It was a testing day for the DBSC Flying Fifteen fleet on Saturday with a strong and gusty southwest wind but PRO Brian Mathews and his team got two races completed. As well as the regulars there were a few new crews including Sean Craig & Eoin Laverty and Dave Gorman & Chris Doorly presumably getting together for the upcoming Championships of Ireland hosted by the NYC in September.

As with the keelboats, some decided to stay ashore, others went out for a look and didn’t race and some retired. Those who stayed were tested physically and mentally but it was exciting sailing.

It was a short start line but the fleet got away at the first time of asking, Gorman started to weather at the committee boat end and held his line to take advantage of the small shifts particularly as they got closer to the weather mark which was close to the harbour entrance. It was close at the weather mark with Mathews and Craig and Mulvin all rounding close together.

With the strong gusts and with the SB3s broaching on the downwind there was reluctance for the Fifteens to fly the spinnakers. Gorman pulled out a good lead downwind and led all the way for the three laps to take the gun with Mathews second and Craig third.

The second race followed the same pattern again with Gorman starting at the committee boat and working hard to get the lead by the weather mark. Mathews was second with Mulligan third and Craig fourth.

Despite strong and gusty southwest winds, racing was completed for all three keelboat fleets in Saturday's AIB DBSC Summer Series on Dublin Bay.

The Green fleet sailed two races. 

Race Officers were Blue fleet Barry MacNeaney, Red (hut) Henry Irvine, and Green fleet Brian Mathews.

There was great racing in lots of wind, but turnouts were low - some boats decided to stay ashore, others went out for a look but decided not to race, and some retired. 

Dinghies had been cancelled in advance due to the National Champs for Fireballs, Lasers and IDRA 14s.

A technical issue delayed the publication of yesterday's results but these are now published below.

In an eight-boat turnout in IRC One, Tim Goodbody's White Mischief from the Royal Irish Yacht Club repeated last Saturday's win in the AIB DBSC Summer Series by taking the gun again in race 13.

Breaking into the pack of J109s that occupied all but one of the top seven places was Fintan Cairn's Mills 31 Raptor in second place in the one-hour and ten-minute race.

A northeasterly sea breeze for the cruiser courses on Dublin Bay was eight knots in strength. 

Overall series leader Lindsay J. Casey's J97 Windjammer was the Cruisers Two IRC division winner. The Royal St. George yacht took the gun from Jim McCann's Peridot.Third, in the four-boat race was Dick Lovegrove's Sigma 33, Rupert. 

Aurelia was the winner of the three-boat Cruisers Zero race finishing ahead of Tim Kane's WOW. 

In a three-boat turnout, Kevin Byrne's Royal St. George Formula 28 Starlet was the IRC 3 winner from Frazer Meredith's Asterix. Third was Edward Melvin's Ceol an Mara.

In the One Design keelboat fleets, James Gorman's Black was the winner of race 25 in a six-boat SB20 fleet. Winds on the one design course were north-easterly five or six knots. 

The 31.7 fleet were competing for national honours in the RIYC-hosted championships on the Bay, and the Flying Fifteens were racing for the class south coast title at Dunmore East.

Full results across all DBSC classes are below.

The weekly yacht racing highlight on the capital's waters at Dun Laoghaire Harbour was cancelled due to light winds on Dublin Bay tonight.

All Dublin Bay Sailing Club Thursday night racing was cancelled due to less than five knots of breeze on both of the club's race course areas.

Overall Sportboat division leader Jonathan Craig's J80 George 7 won last Tuesday night's DBSC AIB race on Dublin Bay. 

Winds were six knots from the southeast, giving a spinnaker start for the mixed cruiser fleet from the DBSC Hut on the West Pier. 

The Race Officer was Jim Dolan. 

Second in race 13 of the series was Sam Webb's Jay-Z.

Dinghy racing was held on Scotsman's Bay where there was a five-boat turnout of Fireballs ahead of this month's World Championships on Lough Derg.

Leading Fireballer Neil Colin of the DMYC won the first of two races with Owen Sinnott taking the second.

Full DBSC results across all divisions are below.

Race Officer Neil Murphy and the Green Fleet had a difficult day on the water for Saturday’s DBSC racing.

Initially, the Race Officer took the fleet well to the west of the bay with the bigger boats and a WAZP regatta dictating the availability of the course area. From an early stage, it was apparent that the wind was not going to play ball as it fluctuated either side of 270°. With the WASZPs finishing their racing, the committee boat moved to their location but Neil’s struggles were not over, and the sight of the big boat fleet beating southwards and eastwards and the leaders running back westwards under spinnaker up the bay must have left him thinking he was operating in a parallel universe. That breeze never materialised for the Green Fleet – SB20s, Dragons, Sportsboats, Flying Fifteens, Mermaids, Ruffians and Beneteau's.

A two-lap Windward-Leeward race was commenced with a breeze that changed so regularly that deciding which end of the line was best to start was also a matter of chance. A committee boat start did not look too bright for 4081 (Mulligan & Bradley) relative to 3955 (Dumpleton & Hickey) and 4057 (Tom Murphy & Matt) who tacked onto port almost immediately and shot ahead of the fleet. I am going to assume that 4099 (Gorman & Casey), 4083 (Lavery & Green) and 4093 (Galvin & Poole) were at the other end of the line because these three boats and the previous two formed the core of the head of the fleet. By the latter half of the first beat, Gorman and Lavery were at the head of the fleet with Dumpleton and Murphy thereabouts. Mulligan had a better 2nd half of the beat to close the gap somewhat but the racing was tight down the spinnaker leg.

Dumpleton’s manoeuvres towards the end of the run were unsuccessful as he got dropped by Messrs Gorman and Lavery, having been in a position to challenge them both. The lead group went left but soon found themselves wallowing in no wind. Mulligan, 3753 (Court & O’Leary [with hat intact]) and 4068 (Mulvin & Beirne) having rounded together with 3896 (Cooper & McNamara) then worked the middle and right of the course. Court & O’Leary could have sailed to Clontarf and turned left when they ran out of water, they were so far removed from the rest of us. Cooper also went right but not to the extremes of Court. Mulligan and Mulvin were the most conservative operating in a tight corridor that never completely ran out of breeze, but never had a huge amount either. After one tack, Mulligan was able to lay the weather mark on a huge starboard lift. But that too evaporated!

Court eventually steamed in on starboard tack, reaching in from afar. However, he rounded the mark behind Cooper and with Mulligan on his transom. Court & Mulligan gybed immediately, Mulligan following Court’s lead and these two stayed within a boat-length of each other down the spinnaker leg. Mulvin & Beirne initially gave chase to Mulligan but the latter managed to squeeze out from the wind shadow Mulvin was trying to create.

The “left wingers” managed to get back in the frame by the weather mark as the breeze started to fill a bit more fruitfully across the course. Thus, we had Court, Mulligan and Mulvin working the left-hand side of the run, utilising the breeze that Court had brought in from the Clontarf side. Gorman, Lavery, Dumpleton, Cooper, the Colemans, Niall & Susan (4008) were on the shore side of the first three.
The lead two finished marginally overlapped, with Court & O’Leary taking the gun. Mulvin & Beirne were rewarded with 3rd place ahead of Gorman & Casey, Dumpleton & Hickey, the Colemans, Lavery & Green and Cooper.

It was a day of multiple wind changes and Neil Murphy, visiting the southern portion of the Bay from Howth, had multiple decisions to make to get a race in. A decision to wait until 16:15 to even contemplate a second race was the considered approach and by this deadline there was still no solidity to the wind conditions. The breeze that the big boats enjoyed never materialised on the Green course even though they used a weather mark that was only about one hundred metres away from our start area. The Green Fleet sailed homewards under spinnakers with a breeze that still had a westerly element to it. Inside the harbour the dinghy fleet abandoned their racing.

DBSC Saturday 6th August 2022

Flying Fifteens
1. Alistair Court & Conor O’Leary
2. Ben Mulligan & Cormac Bradley
3. David Mulvin & Ronan Beirne
4. David Gorman & Margaret Casey
5. Ken Dumpleton & Joe Hickey

Saturdays Series B
1. David Gorman & Others 9pts
2. John Lavery & Alan Green 10pts
3. Alistair Court & Conor O’Leary 15pts
4. Ben Mulligan & Cormac Bradley 19pts
5. Ken Dumpleton & Joe Hickey 21pts

Saturdays Overall
1. David Gorman & Others 31pts
2. Ben Mulligan & Cormac Bradley 49pts
3. David Mulvin & Ronan Beirne 72pts
4. Neil Colin & Margaret Casey 83pts
5. Alistair Court & Conor O’Leary 96pts

In an eight-boat turnout in IRC One, Tim Goodbody's White Mischief from the Royal Irish Yacht Club won in Saturday's AIB DBSC Summer Series race 12 on August 6th.

Second was Colin Byrne's XP33 Bon Exemple in a two-hour race.

Southeasterly breezes for the cruiser courses on Dublin Bay were 11 knots in strength. The Race Officer was Barry MacNeaney.

Overall series leader Lindsay J. Casey's J97 Windjammer was the Cruisers Two IRC division winner. The Royal St. George yacht took the gun from clubmate Ian Bowring's Sigma 33 Springer. Third, in the three-boat race, was Jim McCann's Peridot.

In a four-boat turnout, Frazer Meredith's Asterix was the IRC 3 winner from Myles Kelly's Maranda. Third was Kevin Byrne's Royal St. George Formula 28 Starlet. 

In the One Design keelboat fleets, Davy Taylor's Ted was the winner of the single race in a ten-boat SB20 fleet. Winds on the one design course, under race officer Neil Murray, were westerly five or six knots.

In the nine-boat 31.7 fleet, Chris Johnston's Prospect won from John Power's Levante. Third was Brian Geraghty's Camira.

Full results across all DBSC classes are below.

After an extended run of light wind conditions for Thursday night racing, Flying Fifteen Race Officer John McNeilly had some wind to play with on Thursday night (August 4).

The DBSC results sheet for the night suggests we had 10–18 knots on the course, but post-race John made the comment that he had recorded 10 – 16 knots. My sense was that the higher wind strength was at the start of the evening. Fifteen boats made their way out to the start and as the wind was behaving in accordance with the forecast – N-Westerly, a race from the QW suite of races was chosen – QW2. It appears that this caused some confusion later on the course, with one person citing dyslexia pre-start as their excuse for getting the course wrong.

QW2 – Harbour-Island-Pier-Island-Omega-Island-Finish was a course that involved lots of spinnaker and upwind sailing and resulted in one of the longer races we have had on a Thursday night for some time. Another observation of the night was that there was very little tactical sailing on the night and that the only tactical beat was the leg to Harbour. Aside from that comment, most people seemed to have enjoyed a night where we had good breeze throughout the evening and there were incidents aplenty on the course. There was a port/starboard on the first beat with turns having to be taken, there were two boats who decided to go trawling with their spinnakers, there was an emergency gybe to recover a cherished and distinctive piece of headgear that had blown off its owner’s head – a very commendable gesture by the helm, wearing a more secure hat!! The same boat also had the night’s second port/starboard incident. And to finish off the evening an attempt to squeeze over the finish line at the pin end caused the boat in question to loose the boat closest to him and certainly one other place. And as for the racing…………

A brisk NW wind, an ebbing tide, a relatively short first beat, a consideration as to which side the spinnaker would fly on the leg to Island and determining where to start in a fifteen-boat fleet gave everyone food for thought. Mulligan & Bradley (4081) attempted to commandeer the pin and were marginally too early. They sailed through the line, gybed and restarted finding a gap not too far from the pin to wend a way out onto the course side. Others in the area of the pin were Tom Galvin & Keith Poole (4093), Alistair Court & Conor O’Leary (3753) and possibly Peter Murphy & Ciara Mulvey (3774). In close proximity to this bunch could be found Class Captain Jill Fleming sailing with Joe Coughlan (3913). On the opposite side of the start, working a more offshore passage were Alan and Caroline Green, sailing Phoenix (4083) and David Mulvin & Ronan Beirne (4068). As the fleet closed out the latter stages of this leg, Mulligan found himself being pushed to the wrong side of Harbour mark by Adrian Cooper & Joe McNamara (3896). A hail to the effect that Harbour was to be rounded to starboard, like all the other marks on the night, had the desired effect. At Harbour, Galvin & Poole had a good lead, with Mulligan and Bradley in second. However, with spinnakers finally set, the chasing pack was spread across the course with Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (4028), the Greens, Murphy & Mulvey and Court & O’Leary almost in a row from inshore to offshore. Most people put into a number of gybes on the way to Island which Galvin & Poole rounded in first place. Mulligan played greyhound to Galvin’s rabbit while behind Mulligan, Green, Colin, Murphy P and Court played greyhounds to Mulligan’s rabbit.

With the ebbing tide, the universal view was to go inshore with Galvin leading the charge. Mulligan appeared to be closing the gap in straight line terms while he occupied a position slightly to windward of Galvin. An inboard tweak of the genoa caused Mulligan to drop to Galvin’s lee, but Mulligan’s speed was not compromised so that the straight-line distance between the boats continued to reduce. Galvin went offshore first while Mulligan hung on to the inshore route for that bit longer. The wind was now showing some fluctuation so lifts and headers came into the equation to an enhanced extent. Mulligan’s passage to the right-hand side of the beat showed that he had closed considerably on Galvin, because although the latter crossed him on starboard, the gap between the boats was down to a couple of boat-lengths. Behind, Colin, Green, Court and Murphy were still in close company but Mulligan had enhanced his lead over them.

At Pier, Galvin & Poole’s lead was down to a few boat-lengths and they and Mulligan & Bradley sailed the leg to Island in reasonably close company until late on in the leg when the lead pair eked out a few more metres of a lead. Mulligan was requested to execute a rounding that would leave them sitting to windward of Galvin for the start of the leg to Omega. He duly obliged to put some more visual pressure on Galvin. With a lead that allowed Mulligan to concentrate on hauling in Galvin rather than looking over his shoulder at Colin, Green, Murphy and Court, 4081 progressively bit into 4093’s lead and by Omega, Mulligan had taken the lead by an 80m margin. Galvin’s approach to Omega went a little awry which allowed Colin to get to very close quarters and indeed, Colin may have rounded in second place. Behind these two, Court & O’Leary were not too far away and Mulvin and P Murphy were also in striking distance. Omega to Island was executed safely by Mulligan with Galvin, Colin and Court staying in close company. The Greens may still have been here, but Alan advised that they had a hiccup on the water and it may have been on this leg, as I can’t place them at this stage of the race.

The leg to the finish, upwind of Pier, again meant getting out of the tide, now running out at its strongest. So, heading inshore was the best policy which everyone adopted. However, as one sailed towards the shore and the harbour, the numbers on the compass made it obligatory to take the highs and try and mitigate the lows. And so, approximately halfway up the leg, Mulligan as leader, started to play the shifts, encouraged by the crew not to stray too far from a loose cover on the rest of the fleet and wherever possible to occupy a weather slot relative to the chasing pack.

A little bit later, Colin & Casey broke ranks and put in a tack to the offshore side of the beat. Ever wary of Colin’s tactical nous, Mulligan & Bradley decided that he should be given more attention than the others simply because he had done something different to everyone else. They sailed across on a favourable number to make sure there were no “eleventh-hour” surprises as the finish came into view. They were still in the “pound seats”!

Mulligan & Bradley took the gun at the pin-end of the line in close company with a Beneteau 21, while Colin finished closer to the committee boat. Galvin and Court were very close closing in on the pin, and from our perspective Court was slightly to leeward of the pin and in danger of not making the finish line. He then appeared to tack to get over the line on port tack, but extremely close to Gavin who was on starboard. Court may then have clipped the pin so had to go back to the course side and re-finish which cost him a place to Mulvin & Beirne. The excitement never stops!

DBSC Flying Fifteens Thursday Night Series

Thursday 4th August.
1. Ben Mulligan & Cormac Bradley 4081
2. Neil Colin & Margaret Casey 4028
3. Tom Galvin & Keith Poole 4093
4. David Mulvin & Ronan Beirne 4068
5. Alistair Court & Conor O’Leary 3753

Thursdays Overall Series B.
1. Neil Colin & Margaret Casey 14pts
2. Niall, Susan & Laura Coleman 18pts
3. Ben Mulligan & Cormac Bradley 19pts
4. Peter Murphy & Ciara Mulvey 24pts
5. Adrian Cooper & Joe McNamara 27pts

Thursdays Overall (All season)
1. Neil Colin & Margaret Casey 30pts
2. Ben Mulligan & Cormac Bradley 54pts
3. Ian Mathews, Tom Galvin & Keith Poole 56.5pts
4. Niall, Susan & Laura Coleman 70pts
5. Peter Murphy & Ciara Mulvey 78pts.

Chris Johnston's Prospect was the winner of Thursday night's nine-boat Beneteau 31.7 Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) AIB sponsored Summer series race on Dublin Bay.

Winds were northwesterly and up to 15 knots on the Bay.

The National Yacht Club skipper beat Michael Blaney's After You Too from the Royal St. George Yacht Club on scratch. Third was Johnston's clubmate, john Power sailing Levante.

In the overall Thursday Series rankings, after 15 races sailed, Johnston trails Power by two points on 22 points. Third, on 28 points, is Blaney.

Full results for all DBSC divisions are below.

As we emerge from the pandemic and gradually become accustomed to unfettered sailing, it is right and proper that we should salute those who guided our sport through the various regulations and restriction of the last two years and more. Chris Moore of the National YC had already given exceptional services to sailing - including being Commodore of both the NYC and Dublin Bay SC - when he took on the role of DBSC Honorary Secretary before the clamp-downs occurred.

Thus he was running one of the world’s largest yacht racing organisations through unprecedented new challenges, a fact which was recognised with DBSC becoming the Mitsubishi Motors “Sailing Club of the Year” for 2021. But with normality of sorts returning with the club in good heart, it was time to stand down, and in mid-July, he was succeeded in the key role by Rosemary Roy. We salute Chris Moore for his exceptional service to our sport.