When the Royal Cork Yacht Club unveiled the fresh concept of the Tony Castro-designed 1720 Sportsboat back in 1994, one of the tongue-in-cheek suggestions was that finance in developing the class could be through some grant scheme for Job Creation, as it was envisaged that each of these 26ft boats would be raced by a crew of five, and this was something which could surely be monetised.

Thus it means that any club hosting an event for this currently regenerating class can expect a good turnout of hungry and thirsty enthusiasts even when there's a modest entry list. And with a healthy entry of 15 boats sweeping into Howth on Friday for their BNRG-sponsored Eastern Championship, the pandemic-modified HYC hospitality machine was delighted to find that around a hundred extra consumers were grafted on to a home customer base which is already increasing with every race as people adjust to the new possibilities.

BNRG (David Maguire) heading out of Howth Harbour on Saturday morning with all the promise of an idyllic day of sea breeze racing. Photo: Annraoi Blaney

In short, in addition to boats in club racing and the developing Fingal Series for cruiser-racers, it meant that in Saturday's sunshine the joint was jumping – in socially-distanced style, of course. And in all, for the 1720s - in addition to three boats from the host club - nine other clubs were represented. Their geographical spread went halfway round the coast of Ireland, starting from Skerries (David Love with Mini Apple), and finishing with Galway Bay (Aodhan FitzGerald with After Midnight).

Western entry – Aodhan FitzGerald and his crew from Galway Bay SC with After Midnight find that the "soft" east coast can serve up its own cliffs with features like the gannet-laden Stack at Ireland's Eye off Howth. Photo: Annraoi Blaney

The breeze firming in to provide a neat start for an entry list that came from ten very diverse clubs. Photo: Annraoi Blaney  

It tells us much about the ports which are hitching themselves to the accelerating 1720 train that the other clubs were Royal Irish, Royal St George and Irish National SC from Dun Laoghaire, Arklow SC, Wexford Harbour Boat & Tennis Club, Waterford Harbour SC (Dunmore East), Royal Cork YC, and Baltimore SC, whose Rob O'Leary is the defending overall 1720 champion.

The two days of racing both provided easterly winds, but of very different type. Saturday's was a strongly sunlit-strengthened sea breeze of a sparkling type which we'd thought had almost become extinct for all the talk of global warming, whereas Sunday's was an eventually rain-bearing grey wind which showed that normal service had been resumed, but both days provided super racing nevertheless.

"Blue days at sea" – summertime for the 1720s off the coast of Fingal. Photo: Annraoi Blaney

Action stations! If the 1720s were provided with neat furlers for their jibs, it might lead to job losses in a vulnerable sector of the maritime workforce………Photo: Annraoi Blaney

And everything seemed to be going to plan with the first race, as the winner was the sponsor' own boat, BNRG sailed by David Maguire of Howth. But then for those following the leaderboard, a mystery of sorts emerged, as the remaining five races were won by some boat called Atara, registered as raced by the Mc Bearla clan under the Howth YC colours.

The battle lines are drawn – Atara emerging ahead of Wet & Ready. Photo: Annraoi Blaney

We got Poirot on the job, and he came up with the info that McBearla is the Irish name for anyone called English, and the last time the name Atara figured in really big headlines in Irish sailing was when John Storey's Farr 43 of that name was overall winner for Ireland of the 1991 Sydney-Hobart Race, with promising young fellows like Harold Cudmore and Gordon Maguire on the strength.

The ancestral and direct links in the current 1720 class to that giddy time when Ireland also won the Southern Cross Series would take for ever to detail, but sufficient to say that the McBearlas on Atara are Ross McDonald and Aoife English on Rope Dock, and after they'd won the second race there was no stopping them.

Neck and neck for the new Easterns Champion Atara (aka Rope Dock) and Wet & Ready. Photo: Annraoi Blaney

Dan O'Grady, a personal veteran of that 1991 Australia campaign, managed to keep ahead of Rob O'Leary for the second overall, but it was close enough with the Baltimore skipper comfortably third overall by the finish, and thereafter in the body of the fleet there was enough variety in the scorelines to suggest that the 1720s in their new wave are on a healthy learning curve.

Full details here

Sportboats have started to arrive in Howth Yacht Club for the BNRG sponsored 1720 Eastern Championships to be hosted by the club this weekend.

The event has 15 confirmed entries with teams from Dublin, Cork, Galway and Northern Ireland. Seven races will be sailed over Saturday and Sunday, and racing is expected to be tight in this one design sportsboat fleet. 

Under strict class rules, teams must weigh in before starting to ensure they do not exceed the maximum weight of 450 kg. This means that crews are limited to between five and six on each boat.

As Afloat previously reported, as the first open event for the class, this year is expected to be exciting as the teams have been waiting to get the season started for some time.

'Dutch Gold' is Favourite for 1720 Honours

Rob O'Leary on Dutch Gold is tipped as event favourite but there are also a number of Olympians and National Champions in the fleet aiming to give the current Champion a run for his money. Local Howth talent includes Dan O'Grady's Wet N'Ready, Ross McDonald on Altara and David Maguire helming BNRG. This trio will hope that a little local knowledge may give them the edge.

A training event is scheduled for 2 pm on Friday, when most of the fleet is expected to test their starts against one another. With such tight racing expected and the first race for some time, there may be some close encounters.

Event sponsor BNRG is an Irish renewable energy company that has been building solar projects globally for over 14 years.

Local favourites at the first 1720 event of the year, the sportsboat Eastern Championships, will be “Atara” helmed by Howth Yacht Club's Ross McDonald as well as “Wet N Ready” helmed by another Howth ace, Dan O’Grady.

Despite the local challenge, however, it is hard to deny that the overall favourite going into the expected 15-boat event on July 10/11 will be “Dutch Gold” helmed by Rob O’Leary. As Afloat reported, O'Leary won all three of last seasons 1720 events.

The season was meant to start in May at the Sportsboat Cup in Dun Laoghaire but that was unfortunately postponed due to COVID as was the Class European Championships at Waterford Harbour in June that will now sail in September.

There is a plan for an informal 1720 training session on Friday, July 9th preceding the event, although final details are yet to be confirmed.

Download the Notice of Race below.

In the wake of government pandemic easing announcements last Friday, one of the first major one-design championships of the sailing season has been postponed with the news that the 1720 European Championships scheduled for Waterford Harbour Sailing Club on June 4th has moved to September. 

Dunmore East Harbour was scheduled to host up to 30 1720 sportsboats from June 4th-6th, according to the club's Cruiser Captain Julian Hughes. 

The government announcement permits training for sport in May but no competition until after June 7th. 

In a statement released on social media last night, 1720 class captain Dave Love said "after careful consideration of the latest government announcement and discussion with all stakeholders, the decision has been made to postpone the 1720 European Championships in WHSC from the June bank holiday weekend to later in the summer". 

The new date for the European Championships is 23-25 September.

Love also published revised dates for the remainder of the season

1720 class revised dates for 2021

• Baltimore Cup - 31 July to 1 August - Baltimore SC - club event racing Saturday to Sunday
• National Championships - 13-15 August - RCYC - racing Friday to Sunday
• Europeans Championships - 23-25 September - racing Thursday to Saturday

The 1720 Sportboat class starts its 2021 season next May in conjunction with the Royal Irish Yacht Club's Dún Laoghaire Cup Regatta on Dublin Bay.

As Afloat previously reported, next up for the Sportboat class is the European Championships on the June Bank Holiday weekend at Dunmore East Sailing Club.

The fleet stays on the south coast for its final two events of 2021 with the Baltimore Cup being held in West Cork on July 31st. 1720 National Champion Rob O'Leary will defend his title at Royal Cork in Cork Harbour on 26th September. 

1720 Sportboat 2021 Fixtures

• Eastern Championships, in conjunction with the Dún Laoghaire Cup, 15th-16th May, RIYC, Dún Laoghaire;
• European Championships, June Bank Holiday Weekend (exact days TBC), Waterford Harbour Sailing Club, Dunmore East;
• Baltimore Cup, August Bank Holiday Weekend (31st July & 1st August), a club event being run by Baltimore Sailing Club;
• National Championships, 24th-26th September, RCYC, Crosshaven.

The 1720 sportsboat European Championships will be hosted on the Irish South Coast in 2021. The fleet will muster at Waterford Harbour Sailing Club after the disappointment of the cancellation of its 2020 event at Royal Cork Yacht Club due to the pandemic.

Dunmore East Harbour will host up to 30 1720s from June 4th-6th, according to the club's Cruiser Captain Julian Hughes. 

As regular Afloat readers know, Robert O'Leary and the Dutch Gold crew completed a hat trick of wins at the Munster Championships, Baltimore Cup and the Southern Championships this year in Cork Harbour, so he is the form boat heading into the 2021 season highlight on the Copper Coast.

Five race wins from eight races sailed at the 1720 Munster Championships gave overall victory to Dutch Gold skippered by Robert O'Leary sailing with his brother, Peter O'Leary, a double Olympic Star keelboat helmsman, as part of the Baltimore Sailing Club winning crew. 

The win completes a hat trick of wins for the Dutch Gold crew after victory also at the Baltimore Cup and the Southern Championships.

Second was the brother's father, Anthony, sailing with a third son, Nicholas, aboard the Royal Yacht Club entry, Antix. 

Third overall in the ten boat fleet was Dave Love's entry Mini Apple skippered by Sam Hunt.

The leaderboard of the 1720 Munster Championships hosted jointly by Monkstown and Baltimore Sailing Clubs has a familiar look to it with Robert O'Leary's crew in Dutch Gold on top after four races sailed yesterday.

O'Leary, who has won both Baltimore Cup and Southern Championship honours this season, now leads by two points from his father Anthony and brother Nicholas in second place sailing Antix. Nine points back in third place is Mia Murphy's Aquatack. 

Anthony O'Leary's Antix is lying second at the 1720 Munsters in Cork Harbour Photo: Bob Bateman

It's a smaller fleet in Cork Harbour after what was meant to be the national championships was forced to change both its race track and event title due to COVID-restrictions.

Dublin boats did not travel in line with restrictions and as a result, the fleet is ten boats as opposed to the 14 that raced for Southern honours, also in Cork Harbour, in August. 

Racing continues today.

Racing is taking place in Cork Harbour instead of the originally planned Cork Harbour Photo: Deirdre Horgan

1720 Munsters 2020 at Monkstown and Baltimore Sailing Clubs (Sailed: 4, Discards: 0, To count: 4, Entries: 10)

1720 Sportsboats Day One Photo Gallery by Bob Bateman Here!

This weekend's 1720 National Championships are to be downgraded to a Munster Championships in the wake of the recent government announcements that appeal to Dubliners not to travel outside the county.

As Afloat reported previously, the Championships had already moved from its original venue at Baltimore in West Cork over COVID and now the event will no longer be a 'nationals'. 

The event due to be held now at Monkstown Bay Sailing Club in Cork Harbour will be amended to a two-day format on Saturday 26th & Sun 27th September.

Robert O'Leary has taken victories in August's 1720 Baltimore Cup and more recently in this month's Southern Championships, so if he and his Baltimore Crew can pull off another win, it looks like they will be unique among Ireland's one-design classes by being crowned 'Southern' and 'Munster' champions in the same season!

There is a plan for the 1720 class to say in Cork Harbour after the weekend and continue to race at Royal Cork Yacht Club's AIB Autumn League, as Afloat reported earlier here.

Robert O'Leary will be going for a hat-trick of 2020 1720 sportsboats victories later this month but not as originally scheduled, as the 1720 National Championships moves venue from Baltimore Sailing Club in West Cork to Monkstown Bay Sailing Club in Cork Harbour. 

O'Leary won the 2020 Baltimore Cup a month ago and in the last weekend of August he won the Southern Championships at Royal Cork Yacht Club, so he and his Dutch Gold crew will quite rightly see the defence of the 1720 title as a crowning glory of the 2020 season.

However, he won't have it all his own way with a potent Ross McDonald crew of Howth biting at his heels. McDonald lost on countback at the Cup and was tied on points overnight after day one of the Southerns. 

In a notice to competitors issued this month, Baltimore's Committee told competitors that 'after reviewing the current government guidelines and seeking guidance from the local businesses in Baltimore, we as a committee feel that we cannot provide the same level of racing and entertainment as experienced in the Baltimore Cup this year'.

1720s return to Cork Harbour on September 25th Photo: Bob Bateman

The West Cork club hopes to welcome the fleet back to Baltimore in 2021.

After discussions with Monkstown Bay Sailing Club, the 1720s have agreed to run the event in Cork Harbour on the same dates - 25th, 26th, 27th September 2020.

It will be a combined effort between the two clubs as both are of the opinion that the event should not be cancelled this year provided it can run it in line with the Covid-19 government guidelines.

It is the intention to launch, berth and recover boats in the Crosshaven River, with the primary race area being South East of the Harbour.