The Royal Irish Yacht Club hosted four-class Dun Laoghaire Cup for sports boats with racing for 1720, SB20, J80 and Beneteau First 21 classes got off to a slow start on Saturday due to unstable winds on Dublin Bay.

In a fine turnout of nearly 50 boats, just one race was possible in each class with RIYC Sailing Manager Mark McGibney telling Afloat: "Fickle and unstable wind direction led to a very frustrating day for the race management team".

The 1720 East Coast Championship, the J80 East Coast Championship and First 21 National Championship are all being staged as part of the Cup.

For the SB20s, in an 11-boat fleet, it is the first opportunity to 'cross swords' in what promises to be a very exciting season in the build-up to September's class World Championships being staged at the same venue. Michael O'Connor leads from Niall O'Riordan. Tadhg Donnelly is third.

In the 21-boat 1720 class, Howth's Robert Dix leads from Rory Lynch. Third is Robert O'Connell.

The 11-boat B21s who are racing under both scratch and ECHO are led (on scratch) by Peter Carroll with Jimmy Fischer second and Hugh Kelly third. 

In a five boat J80 fleet, 1 GBR 605 Vincent Lattimore leads Declan Curtin. Royal St George's Mark Nolan lies third.

Racing continues on Sunday with the prospect of more breeze. Results are here

As regular readers of Afloat will know, Ireland's only dedicated sportsboat regatta was postponed in 2021 due to COVID.

The fourth Cascais SB20 Winter Series had its debut postponed. The 22 boats of the popular class were forced to stay ashore on the opening day due to the strong wind that blew in Cascais on Saturday.

On the second day of the 4th Cascais SB20 Winter Series, the 22 boats were presented to a north-easterly wind varying between 6 and 9 knots, which allowed them to complete three of the four races scheduled for the second day.

The big winner of this championship was the Solyd Sailing Team of Vasco Serpa with Diogo Machado Pinto and Pedro Costa Alemão who were undefeated in this event with three bullets in three sailed races. In second place was the British team Xcellent of John Pollard, Jack Wetherell and Henry Wetherell. Closing the podium ended the team from St. Petersburg, Russia, Nord Star captained by Lashkov Boris with Aleksey Kolobanov, Aleksandr Grishunin.

With the end of the penultimate event of the Cascais SB20 Winter Series, everything was left open for the last race. John Pollard's Xcellent remains in the lead with 5 points followed by Vasco Serpa's Solyd Sailing Team with 9 points. AP Hotels by José Paulo Ramada is in third position with 11 points.

As Afloat previously reported, the series is an important one in the build-up to the World Championships which will be held at the Royal Irish Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire this September. 

Full Results

Irish eyes will be studying the form at the Cascais Winter Series of the SB20 Class where some top crews are already preparing for the World Championships in Ireland this year. 

As Afloat reported in December, there are already at least 50 confirmed boats from ten countries entered for the Royal Irish Yacht Club's staging of the 2022 SB20 World Championships on Dublin Bay.

The event will be held from 5th September -10th September 2022 with up to four races per day.

On the first day in Cascais, some twenty-five SB20 class boats competed in three races on a sunny day with an east wind of 12 to 6 knots.

In the lead of the championship, at the end of the first day, was the French crew, Skin in the Game, captained by Edward Russo with Gilles Favennec and Jonathan Lobert after debuting with two wins and a fifth. In second place are the British of Xcellent, John Pollard, Jack Wetherell and Henry Wetherell followed by Inetum, in third place, led by Tiago Morais and assisted by Luis Guedes Queiroz and Martim Mastbaum.

On the second and last day of the third Cascais SB20 Winter Series, the fleet completed the three last races on Cascais Bay race area with an oscillating east wind of 10 to 8 knots of intensity.

The victory went to the British Xcellent team of John Pollard of Jack Wetherell and Henry Wetherell. Jose Paulo Ramada's AP Hotels & Resorts team from Cascais with Diogo Costa, Rui Ramada Barros and Henrique Brites were runner-up. Closing the podium ended the French team Skin in the Game of Edward Russo, Gilles Favennec and Jonathan Lobert.

Results here

There are already at least 50 confirmed boats from ten countries entered for the Royal Irish Yacht Club's staging of the 2022 SB20 World Championships on Dublin Bay.

The event will be held from 5th September -10th September 2022 with up to four races per day.

As regular Afloat readers will know, the 2018 European Championships were also hosted by the RIYC, an event that attracted considerable international acclaim.

Joe Conway is Chairman of the Organising Committee for the 2022 big event and the club's own Jack Roy, a Race Officer from the London 2012 Olympic Regatta, will be the Principal Race Officer.

At home, the domestic SB20 scene has been dominated by the Ted crew skippered by Michael O'Connor of the Royal St. George Yacht Club, where achievements included a win at the Lough Ree Nationals.

The annual October Freshwater Keelboat Regatta at Dromineer, (hosted by Lough Derg Yacht Club and staged last weekend) has been no stranger to hyper-strong winds in times past. But in 2021's unusually gentle Autumn, it provided two to three days of very usable sailing breezes, mostly from the southwest. And if the sun tended not to put in an appearance until late afternoon despite the high-pressure area moving over the country, a least it provided welcome brightness when it did show up for the healthy outdoor prize-giving ceremonies.

LDYC Commodore Joe Gilmartin and his team, led by Honorary Sailing Secretary Fergal Keating, welcomed a strong fleet across four keelboat classes, with John Leech serving as Race Officer for the Dragon and SB20 area, while Liam Moloney looked after the Squibs and Flying Fifteens. All classes had sufficient numbers for good racing among boats which had come from many parts of Ireland. But it was the Squibs, currently on a roll and further buoyed by the prospect of the big championship – effectively the Squib Worlds – in Kinsale next June, which were in a league of their own, with a pandemic-defying turnout of 29 boats representing most Irish centres, and including a couple of cross-channel challengers.

Regatta time at Lough Derg Yacht Club

Morning promise of a good day's racing as the breeze comes whispering in – Dragons, Squibs and SB20s in Dromineer Harbour

The Squibs had the biggest fleet, and here Slipstream (102, Robert Marshall & Neil Logan, Killyleagh YC) leads from Fuggles (Sean & Paul Murphy, Kinsale YC).

Part of the Squibs' attraction is that they're not afraid to move away from standard white hulls, and LDYC Honorary Sailing Secretary Fergal Keating's Bodacious (crewed by David Maher) has had a particularly attractive paint job.

Part of the Squib's growing success lies in their entertaining and informative Irish Squib Forum, and its recently-posted enthusiastic response to the Lough Derg event by Fiona Sugrue-Ward of the Kinsale fleet joyfully captures the flavour of the class and the place and the pace very well indeed:

Lough Derg Yacht Club was the venue for the final Regional Squib Event of 2021. A bumper turnout of 29 Squibs raced in the Freshwater event, and it is great to see such numbers on the start line. The Fleet love going to Lough Derg, and as always the Club ran a super event, both on and off the water.

With six races held over the two days, conditions on the lake were almost perfect with southwesterlies averaging 10-12 knots making racing fair across the racecourse. There were 5 different individual race winners leading to a final race where any one of eight Squib combinations could have won outright.

Racing had been really close and placings up and down the fleet were impossible totally on the spot. When the numbers were finally crunched in the Race Office, it was Quickstep from Cultra with a consistent top and finishes and one race win which danced to overall victory with the Royal North of Ireland's Gordon Patterson and Ross Nolan.

Sunshine finally breaking through – Fantome (730 Fergus O'Kelly & Ronan MacDonnell, Howth YC) chasing Granat (David Stewart & Brian Hare, Royal Irish & Royal Dee YCs)

Bookending the weekend with wins in Race 1 and 6, Kinsale's Outlaw 785 secured 2nd overall for Ian Travers and Keith O'Riordan. Local Squib Femme Fatale 24, with Lough Derg's Joe O Byrne and Vincent Delany helming, went for 3rd overall.

Other notable mentions must go to race winners Toy for the Boys, Fantome and Firecracker. The fleet were delighted to have overseas visitors in Squib 11 with Pam and Dick Batt, and a Welsh Dragon was welcomed flying over Lil Quickie with Tudor Roberts and Ieuan Williams.

A fleet of 29 is a fabulous end to the 2021 Squib season, the close racing amongst the fleet makes for great events. The Class are already planning and looking forward to next year with Regional events and of course the combined UK & Irish National Squib Championships in Kinsale.

Squib Results Here

Volante is another boat from Killyleagh on Strangford Lough – sailed by Simon Watson & "Jordy", she place eighth overall. 

The overall format for the Freshwater Keelboat Regatta is the Dragons do three days starting on the Friday while the SB20s, Flying Fifteens and Squibs do two. But whatever your programme, the social highlight is the dinner on the Saturday night, an epic event even by the legendary hospitality standards of Lough Derg Yacht Club, which has been honing its hosting skills since 1835.

LOUGH DERG BOAT WINS SB20s

While there was convivial inter-class mingling, after the past 18 months of pandemic limitations, inevitably there were close-knit celebrations within classes that had seen little enough of each other since March 2020. The festive levels were notably high in the SB20s, where John Malone of Lough Ree Yacht Club was Presiding over his last on-water event, having served as top honcho with success despite lockdown limits, with the SB20s making a special effort to take their class message wherever and whenever it was permissible and welcome.

LDYC Commodore Joe Gilmartin (right) with Andrew Deakin's winning SB20 crew which included Aoife (11) and Clara (9).

This has been partially in anticipation of the Worlds being in Dun Laoghaire with the Royal Irish Yacht Club in 2022. But equally, there was a determination to make the best of the here and now with commendable attention to detail, which is one race saw the President taking time out to check the mooring lines on one of the race marks, unselfishly sacrificing what would have been a good result in Race 3 in order to do so.

SB20 President John Malone taking his Presidential duties very seriously with the time-honoured inspection of race mark moorings…..

……which is a ritual process, and done very thoroughly

Even with that, he and his crew of Emmet Sheridan and Alex Leech got to the 7th and final race well in contention for the win against the host club's Andrew Deakin crewed by Brian & Colm McElligott after notching victory in Race 6. But as the President candidly admits, they were having such lovely sailing that they failed to do the strategic calculations on how to conduct a cunning final race, and the Deakin boat Sonic Boom – whose crew betimes included Oppie sailors Aoife (11) and Clara (9) - took the bullet and the series one point ahead of El Presidente.

SB20 Result here

Things are looking rather better for the outgoing SB20 President, nicely placed in 3040, but in the end he was second by one point. 

CARRICKFERGUS & CONNEMARA DOMINATE FLYING FIFTEENS

The Flying Fifteens in Ireland have a fascinating development with a seriously-raced class taking hold in the heart of Connemara in the strongholds of the ancient Galway Bay traditional boats. It all started quite far back with older boats brought down by families for holiday sailing, but as our report on the Cong-Galway Race down Lough Corrib this year revealed, the far sailing waters of Connacht now include some hot newer craft of all types. The Fifteens are reflecting this, with Niall & Ronan O'Brien of FF Chonamara turning up at Dromineer with Buckfast and competing to such good effect that they took second in a fleet of ten.

Flying Fifteens on the run, Squibs on the beat

Their scoreline included a couple of firsts, but it was Belfast Lough sailors Trevor D'Arcy and Alan McClernon of Carrickfergus who were on top of their game with three first and a second and fourth to win by one point, while Alan Green and David Mulvin of the NYC in Dun Laoghaire were third after notching best results of a first and two seconds.

Flying Fifteen results here

LITTLE FELLA WINS TIE BREAK IN DRAGONS

It doesn't do to rush the final few miles down the winding road to Dromineer from Nenagh with an International Dragon in tow, for it's a boreen which might have been set up with Advanced Towing Driving Tests in mind. But at least the boats which came from Dun Laoghaire had motorway most of the way until Nenagh, whereas the hotshots from Kinsale had to contend with some of those nationally-notorious bottlenecks on the Cork-Limerick road before getting anywhere near their destination

This may have sharpened their determination to succeed once they got the fresh air of Lough Derg in their lungs, and with their elite three-day programme providing eight races, it came right down to the wire between two Kinsale boats, with Brian Goggin's Serafina and Cameron Good's Little Fella both on 17 points.

Dragons finding some sunshine on the run, with eventual overall winner Little Fella (211, Cameron Good KYC, left) making a successful break for it.

However, 2021 is Little Fella's year, and she added another title by winning the tie-break, with third place going to Peter Bowring of Royal St George YC in Dun Laoghaire with Phantom.

International Dragon Results here

The season is by no means completely over on Lough Derg, but there's no doubting that this year's successful Freshwater Keelboat marks a significant changing of the pace, with a distinct change in the weather now upon us to emphasise this. It's really anybody's guess what the country has to go through during the coming winter, but down Dromineer way they're already thinking of the bright weather of next summer. For in addition to its busy home programme and of course the Freshwater Keelboat Regatta in October (date is October 15th-16th, put it in the diary now), Lough Derg Yacht Club is hosting the Fireball Worlds 2022 from August 20th to 26th.

Autumn is well upon us – evening sunlight at Dromineer

Lough Derg Yacht Club in County Tipperary will welcome one design visitors back to Dromineer for the Keelboat regatta on the weekend of 15th to 17th of October.

Four fleets are expected to the lake, with the biggest likely to be the Squibs, according to Derg's Joe O'Byrne.

The distinctive mace-colour sailed fleet expects a 30 boat entry to include Northern Ireland, England, Kinsale and Howth boats to compete against a growing local fleet.

The SB20s who recently competed on Lough Ree are moving to Derg for their final event of the year, and a fleet of 18 is expected in the last event of 2021 before staging the world championships in Ireland on Dublin Bay in 2022.

LDYC PRO John Leech - two race areas for the keelboat regatta

Lough Derg Yacht Club says it expects the Flying Fifteens will also be travelling, and estimates from the Dun Laoghaire fleet say up to a dozen will attend.

Up to a dozen Flying Fifteens are expected on Lough Derg

The Dragons will have competitors from Kinsale and Dublin.

The club has arranged a lift in/lift-out on-site, and, O'Byrne says, this will significantly assist the logistics for competitors.

LDYC PRO John Leech and his team have split the four fleets over two separate race areas.

On sea and lake alike, the wonderful weekend's summery weather may sometimes have produced frustrating wind conditions. But at most centres and through multiple events, the breeze obliged at various stages to bring superb sailing and a glimpse of what life used to be like as a matter of course. It was enough to encourage a genuine festival atmosphere, no more so than at the three-day Provident CRM/Dubarry SB20 Nationals in Lough Ree with the notably hospitable Lough Ree YC. It has inspired this lyrical account of a great regatta by Eoin Leahy, Ted Laverty and Class President John Malone, while the photos are by Edel Kellegher and Joanne Leavy. More photos of this successful and colourful event will appear in Sailing on Saturday with W M Nixon on Afloat.ie on Saturday 25th September :

Long after the boats have been finally stowed for the winter off-season, this edition of the SB20 National Championships is certain to keep the fleets' fires burning for what promises to be an even more exciting season ahead with Ireland hosting the SB20 World Championships in 2022. While the winds were variable throughout the weekend with plenty of breeze on the Sunday, both the hospitality shown by Lough Ree Yacht Club (LRYC) and the performance of the championship winners (Michael O'Connor, Davy Taylor and Ed Cooke on 'Ted') was anything but. Nineteen entries made up the fleet from Dublin, Cork, Lough Ree, Lough Derg and Carlingford.

Perhaps it was a result of the pent-up anticipation post-lockdown, or something else, but from the off this event had an almost festival-like feel to it. Complete with mobile coffee trucks, a post sailing BBQ and a superb Gala dinner with sumptuous local produce and local music performances – it's hard to remember such an enjoyable and relaxed event off the water, even with the physical distancing restrictions in place. Ably planned and executed by the LRYC community, special mention goes to Kevin Fenton, John McGonigle and John Malone (SB20 Class President) for ensuring all competitors were so well catered for at all times.

Whether the wind was light or fresh, the racing was close and often colourful

Friday's racing kicked off in a tricky 8 to 10 knots of breeze, putting a premium on keeping on top of shifts and positioning in the fleet. International race officer Con Murphy and team put on a masterclass which demonstrated the style with which they'd cope with varying circumstances to give us nine races over thee days, providing excellent courses and directing the team of mark layers to get the most from the conditions. After Day 1, Michael O'Connor and the crew 'Ted' finished with two first places and a 4th, to put them two points ahead of Philip Doran & Crew on 'LoFly' (Dorans Family) and Colin Galavan & Crew on 'Carpe Diem'. Mel Collins & Crew on 'Gold Digger' threatened the lead briefly with a bullet in race 2, but in reality, reigning Irish Sailing All Ireland Senior Sailing Champion Michael O'Connor sailed a near flawless opening day with his team to lay down a marker to the rest of the fleet.

Saturday morning sunshine greeted the competitors at LRYC. Day 2 saw even more trying lake conditions, with massive shifts and holes appearing all over the course in light breezes. In a fleet as competitive as the SB20's, one mistake was hard to recover from - with many crews going from 'hero to zero' in the space of just one leg. The results continued as they finished from the previous day, with the crew of 'Ted' posting an early win to extend its lead. Strong sailing from 'Carpe Diem' and 'Lofly' kept them on the podium, but they were being closely stalked by Ger Dempsey & Crew aboard 'Venuesworld.com' who posted a 2-7-1 to get themselves into contention and the crew of 'Gold Digger' one place back.

Any bite to the breeze was a reminder that Lough Ree is an inland sea

LRYC hosted a class dinner on Saturday night with some great footage of the days racing playing on the big screen in the dining room followed by new crews to the fleet getting to know the season campaigners in the bar.
After being suitably refreshed at the superb Gala dinner on Saturday night, the crews emerged to more promising conditions on Day 3 with fresher winds and the promise of more stability. It proved to deliver some of the most exciting racing, even providing a taste of planing conditions for the first time in the event.

Ted started the day with a bullet followed by an uncharacteristic 8th but a 2nd in the last race sealed the deal for them. However, the chasing pack were sailing consistently from behind and the competition for the remaining podium places was intense. The crew of 'Carpe Diem' posted hard earned results of 4-7-4 on the day but were ultimately pipped for second place overall by 'Venueswold.com' who bloomed late in the event to post a 2-10-1 to lead 'Carpe Diem' by a single point and push them into 3rd place. 'Lofly' finished in 4th place, with Gold Digger in 5th. Local boat 'Strictly Business' with Eoin Leahy, Donnie Heragahty and Alex Leech won the Silver Fleet in 9th position overall.

SB20 Prizes galore – and several with a local flavour

With a strong and growing SB20 fleet in place in LRYC, tired travellers departed reluctantly from their warm glow on Sunday afternoon having experienced a truly special event. All the organisers can be proud of their achievements – and even slightly afraid that they might be invited to repeat it all over again for many years to come!

As the dust settles after a great three days of racing on Lough Ree, the fleet is preparing for the season-closing event in Lough Derg YC next month. The class is in good health heading into 2022 and the SB20 worlds in Dublin Bay.

Results are here

Jerry Dowling's SB20 from the Royal Irish Yacht Club continued his overnight lead in the nine-boat class Southern Championships to win overall at Royal Cork Yacht Club from the National Yacht Club's Philip Doran.

Aidan McSweeney's Gold Digger from the host club was third. 

Four of the sportsboats travelled from Dun Laoghaire Harbour (the venue for the 2022 World Championships) and two from Lough Ree for the weekend event in Cork Harbour, but the top boat Ted skippered by Michael O'Connor did not compete.

Results are here 

SB20 Southern Championships Photo Gallery By Bob Bateman 

Jerry Dowling's SB20 from the Royal Irish Yacht Club leads a nine-boat class Southern Championships at Royal Cork Yacht Club from Aidan McSweeney's host club entry, Gold Digger. 

Four of the sportsboats have travelled from Dun Laoghaire Harbour (the venue for the 2022 World Championships) and two from Lough Ree for the weekend event in Cork Harbour, but the top boat Ted skippered by Michael O'Connor is not competing.

In third place is Dowling's clubmates, Colin Galavan and Richard Hayes in Carpe Diem.

Racing continues today.

Results are here

There is a hectic weekend ahead in Cork Harbour with four events scheduled.

Cobh People's Regatta, the 1720 National Championships, the SB20 Southerns and the National 18's Lowflo Trophy are to be sailed.

Cobh People's Regatta will be held at Cove Sailing Club with racing for cruisers and dinghies. The packed schedule includes a commemorative event for the revived Rankin dinghy fleet on Saturday, for which the First Gun is at 1245.

Cruisers racing for the Titanic Trophy on Friday night are the first regatta event, with First Gun at 7 p.m. The Rankin dinghies will begin the racing on Saturday with their commemorative event for the Rankin Brothers Cup.

This will be followed by the Optimist Spit Bank Challenge starting at 1300 and followed by the Fast Dinghies fleet racing at 1330 and the Lower Handicap Dinghies at 1400. Cruiser Racing involving other harbour clubs will be on Sunday, with First Gun at 1330.

National 18's are racing for the Lowflo Trophy at Royal Cork Yacht Club Photo: Bob Bateman

As Afloat reported previously, the 1720 National Championships, organised by the RCYC and the Sportsboat Class Association, start this Friday afternoon with two races. Four are scheduled for Saturday and three on Sunday.

The SB20s, also to be raced out of the Crosshaven club, have three races planned for Saturday and the same number on Sunday.

Colin Galavan and Richard Hayes from the Royal Irish Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire are sailing their SB20 Carpe Diem in the Southern class Championships at Royal Cork