DBSC will attempt to stage the second race of its Spring Chicken Series after a fortnight of cancellations due to strong winds. Starts and handicaps for the 46–boat fleet are downloadable below for Sunday's race. 

Winds gusting to over 40 knots led to the cancellation of the second race of DBSC's Spring Chicken series on Dublin Bay this morning.The 46–boat fleet will gather again next Sunday for the six race warm-up event.

The DMYC Frostrbite series for dinghies was also blown out at Dun Laoghaire this afternoon.

After a tricky end to the first race where a 1720 had to be rescued from the surf on Dublin Bay, the second race of the Rathfarnham Ford sponsored DBSC Spring Chicken series starts this Sunday morning. 

Downloadable below are last Sunday's results along with Handicaps and Starts for next Sunday's 46–boat fleet. 

Dublin Bay Sailing Club's Spring Chicken series got off to a dramatic start on Sunday when a 1720 sportsboat was rescued from the surf in the north-west of Dublin Bay. 20–knot winds and big seas made for a testing first race for the 46–boat fleet.

A 1720 sportsboat competitor was involved in a man overboard incident that ended up with the yacht also getting into difficulties. The Dun Laoghaire lifeboat was standing by to assist but the crewman was recovered from the water and the boat towed out of the surf by a DBSC committee vessel without the need for the lifeboat. A DBSC spokesman said the club was very grateful for the RNLI assistance offered.

First race results will be issued later in the week

This morning's first race of the DBSC Spring Chicken series has been cancelled due to strong winds. A fleet of up to 50 cruisers are expected for the first yacht racing series of the 2016 season with racing up to 13th March 2016.

Sailing Instructions for this weekend's DBSC Spring Chicken Series hosted by the National Yacht Club have been published (download a copy below). An estimated fleet of 40 or 50 will be racing each Sunday morning on Dublin Bay from 7^th February to 13^th March 2016 inclusive.

The recently-published ISA Survey of Club Racing commissioned and supervised by Board Member Jack Roy has started the process of putting together a realistic picture of how we sail and go afloat for recreation, and it was analysed on publication here in Afloat.ie.

It’s logical to have made the beginning with club racing, as racing provides its own narrative and a straightforward set of entry numbers and results. But it will become more complex as the national authority tries to provide realistic figures for day sailing’s less competitive aspects. And of course, once we enter the world of cruising as defined by sailing and boating projects which include passage making, both coastal and offshore, together with overnight on-board stops, then it can become much more difficult to get meaningful data.

Yet with the ISA’s Cruising Conference for February 20th already booked out within a few days of being announced on Afloat.ie, clearly that is an area in search of services and support, a section of sailing which is difficult to quantify yet obviously of strong interest to a significant number of boat enthusiasts. W M Nixon takes a look at how the complexity of our sport’s many specialities makes it difficult to provide a clearcut picture for possible recruits to sailing.

Where would we be without the International Optimist Dinghy? The little solo-sailing boxes and their attendant support teams of mum and dad and the dog and the old 4X4 or station wagon or people carrier or whatever may seem to take up an awful lot of space and time, and all just so that one little person can go sailing.

But at least that one little person does go sailing. The ISA figures are brutally straightforward. In terms of genuine turnouts afloat at clubs throughout Ireland, in boat numbers the active Optimists are exceeded only by the Lasers, and this is arguably because Lasers aren’t age-limited, whereas the Optimists most definitely are.

Optimist airborne. This is Ireland's second most popular class

Ireland’s most popular dinghy class, the Laser is seen here at the Zhik Irish Nationals at Ballyholme

So we give a qualified cheer for the success of these two little boats. But it’s qualified because they’re single-handers which fail to provide any crew-relating sailing skills. Leading sailing figures as diverse as Des McWilliam of Crosshaven and Norman Lee of Greystones have been eloquent in promoting the notion that we should be doing more – much more – to encourage two-handed boats, and if we can persuade people into three-handed boats, well, so much the better.

Certainly that’s one of the reasons why our header photo says so much. A lone sailor in an Optimist or Laser promotes too much of a solitary, even an isolated image. And a two-handed boat like the GP 14, whose strong fleet figures in the ISA survey show the class’s vigour, is arguably just an act for a dynamic duo – it’s Strictly Come Dancing goes sailing…..

But getting three together to race a characterful boat like the National 18 with style – now that’s something special, that really is a superb combination of people skills interacting with sailing talent. And it’s a joy to behold. Yet anyone can see that for a complete beginner to sailing, this extraordinary silhouette of Tommy Dwyer’s National 18 against the November sky above the Hill of Howth will have an otherworldly air about it – “That’s not for me” is as likely a response as “Let’s have a go at that”.

Even those of us who have been in sailing for longer than we care to remember find the image decidedly thought-provoking, for we have some idea of what has been involved in creating the circumstances for this seemingly effortless balancing act, this lighter-than-air effect in the unlikely setting of a November afternoon.

Over the past year or so we have been recounting in Afloat,ie how the Cork Harbour National 18 Class, with very tangible backing from the Royal Cork Yacht Club, have been in the forefront of the development of the new ground-breaking Phil Morrison take on the long-established National 18, which is a developmental class which from time to time takes a leap in hull design, and moves forward in order to keep the spirit alive.

The National 18s are part of the fabric of Cork Harbour sailing. Before the new Morrison boats arrived in July, the old fleet were seen here in May 2015 after their annual race to Ballinacurra in northeast Cork Harbour in company with the Dwyer brothers’ cruising ketch. Photo: W M Nixon

Acceptance of this is something which seems to be bred into Cork’s National 18 enthusiasts, many of whom have the advantage of being firmly of the opinion that a proper dinghy needs three people to sail it. But the social matrix which has built up around Cork Harbour over many decades with this concept at its heart is not something which will necessarily travel easily to other areas, and although the six boats of the National 18 flotilla which visited Howth for the Open Day got a great reception and gave many people from other classes a marvellous time afloat, it’s probable that the very different mood around sailing in Dublin means that something so technically and socially challenging as a three man dinghy is a step too far.

Sailing in the greater Dublin area seems to exist within a framework of independent balloons. While there are those who will happily move from one boat type to another and cheerfully spread their talents and enjoyment about, by contrast there’s the Dublin Bay Sailing Club Thursday Evening Phenomenon.

Thursday is when the DBSC cruiser classes go out to race. And there’s an entire cohort of people, mostly folk who work in offices in the city, who on a Thursday evening go straight to Dun Laoghaire, get aboard a pontoon-based cruiser owned by someone else, go out and race in some very specific crewing job, then come back in and have supper in club or pub with their shipmates, and then that’s it until next Thursday. Just one evening each summer mid-week is their entire sailing programme. Weekends are for something else. And as for the hassle and mixed joys of boat ownership and maintenance, that’s not their department at all.

It’s a very metropolitan, very citified yet specialized way of doing things, and Dublin is one of the very few cities whose location facilitates it. It will be fascinating to measure it, for Dublin’s way of sailing is steeped in history and tradition. But for now it’s refreshing to look at a place which has had a sailing tradition in times past, but somehow lost it, yet it’s coming back again, and one of the good news stories towards the end of 2015 is that the new Youghal Sailing Club has been accepted into the ISA fold.

Youghal at present is a difficult place for sailing, as the tidal power of the mighty Munster Blackwater sweeps straight through the estuary and along the old town’s waterfront, and the creation of any meaningful modern facilities will have the immediate difficulty of silting by incredibly adhesive black mud.

With the sun out, and the tide in, Youghal looks to be an ideal location for the easy installation of a marina….....Photo: W M Nixon

….but with the sun in and the tide out, the mud problem is revealed. Photo: W M Nixon

Thus, as dedicated Afloat.ie readers will have recently observed, no sooner had one group announced that a marina in Youghal was on the way than another longer-established group quietly suppressed the story, as they’re well aware of the engineering and dredging difficulties involved, and premature announcements will only slow any project in the long run.

In the fullness of time, a marina at Youghal will be a godsend for any cruiser plugging along the south coast. It’s not always the easiest coast in the world to make a passage along, sometimes it can seem an awfully long way to Cork from Dunmore East or Kilmore Quay even if you do make stopovers at Dungarvan or Helvick, and there are times when the hardiest seafarer is glad enough to get his boat secured to a good big pontoon.

But that’s for the future. Meantime, the locally-based keelboats are using either the restless anchorage off the town, or the more serene pool across the estuary at Ferry Point on the east shore, while the new club’s flotilla of GP 14s are stored in spare warehouse space during non-sailing time, and when they do go sailing it turns out their clubhouse is a moveable feast - it’s a caravan which can be towed to a choice of sailing locations.

A moveable feast. Members of the newly-affiliated Youghal Sailing Club with their caravan HQ, Adrian Lee in doorway. Photo: W M Nixon

On the national stage, it is young Youghal GP 14 sailor Adrian Lee who has been among those flying the club’s flag, and there’s hope in the air. When we were there in May on a fine day that promised a summer which never arrived, we couldn’t help but think that when they do get their facilities and maybe even a clubhouse, they’ll look back to the days of the caravan and ad hoc racing arrangements with sweet nostalgia. For sometimes, it’s much better to be travelling than it is to arrive.

But for the rest of us, the message from Youghal is simple. The sea is for sailing. Use it or lose it. By all means get proper people surveys done which indicate the way numbers are shaping up and things are going. But really, if you want to persuade people to go sailing, the best way is by example, getting afloat as much as possible yourself. And maybe then you’ll find the time to welcome aboard newcomers too.

Reviving Youghal sailing – on race days, the club’s caravan is simply towed down to the pier and the races are started from there. Photo: W M Nixon

Youghal’s massive public slip provides launching for the YSC sailing dinghies, but during 2015 the boats had to be stored at the other end of town when not in use. Photo: W M Nixon

The pace-setter. Adrian Lee of Youghal SC with his Duffin-built GP14. Photo: W M Nixon

Click to download: ISA Survey of Club Racing 

There may well be a new name for yacht racing on Dublin Bay this season as merger talks between Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) and the Royal Alfred Yacht Club (RAYC) continue.

RAYC Flag Officers meet tonight in Dun Laoghaire to discuss the proposition of incorporating the historic club into the rival race organisation, DBSC.

According to an Afloat.ie source the proposals include a new name: 'Dublin Bay Sailing Club incorporating Royal Alfred Yacht Club' as well as the transfer of some historic yachting silvereware to the expanded DBSC. The RAYC will get a seat at the DBSC committee table to ensure the 'ethos' of the RAYC is preserved, according to the source. Two regattas per year will race under the RAYC burgee or its name at least and any RAYC monies left over after any wind up will be put towards an improved computerised results service for Dublin Bay racers.

As Afloat.ie reported previously the merger talks flagged for January come after years of deliberation.

Just as Dublin Bay Sailing Club announce a new initiative to combine sportsboats in a new class in April UK Sports Boats have united to form a new class association.

After the success of earlier mixed Sports Boat events, like in Plymouth Race Week & Cowes week, owners and supporters have united their interest in a new class. The newly formed UK Sports Boat Association will be working hard to rally these fun and fast boats together.

It maybe that work completed on the formation of the new class in the UK maybe beneficial to DBSC class and vice versa. One such example of this is coming up with a rule to determine what exactly is a sportsboat?

One of the class initiators, Jochem Visser, said "Many new owners are attracted by their fun & speedy character coupled with the smaller crew and easier logistics. Even though many of them have One Design racing it is becoming ever more apparent that on a local level there is a urgent need for a rating platform which provides fair racing and rewards the better sailors".

The class has simple objectives;

- Promote & support a fair rating system for mixed fleet racing which rewards the better sailors.
- Respect & promote the One-design character within the fleet.
- Represent the class interest to, and affiliate with, local clubs and National sailing authorities.
- Organise an annual Sports Boats Nationals, Season Point Series and local events.

The class is aimed at any Sports Boat with a LOA between 5 and 9.15 meters with aim to include successful boats like the Seascape 18 at the lower end and the Farr 280 at the top end of the class.

The Sports Boat class definitions:

- Ballasted keel boat which caries an asymmetric kite on centreline based pole
- Maximum length overall of 30'(9.15 m)
- Maximum displacement of 2000kg
- Maximum DLR of 100 in which DLR=27.87x(Boat Weight)/Length Waterline^3
- A minimum limit of positive stability of 60 degrees

Information and registration for membership here

Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) will stage its annual Spring Chicken Series, a series of six races to be held on Sunday mornings from February 7th. Racing under modified ECHO handicap, cruisers, cruising boats, one-designs and boats that do not normally race are very welcome.

As an incentive to get people sailing, a boat that takes out a non–sailor (new to sailing) will get a 2% discount on it’s handicap that day. The non-sailor will qualify as such for three races if taken. To qualify names can be registered before sailing on the day.

The Entry fee €60.00 – includes temporary membership of Dublin Bay S.C. and National Y.C.

Entry form and the notice of race are downloadable below.