Day two of the Munster Mermaid Championships at Foynes Yacht Club dawned to an overcast day however the forecasted sunshine broke through around 1100hrs and to the delight of the sailors brought with it plenty of wind. A south easterly gusty breeze of 15-18 knots shifting through 20 degrees resulted in a lot of mark moving and OOD Donal McCormack postponed racing until the wind settled down.

Race three got underway with a clear start. Early leaders Jim Carthy, Paula Carthy & Muriel Carthy on 123 Vee, Frank Browne, Frankie Brown & Oisín Finucane on 135 Cara II and local boat 161 Pearl with Noel McCormack, Mary McCormack & Cian McCormack went left on the course to gain over the rest of the fleet. At the windward mark 123 Vee had less than a boat length ahead of 135 Cara II in front of the crashing pack before a fast reach to the gybe mark.
By the top of second beat it was 123 Vee all the way as they built up a sizeable lead. Overall leader from day one 188 Innocence got buried at the start but fought back to fifth place by the second beat putting them just 0.25 points ahead of their nearest rival. At the last windward rounding 123 Vee had a comfortable lead and by the finish were clear winners. 188 Innocence climbed to fourth which gave them the overall lead. 119 Three Chevrons who had a good start but choose the less favoured side of the course on two beats came back on the third beat to take fifth in race three which held onto third place overall.

Thanks to the visiting boats from the Rush and Skerries. Looking forward to heading to Howth Yacht Club for the Dublin Bay Mermaid National Championships 4th to 7th August.

Champagne sailing conditions have often been bantered about in sailing reports but at Foynes Yacht Club for the Dublin Bay Mermaid Munster Championships this weekend you would think you were sailing in the Algarve!

Sailors were greeted this morning with a two hour postponement by OOD Liam Madden ably assisted by Donal McCormack and crew. It was a wise move, and as the morning progressed to the afternoon a southerly sea breeze filled in with glorious sunshine conditions. Racing got underway at 1300hrs with the competitors getting away to a clean start. Positions changed regularly but ultimately 188 Innocence, Darragh McCormack, Cathal McMahon & Mark McCormack were pushed hard by both 123 Vee, Jim Carthy, Muriel & Paula Carthy in second place and 119 Three Chevrons, Vincent McCormack, Roisín McCormack & Michael Lynch a very close third.

For race two the wind veered and dropped slightly. The OOD decided to reduce the length of the beat and move the gybe mark. Racing got underway at 1435hrs. After another clean start and due to the shorter beat, it was all to play for by the windward mark. Tight reaching continued throughout the remainder of the race and again the crew of 118 Innocence were to the fore, with 119 a close second and 135 Cara II, Frank Browne, Oisín Finucane and Frankie Browne finishing a very solid third.

The social side has already kicked off with crews enjoying drinks on the point looking out over Foynes Island waiting patiently for at dinner at about 1830 and the highlight of the night, the band Flog the Dog, a favourite of the Mermaid crews, at the sun soaked FYC. Racing will resume tomorrow at 1200hrs.

The West of Ireland offshore Racing Association (WIORA) are very proud to be in its 40th year writes Elaine O'Mahoney. This year their flagship event, The West Coast Championships, are being hosted by The Royal Western Yacht Club of Ireland (RWYCI), from the 29th June to the 2nd July, at the newly refurbished Kilrush Creek Marina under the new ownership of L&M Keating (Maritime) LTD.
At present there is a total of thirty-one entries and the organisers are calling for more boats to take part to put the number over forty. That is the ultimate goal. Entries received to date represent clubs along the west, south and east coasts.
Simon McGibney, WIORA Commodore, has highly commended the work being done by the RWYCI to attract boats to this years’ event. For €120 you will get top class racing with seven races scheduled over four days under the guidance of OOD Alan Crosbie. Lift in & lift out for trailerable boats and berthage included.
The organising committee have put together a cracking social calendar to match the on the water activities. A new first for our White Sail class is that they will be on a completely separate course to the IRC boats but within the same spectacular sailing area on the lower Shannon.
Another element to this years’ event has been to promote sports boats participation – an idea driven by Yannick Lemmonier from West Sails, who already has confirmed entries from 1720/Melges 24/SB20 boats. They will sail within class but they will have a specially commissioned trophy for the overall winner. As WIORA is a cruiser racer association the overall West Coast Champion will be chosen from the cruiser racer IRC classes and this has been acknowledged by all classes. All sports boats are welcome!
Entry information can be found on the Royal Western Yacht Club of Ireland website. So if you are free in four weeks’ time and have a boat, come along and join in the 40th year celebrations which are guaranteed to be fun!

This year Foynes Yacht Club combined their annual Commodore’s with an ISA Try Sailing event, with turned out to be a huge success. For the ISA Try Sailing event spearheaded by ICRA Commodore Simon McGibney whose new mantra is “more bums on boats”, Foynes Yacht Club held an open day with the option of four activities – a morning of dinghy sailing or kayaking and in the afternoon cruiser sailing or cruiser racing.
The uptake on the activities was significant with thirty-eight people out on the water in the morning, twenty-seven of those new to sailing. The remaining eleven were club members, particularly juniors, who went out on dinghies or kayaks with the new sailors.
In the afternoon the Foynes Yacht Club organised cruiser sailing or cruiser racing. Over sixty people went out on the water with forty-two of those experiencing sailing for the first time. Conditions for the day were a big help, the rain held off for most of the day and winds of 14kt-18kts meant it was exciting enough for beginners.
Commodore James McCormack, who over the course of the day himself took out many of the new sailors, was delighted with the turnout and the buzz created around the club. He thanked the members who helped out during the day; on safety boats, dinghies, kayaks and skippers who welcomed the ISA Try Sailing participants on their boats throughout the day. The club concluded the day with a complementary BBQ for everyone involved. Many of the people who took part today went away with enthusiasm for more sailing – and that’s what we want from a Try Sailing Day!
Simon McGibney said “this was a huge success from which the club will benefit for a long time to come, this could not be achieved without the massive support from boat owners and members.”
Joe Hynes from Shanagolden Co. Limerick and member of Estuary Rugby Club, first time out cruiser racing was quoted “thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience, the club & facilities first class, being a novice sailor was well look after by club members and highly recommends it for anyone interested in getting on the water.”

Beautiful sunshine and a wide range of wind speeds greeted the participants of the two day training weekend organised by Simon McGibney from ICRA/WIORA and Des McWilliam and Graham Curran of UK McWilliam Sailmakers. This was the second year of the training clinic, successfully hosted again by Tralee Bay Sailing Club with boats from the Royal Western Yacht Club, Galway Bay Sailing Club, Foynes Yacht Club and Tralee Bay Sailing Club taking part.

Building on the format developed last year the weekend began with an early start for a long day on the water with OOD Peter Moore and his team from TBSC. Des and Graham were on the water in RIBs and followed the fleet throughout the day, observing and videoing race starts, mark roundings, tacks, gybes, sail trim etc. They also went onboard boats to watch crews as they went through procedures and throughout the day were able to interject with advice when required.

The race team got in seven races on a windward leeward course with the addition of a gate to ensure boats completed gybing manoeuvres downwind. To keep racing interesting crews had to listen out for any ‘special instructions’ from the OOD such as every boat must put in a certain number of tacks before the windward mark. Racing was very close with an evenly matched fleet of boats competing. The weekend also included practice race starts which consisted of eight races starts run off one after another with just three minute countdowns. Exhausting work for crews but great for practicing skills! Saturday drew to a close with BBQ in clubhouse overlooking the beautiful Tralee Bay a full debrief session an each of the skills where crews had the opportunity to watch some of the recorded footage of the day. After the debrief session Elaine O’Mahoney from Foynes Yacht Club ran a very entertaining nautical quiz, which the participants really enjoyed.

Graham Curran of UK McWilliam Sailmakers onboard Huntress 

There was plenty of chat about the live results that were efficiently provided by ICRA’s scoring guru Denis Kiely and could be accessed by competitors between races out on the water on ICRA’s website www.cruiserracing.ie.

Racing on Sunday began early again – something about being ashore for a Kerry/Dublin football match! The training team got in another seven races to bring the tally to fourteen for the two day training clinic. The weekend concluded with a final debrief session with Des and Graham and a lot of happy crews went home with a bit more knowledge on how to improve their racing. Looking forward to the next one! Would highly recommend this training clinic to any club to organise. Contact can made with Des through here 

A buoyant ICRA conference at the Castletroy Park Hotel in Limerick yesterday saw Simon McGibney of Foynes Yacht Club succeed Norbert Reilly of Howth Yacht Club as Commodore. It is the first time ICRA has elected a Commodore from the west coast.

An attendance of 80 sailors representing all the major sailing clubs on the east, south and west coasts participated for the first time in a round table format to encourage ideas from the floor on the future direction ICRA should take in order to grow the cruiser racing sector in Ireland.

In an enthusiastic gathering, Reilly summarised initiatives needed to achieve 'more sailors/more sailing' or as McGibney described it 'more bums on boats'.

John Leech gave a strong safety awareness talk and Afloat.ie's Winkie Nixon entertained with his views on ICRA's role and its positive approach to listening to its market.

Leading sailing school Alistair Rumball of the Irish National Sailing School in Dun Laoghaire and sailmaker Des McWilliam from Crosshaven made excellent presentations on their training initiates for the cruiser racing sector that are attracting increasing numbers and improving skills and feeding members to Clubs

Reilly also highlighted the ICRA crew point project which it is hoped will lead to identify areas within clubs of people who would like to go sailing and link them up with owners. 

ORC gave an informative update on its developments worldwide and an insight in to its rating rule progression.

In the absense of ICRA's ECHO handicap guru, Denis Kiely, who was unable to attend for personal reasons, former commodore Barry Rose and Ronan Enright, commodore of SCORA, gave the meeting an insight in to the evolving of the system over the last seven years to a Progressive ECHO model starting from an IRC base and being totally transparent and computerised analysing performance in a measured way to re adjust ratings automatically after every race. This model has produced great results and has been used during this period at ICRA Nationals, Volvo Cork Week, Volvo DL Week, WIORA, SCORA and by clubs on the south and west coasts.

ICRA is encouraging its use nationally as it is a very effective dual scoring system alongside IRC to encourage spreading the prizes and interest through the fleet and represents a credible performance alternative to the fixed number rating systems.

Afloat.ie's Tom MacSweeney ran an inciteful interreactive session with those present on how to present a welcoming approach to encourage new entrants to the sport.

The ICRA Nationals are in Howth Yacht Club this year from 10th to 12th June and arrangements are well advanced and it promises to be another high calibre event

Volvo Cork Week, the Round Ireland race and WIORA were also promoted at the event

The Irish Sailing Association (ISA) were represented by Jack Roy and Harry Hermon and the ICRA executive are in advanced discussions with the ISA to attract the support needed to grow the sector.

The conference concluded with presentation of ICRA Boat Of The Year trophy to George Sisk and his crew on Wow who had a fantastic season winning the ICRA Nationals in the process.

It’s feast or famine with the wind these days at Foynes Yacht Club and after being blown out last weekend the possibility of getting a final days racing in the Reidy’s Centra Laser and Topper Series wasn’t looking promising as for much of the morning the River Shannon looked more like a sheet of glass than a sailing venue.
Racing was postponed until shortly after 1pm to allow the forecasted 8-10kts to build. The laser fleet continues to expand with another new junior sailor, Clara Shanahan, joining the racing today. OOD Vincent McCormack unusually brought the fleet west of Foynes Island which paid off as a nice breeze filled in albeit from the north and not SE as forecast and the race team managed to get in two windward-leeward races to conclude the series. The Junior Category was won by Dylan Reidy and the Senior Category by Cathal McMahon. Dinghy racing will continue next weekend with the March Laser and Topper Series starting next Sunday, 6th March. 
Earlier this month four of Foynes newest and youngest boat owners took part in the week long optimist training camp in Baltimore. This is first time the club have had members taking part and the young sailors had a great week. Fresh with enthusiasm from the camp the oppie sailors, the fleet now up to six, took to the water to try out their newly acquired knowledge and skills. The future of the club is in good hands with these young sailors who fought off the cold with brave smiles for three very competitive races.
While winter projects continue in the yard the clubhouse is also getting plenty of use. This weekend the ISA had organised a Race Officer Level One Course at the Foynes venue. The course was given by National Race Officer Geoff O’Donoghue from Lough Derg Yacht Club and had a huge attendance with over 30 members from seven clubs along the west coast and the lakes taking part.
Next Saturday, 5th March, the Irish Cruiser Racing Association annual conference takes place in Limerick. The club are very proud to see one of their own members, Simon McGibney, take over the role of ICRA Commodore and would like to wish him every success in his tenure. The conference is on in the Castletroy Park Hotel from 10am and all cruiser sailors are welcome.

After Foynes Yacht Club’s sailing academy recent success in being named training centre of the year for the southern region at the ISA/Afloat Awards earlier this month, the academy’s youth development team led by Commodore James McCormack have for the first time in the history of the club taken a team of hardened young Optimist sailors to Baltimore to take part in a week long training camp.
The planned start to the club dinghy sailing season last week was cancelled due to Storm Imogen so while the young oppie sailors are away this weekend, the Reidy’s Centra Laser and Topper Series got off to a great start with sunshine and 15-20 knots of breeze. As the storms keep coming OOD Darragh McCormack decided to take advantage of the great conditions and managed to get in three of the scheduled eight race series with three different winners in each race. 
There is a great buzz around the club at the moment with lots of winter projects nearing completion. As always the club is grateful to the massive voluntary effort put in by members to get these jobs in the yard completed. When they can find the time the members of the cruiser fleet are also busy getting their boats ready for the coming season with lift in less than two months away.

A large crowd gathered for the final time in 2015 at Foynes Yacht Club to present the prizes for the Silver Refrigeration Laser & Topper November Series followed by the annual Christmas table quiz in aid of the RNLI.

In the Silver Refrigeration Laser & Topper Series the results in the Senior Category were 1st Tadhg O’Loinsigh (TBSC), 2nd Simon McGibney (FYC), 3rd Peter Clifford (FYC). In the Junior Category 1st Dylan Reidy, 2nd Mary McCormack, 3rd Anna Lowes. Silver Refrigeration generously sponsored beautifully commissioned glass plaques for the winners and also awarded all the sailors in the junior category with specially commissioned medals.

The club had a packed house for the RNLI quiz with eight rounds of both nautical and general knowledge questions. At the end of the eight rounds three tables were tied and after a tie-break round of eight questions Donal & Una McCormack’s table emerged as winners. A raffle was held afterwards with spot prizes being donated by club members. A total of €523 was raised on the night for the RNLI. The commodore James McCormack thanked everyone who turned out to support such a worthy cause & wished all the members & their families a Happy New Year & hope to see you all in 2016.

For the first time in its fifty three year history Foynes Yacht Club ran an ISA Go Racing course at the club during the school October mid-term break. The course was fully booked out with ten participants from Foynes Yacht Club, Dingle Sailing Club, Cullaun Sailing Club and Lough Derg Yacht Club who gave up their mid-term break lie-in to complete the course under the guidance of club racing instructor Tadhg O’Loingsigh and two senior Instructors, Simon McGibney from Foynes Yacht Club and Feidhlim O’Briain from Dingle Sailing Club. The weather was ideal for the course with the participants getting afloat every day in conditions varying from 5 knots to +25 knots. The junior sailors also had opportunities to hear from Graham Curran from UK McWilliam Sailmakers and international race officer Jack Roy, both of whom visited the club during the week. Foynes Yacht Club's Sailing Academy Principal Patrick Finucane said that the sailing academy has been striving towards this for a number of years and was delighted with the success of the course.

The cruiser October series took place during the month with a six race series and fourteen boats taking part. Racing took place over five weekends concluding on the final Saturday in October. The series started in beautiful sunshine with 10-12kts westerly where OOD Vincent McCormack set the fleet off with an interesting spinnaker start and following a course round the cans on the estuary. The next few week’s courses returned to beat starts either round the cans or windward leeward. Conditions were mixed, always sunshine, but winds anywhere from 5kts to 15kts, the lighter conditions presenting quite a challenge to anyone eager to get ashore on time for the rugby matches! Congratulations to the winners 1st Maximus from FYC, 2nd Scorpio Junior from Lough Derg, 3rd Powder Monkey from TBSC.

Junior and senior competitors after the ISA Go Racing course

The Laser and Topper fleet are back on the water again for the winter starting with a very successful October Series with nineteen boats taking part over the five weekends and nine out of the ten scheduled races taking place. Congratulations to the series winners in the senior fleet 1st Simon McGibney, 2nd Mark McCormack, 3rd Michael McGowan and in the junior fleet 1st Dylan Reidy, 2nd Mary McCormack, 3rd Oisín Finucane. The Laser and Topper November Series will begin next weekend and run on Sunday afternoons for the next four weeks.