Displaying items by tag: Team Racing
70th IDRA/ITRA Irish Team Racing Championship at Royal St. George Yacht Club
Some sixteen teams will do battle for the Miss Betty IYA junior team racing trophy presented by Clayton Love Snrthis weekend in the Royal St George YC in Dun Laoghaire Harbour. What marks this occasion is that it is 70 years since the first time the event was run by the then IDRA forerunner of the IYA more recently the ISA, and now known as Irish Sailing.
On foot of an invitation by Dun Laoghaire sailors to West Kirby SC in 1947 to come over and race, the protagonists decided after the first day’s fleet race it would be more fun if they changed the rules to stimulate more boat on boat competition. The following year was to be the first official competition under Team rules in WKSC followed by a return event in Dun Laoghaire.
Unfortunately, WKSC could not get official recognition as a ‘Team’ event from the then not too progressive Yachting Association. The IDRA as ever gave the Dun Laoghaire event that recognition in 1948 thus pipping the UK to the claim of the longest running Team Racing event. Fittingly the Royal St George YC is as then, hosting the event. The George has been the keeper of the flame since then winning many home titles and lifting the reciprocal event’s Wilson Trophy three times. Team Racing is thriving in the college scene with some twenty-seven teams competing regularly in their four provincial events and the Irish Universities Championships. David Harte set up a fantastic team racing centre in Schull Community College from where he feeds the college scene consistently with champions. He captured the World Team Racing Championship event for Schull in 2012 building 18 TR boats that he designed for that event. His youth team barely lost out to GBR in the Youth Gold Medal decider.
The George had run the Worlds in 1999. There are team racing fleets all around the country most recently Queens Belfast, Sutton Dinghy Club and Galway. The colleges are well represented next weekend by UCC, UCD, CIT Cork, DCU and Dublin University. Trinity Alumni led by Dan Gill and John Sheehy’s George Knights are reforming to do battle with the young pretenders and holders UCC led by Mark Hassett. Oxford Sailing Society is coming to see what all the fuss is about: dark horses, maybe. Mary O'Loughlin and Diana Kissane of Howth have a Ladies Who Launch team entered and Billy Clarke has assembled an old Schull boys brigade.
The young pretender of the fifties Allan Price from WKSC is joining the festivities and planning to reacquaint himself with the ‘Ancient Mariners’ The Ra, Johnny Hooper and Peter Gray. The Craig brothers. Brian and Peter and John Ross Murphy will be reminiscing over their victories over the Price Twins.
Adrian Lee & Partners have kindly sponsored the prizes for the weekend event.
This article has been updated: It was originally reported that the 70th IDRA/ITRA Team Racing Trophy to be raced for was the 'John Hooper Trophy' originally presented by Johnny & Gary Hooper's late father for the IDRA Team Racing. This was not the case and the trophy being raced for was the Miss Betty IYA junior team racing trophy presented by Clayton Love Snr. now dedicated for the National Championships. Apologies to Johnny & Gary for the mistake.
Wexford Boat Club to Host First IUSA Team Racing Event of the Season
The first Irish Universtiy Sailing Association (IUSA) Team Racing event of the year will be held in Wexford Harbour Boat and Tennis Club this weekend (12th – 14th of October) with flight sheets to be posted later this week.
One of the competing teams, UCD Sailing Club, was afloat at Dun Laoghaire Harbour last weekend practising over a short course inside the marina walls in anticipation of the launch event of the varsity year.
It will be a chance for teams to challenge UCC after their success at the Intervarsity championships at Kilrush on the Shannon Estuary back in March.
'Reachers' Victorious at Royal St. George's Elmo Cup
This weekend the fourth annual Elmo Trophy took place in the Royal St George Yacht Club. This is a team racing event for teenagers aged up to nineteen–years old. This year sixteen teams from all around the country travelled to Dublin to compete.
On Saturday morning the sailors came down to rig the twelve George fireflies and a flight of TRs kindly donated to the event by Sutton Dinghy Club. Racing was postponed until the wind filled in and then the race committee successfully completed 58 races in challenging light and shifty conditions. The sailors finally got off the water at 5:15 pm after a long day of team racing in the blistering sunshine.
On Saturday evening 120 people gathered into the yacht club’s dining room for a formal dinner. Speeches were made thanking all the volunteers and parents who had helped throughout the day and in the run-up to the event, in particular to John Sheehy, who organised and coordinated the event alongside Elaine Malcolm.
On Sunday morning the suncream was administered and again the 16 teams took to the water to complete another round robin in their respective fleets; Gold, Silver and Bronze. After intensive racing, 8 teams made it into the final knock out stage. ‘The Reachers’ emerged victorious in the final and narrowly beat the team ‘Lasers’ in the last upwind in the third race of the final. ‘George Ezra’, one of the five teams from the Royal St. George Yacht Club, came third overall.
At the prize giving, Frank Elmes presented the trophy to the winning team, Tom Higgins, Clare Gorman, Peter Fagan, Nell Staunton, Jack Fahy and Sarah Seymour. The perpetual trophy was kindly donated by Sage Pay and is named after the late Graham Elmes, the founder of the Irish Team Racing Association.
Over the weekend 119 high-quality races of team racing were sailed.
The Annual Rambler 100 Team Racing Event was held on Sunday at Baltimore Sailing Club. This event encourages all young sailors to compete as helms or crew with a combined age of no more than 30 years. The competition sees two teams race - 2 boats versus 2 boats. Nearly 50 sailors signed up however, the early morning fog did nothing to dampen their spirits.
The trophy was very kindly donated by George David to commemorate the capsize and subsequent rescue of the Rambler 100 crew on August 15, 2011 off the Fastnet Rock. This was the 8th time the event had been contested and this year was just as competitive and exciting for all sailors and spectators.
Registration was held while everyone waited for the fog to lift. A race briefing was then held along with team announcements giving the sailors time to prepare their boats. Thankfully, the fog cleared and crews took to the race course in the harbour within sight of the pier. It was a hectic schedule of races - 30 races initially to complete the round robin before the semi finals and final races took place.
There was a nail biting final (best of 3) with Eoin Horgan’s team winning two to secure their win but not before a broken mast delayed proceedings. After racing all sailors then headed for home to enjoy pizza and the prize giving in the Clubhouse. Commodore Niall O’Neill thanked everyone for their assistance in running the event with particular mention to Maria Coleman.
Third Place team - Keelin Greene (captain) with crew Emer O'Neill, Sarah O’Flynn (helm) with crew Jenya Kelly.
Second place team - Cillian Walsh (captain) with crew Jenny O”Brien, Katie O’Keeffe (helm) with crew Seamus Griffiths.
The winning team was Eoin Horgan (captain) with crew Jonjo Coleman, Richard Bushe (helm) with crew Richard Buckley.
UCD Sailing Team Success on the Liffey at Annual Colours Match
This years Colours match between UCD Sailing Club (UCD SC) and Dublin University Sailing Club (DUSC) was held on Saturday the 14th of April in Dublin City.
UCD SC successfully brought home the Colours trophy which was won by DUSC at last years Colours. With a newly introduced format as of last years competition the results of all the teams counted, and UCD 2 sealed the deal at the last minute securing the necessary result. UCDSC Commodore Roisin O’Brien along with her committee organised the one day event which took place on the Liffey.
This win comes after a successful few weeks for UCDSC, winning the Silver fleet at the IUSA Inter-varsities, won overall by UCC, as well as UCD 1 coming third and attending the BUSA Championships in Scotland. UCD1 and UCD2 came 2nd and 3rd respectively, and UCC came1st, in the IUSA Student Yachting Nationals in Howth Yacht Club where UCC took home the trophy, also organised by UCDSC the weekend previous.
As the college sailing club breaks up for exams and the summer season the students now look forward to what next year brings.
Schools National Team Racing Championships 2018 at Schull Cancelled Due to Strong Wind Forecast
This weekend's Schools National Team Racing Championships 2018 at Schull in West Cork has been cancelled due to a strong winds forecast.
The 13–team event, open to qualified teams from regional events, has been rescheduled for September and will sail in Schull's own TR 3.6 dinghy fleet.
Southerly winds are forecast to reach 30 mph from midday on Saturday.
The annual Irish University Sailing Association Intervarsity Team Racing Championship is the first major event to signal the new season, and 2018’s – at Kilrush on the weekend of March 9th to 11th – was vintage stuff. There were 28 teams taking part, including two from Scotland, in a series jointly organised by University College Cork and National University of Ireland Galway
In all, 194 sailors and supporters descended on the Shannon Estuary sailing mecca, and in a massive championship which saw 188 races being sailed, the final came down to Battle Royal in the excellent sailing conditions of a light to moderate westerly. This resulted in University College Cork 1 winning from the Scottish national team, Scottish Student Sailing, with UCD 1 placing third.
The organisation of an event of this scale is mind-boggling, but the multi-functonal Kilrush Marina’s many facilities were well able for it. Top skills were to be found afloat, where 28 different team captains had to keep their highly individualistic squads on message. Although it’s quintessentially a team event, inevitably it is the Captain of the winning team who is highlighted, and at Kilrush it was Brendan Lyden who led UCC 1 to victory and acclamation as “Sailor of the Month (Inshore)” for March 2018.
However, it being a team effort, it’s only fair to mention that the other two helms were Fionn Lyden and Aodh Kennedy, while the crews in the final were Jill McGinley, Sinead Barnett, and Lisa Smith. Next year’s event will be up on the lake at Blessington in West Wicklow, hosted by Trinity College Dublin.
New NUIG Sailing keelboat Centre Stage at Connacht Schools Team Racing Championships on Galway Bay
The Connacht Schools Team Racing Championships was in full swing at the Galway Ocean Sports Club over the weekend with competition between St. Enda's and Carraroe Schools that had NUIG sailing team racers in the mix too.
Galway City Sailing Club hosted the event that qualifies west of Ireland crews for the Irish Team Racing National Championships in Cork.
Also on show at the event, and serving as the Committee Boat for the team racing, was the Port of Galway supported new NUIG Sailing keelboat (pictured above).
A successful Irish University Sailing Association (IUSA) Intervarsity team racing championships concluded today at Kilrush Marina on the Shannon Estuary in County Clare.
To a bystander not familiar with team racing it may have appeared somewhat chaotic with lots of boats, whistle blowing and flags. Team racing encourages an indepth knowledge of the rules and the umpires did a fantastic job in ensuring racing went off smoothly. The round robin series consisting of one hundred and thirty seven races followed by twenty eight quarter final races were all completed on the first two days. On the final day's racing twenty three races were run to complete the semi finals and finals. Twenty eight teams representing eight Irish universities, two Scottish universities and one hundred and sixty eight competitors in total took part. Conditions on the final day were excellent for racing with a light to moderate westerly breeze.
Racing concluded with everyone off the water and tidyed up in time for the rugby match. Overall winners lifting the IUSA Plate were UCC 1. NUIG Galway, co-hosting with UCC for the first time reached the semi-finals in their fleet. Credit must go to the student organisers from both universities for an extremely well run event. Prizegiving takes place in the Temple Gate Hotel in Ennis this Saturday night.
The universities represented were National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG), University College Cork (UCC), University of Limerick (UL), Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT), University College Dublin (UCD), Dublin City University (DCU), Trinity College Dublin (TCU), Queens University Belfast (QUB), Stratclyde University (SU), Scottish Student Sailing (SSS).
Final Results:
Gold Fleet: 1st UCC 1, 2nd SSS 1, 3rd UCD 1
Silver Fleet: 1st UCD 2, 2nd UCC 3
Bronze Fleet: 1st DCU 1, 2nd UCC 4
Intervarsity Team Racing Champs Underway at Kilrush Marina
The 2018 Intervarsity team racing championships started yesterday at Kilrush Marina on the Shannon Estuary in County Clare. The event organisers for this year's event are NUIG Galway and UCC Sailing Team.
Conditions on day one were ideal for team racing with over twenty teams taking part representing colleges across Ireland, Northern Ireland and international teams from Strathclyde University in Scotland.
It was a busy day for the five umpires on the water and race organisers completed 87 races. The 180 students transferring on & off the water were cheered on by lots of local supporters.
Entertainment off the water for students taking a break between races included bouncy castles, sumo wrestling & a BBQ.