Not content with being the biggest (and fastest) keelboat class in the country the SB3 class association in Dun Laoghaire intends to break new ground this winter and further expand the class. In a letter to members class captain Justin Burke is urging owners to get behind a new off season initiative. "To keep the class vibrant we need to encourage new boats and members to join the fleet" he says. 

New sailors are invited to try a sail on the 'one design performance boat' in a special Open Day on Saturday, 9th October between 1030 and 1600. Registration begins at 9.30am.

Boats will be alongside at the National Yacht Club in the harbour for demo runs and class members will be available to discuss the Sportsboat design.

The recent SB3 Nationals staged in Howth this month attracted a fleet of 48 boats racing with attendance from all the major Irish sailing centres. Internationally Ireland sends a team to the World championships and the inaugural world championships were held here in Dun Laoghaire in 2008 with a massive fleet of 137 boats.

The class association will organising sailing in Scotsman's Bay on October 9th with RIB transfers to the boats. Experienced or novice sailors are all invited to participate. Those wishing to sail ideally should advise the organisers first of their time slots and make sure they bring their sailing wet weather gear and a life jacket. Short races will also be run to allow visitors get a feel of the boats.

To make a provisional booking, please call or text Justin on 087 2417542

A great event for the Dragon class in Kinsale rounded off the 2010 season at the weekend. Photos afloat and from the prizegiving by Bob Bateman are HERE

Ireland is guaranteed a medal today at the British Skandia Sail for Gold regatta in the Star class but Peter O'Leary's clean run in the keelboat this week was not without drama yesterday when his crew Fritjof Kleen slipped overboard 300 metres from the finish line.

Peter O'Leary and Frithjof Kleen (IRL) against Fredrik Loof and Johan Tillannder (SWE) in the Star class on day 5 of the Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta. Photo: onEdition

The ISA's Youth Worlds team is completing final preparations for the 2010 ISAF Youth World Sailing Championships, which takes place in Istanbul, Turkey from 8th – 17th July 2010. More than 300 young sailors from 60 nations will compete across eight disciplines, of which Ireland will compete in four. The laser sailors travel out over the weekend and will be joined by the 420’s early next week.

The Irish Team:
Matthew O’Dowd (Royal St George YC) -Laser Radial Boy’s One Person Dinghy 

Sophie Murphy (Quoile YC) - Laser Radial Girl’s One Person Dinghy 

Cian O’Regan (Kinsale YC) and Scott Flanigan (Howth YC)- 420 Boy’s Two Person Dinghy 

Jane Butler and Jenny Andreasson (Royal St George YC) - 420 Girl’s Two Person Dinghy

Ross Killian -Team Leader

Arthur Brett -Team Coach

James O’Callaghan ISA Performance Director commented:

“We are extremely excited about this year’s team. Matthew O’Dowd, Jane Butler and Jenny Andreasson have experience of the event last year which counts for a lot. Jane and Jenny recently finished 3rd Youth girls in Kiel regatta so go into the event with lots of confidence.

While Sophie, Cian and Scott are all new to this event they have plenty of international experience which will stand to them.
The ISAF Youth World’s is the pinnacle of a Youth sailor’s career thus far and it is great to see such a committed and talented team representing Ireland.”

O’Callaghan continued: “Ross Killian leads the team and his Olympic experience will no doubt prove invaluable. Arthur Brett from Australia also joins the coaching team and ensures the Laser and Laser Radial will be getting some of the best advice going.”

In 2012 the ISAF Youth Sailing World Championship will take place in Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin, Ireland.

The 100ft Canting Keel Maxi Leopard 3 has broken its own record for a 24-hour run, covering 495 nautical miles. The previous record stood at 466.4NM.

The record is in a special category for craft with powered winches, and doesn't come close to some of the other records on boats where humans work the lines by hand.

The monohull record outright is still held by Torben Grael's Ericsson 4 team who covered 596.6nm at an average speed of  24.85 knots during the last Volvo Ocean Race.

Frenchman Thomas Coville blasted through 628.5 nautical miles in 24 hours on his 105ft trimaran Sodebo, averaging 26.2 knots in the process.

But the absolute mac daddy of them all is held by Pascal Bidegorry in his monstrous 131ft trimaran Banque Populaire 5. Bidegorry travelled 908.2 nautical miles in one day, and with an average of 37.84 knots you can only imagine what his top speed was.

 

The World Sailing Speed Record Council announces the ratification of a new World Record for ICAP Leopard.

Record: Monohull. 24 hours under rule 21.c 
Yacht: ICAP Leopard. 100ft Monohull 
Name: Mike Slade and 20 crew 
Dates: 31st May to the 1st June 2010. 
Start time: 05.00; 31/05/10 
Finish time: 05.00; 01/06/10 
Elapsed time: 24 hours 
Distance: 495.1 NM 
Average speed: 20.6 kts 
Comments: Previous record: 466.4nm 19.4 kts. May 08 Leopard. Mike Slade GBR

Photographer Bob Bateman was in among the fleet for the start of this afternoon's Wicklow's Round Ireland Race. A perfect start in light conditions across Wicklow Bay. His photos below and also on the gallery here.

More on the Round Ireland Yacht Race:

Round Ireland Yacht Race 2010 Review

Round Ireland Yacht Race, Ireland's top offshore fixture

A Round up of 80 stories on the 2010 Round Ireland Yacht Race

A new offshore race will set a fleet of boats on a sprint to Rockall, a lonely rock around 270 miles north-west of Donegal. The 750-mile race will be timed to coincide with the arrival of boats in the Volvo Ocean Race in Galway. The Round Rockall Race is the brainchild of Larry Hynes, who sailed around Ireland solo in 2005. 

"We originally wanted to do it last in 2011," he said,  "which was the 200th anniversary of the first landing on Rockall."

However, Hynes said that when he heard the VOR was coming back to Galway, it made sense to postpone the event to make it more palatable to travelling boats from France and elsewhere.

Hynes says he wants to keep the race 'fairly Corinthian' and is welcoming all comers. With Galway being twinned with Lorient in France, Hynes hopes to tap into the offshore sailing spirit of the French and tempt some French offshore boats north with the Volvo Ocean Race Fleet for the finish and a race in Irish waters. 

The site already has a web presence, which puts many of the more established races to shame. He is working with former Round Ireland winner Aodhan Fitzgerald on a Notice of Race and says that he is steadfastly committed to running the event, whether he gets two or two hundred entries.

The Round Rockall website is at www.roundrockallrace.com

More than 5,000 people hit the water with the East Wall Watersports Centre in the year 2009, according to centre principal Billy King. The centre, located in the Tolka Estuary in Dublin's East Wall, has a history of sailing in the area stretching back to the 1800s, but its new premises has allowed it develop a range of watersports over the last few years, with match racing among the items on the agenda for 2010.

The watersports group as it stands was formed in the 1980s with a group of people in the East Wall clubbing together to promote a variety of on-the-water activities. However by teaming up with Dublin City Council and sourcing lottery funding, and monies from the Docklands Development Authority and other groups, the new premises were built in 2007 and now house a fleet of dinghies and kayaks to cater for local school and business groups.

The centre has a new website at www.eastwallsailing.com, with Rory Walsh aiming to take participation to the next level and even encourage a match racing event at the end of the year, entitled the Docklands Challenge.

Says Rory: "Despite its discrete appearance (the building is earth bermed and can not be seen from the road or air) the building contains a boat shed, a workshop, changing rooms, a kitchen and a bright open plan teaching room, all of which have been fitted out to the highest standard"

 

Property website Daft.com put its down payment on some prime publicity real estate today, formally announcing its plans to sponsor a boat in this year’s Round Ireland. 

Daft will be backing blind adventurer Mark Pollock and Air Corps pilot Mick Liddy, the first double-handed crew with one blind member to compete in the Round Ireland Yacht Race. 

The sponsorship deal will allow Liddy and Pollock charter a race-ready Class 40 for the event.

The announcement comes at a time when sponsorship deals for sailing individuals, never mind events, are at a premium. The Round Ireland Yacht Race itself has yet to secure a title sponsor, and other offshore sailors have struggled to retain sponsors or failed outright to raise funding for participation in higher-profile international events.

The motivation for Daft.com to come on board lies largely in the fact that Daft.ie is launching in the six counties of Ulster, making the company an all-island affair, which ties in nicely with a race around the island.

Said Pollock: “Securing a sponsor in these challenging economic times is very difficult and we feel extremely lucky to have the Daft brand behind us. For me, this competition is going to be the most challenging yet, as I will be operating the boat in two-hour shifts for the duration of the race. Unlike my previous challenges, I’ll be completely unguided. Having the support and backing of a sponsor like Daft.com means that I can focus entirely on the training and the race, knowing I have the Daft team right behind me.”

David Garland, Sales Director, Daft Media Group said, “I truly admire Mark as an individual and the manner in which he approaches every challenge he takes on. His commitment and determination to succeed is an inspiration to us all. We’re delighted to be in a position to be able to support and sponsor Mark and Mick in this high-profile sailing event.”

 

Cork Week Revealed

with Eddie English (reprinted from Afloat 2006)

Eddie English stands high on Cobh’s historic waterfront and looks out across Cork Harbour, south towards Roche’s Point lighthouse and the entrance to the natural sailing sanctuary. Immediately below, a huge Brittany Ferries ship heads slowly out to sea; it’s not even close in size to a previous visitor to the former Queenstown, but then again, the RMS Titanic belonged to a different era.

To his left, the inshore waters north of the Whitegate oil refinery hide the channel to East Ferry where the Marlogue Inn stands over its marina and just opposite, the legendary Murphs on the mainland shore.

On his right, the channel between Spike and Haulbowline Islands and Cobh is the main shipping route for the Port of Cork for ferries, commercial shipping and the Irish Naval Service base.

But it’s the view straight out to sea that confirms one of the magic ingredients that have made Cork Week an international regatta of worldwide repute: vast tracts of open, unobstructed water and all within easy reach of the shoreside facilities of the hosts at the Royal Cork Marina at Crosshaven. 

When it comes to local knowledge, few are as expert as English. Not only is he a former chairman of the event's racing committee, not only does he run a long-established sailing school in the harbour, but when you are offered an insight from someone who takes his dog for a walk on notorious mud banks at low water springs, they tend to be nuggets of the golden variety.

"The harbour course is the key to Cork Week," says English. "It's the decider where the event is won or lost and has the most variables involved." So this, then, is the Eddie English step-by-step guide to gaining an edge for that course, plus the coastal, wind/leeward and Olympic-type courses at Cork Week.

COPYRIGHT – AFLOAT MAGAZINE 2006