took the lead from Sgrech on the Northern coast only to lose it again near Belfast – light to no winds – a game of chess. Then within 4 miles to the finish line Jedi finds a windless hole only to watch the hunting Joker 2 take 2nd place. Great close offshore racing that shows how competitive the J/109s are.'

Other J Boat successes included Bruce Douglas' J/133 Spririt of Jacana achieving first place in IRC1 and James Tyrell's J/122 Aquelina taking second in IRC2.

Dun Laoghaire's future lies in tourism and leisure, according to a submission on the new 'master plan' for the busy harbour.

The Irish Times reports that the town's top sailing and yacht clubs, who have come together under the banner of Dun Laoghaire Combined Clubs, are putting aside their individual interests "in favour of a larger and longer-term vision for the harbour".

The clubs' submission urges a rethink on public access to both the shore and water sides of the harbour. Inprovements in linking the town with the harbour area are already a goal of the master plan.

"Properly developed with a marine tourism and leisure focus [Dun Laoghaire] can generate new and sustainable sources of income." they said.

Dun Laoghaire Combined Clubs comprises the 'big four' waterfront clubs - the National, Royal Irish, Royal St George and Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club - as well as the Dublin Bay Sailing Club and the Royal Alfred Yacht Club.

The Irish Times has more on the story HERE.

The 2011 Royal Alfred Yacht Club sailing season opens with a double header in one months time when RAYC cruisers sail for Arklow and several one design fleets gather off Howth for the Niobe trophy. This year's Baily Bowl features one weekend for the Sigma 33s and the J109s on May14 and a second weekend (May 21) dubbed 'Baily Bowl II' for the Dragons, SB3, Squibs and Flying Fifteens. At the end of the season the club is hosting the Patriots Cup, an Invitation Team Racing event at the Royal Irish Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire. It will be sailed in 1720 sportsboats.

The 2011 Royal Alfred Calendar is below:

7 May 11

Lee Overlay Arklow Day Race Dun Laoghaire start 10hrs Cruisers Cat IV

7 May 11
Niobe Trophy SB3, Etchell, J24 Howth YC

14 May 11
Sigma 33 and J109 Baily Bowl Dun Laoghaire Baily Bowl Trophy

21 May 11
Baily Bowl II Dragons, SB3, Squibs, F15. RStGYC Dun Laoghaire 21/22 May

3 Jun 11
Lee Overlay Overnight Rockabill Kish Dun Laoghaire start 20hrs00 Cruisers Cat IV

18 Jun 11
Bloomsday Regatta Dun Laoghaire All classes

7 Jul 11
Dun Laoghaire Regatta Dun Laoghaire 7-11 July All classes all clubs

22 Jul 11
Lee Overlay India Bank Overnight Race Dun Laoghaire start 20hrs00 Cruisers Cat IV

24 Jul 11
Two Island race Start Dublin Bay Roundabout buoy Cruiser Racers & Whitesails

20 Aug 11
Lee Overlay ODAS M2 Day Race Dun Laoghaire start 10hrs00 Cruisers Cat IV

1 Oct 11
Patriots Cup Invitation Team Racing Royal Irish YC Dun Laoghaire 1720

Latest Royal Alfred Yacht Club News

There will be a light start this morning to the Royal Alfred's Baily Bowl event on Dublin bay. The Dublin Club will provide a full weekend of racing run from the National Yacht Club. Three races on Saturday and two on Sunday. The biggest fleet will no doubt be the SB3 fleet sharing the windward-leeward course with the Dragons.  Also racing is the Squib and Flying fifteen classes. First gun at 1100 hours. Report here later.

History

The Royal Alfred Yacht club is much more than a quaint old Dublin institution. For generations it has been an umbrella organisation, linking yacht racers from the rival harbours of Dun Laoghaire and Howth. It provides an attractive programme of regattas, complementing more local and national events.

The 'Royal' in the title tells us that the club is long established. But without the focus of a clubhouse, even some non-racing Dublin based sailors might find it hard to recognise where it fits in.

"The world's oldest specifically amateur yacht club (founded 1857)"

The 'Alfred', as it's locally known, actually played a seminal role in the evolution and formation of racing in sailboats worldwide. Some older established clubs trumpet their seniority as their main, and maybe their only claim to fame, but the Royal Alfred Yacht Club has a far greater and better deserved list of accomplishments and real contributions to the sport. A short list of its "firsts" clearly places the club as the original model for yacht clubs worldwide, to a much greater extent than most older clubs.

So Dublin's Royal Alfred Yacht Club is quite simply:

The world's oldest specifically amateur yacht club (founded 1857)

The world's first offshore racing club (1868-1922)

The first club to organise single and double handed yacht races

The prime mover behind the formation of the world's first national yacht racing organisation (1872)

And finally, its two flag officers are credited with the authorship of the first national yacht racing rules, which are at the core of today's racing rules worldwide.

What other yacht club or sailing organisation, anywhere in the world, can claim to have given more to the formation of the sport of sailing as our Royal Alfred Yacht Club?
The record shows that taking the lead and giving a practical example, our small club can reasonable be described as the first yacht club of the modern era, in the universal meaning of a club for members who actively sail their own boats.

"The world's first offshore racing club (1868-1922)"

How did a small group of middle class Dubliners make such a difference? When they met in 1857, the objective of the 17 founder members was "to encourage the practise of seamanship and the acquisition of the necessary skill in managing the vessels". Translating these stilted phrases, this meant that as far as practical, the club would cater for those yachtsmen, and later yachtswomen, who were prepare to sail and race their complex and heavy craft themselves.

Today's sailors may say 'so what?' but 141 years ago, this was revolutionary stuff. The average yachtsman of that time would no more think of trimming a sheet or hauling on a halyard, than of digging his vegetable patch, or engaging in other obviously menial tasks. An earlier fashion in the 1830s for establishing yacht clubs had resulted in a rash of "Royal" clubs in most provincial centres around the coasts of Britain and Ireland. Dublin, Belfast and Cork, each followed the trend. However they were mainly social clubs, often meeting only a few times a year, and they organised very few events on the water, in some cases a regatta only every second year. The yachts owned by the members of such clubs were crewed by mere seamen, of a very different social status to the "yachtsmen"!

How very different the men of the "Alfred", or the "Irish Model Yacht Club" as they called their club at first. This was not model as meaning scale models yachts, but "Model" in the other, more Victorian meaning of the word, as something to be emulated. They started by organising day cruises in company, manoeuvring under orders from a flag officer. In this activity, they were following the old custom of the first yachtsmen in Amsterdam, back in the 1600s, and later copied by the gentry of Cork harbour in the early 1700s. But of course the difference in 1857 was that now the owners and their amateur friends were actually sailing themselves.

Very soon it was clear that the practical competence of the Dublin yachtsmen was such that they could race. Any one who races will readily agree with the saying that one learns more about skilful boat handling in a season's racing than in ten seasons "messing about in boats". But racing then was not as easy as today. Press reports of yacht races back in the 1860s routinely mention the "carrying away" of topmasts and bowsprits, and sails splitting. In those days, all the materials were suspect. Hulls, ropes, sailcloth, ironware, everything could and did break, but you were expected to be sufficiently good a seaman as to be able to cope, and without an auxiliary to get you home!

The Club quickly gained recognition, not only for its premier role as the leading amateur club, but also with the prestige of a royal warrant, acquiring the title it still carries: "Royal Alfred Yacht Club". Queen Victoria's third son Prince Alfred, was a naval officer who allowed his name to be used but he apparently had no active connection with our club, or with our sister club, the Prince Alfred Yacht Club of New South Wales.

"The first club to organise single and double handed yacht races"

Throughout the 1860s and 70s, our Club fired off an amazing series of initiatives, which caused our club to be described as the Premier Corinthian club. Indeed it started a new wave of yacht club formations, with "Corinthian" in their name, which appeared in all the major yachting centres around this time. Corinthian is another word for amateur, because it was believed that in ancient Greece, the athletes of Corinth competed for no reward other than a laurel wreath. Yet the Victorian sailors were quite happy to race for large cash and silverware prizes, which they kept! For them, the mortal sin was to be paid to sail or race. At the end of each season, Hunt's Yachting Magazine published a list of racing results for all the yacht races in the British Isles, and also the total value of the prizes awarded by the various clubs. The Royal Alfred Yacht Club regularly featured in the top three of such prestigious clubs, and in 1877 it ranked number one, with £712 in prizes for 11 races, equivalent to about IR£40,000 today!

Three years earlier, the Royal Alfred's circular to all the British yacht clubs, calling for a consistent regulation of handicapping by means of measurement by a professional, and the Club's earlier publication of yacht racing rules and time allowance tables, were the trigger for the founding of the Yacht Racing Association which became the Royal Yachting Association. Again typical of the Royal Alfred's central role in this process is that its two flag officers, Henry Crawford and George Thomson, are credited with the principal authorship of the YRA's Racing Rules.

"The prime mover behind the formation of the world's first national yacht racing organisation (1872)"

Its it tempting to dwell on the Royal Alfred's period in the spotlight, but one has to admit that the Club could not maintain this momentum. Its base was always yacht racing in Dublin Bay, and the Irish Sea, and as Dublin declined in relative terms, deferring to the Clyde and the Solent, and as larger racing yachts demanded professional crew, the Corinthian ideal became less important for the top competitions. So yachting in Dublin settled into a familiar pattern of one design racing, with the beautiful gaff cutter Dublin Bay 25 and 21 footers, and the Howth Seventeens. In this, the Dublin sailors were following the lead of their dinghy sailing friends who, in 1887, had founded the world's first one design class, the Water Wags. The twin harbours of Dun Laoghaire and Howth both continued to provide that great luxury, the facility to be sailing on one's yacht at 6pm, after leaving the office at 5. Few other yachting centres could provide this continuity, and so changes to new venues and new classes were less necessary for the sailors of Dublin.

Eventually, the wheel came full circle and the sailing world rediscovered one design racing in the 1930s, and even more so in the 1950s. By this time, the Royal Alfred's pioneering contributions to the sport were long taken for granted. Even offshore racing had to be reinvented in the late 1920s, even though the "Alfred's" tradition of 60 mile cross channel handicap races had been consistently maintained as part of its annual race programme for 57 years (1867-1924).

"RAYC's two flag officers are credited with the authorship of the first national yacht racing rules, which are at the core of today's racing rules worldwide."

So the Club has played a key role in the formation of our sport, as it is routinely practised around the globe. Throughout its 141 years, the Club has remained true to its founding principles, and as the rest of the world came to follow this example, we may reasonable claim that the Royal Alfred Yacht Club is not just the world's oldest amateur yacht club, but also the oldest yacht club in the modern tradition.

Royal Alfred Yacht Club

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