#hyc – Dun Laoghaire RS200 Champion Sean Craig is among a number of top dinghy sailors moving to the Laser dinghy next month for the Howth Yacht Club's Frostbites starting on November 4th.

The format consists of two short races every Sunday morning with a first gun at 10:45.

Previous top performers Darragh Sherdian and Joe Cull are among the early entries.

The 2011/2012 series was one of the most successful ever with almost 50 boats and a very wide range of standards from high ranked national level sailors to beginners and those new to the laser. Organiser David Quinn says all are welcome and this year Howth Yacht Club will have a special mentoring / team event where the top sailors will mentor.

The Notice of Race and Online Entry now available on the Howth Yacht Club website here.

#hyc – In a break from the high winds that have prevailed so far for Howth's 2012 Autumn league today unusually light and variable conditions in the race area north of Howth allowed the cruiser classes a short but tricky race while the lack of wind inshore for the one-design keelboats conspired against race officer Richard Kissane and his team, leaving them with no option but to abandon racing for the day.

Pat Kelly and team on the J109 'Storm' continue to dominate Class 1 in the IRC division - the competition in this class appears to be for second place, with 'Flashback' now in contention after a second place this weekend, while consolidating their position at the top of the ECHO division.

Dave Cullen's widely campaigned half-tonner 'King One' found form in Class 2 this week, by winning on IRC and placing the boat in contention for overall honours with division leader 'Maximus' and second placed 'Dux'. Maximus will discard their 5th place result today in ECHO, affording them a close lead of 3 points from next best placed 'Bushwakka'.

Team 'Toy Yot' revelled in the light winds to post a victory in Class 3 IRC, three minutes ahead of Kevin Darmody's 'Gecko', but well behind Vince Gaffney and team on 'Alliance II' in the overall standings. 'Alliance II' remain on a 'perfect score' of 3 points following this weeks discard. After today's win in Class 3 ECHO, 'Starlet' now lead 'Goyave' by 3 points at the top of that division.

A win in Class 4 IRC puts Colm Bermingham's 'Bite the Bullet' in equal first place with Philip Dilworth's Grand Soleil 40 'Orna' and sets up some close competition for the remaining two races in this 6-week long series. In the Class 4 ECHO division, 'White Lotus' and crew's win puts them within two points and closes the gap on 'Tiger'.

Stephanie Ennis and Windsor Laudan's 'Demelza' was beaten by Harry Byrne's Sunrise 34 'Alphida' in the Class 5 IRC division while 'Jokers Wild' win in the ECHO division still leaves 'Sandpiper of Howth' in top spot with just 4 points to spare.

Average points were given to the Olympus Team Prize competitors that had their inshore race abandoned due to a lack of wind, leaving the 'Anybody but us' team of 'Orna' (Class 1), 'Valkyrie' (Etchells) and 'King One' (Class 2) ten points in front of "The Lads Again', a team that includes one of Howth's oldest boats (Aura - an 1898 vintage Howth Seventeen) and newest arrivals (Crazy Horse - a J24 new to Howth in 2012) as well as Algie Pearson's Puppeteer 'Trick or Treat'.

#ISA ALL IRELAND - Howth Yacht Club will be rallying behind Robin Hegarty as he represents the Puppeteer class as the club's 2012 champion at the ISA Senior All Ireland Sailing Championship in Tipperary this weekend.

As previously reported on Afloat.ie, Ireland’s 'most prestigious' annual national sailing event will take place from Friday 5 to Sunday 7 October at Lough Derg Yacht Club in Nenagh.

The invitational championship, which began in 1947, will see 21 of Ireland’s leading sailors compete over the three days in the ISA’s fleet of J80 keelboats for the title of 2012 champion and the ISA Helmsman’s Trophy.   

Following a review of the event earlier this year, the championship qualification process has undergone some changes. A total of 16 boats will compete across two fleets of eight on Saturday. 13 of these places are allocated prior to the event; one to the reigning champion, two wild cards and 10 to particular classes based on their attendance figures at national championships.

The remaining places will be filled following an eight boat qualifier on the Friday. There the top three boats will earn their place in Saturday racing. And the top three boats from each fleet on Saturday will progress to Sunday’s final fleet with two places remaining for the top two boats from a two race repechage on Sunday morning.

#hyc – Big westerly winds and a flat sea were the features of the third race of Howth Yacht Club's Autumn League this Sunday. Many of the crews decided to stay ashore this week, following forecasts giving varying wind strengths of between 18 and 30 knots.

The results of this week mean that many classes now have an assortment of boats competing for the top places and the extensive array of silverware while a select few competitors managed to consolidate their leads in their respective divisions.

A 70 degree wind-veer in the middle of the races meant that most crews were spared the decision to hoist spinnakers from that moment, but the remainder of the 'round-the-cans' courses provided few opportunities for boats to gain and lose places.

The forecasted wind took its toll in the early part of the day and might have had its part to play in an incident involving 'Arctutus' and 'Xebec' before their Class 5 start, which saw both boats disqualified after a lengthy protest hearing. Meanwhile in the Etchells class, Simon Knowles and his crew on 'Jabberwocky' had to deal with a de-masting when their backstay gave way under the pressure of the gusting conditions.

Following the completion of their fourth race next week, boats may discard their worst result and a clearer picture will emerge of the overall standings in this jointly sponsored event (Beshoff Motors - Bloody Stream), albeit still with plenty of racing left to complete in this six-race series

#howth – Minister for the Marine, Simon Coveney TD, has signed a significant contract today in Agriculture House for remediation and upgrade development works at Howth Fishery Harbour Centre.

The works will be carried out by an Irish company Wills Bros Ltd., Civil Engineering Contractors, located at Ballylahan Bridge, Foxford, Co. Mayo. The total value of the contract is €868,000. The Consultants on the project are RPS Consulting Engineers.

Howth Fishery Harbour Centre is one of six Fishery Harbour Centres for which Minister Coveney has responsibility. The Shipyard and Syncrolift facilities at the Fishery Harbour Centre are pivotal to the repair of fishing fleet vessels and the maintenance industry as they provide a means of lifting vessels out of the water and working on those vessels in a self contained repair area. This investment in facilities at Howth Fishery Harbour Centre will provide a better working environment for various skilled craftsmen already working in the vessel repair sector while also providing a centre to develop employment opportunities in the sector.

Minister Coveney referred to the many benefits accruing from the investment and stated; "the investment here today will not only improve the facilities at the harbour for vessel owners and the ship repair industry but will serve to boost employment opportunities in the industry".

The works were, he said, being carried out in an Irish harbour by an Irish company with huge expertise and provide the potential to reap significant benefits to the Irish economy.

#hyc – Boat of the year, Pat Kelly's J109 'Storm', reveled in lively conditions to take first place in Class 1 IRC of Howth's Autumn league yesterday, but had to share the honours for the ECHO prize with the Reilly-Chambers owned 'Crazy Horse'. Autumn league race one results here.

Third was Stephen O'Flaherty's Spirit 54 'Soufriere' and Ross McDonald and his team on 'Equinox', who will have been pleased to take 3rd place in IRC by a margin of 19 seconds after over two hours of racing.

A fresh westerly wind provided the 114 entries to the 2012 League with a lively start on the first of this 6-race series.

Nine classes in two separate fleets enjoyed perfect conditions with 15-20 knot conditions and race officers David Lovegrove and Richard Kissane made the most of the opportunity that facilitated ideal 'round the cans' racing.

In Class 2 Patrick Kyne's 'Maximus' dominated both IRC and ECHO divisions and only 11 seconds separated 'Dux', 'Sunburn' and 'King One' in that sequence in IRC. Malahide Yacht Club's Vincent O'Shea and James O'Brien in Buskwakka proved that the weather was on their side with a 2nd place in ECHO.

Howth's Vince Gaffney in 'Alliance II' showed the other boats in Class 3 that he will be the one to watch over the next 5 weeks, beating 'Starlet' and 'Goyave' in IRC with more than 3 minutes to spare - quite a margin in a day full of very close results. Eddie Bourke and his team on 'Starlet' were 1st in the ECHO division, with Malahide's 'Goyave' and 'Tobago' keeping the pressure up immediately behind.

Paul Tully and his crew on Dun Laoghaire's 'White Lotus' must have had the Harris-Hughes owned 'Tiger' baring their teeth when they finished ahead of them in the White Sails Class 4 ECHO division by just 1 second. They will be strongly challenged in this series by NYC's Philip Dilworth and crew on his Grand Soleil 42 'Orna' who finished 3rd but took 1st prize in the IRC division and their record in recent Howth events means that they will certainly be the boat to beat in this class.

The Class 5 White Sails race was won by Peter and Declan McCabe's 'Arcturus', narrowly pushing 'Sandpiper' into second place in ECHO. Stephanie Ennis and Windsor Laudan's classic Club Shamrock 'Demelza' took the honours in IRC and will be a tough boat to beat in this class.

On the one-design racecourse, Simon Knowles and team on his Etchells 'Jabberwocky' just finished ahead of Mike Evans's 'Valkyrie', with a gap of only 16 seconds separating them.

Howth's Flor O'Driscoll in the J24 'Hard on Port' won a close race from Stefan Hyde and his team on RCYC's 'Nyah', closely followed by Mossy Shanahan's 'Crazy Horse' and Brian McDowell and Noel Davidson's 'Scandal'.

Twenty entries and a very busy start line for the Puppeteer class saw two boats OCS at the start gun, but not Susan Sheridan's 'Ibis', which finished 1st ahead of 'in-form' boats 'Gold Dust' and 'Eclipse', with Susan and team also taking the Handicap prize.

In the Squib Class, Ronan MacDonnell's 'Fantome also did 'the double' winning both Scratch and Handicap divisions.

Turvey brothers Brian and Conor with their crew in the Howth 17 'Isobel' took line honours from 'Pauline' while the winner on handicap was Bryan and Harriette Lynch's 'Echo'.

Ten teams are be competing for the Olympus Team Trophy and the standings after this first week show the Howth trio of 'Crazy Horse' (Class 1), 'Bite the Bullet' (Class 4) and 'Voyager' (Class 5) leading the field by 14 points.

#hyc – HOWTH YACHT CLUB (HYC) AUTUMN LEAGUE (RACE) 16/09/2012 Class 1 IRC: 1, Storm P Kelly HYC/RSC; 2, Crazy Horse Chambers/Reilly HYC; 3, Equinox R McDonald HYC; Class 1 ECHO: 1=, Crazy Horse Chambers/Reilly HYC; 1=, Storm P Kelly HYC/RSC; 3, Soufriere S O'Flaherty HYC; Class 2 IRC: 1, Maximus P Kyne HYC; 2, Dux A Gore-Grimes HYC; 3, Sunburn I Byrne HYC; Class 2 ECHO: 1, Maximus P Kyne HYC; 2, Bushwakka O'Shea/O'Brien MYC; 3, C'est la Vie Flannelly/Others HYC; Class 3 IRC: 1, Alliance 11 V Gaffney HYC; 2, Starlet Bourke/Others HYC; 3, Goyave Camier/Fitzpatrick MYC; Class 3 ECHO: 1, Starlet Bourke/Others HYC; 2, Goyave Camier/Fitzpatrick MYC; 3, Tobago Ray/Others MYC; Class 4 ECHO: 1, White Lotus P Tully DunM; 2, Tiger Harris/Hughes HYC; 3, Orna P Dilworth NYC; Class 4 IRC: 1, Orna P Dilworth NYC; 2, Bite the Bullet C Bermingham HYC; 3, Tiger Harris/Hughes HYC; Class 5 ECHO: 1, Arctutus P & D McCabe HYC; 2, Sandpiper A Knowles HYC; 3, Jokers Wild G Knaggs HYC; Class 5 IRC: 1, Demelza Ennis/Laudan HYC; 2, Alphida H Byrne HYC; 3, Voyager J Carton HYC; Puppeteer SCRATCH: 1, Ibis S Sheridan HYC; 2, Gold Dust Walls/Browne HYC; 3, Eclipse A & R Hegarty HYC; Puppeteer HPH: 1, Ibis S Sheridan HYC; 2, Mayfly Guinan/Browne HYC; 3, Gannet T Chillingworth HYC; Squib SCRATCH: 1, Fantome R MacDonell HYC; 2, Too Dee D Sheahan HYC; 3, Puffin E Harte HYC; Squib HPH: 1, Fantome R MacDonell HYC; 2, Puffin E Harte HYC; 3, Too Dee D Sheahan HYC; 17 Footer SCRATCH: 1, Isobel B & C Turvey HYC; 2, Pauline O'Doherty/Ryan HYC; 3, Rita Lynch/Curley HYC; 17 Footer HPH: 1, Pauline O'Doherty/Ryan HYC; 2, Isobel B & C Turvey HYC; 3, Rita Lynch/Curley HYC; Etchells SCRATCH: 1, Jabberwocky S Knowles HYC; 2, Valkyrie M Evans HYC; 3, Glance O'Reilly/Dix HYC; J 24 SCRATCH: 1, Hard on Port F O'Driscoll HYC; 2, Nyah S Hyde RCYC; 3, Crazy Horse M Shanahan HYC

Howth Yacht Club's Autumn League, sponsored this year by Beshoff Motors, gets its six-race schedule underway this Sunday (September 16th) morning, with over 100 entries in nine classes expected on the two starting lines.

As in previous years, the White Sails Division accounts for the largest entry with 22 boats competing while the Puppeteers and Class 3 will have competitive fleets of 16 and 14 respectively.

The successful format of six round-the-cans races will be repeated, with five successive Sundays and the final day's racing on Saturday 20th October.

The Heineken Trophy will be presented to the best overall winner and the Olympus Trophy will go to the best team of three boats (each boat from a different class) declared before the first race.

#autumnleague – Howth Yacht Club's Autumn League, which is expected to attract over 130 entries, starts next Sunday 16th September and runs for six weeks until late October.

Racing will be provided for 10 classes - five cruiser classes and five one-designs - Etchells, J/24s, Puppeteers, Squibs and Howth 17s.

The successful format will be repeated - namely, six round-the-cans races on five successive Sundays and the final day's racing on Saturday 20th October.

The Heineken Trophy will be presented to the best overall winner and the Olympus Trophy will go to the best team of three boats (each boat from a different class) declared before the first race.

"We are looking forward to another competitive series," said event chairman James Markey, "and can guarantee our usual high standards of race management and après-sailing activities."

#j24 – BMW Ireland has been confirmed as the title sponsor of the J/24 World Championship at Howth Yacht Club in late August 2013 when up to sixty boats from thirteen countries are expected to compete.

One of the major regattas on the Irish sailing calendar for next year, the BMW J/24 Worlds has already attracted interest from J/24 sailors in the USA, Canada, UK, Netherlands, Hungary, Sweden, France, Japan, Monaco, Italy, Germany and Greece.

Racing will take place over five days (August 26th-30th) and will be preceded by registration, measurement and practice from the 22nd. The Principal Race Officer will be ISAF International Race Officer David Lovegrove (IRL) while ISAF International Judge Bob Milner (UK) will chair the International Jury.

The J/24 is the biggest and most widespread one-design keelboat class in the world with fleets in 32 countries and is sailed in half a dozen bases in Ireland. Twelve Irish boats have already qualified for the Worlds after a series of regional and national championships over the past two seasons.

"We are delighted that BMW Ireland has agreed to continue its support of major sailing events at Howth, having sponsored the 2011 J/24 Europeans and this year's ICRA Cruiser Nationals. The partnership has worked well and we look forward to a top class event next year," said Derek Bothwell, Chairman of the organising committee.

John Ives, Managing Director of BMW Ireland, added: "Our connection with sailing and, in particular, our experience with those two major events means we are only too happy to work with Howth Yacht Club again to support such a prestigious world-class event in Ireland."

Howth Yacht Club has previously hosted seven World and European Championships in the past, testimony to its ability to host major regattas. The BMW J/24 Worlds is the biggest event in a programme of 15 local, national and international events being staged by the club in 2013.