#F18 – Adrian Allen and Barry Swanston from Ballyholme Yacht Club on Belfast Lough competed last week at the F18 Worlds in Marina di Grosseto on the west coast of Tuscany, Italy. They travelled as top ranking boat in Ireland with great expectations but little experience recently of large start lines and competing against large numbers of other F18 catamarans. Ballyholme Yacht Club will host the 2014 World Championship in July 2014, and the team plus Mark Mackey, Rear Commodore at Ballyholme Yacht Club, were looking at every detail of the organisation, planning for this huge event next year.

F18 catamarans are a level formula of dinghy catamarans bringing together up to 10 different makes and designs sailed by a number of profession teams including Olympian (silver and bronze medallist) and America's Cup helmsman Mitch Booth, the recent Vendee Globe winner Francois Gabart (who finished here in 4th) and many other world champions. The fleet is dominated by the French, German, Dutch and Italian fleets through there were 26 countries competing with a large number from South America and Australia and a first entrant from Oman who have started their own professional team in a bid to host the event in several years and also to use sailing to promote female equality. The fleets are sailed by male teams - young and old, female teams and mixed crews with a minimum weight for the larger sail plan or a lighter weight with a smaller jib and spinnaker.

180 boats were expected although a few may not have got through the Mont Blanc tunnel and only 161 arrived. Most were through qualification in their various countries though the event was eventually opened out and a number of extra English teams took the opportunity to join the fun. Races were to be sailed over 5 days with the plan for 2 days of qualification before the fleet was split into gold and silver fleets with 3 races per day.

After three days of boat measurement and scrutiny at the yacht club and a practice race, the competitors got together on Sunday evening for the opening ceremony with a flag procession through the town enthusiastically applauded by hundreds if not thousands of local spectators to the Marina. The other Irish team's - Dermot and Siobhan - daughter Emma took the mantle of carrying the Irish flag although by the end Barry had to take over and carried it into the arena. Speehes followed from the town mayor, main sponsors - Bank of Maremma and a local wine supplier owned by Ernesto Bertarelli's sister in law, many other dignateries and the Compagnia della Vela Grosseto yacht club "president" Marco Borioni.

Racing was held close to the shore of Marina di Grosseto so that spectators could get a great view of the action. The wind continually shifted throughout the week with an offshore breeze competing against the sea breeze and the first day got off to a slow start with racing postponed at the start due to competitors getting to grips with getting afloat on a sandy beach. Racing at Marina di Grosseto ensures warm weather, mainly great breeze of 15 knots or more, sunshine but also fantastic thunderstorms and lightning at 5 o'clock for a couple of days every two weeks which clashed with the start of the competition, and only allowed 1 race on the first day, 3 on the second and qualifying finally finished with 2 races on the third day. By then the Irish boats had realised how difficult mixing with the professionals was, and Adrian had also found that a leak in his boat was letting in water meaning that good starts were difficult to maintain by the end.

The final series started on Thursday with 4 races sailed. At the end of the first day, recent French champion Billy Besson had moved into the lead with Hugh Styles close behind. Another favourite Mishca Heemskerk had to retire from race 3 ending his hopes even though he won the final race. On Thursday night, the team from Ballyholme YC supported by Alison Stobie from North Down Borough Council held a very successful launch of the 2014 event at the yacht club with free T shirts for the competitors, visitors packs, DVD's and more. Many of the competitors left their email addresses for further details of Bangor 2014. Marina di Grosseto was suddenly covered in people wearing the new 2014F18Worlds logo and NDBC Tourism logo on the reverse side.

On the final day the wind dropped for the first time to 5-10 knots and sometimes lighter. Having dominated Thursday, the French sailor began today at the top of the standings and then proved more than capable of not only controlling his closest rival Hugh Styles in the final three Formula 18 World Championship races but also of taking home one win and one second position, which meant he barely gave the Englishman an inch. This was the perfect ending for the French duo who take home the title after a week that saw them go from strength to strength from day one and ending on 26 points. That was a good 19 points less than Hugh Styles and Richard Mason (45 points) who, nonetheless, proved their worth on the water by keeping the pressure on the French duo until the very last tack. This earned the Brits a very well deserved silver medal which they made their own with a very steady series of good results.

Mitch Booth and his son Jordi also showed the same kind of consistency in their performances in the final two days' sailing. After a less than brilliant start in the qualifiers, which they finished in seventh position, the father and son team delivered a string of results that saw them move all the way up to the third step of the podium on last day of racing with a total of 61 points. An enormously satisfying achievement for Mitch and 16 year old Jordi who was competing in his first international event.

The Silver fleet, however, was very much an Italian-dominated affair with Vaccari/Meoli taking victory. Mitch and Jordi Booth also won the Masters category while Taylor Reiss and Matthew Whitehead (USA 888) won the Youth and Moana Vaireaux and Manon Audinet (FRA 33) the Mixed.

The Silver fleet got only 2 races on the final day after a number of general recalls across all starts. Unfortunately Adrian and Barry, who had climbed the results table on Thursday, came unstuck when in 10th place when their spinnaker halyard strop broke and they had to retire to the beach for repairs. Both Irish boats finished the last race together with Adrian and Barry finishing 31st and Dermot and Siobhan 65th. Our new Italian friend and great character Manuel Vaccari and his crew Allesandro Meoli won the Silver fleet overall.

The prize giving was held in the marquee at the end of racing with lots of champagne Formula 1 style. International F18 president Olivier Bovyn thanked the local club's volunteers and the International race officers and jury for their great organisation. Compagnia della Vella is only 7 years old as a yacht club and will host the RS Feva worlds the week after the F18's which is incredible, especially as the current management board has only been in place for 3 years. The premises were only usable on the bottom floor which finished refitting 3 months ago. They do have the benefit of a very large car park and beach on which to keep the boats.

Much to the delight of everyone involved in working on the event, the Formula 18 Worlds is already looking forward to the next edition in Ireland in 2014. The organisers, in fact, came to the Maremma for the symbolic passing of the baton between the Compagnia della Vela Grosseto, represented by president Marco Borioni, and Ballyholme Yacht Club represented by Rear Commodore Mark Mackey.

Many thanks were given by Mark Mackey for the very friendly welcome he and the Irish team had received in Marina di Grossto and the hospitality shown especially on the final day when Marco entertained them all day on his rib and eventually on the race committee boat during the final race.

Multiple Irish National Champion Gareth Flannigan is one of the leading contenders for the Laser Masters title when it is sailed on his home waters of Ballyholme Yacht Club in three weeks time (25/26th May).

Visitors from Scotland and England are swelling the fleet at Ballyholme to over 50 entries.

Four entries leave for warm weather training in Lake Garda this weekend, a sign of how competitive Laser sailing is in Ireland right now.

#GP14–Ballyholme Yacht Club on Belfast Lough will host the Irish GP14 Championships on July 21st and 22nd.

In 2014, the GP14 World Championships come to Northern Ireland for the first time in many years, so next month's  CraftInsure Irish Championship represents a an ideal way for visitors to complete some early research into local sailing.

The launch for the event was held in Belfast on Sunday 10th June beside the Lagan. The local GP14's held a short event on the river to salute Alastair Duffin for 50 years of building wooden boats (mainly GP14's) in East Belfast. Alistair Duffin's superb dinghies are sailed across the world. In the days of fibre glass boats, a wooden Duffin hull currently holds the World title.

Ballyholme Yacht Club regularly holds Regional, National and International Championships in many dinghy classes with club member Robin Gray an RYA NI Regional Race Management Coordinator.

Ballyholme YC has a long history in GP14s. Bill Whisker and Jimmy McKee from Ballyholme YC won the GP14 World Championships in Australia in the 1970 and Burton Allen won the GP14 British National Championship.

It is hard to believe that Easter is upon us and that another BYC Stena Line Icebreaker winter series is over. Once again it was a fantastic series for those competitors who took part with the full range of weather conditions and cracking racing. It would not have been possible to race without the help of all the volunteers who gave up their spare time on Sundays (and other days as well) to make this event so successful. The guys and girls who go out to provide rescue, often in freezing conditions; the Crew of the Start boat; the battery teams and race officers; the results team, and everyone else who supports..... a big thank you from everyone who took part. Results are available to download as a pdf below.

Last Sunday was a great sailing day with blue skies and moderate wind. There was a good turnout for the last race of the series with lots of different battles going on in all the fleets and of course prizes and honour at stake!!!

In the Laser Standard fleet there was, really, only going to be one winner. Gareth Flannigan had the series wrapped up well before the end but he kept focused and finished 3rd on the day which gave him the second series win. Colin Leonard made a welcome return to the racing and recorded first place last week sailing a faultless race. Chris Boyd continued his good form and was second with Gareth in 3rd. David Fletcher and Brian Spence were just behind in 4th and 5th with Trevor Patterson having his best result ever in the Icebreaker series in 6th place. (another to benefit from Bob's coaching sessions!)

That meant Gareth Flannigan was the winner of the second series with Chris Boyd in second and Hammy Baker in third.

The overall results for both Part A & B for the lasers were Gareth Flannigan in first, Chris Boyd second and David Fletcher third.

In the silver fleet Robin Moran finished 10th on Sunday which was enough to secure him first place in the Sliver Fleet. David Wilson didn't have his best afternoon and couldn't put much pressure on him so he finished 2nd overall. Paddy Brow got over excited at the start in his quest to catch Robin and was black flagged so he dropped back to 3rd overall in the silver fleet.

The Bronze fleet was won by Robert Kirk who finished 24th on Sunday but had enough of a cushion to protect his lead. Francis Kennedy was 2nd with Chris Escott in 3rd.

In the radials Suzanne Flannigan had her best race in this fleet to date and took the honours with Ryan Glynn in 2nd and Brian Bibby in 3rd. The second series was won by Ryan Glynn with Tim Brow in 2nd place and Jessica Rutherford in 3rd place.

The overall results for the Radial were 1st Ryan Glynn, 2nd Brian Bibby, 3rd Chris Eames.

The Topper fleet has a huge number of entrants although due to other commitments such as NI Squad training, many sailors couldn't attend all events. In the end, a new entrant Ben Martin managed to win Part 2 with a first in the final race - this is his first full season racing, having come from the BYC "Race Squad" last summer. Ben also managed second in the overall series with Tom Purdon winning with consistent finishes in both series, and Mark McDonough third.

The large dinghy fleet was dominated by RS400's in Part 2 filling the top 4 places with Mark McAllister from RNIYC coming first from BYC's Robin Flannigan, and Liam Donnelly. Also of note, BYC's Bob Espey (brother of Olympic hopeful Laser sailor James) who only purchased a RS400 half way through the series and has had to sail with a broken mast, finished off the last five races with two thirds and two firsts. The summer season will certainly be competitive. Wic McCready won the overall series in his K1 dinghy/keelboat.

In the multihull class, Adrian Allen showed his continued form winning Part 2 and the Overall series.

Ballyholme YC would like to thank StenaLine for their sponsorship of the event, and all the visiting competitors from clubs throughout Northern Ireland - 120 boats across 6 fleets and 22 races from the start of October until end March. The summer will seem much quieter in comparison.

As a post-script, Gareth Flannigan heads to the Laser Munsters this weekend with many other BYC members. Our next racing is the Dennis Finlay Memorial Trophy on 21st April for Lasers, and Opening Day is the following Saturday with a RUYC start line.

Garth Maxwell, Mark Mackey

#ICEBREAKER – Last Sunday saw the conclusion of Part 1 of this year's Ballyholme Yacht Club "StenaLine" Icebreaker series. The event has been a great success so far with only 2 weekends un-sailable due to weather. The numbers have been huge with 44 Laser standards, 15 laser radials, 7 laser 4.7's and 28 Toppers as well as the large dinghy and multihull fleets - all regularly in contention. Report by Garth Maxwell and Rory Flannigan.

After a couple of windy races, the breeze died down over last weekend. In fact, we could have done with a bit more wind to keep active and warm. It was still a great days racing with the light westerly breeze shifting about which kept everyone on their toes.

The Laser fleet were a bit twitchy at the start and even with the "standard" black flag start a number of competitors were too keen to get an early advantage. Luckily our Race Officer Robin Gray couldn't identify the numbers so we were all brought back and given a second life. Behaviour improved for the next start and everyone got away unscathed. The first beat from the North East mark to the north West was tricky as the wind had dropped slightly and everyone was trying to work out which side of the course would be favoured. Keith storey grabbed the headlines as he was 2nd to the windward mark and maintained his good position through out the race. Keith eventually finished 5th overall which was a PB for him in this series. Gareth Flannigan Colin Leonard and David Fletcher were fighting it out for the overall title but Chris Boyd sailed the last beat in fine style to record his first bullet of the series. David Fletcher was 2nd with Gareth 3rd and Colin 4th on the day. So the overall winner of part A was Gareth Flannigan who finished 5 points clear of Colin Leonard. David Fletcher was 3rd with John Simms in 4th. Gareth was a worthy winner with 5 firsts in the series. He was pushed all the way by both Colin and David who put together a fine series.

The Silver fleet was won by Cavan Fynes who actually didn't need to sail in the last race to win. Cavan had some very strong finishes and this now moves him to the gold fleet for Part 2. Mike Kimber also sailed a very consistent series and was only 4 points behind Cavan. Trevor Patterson was 3rd in the silver fleet another 2 points behind Mike.

The Bronze fleet was won in fine style by Des Magee. Des finished 20th last Sunday and this was enough for him to keep ahead of Stephen Dobbs and Robert Kirk. The bronze fleet was highly competitive and if some guys had not had so many DNCs the results would have looked much different!!

The Radial fleet was missing a few of the key players. Ryan Glynn sailed well to get his second bullet in a row with Suzanne Flannigan recording her best result of the season in the radial in 2nd place.Sarah Eames was 3rd and Jennifer Whittaker in 4th. So it really was a day for the girls in this fleet. Chris Eames had done enough to win overall with Ryan Glyn pushing him really close in 2nd. Brian Bibby held on to take 3rd place from Sam Purdon.

There were more 4.7s on the water this week with Tim Brow getting first place, Michael Lewis in 2nd and Lucy Robinson getting 3rd. Craig Campbell had done enough to win but only by a point from Michael with Tim Brow in 3rd and Lucy Robinson in 4th overall and first girl in this fleet.

There were 10 boats afloat in the Topper Fleet this week, although we now have had . From the start there was closely fought action with Sam Wilkinson, Tom Purdon and Liam Glynn and Ben Martin fighting it out for the the top three places. Ben Martin showed the rest of the fleet how it's done by keeping the National Squad members on their feet! Weather suited the Toppers and they had a good clean sail round the course.

Overall, at the end of the first half of the icebreaker, Mark McDonough is 3rd, Liam Glynn is 2nd and in 1st place and winner of the Stena Line prize is Tom Purdon!

The Large Dinghy class was down on numbers this week. It was great to see the regulars out and about! Wic McCready got round the course so fast that he nearly finished with the multihulls! Our Rescue Captain, Rob Milligan, also had a terrific race! At the start all boats started with a 'country mile' as our race officer Robin Gray, would say. Over all, Wic McCready is leading the Large Dinghy Fleet at the end of this season.

The Multihull fleet has a nice wee jolt round the course with Adrian Allen having an excellent tack right on the starting line as the gun roared. It was good to see three boats out in this fleet. Maybe next season we will see more as its a fleet we all love to watch. Adrian Allen won this season and won the Stena Line prize.

A huge thanks goes to the Battery Hens and the Battery Rooster Jimmy McKee for all their hard work this half of the ice breaker! They have been excellent up in the battery, recording the results of the biggest sailing fleet in Northern Ireland.

We would further like to thank the BYC Rescue team, Rory Flannigan, Kyle Dougan, Tim Addy and Garvin Halliwell along with their many various weekly assistants such as Mia Taylor, Ive, Aiden Pounder, Dave Mullen. You have all been amazing!

The series ended with our traditional Icebreaker dinner at Ballyholme YC on Sunday night with the prize giving and Christmas fare.

We look forward to Part 2 of the series which starts on 29th January 2012 and are hoping to attract the growing RS400 fleet down from RNIYC (Cultra) for more fantastic racing. A few of our Masters have been missing in the Laser Standard fleet so hopefully we can get over 50 entries by the end.

Part 1 Winners:

Laser Standard - Gareth Flannigan BYC

Laser Silver Fleet - Cavan Fyans BYC

Laser Bronze - Stephen Magee BYC

Laser Radial - Chris Eames BYC

Laser 4.7 - Craig Campbell RNIYC

Small Dinghy/ Topper - Tom Purdon SLYC

Large Dinghy - Wiclif McCready BYC

Multihull - Adrian Allen BYC

In the Standard Rig, Ronan Wallace (Wexford B & TC) took the title from Robert Espey (Ballyholme YC) and Stpehen Mc Lernon (Cushedall SC).

Annalise Murphy (National YC) won the Radial Championships from Philip Doran (Courtown SC) and Tiffany Brien (Ballyholme YC).

Annalise won 4 of the 8 races sailed including all three in the 16-20 knot breeze on Saturday. The National YC sailor becomes the first female sailor to take the Laser Radial Irish National title.

The 4.7 rig was won by John Flynn (Dungarvan SC) from Colm O Regan (Kinsale YC) and Stephen Duke (Courtown SC). The first girl in the 4.7 was Georgina Corbett (LDYC/NYC).

The Irish Multihull Championships visit Ballyholme for the bank holiday weekend, and they'll be going the distance, with the even stretching across three days and a variety of formats.

Saturday and Sunday will feature three races each, which won't surprise many, but Monday is a passage race, covering somewhere between 25-40 miles, which will pose a fresh challenge to the fleet.

Catamaran fleets around the world are renowned for being innovators in small boat racing, with the likes of the Worrell 1000, a 1000-mile beach cat race in the US and the Archipelago Raid in the Scandinavian Islands.

Socially it will also have a packed agenda starting with a welcoming family night on the Friday, South African braai barbeques and music.

Full details on the Ballyholme YC website, HERE. 

In the late 19th century several attempts were made to start a second yacht club in Bangor. Royal Ulster Yacht Club had been founded in 1866, membership there limited to the wealthy upper class, many of whom came from outside Bangor. Local people of more limited means, desiring a club for local enthusiasts, set up Bangor Bay Sailing Club, then Bangor Corinthian Sailing Club and finally, in 1900 formed Ballyholme Sailing Club (BSC) and commenced racing in 1901. A Clubhouse was built which stands today as the Kingsland Tennis Pavilion. Sadly, the Club had to close when World War I began as members went to serve in the war, the Clubhouse and its grounds passing into the hands of the local Council.

In 1919, after a regatta at Ballyholme, members of the original BSC decided to revive their club and so it was, in 1920, Ballyholme Yacht Club evolved and thus it has been known to the present day. A wooden clubhouse measuring 18' x 5' was built, consisting of a locker room and battery, expanding in 1938 to include a lounge and basic galley the cost being £100. Membership in 1938 was approximately 170 and the subscription income £80. World War II interrupted further development but the Club still remained active, 1940 being the only year in which no racing was held.

The Club continued to flourish in the post-war years and in 1956 a new Clubhouse (now the Cadet Room) was built at a cost of £2,800 which was, for this era, a state of the art building. The old wooden Clubhouse was demolished in 1963 being replaced by the two-storey building that now includes the office, the lounge and ladies' toilets. In 1971, after long and controversial debate, a bar was opened for the first time, prior to this the Club was 'dry' except for rare occasions. Membership had by now passed the one thousand mark and there was further development for the Club when the North Dinghy Park and slip was completed in 1974/75; the single storey section which houses the Jubilee Room, galley, gents' changing room and showers was completed in 1977. The completion of the Rescue and Training Building in 1996 is the most recent stage in the development of the Club.

Initially racing took place in various handicap classes, then one-design classes appeared; the members built Lake class boats and acquired Waverleys from their original home in Whitehead. Seabirds, Snipes and others came and went, then in 1938 members aspiring to have their own individual one-design class, prompted the building of the Ballyholme One-Design Class. Nine boats were built in Scotland for £80 each and seven of this class are still racing today. The class officially changed its name to the Ballyholme Bay Class in 1948. 

Ballyholme Yacht Club, Seacliff Road, Bangor, Co. Down BT20 5HT. Tel:028 9145 4768. Email: [email protected]

(Details courtesy of Ballyholme Yacht Club)