The Royal Dee Yacht Club Bicentenary Dinner, the high point in their 200 year celebrations, took place at Eaton Park, Eccleston, Chester, on the 17th September 2015.
Eaton Park is the private residence of the Duke and Duchess of Westminster with whose kind permission this historic occasion took place in that special venue. The pre-dinner reception was held in the Long Room followed by dinner in the adjoining Wolf Room. During the reception, chamber music was provided by a period chamber orchestra.
Members and guests had a rare opportunity to view part of this spectacular estate that included the famous collection of carriages and the “Shell Grotto”. To mark the event, all the Royal Dee Yacht Club’s magnificent trophies, many of whom had been out on loan to yacht racing associations and had been recalled, were on display. Special commemorative silver lapel pins to mark the occasion were presented to all Royal Dee Yacht Club members present and a specially engraved souvenir of the event was presented to all members and their guests.
Dignitaries attending the event included the Commodores of the Royal Ocean Racing Club, the Royal Alfred Yacht Club, the Royal Anglesey Yacht Club and the Royal Mersey Yacht Club. The Irish Sea Offshore Racing Association, (ISORA) was represented by their Chairman, Peter Ryan, who is also a member of the Royal Dee Yacht Club.
The members and guests were treated to a sumptuous meal prepared by the Chester based Michelin star Chef, Simon Radley. A copy of the menu for the dinner is attached.
The Commodore of the Royal Dee Yacht Club, Derek Matthews, welcomed the members and guests while Vice Commodore, Callum Edge gave the Loyal Toast and the Toast to the Guests. The Reply to the Toast to the Guests was made by Commodore of the Royal Alfred Yacht Club, Barry MacNeaney. He emphasised the support that the Royal Dee Yacht Club has given over the years to offshore yacht racing. He also acknoweldged the historic strong and developing bonds between the Royal Dee Yacht club and yacht clubs on both sides of the Irish Sea.
The evening was a fitting tribute to this historic event and enjoyed by all who were privileged to have attended.

Who will be the Royal Alfred Yacht Club King of the River 2015? This year’s edition takes place on Saturday October 3rd. Last year, Radial Youth Champion Conor O’Beirne switched into a full rig and beat all-comers, edging former top ranked Full rig sailor and recent RS400 Southerns winner Paul MacMahon into second. Eighteen Lasers raced between the East Link Toll Bridge and the Samuel Beckett Bridge on a lovely Autumn day.

O’Beirne took away a famous old trophy with great pedigree from previous Liffey events for Sportsboats – 1720s and after that SB3s (as they were called back then). With good local turnouts in Laser Full rigs all Summer on Dublin Bay and an open invite to 4.7s and Radials to come along (with a separate start on offer) we hope to exceed that number this year. It’s also a great way for Laser sailors from Dun Laoghaire, Howth or wherever to warm up for the various Frostbite series.

RAYC Commodore Barry MacNeaney will again be RO and is known for banging off races quickly to keep things on the go. There’ll be as many races as possible before the Bridge lifts again at 1600 hours! Launching is at the hosting Poolbeg Yacht Club with great spectating along the Quays or perhaps with a coffee or glass of wine on board the “Cill Airne” restaurant/bar ship.

Download the entry form and Notice of Race below.

#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

 

#raycbloomsdayregatta – Paul Keane of the Royal Irish Yacht Club beat 17 Lasers for Bloomsday honours at the Royal Alfred Regatta on Dublin Bay yesterday. The results for all competing classes are available to download below as xcel files. 

#rayc – There was a large turnout for this week's Royal Alfred Yacht Club (RAYC) agm with a number of interventions from the floor over a number of issues. Flag Officers and Honary Officers were elected as follows: Commodore Barry MacNeany; Vice Commodore Joe Carton; Treasurer Larry Power; Secretary Deborah Horan and Sailing Sec John Hayes. Committee Members are Brian Mathews, Brian Reddy, Chris Corrigan, Peter Beamish, Philip Dilworth and Irish ISAF International judge Gordon Davies. 

There was no candidate for the post of Rear Commodore.

Attendance included a number of RAYC stalwarts inlcuding current Chairman of Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta, Tim Goodbody. Historian Hal Sisk, Norman Long and Ailbe Millerick were also there.

The meeting closed with a call to co–operate more closely with other clubs to mutualise some aspects of operations – insurance was one suggestion. Another intervention reminded the members of the longstanding tradition of innovation by the RAYC. It would be by continuing this tradition that the 'Alfred' would continue to develop and differentiate itself from other clubs. Each club has a specific contribution to sailing in Dublin Bay, the meeting heard.

#rayc – The Royal Alfred Yacht Club held its Annual Black Tie Dinner and Prize-giving on Friday 21st November in the Royal Irish YC in Dun Laoghaire. 

A packed dining room was treated to an excellent meal, fine wines and after the prizegiving a short presentation by Liam Coyne of his incredible Round Britain and Ireland odyssey in which he came first in the two-handed class and came sixth overall.

The Alfred's Trophies, some of which date back to the mid 1800s, were presented by Commodore Barry MacNeaney.

He paid tribute during his speech to the late, and much missed, Henry Robinson: he also toasted one of his distinguished guests Hal Bleakley who had announced his retirement from DBSC race officer duties at the end of the 2014 season.

The Royal Alfred is one of the very few Clubs to award crew prizes as well as those to the skipper – this for the Superleague.

And these prizes were very well received by the many crew who attended the dinner.

The success of the evening may be judged by the lateness of the hour that the last revellers left the Royal Irish!

Scroll down for prizewinners photos by Joe Fallon

Barry MacNeaney , Carol MacNeaney, Nigel Biggs Winner Cruisers 2 and Deborah Horan

Carol MacNeaney, Joe Carton Vice Commodore RAYC, Mona Carton and Barry MacNeaney

Selection of RAYC trophies

Ben Shanahan winner Gold Fleet Lee Overlay Trophy for RAYC Coastal Series, Carol MacNeaney

Trina Owens, Carol MacNeaney and John Sugars winner Beneteau 31.7 Trophy

Tim Goodbody winner Sigma 33 "Princess Jalina" Trophy, Carol MacNeaney and Barry MacNeaney

#rayc – Despite a very gentle forecast of barely a few knots, 18 Lasers launched at Poolbeg Yacht and Boat Club and sailed up through the lifted toll bridge for Saturday's Royal Alfred fixture on the river Liffey. Once into the rectangular amphitheatre formed on the stretch up to the spectacular Samuel Beckett Bridge, the fleet were delighted to find a decent enough 5 to 8 knots blowing straight downstream. It was game on for the first ever Royal Alfred Yacht Club Laser Challenge with many spectators and supporters watching, on a truly glorious Autumn day in the capital.

Race Officer Barry MacNeaney and his team wasted no team and quickly got the races underway on, not surprisingly, a windward leeward course. Typically in Lasers there was a great spread of ages with plenty of interest in how a couple of hot young Radial helms would adapt to the Full rig. One of these, Luke Murphy, drew first blood with a great win in Race one. However, another Radial star Conor O'Beirne (2013 British 4.7 Champion) made his presence felt with the next bullet. Not many problems adapting so ! After a slowish start, Paul MacMahon struck back for the older fraternity and came through with the next two wins, before O'Beirne took the last race. After leading into the decider on points, this was more than enough to make the RStGYC Laser ace the first ever RAYC Laser King of the River O'Beirne took home the fine Royal Alfred Liffey Challenge Trophy which has been presented in previous years for 1720 and SB20 racing up in the heart of the city.

MacMahon took second overall and an improving Sean Craig popped out in 3rd overall, a couple of points ahead of Murphy who edged Theo Lyttle on the tie break. Other podium race results were posted by Ross O'Leary and Rob Cahill. Amanda Relph was first Radial and Daniel Hopkins was first 4.7.

Top 5 overall in largest 'Full Rig' division

1 Conor O'Beirne RStGYC 6 pts
2 Paul MacMahon HYC 9 pts
3 Sean Craig RStGYC 12 pts
4 Luke Murphy RStGYC 14 pts
5 Theo Lyttle RStGYC 14 pts

The Laser fleet were treated to great conditions on the river

A huge thanks to the Royal Alfred Yacht Club (especially Barry MacNeaney), the highly hospitable Poolbeg Yacht Club, RIB support Frank Heath and also to Richard Tate who managed to mobilise a great turnout. This was the first but almost definitely not the last RAYC Laser Liffey regatta...

#liffeylasers – If you thought all the Irish Laser action was in the south of France this week, you'd be wrong. Paul MacMahon (Strangford/Howth), a previous number one on the domestic full rig rankings, is among 18 Lasers now entered for the Saturday's Royal Alfred Laser Challenge on the River Liffey. Other competitors heading for the captial's waters are a mix of younger guys graduating up from the 'Radial' rig and some senior 'Masters' including Theo Lyttle, Rob Cahill and Sean Craig.  

As previously reported, the East Link Toll bridge lifts at 1015 for the Lasers, racing (as many races as possible) from 1100, bridge back up at 1500, then Poolbeg YC for the prizegiving.

#rayc – The Royal Alfred Yacht Club (RAYC) Coastal Series out of Dublin Bay provided a nail-biting finish to the silver fleet outcome with only one point separating first and second places overall. Full results are downloadable below.
Pippa IV and Yahtzee, despite only sailing in three of the four races, organised jointly with ISORA, and thereby not having the cushion of a discard were on equal points going into the last race of the Series. Pippa IV shaded it in the final tussle and emerged the victor.
In the Gold Fleet, following Jedi's success over the last couple of years with Liam Shanahan's Ruth nipping at his heels, it was the turn of Ruth to take the Trophy and round off a great year for the Liam Shanahan crew. 

The Royal Alfred Yacht Club will hold a river Liffey racing event for the Laser dinghy class on Saturday 11th October. Dublin's East Link bridge is being opened at 10.30am to allow the passage of the fleet up the river and racing is due to start at 11.00.

Royal Alfred Yacht Club Commodore Barry MacNeaney reports there will be continuous races with a short lunch break until 15.00 and the bridge will open again  at 14.30 to let the competitors return to the Poolbeg Yacht Club where refreshments will be available before the prize-giving. 'This format tests the skills of the sailors in an environment of narrow waters and changing winds and provides an extra dimension to the more normal sailing conditions they usually experience', says MacNeaney.

Entry forms are available for downloading on the Royal Alfred website from next Monday (29th September).