#isora – This ISORA season was definitely a season of two halves – heavy weather during the first half and very light weather during the second half writes Peter Ryan, ISORA commodore. As so it was for the Race 9 that was originally scheduled to visit the M2 Weather buoy. Traditionally our dominant south westerly winds usually give the desired beat and run but this year was different. North west winds were forecast. Not only that, while there was plenty of wind at the briefing at 08.45, the forecast was to drop to little or nothing at 14.00.

In light of this the Sailing Committee decided that leaving the ISORA fleet bobbing in the middle of the Irish Sea was not to anyone's advantage and re-set the course. The fleet were to head out of Dublin Bay to Bennet Buoy and from there to Taylor's Rock just north of Lambay, leaving Lambay to starboard. The return course was back to Bennet and to the Finish – 38 miles.

With the wind forecast this would produce a beat to Taylor's Rock and a badly needed "J109 knobbling" run back to Bennet. Well it nearly worked out. NYC Commodore, Larry Power sent the fleet of 11 starters reaching off towards Bennet under spinnaker in up to 20 knots of wind at 10:00. The whole fleet soon arrived at it but the wind had started to decrease. "Ruth" was first around followed quickly by "Tsunami", "Axiom" and ""Adelie".

Soon after the entire fleet rounded and were set on the beat to Taylor's Rock the wind dropped and started to back and veer, by up to 50 degrees. With boats back to their number No1's the tactic was to spot the continuous shifts and tack accordingly. The closer the fleet got to Lambay, the more critical this was. "Tsunami" appeared to maximise this and broke away from the fleet rounding Taylor's Rock with a huge lead. "Bag Up" and off they headed to romp home, they thought!!

Very soon after passing the perch at the end of Lambay the North West wind back westerly and then south west before disappearing. "Tsunami" sat in the hole watching the fleet approach them. Hard work by the "Tsunami" crew drove the boat to eventually break through the hole and emerge on the other side into a South Easterly breeze that took them on a beat towards Bennet will the ebbing tide.

The hole in the wind between the north westerly on one side and the south easterly on the other could be clearly seen. It did not move. The following fleet appeared to try and skirt around the hole by heading in towards Howth only to find that the hole extended into the shore!!!

While "Tsunami" beat towards the Bennet in a light breeze, the remainder of the fleet struggled with many retiring at this point. By the time "Tsunami" reached Bennet the tide had just started to head north making the problem for the following boats even greater. At the Bennet ,"Tsunami"'s lead had extended to approximately an hour ahead of "Ruth".

"Tsunami" headed towards the finish in a southerly breeze that got very fickle as they entered into the Bay. Close to the finish the light wind shifted again back to the north west but "Tsunami" was able to cross the line and be greeted by ISORA Finisher, Katheryn Meghan, at 19:06.

Only four boats managed to get to the finish with "Ruth" arriving over two hours after "Tsunami" and the last boat, Pippa IV, crossed the line at 01:23. "Tsunami" took Overall and Class 1 while Pippa IV took Class 2 and Silver Class.

The next race is the last one and takes place on the 6th September – "James Eadie Race" from Pwllheli to Dun Laoghaire. This is always a very popular race and I hope as many boats as possible will support it. There will be the usual Crew Bus to meet the ferry on Friday afternoon in Holyhead and there are plans afoot to have a finishing party in the NYC, if weather permits.

I am pleased to announce that "Hendrick Ryan + Associates", Consulting Structural Engineers, have agreed to sponsor the last race. The title of the race will be the "HR+A James Eadie Race". I am looking for other sponsors of Races and / or Series for next season.

Finally, I have to congratulate our "ISORA brothers" Liam Coyne and Brian Flahive in "Lula Belle" who did extraordinarily well in the recent "Round Britain & Ireland Race". It was some epic feat and I hope that both will share their experiences with us by giving a talk.

#flyingfifteen – The Flying Fifteen Championships of Ireland take place in Portaferry Sailing Club on Strangford Lough tomorrow. Up to 30 boats are expected with boats travelling from four sailing centres across Ireland; Antrim, Carlingford, Dun Laoghaire and Dunmore East.

Reigning National champions Ian Mathews & Keith Poole of Dun Laoghaire will be one of the favourites. Local knowledge is expected to play a deciding role. Class President Roger Chamberlain from the lough is in great form and won the recent Northern Championships. Brian McKee and the David McClery and Colin Dougan combination are as consistent as ever as are Peter Lawson and Shane Carty from the local Portaferry Sailing Club.

Also from Dun Laoghaire previous winners David Gorman and Chris Doorly, National YC (NYC) and John Lavery and David O'Brien (NYC) will also be competing. 

The Northern Ireland venue featured last week in WM Nixon's Sailing blog: Strangford Lough Sailing Secrets Revealed.

#oppie – For the first time since 1983, the National Yacht Club (NYC) won the best senior team award at the Optimist National Championships held at the Royal Cork Yacht Club last weekend.

The award is presented to the club whose three highest ranked sailors (boy or girl) have the lowest cumulative score.

The team of Dara Donnelly (7th overall) Ella Hemeryck (6th overall) and Clare Gorman (2nd overall) were presented with the hard won trophy by Admiral Pat Lyons at the CH Marine sponsored event.

#laser4.7 – At the Laser 4.7 European Championships in Norway, two National Yacht Club (NYC) sailors scored impressive results in both the boys and girls under 18 fleets. While 2013 Irish champion, Daniel Raymond was 22nd in his 60–boat Gold fleet it was the performance of his clubmate Nicole Hemeryck that stole the show. The former Topper girl posted results of 4 4 3 (16) 6 2 4 (12) 7 6 7 9 to finish fourth overall after 12 races and two discards in her 48–boat fleet.

The National Yacht Club pair were part of an Irish team racing from the city of Moss, located in the south-eastern part of Norway, approximately 65 kilometers south of Norway's capitol, Oslo. The championships enjoyed fine sailing conditions, sunny and 25 degrees with winds up to 20–knots, just like Dublin Bay!

Full results are here

#waterwag – Following a day with winds of force 5 it was a surprise to arrive in Dun Laoghaire to find almost no wind at all. Our valiant Committee boat team of Tom, David T, and Tuffet laid a windward-leeward course of three laps. When the twenty-one Water Wags were ready to start the wind shifted from the west to the south west. They quickly relayed the course. Signals were hoisted and about 3 minutes before the start the wind shifted further towards the south, creating a bias on the start line. Gavotte, Pansy, Tortoise, Mollie and Swift were all set for a port start, but they hadn't predicted that Good Hope would get the perfect start on starboard tack. Several of the port tackers had to dip Good Hope.

Over the fist beat the wind was unstable with an average of 3-4 knots but with regular gusts of 6-8 knots. At the windward mark Pansy tacked inside Mollie, but as she had not regained sufficient speed after the tack to hold her place. Mollie sailed over her. On the run Pansy was able to blanket Mollie as they vied for position on the run. It was time to prepare fore the leeward gate. Pansy opted for the southerly mark while Mollie took the northerly mark. Over the next beat, it was Pansy who appeared to hold a good wind heading towards the Ferry berth, but as she was further inshore the wind failed her and she fell back some 6 boatlengths behind Mollie who had taken a tack towards the harbour mouth. Pansy fell into the clutches of Gavotte and Tortoise. Mollie had done enough to pull clear ahead of the bunch. On the offwind leg Tortoise showed great speed and overtook Gavotte. This time all the leading Water Wags headed for the northerly gate buoy to repeat the success of Mollie the previous time around.

On the beat Tortoise tacked away onto starboard before Pansy or Gavotte. Would she find the wind bend which would lift her up to the windward mark across the harbour? It wasn't to be. Pansy rounded the windward mark with only one tack while Tortoise had to put in three. At the next leeward mark Mollie headed for the eastern mark. Was this a good idea? She had everything to lose.

Then Pansy who realised that there had been a wind shift further to the south, and followed Mollie. On the final beat Moosmie started to put pressure on Tortoise and Gavotte as the approached the finish.
The final order was:
1st Cathy MacAleavey and Con Murphy in Mollie.
2nd. Vincent Delany and Noelle Breen in Pansy
3rd Frank Guy and Owen McNally in Gavotte.
Meanwhile in Division 1B, Good Hope was enjoying the benefits of her good start and rounded the windward mark six places ahead of her rival Eva. But through the race Eva was gaining places and they finished in 8th and 10th places respectively.
1st Division 1B. Hal Sisk in Good Hope.
2nd. Orla Fitzgerald and Dermot O'Flynn in Eva.
In Division 2 the challenge was between Penelope and Phyllis. Initially Penelope got the upper hand but as the race developed Phyllis overtook and took the win.
1st. Division 2. Paul and Anne Smith in Phyllis.
2nd. Fergus Cullen and his daughter in Penelope.
The race for the J.H. Stephens Tankard was a good result for the National Yacht Club and Royal St. George who took the three podium places.

#moth – Five Irish sailors – including three Olympians – got a lesson in the complexities of International Moth sailing at the Hayling Island class world championships last week. In an event won convincingly by Australian Nathan Outteridge, the National Yacht Club's Rory Fitzpatrick was one of two Irish skippers to make the 70–boat gold fleet. Fitzpatrick finished mid fleet in 36th with London 2012 49er helmsman Ryan Seaton of Belfast lough in 45th.

Annalise Murphy was next best finisher taking 17th in the 63–boat silver fleett but significantly it was a result that also gave the Dubliner the woman's Moth world championship title. Alistair Kissane was 18th and the John Chambers steered new Irish built prototype 27th.

The forecast for the final day of racing was for no wind, but it turned out to be a sparkling day with the best breeze of the week. Four races were held in glorious Summer racing conditions, with 10-14 knot winds, leading to very tactical racing.

Gold fleet racing started at 9.30am.

There were a few white-caps on the waves at the start of the final race - fantastic conditions.

The final leg became really unstable with all the leaders dropping off their foils at times. In the end Outteridge knocked in 15 gybes in a band of breeze to win the race by a country mile.

Nathan said about the final race, "It had got a bit soft in that very last race and I actually fell off the foils at the top mark. Josh Mcknight and Chris Rashley gybed in a really good puff, and I managed to gybe, get foiling again and did about 15 gybes down in this one little puff, turned around half-way to see how I was going and no-one was foiling so it was a pretty nice way to finish, to have a really big lead."

On Australia retaining the #MothAshes Josh Mcknight said, "Well I mean that's really all we come to these events for - the Moth Ashes. It's a great trophy to have as it puts emphasis on a bit of team spirit among Australia and England... A-Mac's got a knack for pulling something out of the bag, whether it be new kit or just a stellar result.

Top five, Gold Fleet:
1. Nathan Outteridge, AUS, 23 points
2. Chris Rashley, GBR, 33
3. Josh Mcknight, AUS, 34
4. Scott Babbage, AUS, 51
5. Ben Paton, GBR, 60

Full results here

#J109 - Ian Nagle's Jelly Baby pipped John Maybury's Joker by just one point to claim the J109 Nationals title at Dun Laoghaire's National Yacht Club at the weekend.

Twelve boats out of 16 took to the water for the seven races that got under way last Friday 18 July in trying weather conditions as sea fog swept over Dublin Bay.

The event was held in conjunction with the Ruffian 23 Nationals, won by Diane II of the Royal St George - with both pulled from the brink by the guiding hand of race officer Jack Roy, who got in three races despite the poor visibility.

Royal Cork's Yacht of the Year for 2012 topped the podium after an excellent Sunday's sailing, with Joker in second and third going to Stephen Tierney's Jedi.

In fourth was David Kelly on Storm, while fifth was Brendan Farrell with Jigamaree, sixth went to John Hall's Something Else, Jay Bourke placed seventh with Dear Prudence, and eight place was taken by Johnny Phillips' Jalapeño.

Rounding out the fleet were Declan Hayes on Indecision, Conor Totterdell on Mojito, and the newest J109s, Roger Smith's Wakey Wakey and Chris Moore's Powder Monkey.

#ruffian23– The Ruffian 23 National Championships - hosted by the National Yacht Club were held in conjunction with the J109 National Championships at the weekend. Download results below.

Race officer Jack Roy held 3 races on Friday in very foggy conditions and winds of between 12 and 18 knots. The fleet of 12 Ruffians included 2 who had sailed down from Carrickfergus to compete in the event. Carrageen helmed by Trevor Kirkpatrick, defending Ruffian 23 national champion and commodore of Carrickfergus Sailing Club led on 5 points, followed by Ann Kirwan helming Bandit from the National Yacht Club on 6 points, and Chris Helme of the RStGYC on Diane II with 7 points.

Saturday saw racing abandoned at 1500 due to fog and lack of wind.

In order to achieve a championship Jack Roy needed to hold a 4th race on Sunday. Perfect conditions with 12-18 knots of breeze and very good visibility ensured that 4 windward-leeward races were sailed. Dianne II won 3 of these securing her 1st place by a point from Trevor Kirkpatrick from, Carrickfergus sailing Carrageeen. Bandit helmed by Ann Kirwan from the NYC was 3rd.

Brendan Duffy helming Carmen from the DMYC was first in the silver fleet.

#ruffian23 – The Ruffian 23 National Championships take place this weekend, hosted by the National Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire and are being held in conjunction with the J109 National Championships.

Seven races on Dublin Bay are scheduled over three days – two scheduled on Friday 18th, three on Saturday 19th and two on Sunday 20th.

There will be 15 plus Ruffians competing with two travelling down from Carrickfergus in County Antrim. Trevor Kirkpatrick (sailing Carrageen), commodore of newly reopened Carrickfergus SC, will be defending his title as current Ruffian 23 national champion.

#isora – Three different Beneteau models filled the top three places in ISORA's 35–mile offshore day race on Saturday. The light air race from Dún Laoghaire to Tailor's Rock, Loughshinny and back off Dublin's East coast was won by the Beneteau First 40.7 Tsunami skippered by ISORA commodore Peter Ryan of the National Yacht Club. Second in the 13–boat fleet was the Royal Irish Yacht Club's Mermaid IV, a Beneteau First 50. Third was First of September, a First 43.5. Full results available to download below as a png file.

The next ISORA race is the KONA offshore Race from Dún Laoghaire to Pwllheli on 26th July. This is also the feeder race for the IRC Welsh Nationals on 1st to 3rd August.

Additional report by Peter Ryan, ISORA

With many of the ISORA regulars recovering after the recent Round Ireland race and also taking part in Cork Week, 13 of the 15 entries came to the start line at Pier Mark for the ISORA Lighthouse Day Race.
The forecast for the day was light winds from the south strengthening around midday and reducing again in the evening and veering west. The original plan for the course was to round or pass the main lighthouses around Dublin – Baily, Rockabill, Kish, Muglins and Dun Laoghaire lighthouses. This would have produced a course of 45 miles. When the course was being decided just prior to the pre-race briefing, Dublin Bay was like a mill pond with little or no wind. Another factor in deciding the course was the strong tides on the day – HW at 12.20.

The Sailing Committee set the course to give a shortened race of 35 miles using Tailors Rock Cardinal just north west of Lambay instead of Rockabill. The course was:
Baily (P) – Tailors Rock (S) – Kish (S) – Muglins (S) – Finish at Dun Laoghaire – (35 miles)

Commodore of the NYC, Larry Power, sent the fleet of 13 boats off under spinnaker in 10 knots of wind towards Baily Lighthouse at 10.00. The wind was as per the forecast, from the south giving a dead run to Tailors Rock. The fleet was lead past Baily lighthouse by "Mermaid IV" with "Tsunami", "First of September" and "Adelie" in close contact. As the fleet passed by Ireland's Eye and Howth the winds became fickle with a slightly steadier wind seeming to exist out to sea.

As the fleet approached Tailors Rock, "Mermaid IV" was the first to round. As a celebration of their rounding they sent one of their crew up to the top of the mast, probably looking to find more wind!!!! This event was photographed and the picture is similar to the famous "Hugo Boss" photograph of the mast walker.

At this stage the entire fleet were well bunched and the race was there for anyone to take. ISORA debutante "Hypermene" a Mini Transat 6.5 was expected to dominate the race but Skipper, Graham Barker, had gear difficulties and was unable to live up to expectations in this race.

The leg to Kish was a beat and the leading boats "Mermaid IV" and "Tsunami" extended their lead ahead of the following fleet. The winds had started to strengthen as forecast and varied from 12-15 knots from the south.

The leg to the Muglins was a tight reach and by that time "Mermaid IV" was well clear of "Tsunami". However, the "Dalkey Island Curse" was present to stop the progress of "Mermaid IV". She passed the Muglins and appeared to sail into the "hole" and then made little progress against the strong south going tide at the rock. The wind also backed to south east and reduced producing another dead run to the finish. "Mermaid IV" opting for the line close to the land to avoid the tide, found only fickle winds. "Tsunami" approaching the Muglins observed the difficulties "Mermaid IV" was having and gybed immediately out towards Baily and steadier winds but stronger tide after rounding Muglins. This move paid off for "Tsunami".

This was not the end of the problems for the leading boats and the following fleet. A "hole" had also formed around the finish area at the pier heads and what winds were there veered and backed continuously. The bad luck had not ended for "Mermaid IV" who parked in front of the finish line for several minutes before crossing and taking line honours. "Tsunami" who benefitted from "Mermaid's" experiences crossed the line very shortly after in a filling breeze taking Overall and Class 1. "First of September" took Class 2 and "Big Deal" took Silver Class. The last boat crossed the finish line at 17.22 after a very pleasant race.

The usual "Apres Sail" took place in the NYC.

The next race is the KONA Dun Laoghaire to Pwllheli Race on the 24th July. This is the feeder race to the Welsh IRC Nationals in Pwllheli from 1st -3rd August. The sponsors of the race KONA are providing the perpetual KONA Offshore Trophy for the winner of the race and the winner also receives a replica of the trophy to keep. The Royal Dee Yacht Club have also provided a trophy, "The Tidal Cup" for the winner of the feeder race.

It is hoped that as many of the ISORA boats take part in the Welsh Nationals. KONA will be providing a crew bus back to Holyhead to take those participants in the KONA feeder race and who are leaving their boats in Pwllheli for the IRC Nationals. A crew bus will also be provided to take those same crew back to Pwllheli on the following Thursday evening for the IRC event. The KONA prize giving for the feeder race will take place on the Thursday evening of the IRC Nationals when the crew bus from Holyhead arrives. A reception is also being provided for those who took part in the feeder race.

I hope to see all the ISORA boats supporting PSC for the IRC Nationals. This promises to be a great racing and social event.