The former Irish Half-Tonner Ghost Raider is performing well at this week's Half-Ton Classic Cup in Norway.

As regular Afloat readers will recall, Howth's Nobby Reilly put Ghost Raider up for sale last season, and the eh, now uniquely named, 'The Evil / Bagdad2 friends' is topping this week's 34-boat fleet at the Hankø Half Ton Classics Cup 2023 in Norway under skipper Bjørn Willam Lindgren.

Prior to Ghost Raider', this exquisite Beret-design was the all-beating 'Checkmate XVIII', skippered by Nigel Biggs.

From highly optimised Half Tonners from the '70s and '80s to the modern production boats from Corby, X-Yachts and J Boats, the fascinating mix of boats in Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta IRC Two appears to have it all. 

Overall, this  20-boat class has a wide range of cruisers studded with a few stand-out racers who can run away with the prize if they come prepared with a decent crew, but it may also be the hardest class to call given this weekend's wind conditions showing both light and strong winds. 

Five boats are UK visitors, one from the Isle of Man, but the bulk is Dublin Based crews.

On paper, this month's Sovereign's Cup Champion Swuzzelbubble from Royal Cork Yacht Club is the boat to beat, and if James and Dave Dwyer's boat is to be beaten, then the challenge most likely comes from Darren Wright's Half Tonner Mata. Both have excellent pedigree and are exceptionally strong in light winds.

Darren Wright's Half-Tonner Mata from Howth Photo: Afloat

The late Bruce Lyster (on left) as his hugely successful Half Tonner Swuzzlebubble finishes first in the late August 1980 Abersoch-Howth Race to add the ISORA Championship Title to a season of national and international success. 43 years later, Swuzzlebubble is back on Dublin Bay seeking more silverware this week at Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta Photo: W M Nixon

If windy though, expect another exciting battle at the top to be amongst the well-rated J97s. With three in the mix, Dun Laoghaire's Windjammer, the DBSC Cruisers Two champion with Noel Butler driving. Colin Kavanagh's fast lower-rated Jeneral Lee and Stephen Quinn's experienced Lambay Rules crew from Howth Yacht Club will keep it tight.

Interestingly, a smaller J92, Jack from East Antrim, sailed by Gavin Doig, is also in this class. 

Lindsay Casey's Royal St. George J97 Windjammer is one of three such designs in Class Two IRC Two of Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta 2023 Photo: Afloat

The conditions, if windy, will again bring the X-boats into contention, with Dux of Howth having an excellent record in past Dun Laoghaire races.

Howth Yacht Club X302 campaigner Dux - strong performer in breeze

The Corby's are always quick - Gavin Doyle's Duff Lite comes off the back of recent RORC Two-handed success and Northern Ireland's Elixir is also lining up.

Irish skipper Gavin Doyle from the National Yacht Club won the Royal Ocean Racing Club's (RORC) De Guingand Bowl Offshore Race in May Photo: Paul Wyeth/RORC 

An outside bet for the podium might be the legendary three-quarter tonner Scenario Encore skippered by Dave Gould of the DMYC making a reappearance this season.

Dave Gould's three-quarter tonner Scenario Encore competing at the Sovereign's Cup in June Photo: Bob Bateman

FNGr8, the optimised First Class 8, having performed so well at 2019 VDLR, is back as the smallest boat in Class Two. Renamed 'Allig8r', she is under the new ownership of a Dublin Bay syndicate of six friends Paddy Ryan, Mark Hennessy, Peter Levins, Colm O'Buachalla, Conor Twomey and Brendan Foley. Regular Afloat readers will recall her as the black-hulled 2018 Cork Week champion, skippered by Rory Fekkes from Carrickfergus Sailing Club.

"This is our first real test of the crew and boat. A top-ten result would be great in our first season with the boat and such a strong field. We are very interested to see how we go against the rest, as probably the smallest boat in the class", Foley told Afloat.

Early forecast

With so much riding on the optimum set-up for the prevailing conditions, an early peek at weather forecasts indicates there will be a breeze and plenty of it to produce a range of conditions over the four days. Medium to strong conditions with winds from a southerly quadrant will build from and provide some top-class conditions. Starting Thursday (July 6th), there will be medium conditions up to 13 mph with strong gusts for the first afternoon races. From there, the breeze is forecast to strengthen up to 20 mph with gusts up to 30 mph and with its southerly direction, the six courses on the Dublin Bay race track can anticipate a big sea state to boot. Sunday's last races, however, may see a drop in wind strength for a light to medium-air conclusion to the 2023 event. 

The three top Fingal-based classic Half Tonners - Patrick Boardman's King One from Rush, and Harmony (Jonny Swan) and Checkmate XV (Dave Cullen) from Howth - are having themselves a rare old time in the
17-strong fleet in the RORC's Half Ton Cup series in the Solent this week, dicing among themselves for the three top places as though they were in a race round Lambay.

As of this morning (Friday), King One holds first place with Harmony second and Checkmate XV third on what is longtime Half Ton stalwart Dave Cullen's last hurrah as owner, while Cork's Swuzzlebubble (David & James Dwyer) is in tenth. Even with the intense level of cut-throat competition, it now seems likely that the main prize will be coming home north of the Liffey in due course.

At the end of this week, a convoy of four Irish Half-Tonners head for next week’s Half Ton Classic Cup.

The boats are Dave Cullen’s Checkmate XV, Jonny Swan’s Harmony, Dave Kelly and Patrick Boardman’s King One and the recently acquired Dwyer family’s Swuzzlebubble.

All of these boats have at some stage won the Half Ton Cup or Half Ton Classic Cup and with the event postponed for two years due to Covid, the competition should be fierce.

RORC is hosting the event with an expected fleet of over 20 boats participating.

Jonny Swan’s Half Tonner Harmony from Howth Yacht Club Photo: Afloat

Racing includes classic Solent Round the Cans races, Windward Leeward and a long offshore that is normally Round the Island.

This year’s event welcomes a Norwegian team for the first time with a large fleet of over 20 boats rapidly growing in Hanko in Norway.

Dave Kelly and Patrick Boardman’s King One Photo: Bob Bateman

Form boats include all of the Irish boats with big modifications to Harmony. Checkmate XV is the current title holder, whilst Swuzzlebubble remains unbeaten when she has participated.

Dave Cullen’s Checkmate XV is the current Half Ton Classic Cup title holder Photo: Afloat

King One suffered a marina fire, so the crew have been flat out to get this boat to the line with a well-practised crew that includes Cork's Nin and Rob O’Leary.

Apart from the heavily modified boats known as the Protos, there is also a sub-division for classic boats in original configuration whilst many argue that the real trophy is the “Half Ton Spirit” trophy which is awarded to the team who best demonstrates the camaraderie and spirit of this most friendly class.

The Half Ton Classic Cup in Cowes has been cancelled in July. It is the second time the event has cancelled due to COVID.

Unfortunately, with most of the fleet hailing from Belgium, France and Ireland, it isn’t expected to have the crews all vaccinated in time and travel is also still likely to be difficult, Irish Half-Ton sailor, Dave Cullen of Howth Yacht Club told Afloat

In its latest newsletter, the class is told "Given the actual sanitary conditions and the general tendency for this summer, we regrettably have had to take the decision, together with RORC, to postpone the Cowes HTCC for another year".

"It is our aim to have an event that combines both racing and a social programme for all sailors, which is essential to us as a Class, to you as participants and to RORC as organisers".

The Cup is now scheduled for Cowes on 18-22nd July 2022.

When in doubt, send ’em round Lambay. That seems to be the feeling among Howth Yacht Club’s race officers as this uncertain semi-season gradually cranks into action. And with Saturday’s early-start Aqua Double-Hander Challenge seeing a greyish morning giving a fulfilled promise of sunshine to come, the trusty big island seven miles to the north of Howth Harbour came up on the course card with some windward work to get there and gentle progress back, all to fit in with the overall idea of a comfortably-finished event, well on time for a socially-distanced party.

Out on their own. Stephen Harris and his daughter Jenny looked to have it all sewn up with their First 40.7 Tiger, but the curse of having a big lead in the water came all too true as they sailed into a flat patch which others managed to avoid. Photo: Judith Malcolm

What with a goodly selection of cruiser-racers, and all eight of the club and privately-owned J/80s showing their faces, plus a choice selection of Puppeteer 22s, there were 38 boats racing in idyllic conditions. And in the proper order of things, as they came round the island it was Stephen and Jenny Harris in the First 40.7 Tiger who held a good lead – all of twenty minutes.

But halfway back to Ireland’s Eye, the Leader’s Curse of being first to sail into a wind-hole struck down Tiger’s formerly stylish progress, and she sat there for all of that twenty minutes and more while back along the the fleet, Howth’s nimble flotilla of Half Tonners were best at wriggling their way towards the new breeze – a summer wind from the west – which brought everyone to the finish after around four hours of racing, every minute of it hugely appreciated following the pandemic-imposed drought.

“Great to be sailing again!” Ben Colwell and his father Richard (Commodore ICRA) on their J/109 Outrajeous, which they sailed to third place in the White Sails Division. Photo: Ben Colwell

“Those Half Tonners are just too nippy for their own good…..” The Big Picture (left, finished second overall) showing ahead of Outrajeous. Photo: Judith Malcolm

Sam O’Byrne and Ryan Glynn read the wind-shift to perfection in Mata to lead fellow Half Tonner The Big Picture (Mike Evans & Des Flood) by a significant margin, which in turn saw the Evans boat clear of Stephen Quinn’s attractive J/97 Lambay Rules to provide the top three in Open IRC.

The White Sails Division was good day out for Kieran Jameson and Michael Wright on the former’s slightly-modified Sigma 38 and they took the gong with second going to the Malahide McAlister crew of Fore 5, while ICRA Commodore Richard Colwell with son Ben on the J/109 Outrajeous polled well to take third.

Kieran Jameson looks after the trim while Michael Wright does the helming on Changeling, winner of the White Sails Division. Photo: Judith Malcolm

Diana Kissane and Graham Curran got it all together with the chartered HYC-owned J/109 Cryptohouse despite the challenges of the private sector, with brothers-in-law Ribert Dix and Richard Burrows bringing Jennie in second ahead of Paddy O’Neill’s Mojo.

The Puppeteer 22s will usually race with four or maybe five, but owners Alan Pearson and Alan Blay with Trick or Treat upped their personal work-rate to win from Honey Badger, with Neil Murphy bringing Yellow Peril in third.

Keeping the weight amidships, and going well - Diana Kissane on helm and Graham Curran on everything else as the club-owned J/80 Cryptohouse heads for the class win

As for the Howth 17s, they decided through the week that in a fore-shortened season it wasn’t fair to squander a precious Saturday by leading half of their crew ashore, so they sailed a normal fully-crewed club race. But now they may find themselves up against a revolutionary movement to dry-sail the boats, as Gerry Comferford (who is building his own completely new Howth 17 up at his house on the hill) was sufficiently fired up with fresh enthusiasm to launch the Class Association-owned almost-new Orla with just two hours to go to the start.

And then, didn’t he go out and win, Ian Malcolm taking second in Aura with the hotshot syndicate third in Deilginis, while a frequent contender for a place in the Howth 17 frame dreamed the afternoon away in waiting for the tide to return and give sufficient thickness of water to a temporarily very thin bit out at Ireland’s Eye, but then it was that kind of day.
Not quite a horizon job, but near enough – Mata leads The Big Picture towards the finish. Photo: Judith Malcolm

Aqua Double-Hander at Howth Yacht Club Results 

Aqua Double-Hander All Classes IRC: lst Mata (sailed by Stephen O’Byrne & Liam Glynn), 2nd The Big Picture (Mike Evans & Des Flood), 3rd Lambay Rules (Stephen Quinn and Kieran Cotter).

White Sails IRC: 1st Changeling (Kieran Jameson & Michael Wright), 2nd Force Five (R & J McAllister) 3rd Outrajeous (Richard & Ben Colwell).

J/80 1st Cryptohouse (Diana Kissane & Graham Curran), 2nd Jeannie (Robert Dix & Richard Burrows), 3rd Mojo (Paddy O’Neill & Aaron Jones).

Puppeteer 22s 1st Trick or Treat (Plan Pearson & Alan Blay), 2nd Honey Badger (Burke & May), 3rd Yellow Peril (Neil Murphy & P Costello.

Howths 17s (Club Course) 1st Orla (Gerry Comerford), 2nd Aura (Ian Malcolm) 3rd Deilginis (Massey/Toomey/Kenny).

There is a  new half-ton leader in division two of the ICRA national championships at the Royal St. George Yacht Club as overnight leader Johnny Swan's Harmony from Howth Yacht Club drops to fourth overall but optimised Irish Half Tonners continue to dominate proceedings on Dublin Bay and occupy the top six places overall.

The Royal Irish Yacht Club's Nigel Biggs, who is based in North Wales, is now four points ahead in Checkmate XVIII. 

Half Tonners jostle for position at the start of race four that was recalled and restarted under a black flag by race officer David Lovegrove Photo: Afloat

As regular Afloat readers will know, Biggs has been working up this latest Checkmate over the last two seasons. The boat is the old Emiliano Zapata, ex Dick Dastardly, ex French Beret, ex Concorde from 1985. As with his previous two successful half–tonners (Harmony and Checkmate XV) she has been 'breathed on' by Wicklow yacht designer Mark Mills with a revised sailplan and keel. 

The brand new Howth Yacht Club Half-Ton campaign of the Wright Brothers is second overall and Royal Cork visitor Miss Whiplash skippered by John Downing lies third. 

"It's an exceptional event with very close racing, just seconds between the boats only," said Kieran O'Connell, Rear Admiral for Keel Boat Racing at the Royal Cork Yacht Club on Miss Whiplash.  That comment was a reference in particular to the third race of the day, the windiest when six or seven half-tonners were lined-up on the downwind leg, almost close enough to walk across.

The Wright's Mata (IRL 2794) from Howth Yacht Club is second Photo: Afloat

Royal Cork's Miss Whiplash skippered by John Downing is lying in third place

Defending champion Dave Cullen in Checkmate XV lies fifth with only 9.5 nett points separating the top six and two races left to sail in the championships tomorrow.

Half Ton Classics World Champion – Dave Cullen's Checkmate XV Photo: Afloat

The X332 Equinox sandwiched between the top performing Half Tonners in the tight approach to a leeward mark Photo: Afloat

The well-sailed 1720 Antix Beag is two points outside the top ten in 11th Photo: Afloat

Fintan Cairns and Denis Hewitt's Mills 31 Raptor is eighth Photo: Afloat

Two RStGYC J80s are competing for U25-honours in Class Two Photo: Afloat

Results are here The final two races are scheduled tomorrow from 11 am with breeze forecast to be westerly at eight knots on Dublin Bay

Read all the latest from the ICRA National Championships in one handy link here.

The attraction of boats and the sea as a year-round fascination is something which by-passes many people. And even in summer – particularly if it’s a typical Irish summer – you’d sometimes be hard put to explain the appeal of our eccentric sport in its multiple manifestations to those who were only taking a polite interest in the first place. W M Nixon adds to the mystery by considering the unexpected interactions which come up on a typical day as the new season creaks into action.

“It’s an old Boston Whaler” says Grant McEwen, “a very old Boston Whaler. Long forgotten too, by the look of it. Most people would have thought it was fit only for the landfill site But the new owner wants it restored to best original order, proper Concours d’Elegance stuff. What do you think of that?”

“It’s absolutely marvellous” says I. “By my reckoning, the Boston Whaler in all its manifestations is classic. You just can’t do too much good work by a proper classic boat. Go for it!” 

The men who work on boats in hidden workshops – Alan Power and Grant McEwen out the back of Malahide. Photo: W M Nixon

This tired-looking Boston Whaler may be as much as fifty years old, but with the proper restoration skills in Malahide she’ll be brought to Concours d’Elegance standards as a real classic. Photo: W M Nixon

We’re in one of those semi-secret little places where boat nuts gather. It’s a yard up the back of Malahide out the back of a small business park, a place where little one and two-man businesses - some of them in the marine industry - have clustered, because the reality of waterfront property in the Dublin area is that it has become much too expensive to provide decent premises for boat businesses operating on very tight margins.

Yet in these hidden and unassuming places, you’ll find some really amazing things going on. But they’re amazing only if you’re a dyed-in-the-wool boat enthusiast. So we’re not even talking about all sailing people here. Some sailing and boating people just don’t want to know about the hidden details of boats and their equipment, and how things came to be that way. They just want to go sailing, or zip around the sea under power. The work behind the scenes is not for them.

But for the rest of us, sailing and boating are of heightened interest because they’re vehicle sports. The vehicles themselves are every bit as interesting as the sport you can have with them. And from that, of course, there springs the notion that with a bit of change here and there - a minor tweak of this, and a minor adjustment of that – then hey presto, you’ve got a much improved boat.

As it happens, the finding of this Boston Whaler brought in for the Lazarus treatment was a fortuitously associated event, as I’d called to this secret yard in Malahide to shoot the breeze with one of Grant’s neighbours, Alan Power. He is known among the cognoscenti as the man to go to when you want your boat modified in interesting ways. He’s the kind of genius with epoxies and whatnot who will cheerfully take on a challenge which other workers around boats couldn’t even contemplate, let alone try.

Yet Alan will take on the job, and he has done so with such success in recent years that he has had an additional new shed built on the only spare bit of ground left in this secret yard, a shed big enough to accommodate two Half Tonners side by side.

“We’ve a World Champion out the back”. Re-vitalised Half Tonners The Big Picture (left) and World Champion Checkmate in Power Marine’s new shed in Malahide. Photo W M Nixon

Half Tonners are boats around the 30ft LOA mark which were all the rage as the hottest international level rating keelboat class around 30 years ago, when they were so highly-regarded that the likes of Olympic sailing legend Paul Elvstrom of Denmark got intensely involved. But this level of participation ultimately led to a sort of self-immolation of the class, even though the boats were still around, though now racing as ordinary handicap craft.

But as the years have passed, people have come to realize that the Half Tonner is a very manageable proposition as a classic, and thanks to modern construction, many examples of the great designs of the class’s golden years have survived remarkably well. All they need is a bit of TLC and maybe a bit of repair and tweaking here and there, and this is where Alan Power of Power Marine comes in, for no-one does it better.

The irony of it all is that Alan himself is a powerboat fanatic, both building and racing. Last weekend he was competing with the Irish contingent in the major international powerboat event at Torquay in Devon, Rounds 1 & 2 of the RYA British OCR (Offshore Racing Circuit) Championship. Roughly speaking, it’s the powerboat equivalent of saloon car racing, and this time round it was Alan’s brother Mark, navigated by Carl Kendellen, who showed best with a sixth in class and ninth overall. But in times past Alan has frequently been on the podium, and he has some Gold Medals to show for his efforts. So now that he has the new shed up and running, he has been able to devote his original shed to one of his personal pet projects, a very hungry looking powerboat to his own designs.

Mark Power’s boat was the most successful of the Irish contingent at last weekend’s Offshore Circuit Racing (ORC) event in Torquay in Devon

This British competitor at last weekend’s Torquay series was a successful Power Marine export order

Powering ahead. Mark Power and Carl Kendellen find themselves in the sweet place in last weekend’s racing

It may seem odd that the development of a new prototype racing powerboat is in a sense being funded by the maintenance and modification requirements of handicap racing sailboats, but either way it’s specialist boat-building, and the skills are very transferable.

Fortunately, Alan hasn’t set himself too strict a deadline on this particular new craft, for with the economy picking up again, people are getting around to commissioning those modifications on sailboats that they’ve had in mind for some time, and as well there’s always a steady stream of repair work at Power Marine.

A month ago, the new shed was busy with two of the top Half Tonners in dock, Dave Cullen’s World Champion Classic half Tonner Checkmate XV and the Evans brothers’ The Big Picture. Checkmate is now afloat and competing, but The Big Picture is having further mods made, and meanwhile waiting outside is Ken Lawless’s handy little Quarter Tonner Cartoon, which is in the yard to get the Power treatment for her rudder.

Ken Lawless’s Quarter Tonner Cartoon in Power Marine for some fine tuning of the rudder

Once again, this is where boat nuts and ordinary sailors part company. For your ordinary sailor, a rudder is just a rudder. But for boat nuts, a rudder is a source of endless fascination, an item for almost eternal modification. What with creating the best-possible endplate effect at the hull, or reducing turbulence from the trailing edge, for your boat nut there’s not really a rudder on the planet which can’t be improved, however infinitesimally small the mods might be.

For non-enthusiasts, this might seem like something akin to debating how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, but I remained happily absorbed in a brief lecture by Alan – complete with sketches on a whiteboard – on the ideal configuration for the trailing edge of a rudder, which is not a knife edge as you’d expect, but is instead a small flat cutoff at about 45 degrees.

The artist in his studio – Alan Power sketching out the ideal trailing edge for a Quarter Tonner’s rudder. Photo: W M Nixon

The visit to Power Marine was prompted by a sunny Bob Bateman photo we had here on Afoat.ie a few days back of a Half Tonner swanning along in classic yachting style. This evoked contrasting memories of seeing Alan Power back in early April when work was going flat out on the two Half Tonners, and there was ample evidence of the dust-creating ability of an adult angle-grinder, with the man himself emerging from the back of the shed looking like something out of a horror movie. For sure, it’s wonderful to think of people sailing along in that healthy style as shown by the Bateman photo. But just now and again it does no harm to remember how much effort has to go into bringing a boat such as a vintage Half Tonner up to full racing potential.

Champagne sailing. It was this idyllic image on Afloat.ie which prompted a visit to the dusty reality of a modern boatworking shed. Photo: Robert Bateman

Yet it would be pointless for all this effort to be put through in dusty premises unless the customers go out and sail and race the boat with the same dedication, and all credit to Dave Cullen, he does that very thing, and became our Sailor of the Month last August for trailing Checkmate XV to Belgium and winning the Half Ton Classics 2015.

He has an even busier season planned this year, as Checkmate has work to do at Dave’s home port of Howth in the ICRA Nationals from 10th to 12th June, but then a few days later he moves into a different scene with the complete charter of the Kelly family’s J/109 Storm, which becomes Euro Car Parks for the Volvo Round Ireland race on June 18th, crewed by five of the Checkmates plus Maurice Prof O’Connell - as the Checkmates who won the Half Ton Worlds make up a Who’s Who of Irish sailing talent, this is one potent challenge.

But Checkmate herself isn’t forgotten, for in August she has to defend her world title in Falmouth, which is as lovely a place to sail as you’ll find in a many a weeks voyaging. It’s all a very long way from a busy boatworking shed somewhere out the back of Malahide. But that’s the way it is with this crazy sport of ours.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it a bath……? No, it’s the mould for the new cathedral hull raceboat from Power Marine, which will be slightly similar to the red machine in the poster on the wall. Photo: W M Nixon

#dlregatta – With the Kinsale ICRA Nats/Sovereigns Trophy 2015 very successfully concluded last weekend, and a classic Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race put stylishly in place before that, the feeling of another sailing summer busily in progress is all-pervasive. But while the image projected may well be one of stately progress by the cruiser-racer fleets along the Irish coast, taking in an offshore race here and a regatta there with much leisurely cruising in between, the reality is usually otherwise. For those boats doing significant segments of the programme, it's a case of fitting chosen events into the usual hectic early summer life of work and family commitments and exams and everything else, with the re-location of boats to the next venue being a hurried task undertaken by delivery crews.

Next week sees the mid-season peak of the sailing summer, with the four day Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta 2015 in Dublin Bay from Thursday July 9th to Sunday July 12th. In a way it is an amalgamation of all that has has already occurred in this year's season, together with new elements to make it a unique sailfest which celebrates the fact that the citizens of Ireland's capital city and their guests can be conveniently sailing and racing within a very short distance of the heart of town. W M Nixon sets the scene

In the dozen or so years since its inception, the biennial Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta has settled itself firmly into the sailing scene as an exceptionally varied event in terms of the boats and classes taking part. There are five regular cruiser-racer classes, plus an offshore division, fourteen one design keelboat classes, and nine dinghy classes. And although there are contenders from Ireland's north coast and from the Cork area and south coast too, together with one gallant entry from Galway, it is essentially an Irish Sea Sailfest, though with a remarkably strong Scottish presence.

However, it was on the coast of Wales at 8.0pm last night that this sailing celebration began, with an ISORA Race starting in Holyhead and heading for Dun Laoghaire to set this large and complex programme into action towards a culmination on Dublin Bay in eight days time with the conclusion of VDLR2015.

2015 marks the Bicentennial of the Royal Dee YC, which was founded in 1815 on the Cheshire shores of the River Dee estuary where northwest England marches with northeast Wales. Originally the Dee Yacht Club (and founded, it's said, a month or two before the Royal Yacht Squadron came into being in the south of England, making the RDYC the second-oldest Royal yacht club in England after the Royal Thames), the Cheshire club became the Royal Dee YC in 1847.

Although the great prosperity of Liverpool in the 19th century saw the club's fleet of substantial yachts gathered in the Dee and then increasingly in the Mersey, by the late 1900s it was looking to the Menai Straits area as the focus of its keelboat events. As well, the completion of Holyhead breakwater in 1873 added a new and important harbour to its list of possible big boat sailing locations, and there was an increase in the number of cross-channel "matches" which the Royal Dee and the Royal Mersey, in conjunction with the Dublin Bay clubs, had already been running for some years.

A Royal Alfred YC cross-channel match from Dublin Bay to Holyhead gets under way in 1888. Cross-channel links were strong in the latter half of the 19th Century, and with the new breakwater completed at Holyhead in 1873, a new venue was available both for the Irish clubs and those on the other side such as the Royal Dee and the Royal Mersey

The bicentenary logo of the Royal Dee YC. In 1815, this club on the Cheshire coast was founded shortly before the Royal Yacht Squadron in the souh of England, whose Bicentennial is being celebrated at the end of July.

Dun Laoghaire saw its first regatta staged in 1828, and participation by yachts from the northwest of England and North Wales was regularly recorded. This is the Royal St George YC regatta of 1871.

So when we say that the Royal Dee has always been a stalwart of offshore racing in the Irish Sea, we're not referring to a story spanning only the 20th and 21st Centuries. On the contrary, it goes well back into the 1800s. And now, with the revival of keelboat sailing in the Mersey with several of Liverpool's myriad docks being given over to recreational use, we have in a sense come full circle with enthusiastic Dublin Bay support of the Bicentennial celebrations reflecting sailing links which go back almost 200 years

The Lyver Trophy is the Royal Dee's premier offshore challenge, and this year it is special, as it's a fully-accredited RORC event counting for points in the annual championship, and a highlight of the ISORA Programme 2015. It's start scheduled for yesterday evening in Holyhead will see the fleet – mostly regular ISORA contenders – sail a course of at least a hundred miles before finishing in Dun Laoghaire. Then as VDLR 2015 gets under way, races in it, combined with the Lyver Trophy results, will count as part of a series towards finding an overall winner of the RDYC Bicentennial Trophy.

Only entrants in the Lyver Trophy race are eligible, and for that race itself – which can be followed on the Averycrest Yellowbrick Tracker - the favourite has to be the Shanahan family's J/109 Ruth, still buoyed up by her great victory in the Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race three weeks ago.

Back in The Bay – the Shanahan family's J/109 Ruth will be back in her home waters of Dublin Bay after winning the Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race and completing the Lyver Trophy Race from Holyhead which started last night. Photo: David O'Brien

At the other end of the size scale, the VDLR2015 Dublin Bay programme includes several dinghy classes, and the biggest fleet will be mustered by the International GP 14s, who have designated the racing in Dublin Bay as their Leinster Championship. In an interview with Sailing on Saturday in March, VDLR Chairman Tim Goodbody emphasised that, overall, the event should be seen as a regatta rather than a championship, and for most boats that's just what it will be. But the GP 14s with their great esprit de corps have always done things their own way, and with their compact boat size – albeit comprising a large fleet of dinghies – they reckon they can get in a proper championship while sharing in the fun of the event.

The brothers John and Donal McGuinness of Moville Sailing Club in Donegal are expected to be among the pace-setters in the GP 14 class with their superb Alistair Duffin-built boat. Photo: W M Nixon

The GP 14 Ulsters 2015 were recently won on Lough Erne by Shane MacCarthy & Damian Bracken of Greystones

As to who is favourite, the McGuinness brothers – Donal and John - from Moville in Donegal, with their top-of-the-line Duffin boat built in Northern Ireland, have to be in the reckoning after being top Irish at last year's Worlds on Strangford Lough, but there's fresh blood in the fleet with the newest class developing at Youghal, while this year's recent Ulster Championship on Lough Erne was won by the Greystones duo of Shane MacCarthy and Damian Bracken.

The dozen and more boats coming south from Scotland, most of them substantial cruiser-racers, are testimony to a growing trend in sailing on Europe's Atlantic seaboard. Given a choice of venues, your average yachtie on this long coastline will incline to head south if at all possible. Other things being equal, it's reckoned the further south you go the warmer it is likely to be. And from the upper reaches of the Firth of Clyde, there are times when Dublin Bay might seem like the distant and sunny Mediterranean.

Maybe so, but we'd caution that much depends on the moods and location of that all-powerful weather determinant, the northern Polar Jetstream. In July, so long as it's well clear of Ireland -whether to the north or the south - we will have glorious high summer, and that occurred for the previous VDLR back in 2013, where the photos speak for themselves.

So we hope for the best in looking forward to welcoming a fleet of around 415 boats to Dun Laoghaire between July 9th and 12th, with all four of our in-harbour yacht clubs extending the hand of hospitality in a regatta tradition that goes right back to 1828. But while heritage and ceremonial are all very well in their place, it's the prospect of good sport which energises the participants and their sailing, and with several major contests already logged in 2015, what can we expect on the leaderboards next week?

At the top of the tree, Class 0 has formidable competition, including former Scottish champion Jonathan Anderson racing his XP38i Roxstar against the Royal Cork's Conor Phelan with the Ker 37 Jump Juice, which was one of the best performers in last year's ICRA Nationals at the same venue, and this year again became a force to be reckoned with as the breeze sharpened in the four day Kinsale ICRA Nats 2015/Sovereigns Cup a week ago.

Freshly squeezed – her storming finish to last weekend's final race of the ICRA Nats/Sovereigns Cup at Kinsale makes Conor Phelan's Ker 37 Jump Juice one of the top contenders in the VDLR2015. Photo: David O'Brien

With a win in the final race, Jump Juice came in second to seasoned campaigner George Sisk's class overall winning Farr 42 WOW (RIYC), the pair of them in turn displacing the early leader, lightweight flyer Mills 36 Crazy Horse (ICRA Commodore Nobby Reilly & Alan Chambers, HYC) down to third in the final day's racing, so Crazy Horse will be hoping for a return of lighter breezes when racing starts next Thursday on Dublin Bay.

In the previous Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta in 2013, the most successful boat in was Nigel Biggs' much-modified Humphreys Half Tonner Checkmate XV, but this year the Biggs team is racing as Checkmate Sailing with the newest boat in the fleet, the Mark Mills-designed American-built C & C 30 OD Checkmate XVI. She may be only 30ft LOA, but she's such a hot piece of work with so many go-fast bells and whistles that she has a rating of 1.140 to put her in Class 0.

The oldest boat in the cruiser-racer fleets will be found in Class 3, where the 44ft Huff of Arklow is making an historic return to Dublin Bay racing. Originally built in 1951 by Jack Tyrrell of Arklow to a design by dinghy genius Uffa Fox, Huff is so-called because her concept is reckoned three-quarters Uffa Fox and one quarter Douglas Heard. The latter was the founding President of the Irish Dinghy Racing Association in 1946, and he later went onto to become Commodore of the Royal St George YC and a noted cruising and offshore racing enthusiast with this unusual boat, which is like a very enlarged Fying Fifteen with a lid – in fact, with her 30ft-plus waterline, she was described as a Flying Thirty. In recent years she has undergone a total restoration with Cremyll Keelboats near Plymouth in Devon, and Dominic Bridgeman of the Cremyll group will be racing her with trainee crews in her old home waters of Dublin Bay.

The Flying Thirty Huff of Arklow racing off Dublin Bay while under Douglas Heard's ownership in the 1950s. Built by Tyrrell's of Arklow in 1951, the hugely innovative Huff has recently had a major restoration, and will be making her return to Dublin Bay to take part in VDLR2015.

Among the newer boats on the bay, the 2013 champion Checkmate XV is still very much in the picture, but now she's owned by Howth's Dave Cullen, and took second overall in class in the Kinsale series a week ago. In Dun Laoghaire next week, she's with other Half Tonners at the lower end of the Class 2 rating band on 0.944, almost 200 rating points below the new Biggs boat. Class 2 also includes the Division 3 winner at Kinsale, Richard Colwell & Ronan Cobbe's Corby 25 Fusion (HYC) which bested VDLR 205 Chairman's Sigma 33 White Mischief in a real duel after they went into the final day's racing equal on points, while another Kinsale success story in the Class 2 lineup is Paddy Kyne's X302 Maximus from Howth, overall winner of the Portcullis Trophy for top ECHO boat.

Dave Cullen's modified Half Tonner Checkmate XV will be looking to take the top slot on Dublin Bay after being runner-up in Kinsale. Photo: David O'Brien

In between the two Checkmates on ratings, we find most of the cruiser-racer fleet, with Class 1 shaping up some interesting competition between the likes of Paul O'Higgins Corby 33 Rockabill (RIYC), Kenneth Rumball skippering the Irish National Sailing School's Reflex 38 Lynx, and two very sharp First 35s, Prima Luce (Burke, Lemass & Flynn, NYC & RIYC) and another former Scottish Series champion, John Corson (Clyde Cr C) with Salamander XXI.

This year's Scottish Series Champion and the Afloat.ie "Sailor of the Month" for May, Rob McConnell of Dunmore East, will certainly be racing in the VDLR 2015, but whether or not it's with his all-conquering A35 Fool's Gold (second in class at Kinsale) or aboard another boat (a Flying Fifteen) remains to be seen. And the Top Sailor Count doesn't end there, as there'll be at least four Olympic sailors involved in four different classes, with Robin Hennessy racing in what has all the marks of a quality International Dragon fleet against the likes of former Edinburgh Cup winner Martin Byrne, Annalise Murphy racing in the Moths which will surely be a change from the Water Wag which she raced with her mother Cathy MacAleavy (also another ex-Olympian) last time round, and Mark Mansfield helming John Maybury's J/109 Joker 2. After Joker 2's class overall win in Kinsale, we can expect a battle royal in the J/109s with boats of the calibre of Ruth for the National title fight.

The Shipman 28s find that the sport and socializing which the VDLR guarantees will provide some of their best racing of the year. Photo: VDLR

The J/109s are the queens of an impressive array of One Design keelboats which includes Sigma 33s (where VDLR 2015 Chairman Tim Goodbody's White Mischief is racing under the command of Paul McCarthy), Beneteau First 31.7s, Shipman 28s having one of their best gatherings of the year, Ruffian 23s with a good turnout, the attractive First 21s which are steadily gaining traction as a Dublin Bay class, and best OD keelboat turnout of all is by the Flying Fifteens, nearly all of them under the NYC flag.

Olympians all – in VDLR2013, Olympic sailors Cathy MacAleavey (1988) and her daughter Annalise Murphy (2012) raced the family Water Wag Mollie. But while Cathy will be sailing Mollie again this year, Annalise will be on her own racing a foiling International Moth.

Newest of the oldest – Adam Winkelmann and Doug Smith's new French built Water Wag No.46, Madameoiselle, has been launched in time for the regatta. Photo: Owen McNally

The Howth 17s of 1898 vintage will be the oldest class racing. Photo: David Branigan

Veteran classes include the IDRA 14s from 1946, the Glens from 1945, the Howth 17s of 1898 which pre-date the 1902 Water Wags, and the 1932 Mermaids, the latter being in the interesting position of no longer having an official division in Dun Laoghaire, yet it's a Dun Laoghaire skipper, Jonathan O'Rourke of the National, who continues to dominate the class both at home and away.

With large fleet numbers afloat guaranteed, the shoreside programme is appropriately busy, with the official side of each day's racing concluded by the evening's daily prize-giving at one of the four waterfront clubs. But with so many sailors involved, there'll be action in all the clubs – and at other establishments in Dun Laoghaire - throughout the week. The scene is set, let the party begin at a venue which has been staging regattas since 1828.

When the summer comes, the après sailing at the VDLR is world class. Photo: VDLR

Further reading:

Download the full entry list for Dun Laoghaire Regatta 2015 class by class below

Download the Sailing Instrcutions for Dun Laoghaire Regatta 2015 HERE