Dublin Bay Sailing Club has issued a revised schedule for its much anticipated 2020 season. Commodore Jonathan Nicholson says his committee has considered many factors in putting the programme together and reports as follows:

Dinghy Racing

Dinghy racing commences in phase 3, for single handed or boats crewed by household units. The first race will be on Tuesday the 30th of June and will take place in the harbour. The Water Wags may follow on the 1st of July, again for household units. Racing on Saturday will also be available for all dinghy classes including Water Wags commencing on the 4th of July, who meet the criteria described above.

Due to the restrictions currently in place, and likely to be in place for at least phase 3, there will be reduced crews on our committee boats and ribs.

Cruiser and Keelboats

Racing for the cruiser and keelboat classes commences in phase 4, on Tuesday the 21st, Thursday the 24th and Saturday the 26th of July. The Tuesday programme has been significantly extended to provide a complete schedule for all boats akin to the programme run from a committee boat on Thursday nights. The season has also been lengthened, adding two weeks to both the mid-week and weekend series.

Depending upon the guidance from Irish Sailing, a mini-series for cruiser and keelboat classes with restricted crew numbers not counting for overall series points, may be run in phase 3 (between the 30th of June and the 20th of July). for the cruiser and keelboat classes with restricted crew numbers. Clarity will be provided when possible.

In recognition of the extraordinary circumstances that we all now face, and the somewhat condensed programme that we are planning, we have reduced the boat entry fee. The new schedule of fees can be found here and you can enter here. I would like to remind you all that DBSC is a club of members and is run by volunteers and despite the delayed start to our racing programme this season, we are endeavouring to provide you with the maximum number of high-quality races, all run from committee boats with experienced and highly qualified race officers and race management teams.

I would like to thank all those who have entered to date. The club needs the support of its members with the majority our income coming from boat entry and membership fees. As mentioned above we have reduced the boat entry fee recognising theses extraordinary times and condensed schedule, while considering that we have a very high fixed cost base, much of which has already been committed, and some of our members will not be entering this year for obvious reasons. It is essential that the remainder of our membership enters as soon as possible. Simply put the club needs the income and clarity of the number of boats planning to race.

We will communicate directly with those who have entered to date on how the reduction will be applied.

We have calculated that we need a minimum number of boats to enter per fleet (blue, red, green and dinghy) for that fleet to be viable. Water Wags are considered separately. The decisions on fleet and class viability will be made on Thursday the 25th of June for dinghies and Thursday the 2nd of July for keelboats and cruisers.

As such only entries up to Wednesday the 24th of June and Wednesday 1st of July respectively will be considered when defining the new starting schedule and class composition. Again, please enter now.

Dublin Bay Sailing Club Club (DBSC) has laid some of its race marks on Dublin Bay in anticipation of the Summer Series getting underway next month.

As Afloat previously reported, DBSC aims to race from July 20th.

Outer guard marks and seven conical marks in the 'Northern circle area' are now laid in the Bay so, when the go-ahead for racing is given, the marks will already be in place.

This could see DBSC's first Thursday race of the season start on July 23rd and Saturday racing from July 25th, some three months later than originally scheduled due to COVID-19 restrictions.

The club is the largest yacht racing club in the country and provides yacht racing for all of Dun Laoghaire Harbour's yacht clubs, a combined fleet of over 200 boats and some 2,000 sailors or more.

Dublin Bay Sailing Club aims to race from July 20th, according to an update from DBSC Commodore Jonathan Nicholson this morning.

This could see DBSC's first Thursday race of the season start on July 23rd and Saturday racing from July 25th, some three months later than orginally scheduled due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Nicholson says 'While there is still a lack of clarity', DBSC is finalising plans to get racing going as soon as practical after the restrictions have been lifted by the government and Irish Sailing. 'The current working assumption is racing will re-commence in phase 4, which is currently scheduled for 20th of July", he says.

Club marks, as Afloat reported here, will be deployed over the next few days specifically the larger outer guard marks and seven conical marks so, when the go-ahead for racing is given, the marks will already be in place.

DBSC Entries

The club is the largest yacht racing club in the country by some distance and in order to process considerable administrative task to process the entries, the Commodre is urging those who have yet to enter to do so immediately through its online form.

Almost all of the club’s revenue comes from entry and membership fees, DBSC says it anticipates that the curtailed season will result in a substantial loss this year. Nevertheless, the committee is considering offering a rebate on the entry fees and a mechanism to facilitate this. Nicholson says any rebate of entry fees can only be calculated when there is a clear view of the Club’s results for the season.

As Irish sailing waits for guidance that yacht racing can resume under COVID-19 regulations at some point this summer, there can be no doubting the preparations of Dublin Bay Sailing Club in order to get back on the race track just as soon as it is feasible.

The country's biggest yacht racing club surveyed members at the start of the season and found overwhelming support for racing when it was safe to do so but so far the club has had to remain in postponed mode since first races for the 250-boat fleet were originally scheduled on April 25th.

Following the government roadmap announcement on May 1, DBSC says it is 'encouraged [about the prospect of racing] but needs to wait for formal guidance from Irish Sailing'.

The club has an extensive network of marks required to be laid each summer season and despite this year's postponement, DBSC is poised to get going with some of the club's latest illuminated ten foot conical marks already in the water. They're moored in a dedicated berth at Dun Laoghaire Marina and ready for deployment at a moment's notice.

Until then, racers are in holding pattern. And, As Afloat's WM Nixon remarked recently, there needs to be some patience shown. "Key officers in central organisations like Dublin Bay Sailing Club get unduly pestered by people demanding to know when real racing is going to start,when the fact is that to a considerable extent we have to make it up as we go along, for society has never dealt with a pandemic of this scale and aggression".

How many other front-line sailing administrators anywhere in the world would have noted the February announcement of the postponement of the new James Bond movie’s global premiere in London from early March 2020 away back until November, and immediately realised that this profoundly affected their own organisation’s sailing plans for 2020?

Yet Jonathan Nicholson, Commodore of the 136-year-old Dublin Bay Sailing Club, was right there.

“The people running the James Bond franchise are producing the most successful longterm film brand in the world. And in addition to the antennae of their huge fan base, their financial muscle is such that they can access research findings and semi-secret scientific and medical information, plus commercial insight, which may even be denied to national governments. Before most organisations, they knew how bad it was going to be, and acted swiftly.

So when the announcement was made, I told the DBSC committee that this suggested a completely game-changing lockdown was on the way, and we needed to start preparing ourselves and talking to other harbour stake-holders about the inevitability of a limited Dublin Bay sailing season in 2020, a truncated season like nothing that has ever been seen before outside wartime.”

Jonathan Nicholson, Commodore of Dublin Bay Sailing Club, which is possibly the largest specifically yacht racing club in the world

Jonathan Nicholson was so far ahead of the curve that for a while he was in a different orbit, though the lateral thinking he was displaying was also seen in Howth, where the Organising Committee for the Wave Regatta - scheduled for the end of May - promptly re-set it well into the Autumn on September 11th to 13th.

This was done at a time when most folk thought the basic season – both local, national and international - might yet be saved. And some clung to that optimism for a remarkably long time. Thus for the rest of us, right now is the weekend where we find we really are looking into the black abyss of the major cancellations which have blown away much of the international sailing season of 2020 around Ireland. For although it’s staged annually on the other side of the North Channel, the time-honoured Scottish Series based at Tarbert on Loch Fyne in the final UK Bank Holiday of May has always attracted a significant contingent of hardy Irish cruiser-racers.

Scottish Series racing in 2019 off Tarbert, when conditions were as varied as they are this weekend with the regatta cancelled. You could be getting sailing like this on bright blue water as the sun glints on the snow still atop the mountains of nearby Arran. Photo: Marc Turner/CCC 

Sometimes they’ve been from very distant parts of Ireland. But wherever the home ports to which they eventually return may be, over the years they’ve returned with more than their fair share of the major Scottish trophies to launch their international and national season. And even for those cruiser-racers in Ireland that don’t take on the sometimes formidable logistical challenge of a campaign on Loch Fyne with its often volatile late Spring weather, the fact of it having taken place is a major marker for the new season being properly under way.

Memories, memories – Andrew Craig with the supreme trophy at Tarbert, Monday May 27th 2019. He was to be declared the Afloat.ie “Sailor of the Month” for May 2019 on Saturday June 1st – his birthday

Its non-staging this weekend really does bring home to us the level of programme destruction which has been wreaked. For sure, we don’t have to look beyond Ireland’s shores to be aware of major cancellations whose dates have already been passed. But the fact that key fixtures such as the Irish Sailing Youth National Championship in Howth from 16th to 19th April was scrubbed didn’t seem so total, for surely there’lI be other junior events in Ireland which can be given added stature once the season gets under way in some form?

Then too, ISORA races in the Irish Sea in April and May haven’t taken place, and neither have the regular club early season sailing programmes all round our coast. However, they’re in or near Ireland, and if we can just get sailing going, we can work on substitute events of some sort, so their loss doesn’t seem as total as the Scottish void.

Toppers racing in the annual Irish Sailing Youth Nationals. When the 2020 staging at Howth for 16th to 19th April was cancelled, the Covid-19 pandemic was at its height in Ireland, but as the Youth Natinals were an in-Ireland event, it was felt that some of the competition could be subsumed into other junior events later in the year as sailing resumed

But the Scottish Series 2020 is gone, gone utterly, and gone so completely that at this stage it isn’t good for our mindset to become nostalgic about some of the heroically successful Irish campaigns through it in times past. Instead, its complete absence should be quietly noted while we focus on how best to make use of a season whose long-planned international pillar events have been blown away, yet with every passing day it seems to offer some form of a possible racing programme afloat for the home fleet.

But that is only the case provided the virus-combatting programme can continue it current steady success, though it was alarming to note this week that the relevant authorities have only just added the loss of a sense of smell or taste as important possible indicators of Covid-19 infection. The World Health Organisation has been telling us this for months, most reasonably switched-on folk have long since taken it on board, and it does make you wonder what’s going on in Ireland’s corridors of epidemological power if they’ve only just decided to go public with these very useful indicators.

Annalise Murphy on her way to securing the Silver Medal at the Rio Olympics, August 16th 2016. At times like this, everyone in Ireland is a sailor. But when regulations are being imposed to combat a pandemic, we are seen as a minority sport, and have to defend our corner and come up with our own creative solutions. 

In taking a broader view of this all, we’re reminded yet again that sailing and boat sports are still a minority activity in Ireland, even if public interest perks up no end when an Olympic medal is brought into the picture. That’s as may be, but for people who go afloat, and particularly for those who own boats or are in charge of them, there’s a feeling of square pegs being forced into round holes, of coastal regulations being drafted by officials who are rather more aware of the rules of the road ashore and the regulation of shoreside public places than they are of the realities of getting a boat around the sea, lake, river or canal.

The ideal laboratory for testing the return of sailing? With its relatively isolated location in a secured compound in the middle of a harbour at the end of a peninsula, the Howth Yacht Club marina/clubhouse complex provides a versatile controlled facility to monitor the post-pandemic resumption of sailing.

In getting things going again, Howth provides a perfect laboratory setting for the experiment, so much so that perhaps the place would be best run by clinically-qualified personnel in white coats. That’s as may be, but as the Howth Yacht Club marina/clubhouse complex is in a distinct enclosed compound isolated in the middle of a harbour which is in turn on the end of a peninsula connected to nearby Ireland only by a very narrow isthmus, it’s all a very manageable control setup.

HYC Commodore Ian Byrne is enthusiastically leading his members afloat this weekend as they pioneer a return to structured sailing, a return which will be observed by other sailing centres and monitored by the authorities in charge of the Covid-19 Lockdown-easing regulations, some of which are open to several interpretations.

The pioneer. Howth Yacht Club Commodore Ian Byrne has played the leading role in his club’s planning to resume sailing this weekend. He is seen here speaking at the ceremony when Howth YC became the Mitsubishi Motors Sailing Club of the Year 2019. Photo: John Deane

The conflicting interpretations could become most acute in Dun Laoghaire, with the largest single concentration of boats in Ireland. Whatever about the Harbour Authorities still struggling to find their way since the running of this magnificent, historic and very useful structure was transferred to Dun Laoghaire and Rathdown County Council, the four waterfront yacht clubs - and their over-arching racing authority in Dublin Bay Sailing Club - have to be exemplary in the efficiency of their administration, for they achieve a very great deal within very limited waterfront spaces.

Thus a visitor to a Dun Laoghaire club – particularly in winter – can sometimes be surprised to find that all the space around the club is filled with boats. For in addition to providing all the traditional amenities of a yacht club, the waterfront of Dun Laoghaire is so unevenly organised and lacking in standard yacht harbour commercial facilities in any profusion – for instance, MGM Boats have the harbour’s only Travelhoist – that the yacht clubs have had to develop themselves as boat storage and maintenance units in addition to providing everything else you expect in a classic yacht club from billiard championship tables through hospitable bars and well-stocked libraries and modern and extensive changing facilities to fine dining rooms.

The Royal Irish Yacht Club in summer, with dry-sailed keelboats at the east end of the extensive hard-standing area. In winter, this entire space is filled with member’s boats. Under the current Covi-19 delay, the annual lift-in scheduled for 29th March was changed to a phased process from 18th May, and normality will have resumed by the end of June.

It is all done so well that most sailors wouldn’t wish it any other way, even if the Dun Laoghaire club boat storage arrangement is akin to the sacred lawns beside the Royal Yacht Squadron in Cowes being filled with the members boats during the off-season. Yet in order to function smoothly, it all has to be run with almost military precision, and the successful implementation of annual lift-in day at each club is key to it all.

The Royal Yacht Squadron in Cowes. Were it based in Dun Laoghaire, the hallowed lawn on the right in the photo would be used for members’ boat storage during the winter. Photo Rolex.

But once this massive exercise in logistics and combined effort is completed, there will be a significant fleet of boats in Dun Laoghaire ready and keen to go sailing in mid-June, with their owners expecting that sailing to be administered with the same efficiency as their shoreside arrangements, and this is where Dublin Bay Sailing Club comes in, still thinking nimbly on its feet despite having been founded way back in 1884.

But as Commodore Jonathan Nicholson ruefully admits, with such a large organisation having to work in co-ordination with so many other clubs and bodies while keeping its own membership happy, “there may be times when we can alter course as quickly as a rally car making a handbrake turn, but at other time you’d be reminded of the supertanker which continues in the same heading for six miles after the rudder has been put across”.

He combines the wide experience of an active cruiser-racing enthusiast –he recently traded up from a vintage 34ft Dehler DB to a Frers-designed Puma 42 – with the busy mind of an innovative thinker, and no sooner had the enormity of the coming closedown become apparent than he was thinking: “This is a crisis which we mustn’t allow to go to waste”. 

Jonathan Nicholson with the Dehler DB Red Rhum demonstrating the kind of “family & household” crewing arrangements which are required under the regulations. Photo: Afloat.ie/David O’Brien

So where in a normal year all DBSC administrative energy would have been poured into being ready for racing in a programme instantly into its full-powered multi-course activity on 22nd April, Jonathan Nicholson and DBSC Honorary Secretary Chris Moore and other key officers were using the unexpected opportunity to develop much more positive relations with other harbour users, such that when some semblance of normality returns to sailing and harbour user’s generally, there’ll be a more active structure available among the “consumer” bodies to advise about what the market really needs.

As to the reality of dates, while everyone emphasises that we have to be prepared to accept that it may all change from day to day as the latest Covid-19 figures are analysed and the experience from Howth is dissected, at the moment in Dun Laoghaire the semi-official view is that there’ll be informal short-handed and household sailing in mid-June and possibly earlier, things will accelerate by 28th June at the latest, and the realistic (or should that be the most pessimistic) opinion is that full sailing will be on from July 20th.

Freebird, one of the DBSC Committee Boats, which will be healthily isolated from shore gatherings, and managed by a regulation-compatible crew. Photo: Afloat.ie

That’s what should be possible on the water, where another aspect is that health-certified crews in ISORA events may be able to complete their offshore events based on entirely on race trackers. But it’s when there’s a significant shoreside element to it all that completely new factors of maintaining social distance from relative strangers from outside your safety bubble comes into the equation, so much so that Jonathan Nicholson can chuckle as he contemplates a scenario whereby Dublin Bay Sailing Club can complete a reasonably comprehensive season afloat while complying with regulations, yet when his time to stand down after his period as Commodore comes at the AGM in November, it mightn’t be a crowded and busy AGM in the classic and time-honoured DBSC style, but rather we’ll see an austere though technically-complex Zoom-facilitated gathering of virtual communication.

Whatever develops, we can be sure that as June moves on, the impressive DBSC programme will gradually come on stream as the fluid situation develops, such that by July there’ll be those impressive DBSC Thursday turnouts of cruiser-racers on such a scale that if there’s a demand for a pop-up or flash-mob regatta to fill the void of cancelled established events, it’s not unreasonable to point out that, in effect, Dublin Bay Sailing Club stages a big fleet Twilight Regatta every Thursday evening.

On the edge of the city, under the hills and mountains….Dublin Bay sailing is at such a level that, in effect, a complete Twilight Regatta is sailed every Thursday evening between April and September. Photo: Afloat.ie/David O’Brien

The magic ingredient is that almost everyone taking part lives in the South Dublin area. Extensive travel and the shoreside mixing of strangers is not a significant factor. Yet while Dun Laoghaire can contemplate all this taking shape before the end of June, down in Kinsale they’ve had to cancel the Dragon Gold Cup scheduled for September, as it would involve global travel and much shoreside socialising, and there’ll be parts of the world where Covid-19 is still rampant, while in other parts the much-mentioned Autumnal Second Wave might already be under way by that time.

As it is now, the fact that we’re all very much in this together – and rightly so – does mean that at times it’s as though the entire population is like a wartime Transatlantic convoy, obliged to travel at the speed of the slowest ship. Thus although there are reasonably fit and healthy cohorts of society - such as the more active members of the sailing community - who are surely less at risk than many other groups, the official policy on phased easing of the Lockdown restrictions is definitely skewed towards the recovery speeds of the more vulnerable groups.

The care of the most vulnerable members of a society is a good indicator of its civilization. But after more than two months of economically-debilitating lockdown, there’s a danger that the conscientiously civilised society will find itself in a situation where destitution is inevitable, and far from continuing to be civilised, the Law of the Jungle will start to take over unless a balanced and timely relaxation of Lockdown takes place.

In times of emergency, the provision of essential services may be seen as paramount. But where does the line get drawn between essential services and popular activities with a positive economic input?

A significant income generator in a modern industry – the MGM Boats boatyard in Dun Laoghaire at the centre of this photo may not have been part of the original plan for the Harbour 200 years ago, but it is now one of several economically-important units functioning in today’s recreationally-oriented port. Photo: Barrow Coakley/Simon Coate

It’s not so long ago that the sports and hospitality industries would not have been regarded as serious economic activities, yet nowadays their contribution to GDP is much greater than that of many of the brutal old heavy industries, and in crudely measureable financial terms, they’re right up there with our beloved agriculture, however much that agriculture may have in greater socioeconomic significance.

So however much the powers-that-be are engrossed in their pandemic-dealing manoeuvrings with at least one eye always on the popular vote, it’s reassuring to know that in our main sailing centres, there are efficient and imaginative club officers who take the situation as they find it, and devise feasible programmes which benefit their members and the sport in general.

There has been overwhelming support from a Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) survey to going racing this season despite the problems posed by COVID-19.

The anonymous survey got a response from over half of DBSC's 1,200 members There showed 'huge support for extending the season and reformatted Tuesday racing for the keelboat and cruiser fleets'.

Following the government roadmap announcement last Friday (1st of May), DBSC says it is 'encouraged but needs to wait for formal guidance from Irish Sailing'.

White sails option

Club Commodore Jonathan Nicholson says the survey also showed a white sails option to reduce crew numbers was popular. 

'This and other options need further consideration along with a dialogue with the DBSC class captains' Nicholson says, for the massive 250-boat fleet.

Support for running two DBSC races on Saturdays was less clear cut but maybe considered based on the season start date.

Adapting the DBSC format

There was near-unanimous support for adapting the race formats given the new constraints that DBSC will be operating under.

The responses are summarised below by DBSC on its website as follows: 

Intentions to race this season?

This question was posed a number of times, albeit with a different perspective. Of particular note is the response to the question “Having spent time thinking about this and looking at some of the options DBSC is thinking about how likely are you now to join this season”. 75% of responses were either likely or very likely to join. There is also considerable support for entering regardless of the start date of the season.

What facilities are needed to race?

There is a need for changing rooms etc. to be addressed especially for dinghy and smaller keelboat classes, whilst access to food and bar was considered a nice to have, this was not deemed a deterrent to racing.

Given the nature of this season what revisions to the programme would be welcome?

There was huge support for extending the season and reformatted Tuesday racing for the keelboat and cruiser fleets. Support for running two races on Saturdays was less clear cut but maybe considered based on the season start date. The white sails option to reduce crew numbers was popular. This and other options need further consideration along with a dialogue with the class captains. There was near-unanimous support for adapting the race formats given the new constraints that we will be operating under.

Interpreting the comments is more complex. While many people identified themselves, the survey remains anonymous. All feedback, which was overwhelmingly positive, was considered.

We absolutely recognise there is a concern about personal safety and we will only run racing when the government and Irish Sailing have given their approval and the waterfront clubs are ready to support this activity in a safe and responsible manner. Moreover, rest assured that DBSC will prioritise the safety of all the volunteers who make our racing possible. We acknowledge we may have a reduced number of entries this year as unfortunately, it will not be possible for all members of our club and community to race this summer.

In summary, there is a very clear appetite to go racing.

In a week when Ireland's biggest yacht racing club was due to start its summer schedule, Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) is instead surveying members in lockdown for their thoughts on the prospect of racing on the Bay later this summer as the COVID-19 emergency greatly affects 2020 Irish sailing fixtures.

The survey is being conducted as the club sees a delayed start to the season and 'potentially reduced budgets and resources'.

In the online poll, Commodore Jonathan Nicholson urges as many skippers and crew to complete the three short questions to help the club decide what can be offered. 

The club is the umbrella organisation that runs year-round racing for members from all Dun Laoghaire Harbour's waterfront yacht clubs; the National Yacht Club, the Royal St. George Yacht Club, the Royal Irish Yacht Club and the Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club as well as sailors based at the town marina.

"We want to try and plan for this as best we can in order to deliver our members the best possible racing, as soon as it is safe to do so," Nicholson tells members.

The Dublin Bay SB20 sportsboat fleet Photo: Afloat

The 2020 DBSC season was due to start on the capital's waters this Saturday for over 250 boats in 20 classes and some estimated 1,500 sailors.

As Afloat previously reported, the timing of the questionnaire is in line with Sport Ireland's own bid to frame protocols for a return to sport with social distancing. Protocols for sailing are being drawn up by Irish Sailing, according to its CEO Harry Hermon yesterday.

"How likely are you to race should your club bar, restaurant and changing rooms remain closed?" 

The DBSC survey says 'We would like to know your initial thoughts before you think too deeply about this season. Please answer this question without thinking too hard! We will ask it again when we have outlined some options.

The multiple-choice survey's first question probes 'Given the current situation with COVID 19 if all rules were relaxed and we could go sailing from the 1st of June how likely are you to join DBSC this year? Answer options range from Very likely to Very Unlikely.

The second question is "How important to your decision to go racing is the Apres Sail at your club? How likely are you to race should your club bar, restaurant and changing rooms remain closed?" 

The Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) buoyant Cruiser Two fleet has an A31-type yacht added to its number this season. 

The French-built Archambault A31 is arguably one of the most competitive IRC boats of its size. The new arrival is a National Yacht Club campaign that will be moored at Dun Laoghaire Marina. A sistership La Republique from Liverpool competes on the Irish Sea in ISORA racing but this new arrival is the only A31 in Ireland.

The A31 is a 31’4” (9.55m) cruiser-racer sailboat designed by Joubert Nivelt Design (France). She was built between 2009 and 2017 by Archambault (France) and BG Race (France).

The A31 design comes straight off the back of the successful larger Archambault A35 of which there are several in Ireland including the Sovereign's Cup winner Fools Gold from Waterford. Another A35, Gringo, is a club mate of this Bay new arrival at the NYC and another A35 Endgame campaigns from Royal Cork.

Starlight for DBSC Cruiser Five

In Cruiser Division Five, the white sails division, a Starlight 35 has also joined the fleet. The new addition comes from the Hamble to Ireland.

DBSC Cruiser Zero fleet expands

As Afloat reported previously, the DBSC Cruiser Zero fleet was also boosted for this season when El Pocko, a German Frers Puma 42, arrived at the  Royal St. George Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire Harbour. It is the second new addition for the Bay's big boat class. 

In January the First 40 La Response, formerly known as Courier Zen and a veteran of several Commodore's Cup teams joined the fleet. The RIYC boat is a fillip to a now eight-boat (or more) DBSC Cruiser Zero class racing that itself was in question only a couple of years ago.

The angular stern of the Frers design

Racing in Dublin Bay Sailing Club has been postponed this year but the hope is for the season to get underway at some point.

The opening of Dublin Bay Sailing Club's summer season scheduled for the last week in April has been postponed due to Government Covid-19 measures. The revised start date is so far unknown. 

The club, one of the largest yacht racing clubs in Europe, is the umbrella organisation for weekly yacht racing on Dublin Bay for all the waterfront yacht clubs in Dun Laoghaire.

The first races for a combined fleet of up to 250 boats were scheduled to get underway on Tuesday, April 25.

It was inevitable, however, when waterfront clubs lift-ins were postponed at the weekend that it would impact on DBSC arrangements. 

"Even before the latest measures were introduced it was almost inconceivable that our sailing season would start on time. As such DBSC is following the waterfront clubs and postponing the start of the season until the current situation improves, " DBSC Commodore Jonathan Nicholson said in a statement on the club website.

Significantly, however, Nicholson, also added: "DBSC is still working on the premise that there will be racing this year and are preparing accordingly". 

The Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) Cruiser Zero fleet got a further boost this week when another addition to the rekindled fleet appeared under the crane at the Royal St. George Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire Harbour.

The 2004 41-footer yacht (for a senior yacht racing administrator in the Bay) is El Pocko, a German Frers Puma 42.

Previously based in the Netherlands, she is currently keelless following transportation to the RStGYC forecourt from Flevoland.

The angular stern of the Frers design

It is the second new addition for the bay's big boat class.  In January the First 40 La Response, formerly known as Courier Zen and a veteran of several Commodore's Cup teams joined the fleet.

El Pocko will be on the line for the first of DBSC's first summer races in April and is understood to be optimised for the ORCi rule with a carbon mast and a new keel in 2014.

The RStGYC boat is a fillip to a now eight-boat (or more) DBSC Cruiser Zero class racing that itself was in question only a couple of years ago.