The Royal St George Yacht Club in conjunction with Leinster Colleges and Schools are commencing a new team racing league to be held over three Saturdays in March and April.

The ethos behind the league is to provide youth sailors with a more regular schedule of racing in between their clinics, which in turn will enhance their team racing skills and sailing experiences.

It will provide an opportunity to hopefully encourage teenagers to remain in sailing and perhaps assist clubs in expanding their junior sailing programmes.

As part of the league, coaching is permitted between racing at the changeover area to enable competitors to improve on their team tactics.

The races will be umpired and at the end of racing there will be a debrief regarding calls made on the water and an explanation of the rules.

As there is a limited number of Irish Sailing-accredited umpires, the league will also provide opportunities for those that have completed the Local Umpires course to gain on-the-water experience.

The Royal St George hopes that by providing these opportunities, it will whet the appetite for people to come forward to qualify as Umpires and go forward to attaining Regional or National status. Anyone interested is invited to contact Eunice Kennedy at [email protected].

Going forward, plans are in place to roll out this type of event in the other provinces for five to eight racing days between autumn and spring in order to enhance the experience of college and school team racing programmes.

The debut league will race on 11 March, 25 March and 1 April. The Notice of Race and entry form are available HERE.

Royal St George Yacht Club members are invited to join Peter Pearson as he takes a journey back in time with an engaging talk about the history of the Dun Laoghaire Waterfront club.

Peter is a native of Dun Laoghaire and has had a long association with the town and harbour, producing well-known local history books such as Dun Laoghaire: Kingstown and The Forty Foot: A Monument to Sea Bathing.

The special online talk will be hosted on the Zoom platform this Thursday evening 18 June from 7.30pm. Club members can register via the link on the Facebook post HERE.

The Royal St. George Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire will host try-out sessions in the 29er youth skiff class this coming weekend.

There'll be one hour try–out slots available with experienced 29er sailors on hand to assist. There will also be land based information along with coaching and rigging sessions.

As Afloat.ie previously reported, the Royal St. George YC has been touting the idea of a new challenge for youth sailors for some time.

Ireland has some success in the 29er, most recently thanks to the exploits of Harry Durcan and Harry Crosbie of Royal Cork Yacht Club who became bronze medalists at the British UK youth sailing championships last April. Durcan has now teamed up with Royal St. George's own Tom Higgins to continue the campaign.

'There seems to be a lot of interest and we are hoping that building the class will help keep sailors in the sport at a time when all clubs are challenged to keep their ‘youths’, explains Royal St.George Yacht Club sailing manager, Ronan Adams.

This weekend's sailing sessions are from 10am to 4pm. If you want to get a spin, sign-up here is required.

Former Irish Sailing President Roger Bannon believes the class has a lot of potential previously posting the following comment of Afloat.ie's Facebook page: 'The 29er is a perfect youth sailors boat which regardless of the development path opportunities can provide the fun factor so deperately missing in Ireland for aspiring young sailors. The ISA has a poor track record in identifying and supporting development boats for young people so let the youngsters and the market make the real decision'.

Royal St. George's Sean Craig finished tenth at the Laser Masters World Championships in Split, Croatia. The Dublin Radial competitor is counting the cost of a U flag after he finished fifth in race four in his 37–boat division which meant he had to count a 17h place in his score tally. Craig ended the regatta with a solid third place today.

The regatta lost three fully days due to light winds, only getting seven races in six days. The hope is that winds will blow a little stronger when the Laser World Master Championships come to Dublin Bay next September. 

The Irish team competed in two divisions. Results are downloadable below.

Royal Cork's Nick Walsh was 24th overall from 69 in the Mens Standard division, Theo Lyttle was 35th and Ed Rice was 53rd. Paul Keane was 58th and Kevin Currier was 59th.

The Royal St. George Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire, County Dublin is seeking youth sailors 'looking for a new challenge'.

RStGYC Sailing Manager Ronan Adams says a group of sailors are looking to form a 29'er fleet in Dun Laoghaire. The RStGYC has put a shout out to to see 'if anyone else might be open to a discussion as to the merits of this double hander class'

While Adams acknowledges 'the 29er is not supported/ recognised by the ISA as a pathway class', he says 'it most certainly does have its merits internationally' and also is a draw as ‘cool’ and fast/ fun boat for the age group mid-teens/ youths who sail it.

The Royal St. George's Tom Higgins has launched a new 29er campaign with Royal Cork's Harry Durcan as Afloat.ie reported previously.

One possible draw back is that the learning curve is very steep, vertical nearly but those that stick with it will be rewarded. Good second hand boats are in the region of €5k and are available in the UK, according to Adams. 

RStGYC currently has two interested families and at least one in another waterfront Club in Dun Laoghaire who would like to meet other interested parties to discuss. 

Expressions of interest or suggestions on whom to pass on the information are encouraged. The plan is to put all interested parties in touch with one another through email and see what happens.

email: [email protected] who are aiming to hold a meeting on Sept 10th or 17th. and have your say on Afloat's Facebook page. Here's what others have been saying: 

#TeamRacing - The Royal St George Yacht Club next week hosts a clinic in team racing — which is quickly gaining a reputation as Ireland’s most enjoyable and fastest growing type of sailing for teenagers. 

Running from Monday 14 to Thursday 17 August, and with some of Ireland’s top youth team racers as coaches, The Royal St George says the clinic promises to be a great week.

The team racing clinic is open to sailors of all experience levels, aged between 13 to 18 years, and will be sailed in the club’s team racing Firefly dinghies.

The cost is €120 for members (€150 for non-members) which includes coaching, use of the club boats and lunch daily. Single days’ coaching is also available for €30 (€37.50 for non-members).

Places have been filling up quickly so act fast of you want to take part. Click HERE for more details.

The penultimate day of the Dragon Edinburgh Cup 2017, produced one truly extraordinary race which shook the leader board up and leaves four boats in close contention going into the final race. Ireland's Martin Byrne from the Royal St. George Yacht Club of Dun Laoghaire has moved back up the leaderboard in the 38–boat fleet to seventh overall after a well–earned victory in race five. Download overall results below.

As they set off for the race area, the competitors found that the forecast north-westerly was instead an extremely shifty south-easterly of around 10-12 knots. Even seasoned locals famed for their ability to read the Solent's vagaries with ease have found themselves struggling to make sense of the apparently random shifts this week and today was no different. Recently crowned Dragon World Champion and Solent local Andy Beadsworth summed the situation up with a wry smile saying, "It's a little bit harder to win here that it was [at the Worlds] in Cascais! It's home waters and I thought I knew what was going on in the Solent, so I thought I knew how to go the right way, but we're getting it wrong with monotonous regularity."

 Beadsworth, sailing TUR1212 Provezza Dragon with Simon Fry and Ali Tezdiker, had had a disastrous race four and went into the day in fourth place on 31 points. Ahead of him were Igor Goikhberg in RUS98 Murka with Dmitry Berezkin and Roman Sadchikov in third on 26 points, Poul Richard Hoj-Jenson in GBR813 Danish Blue with Paul Blowers and Hamish McKay on 21 points and Martin Payne in GBR585 Full Speed with Gillian Hamilton and Chris Britten leading on 16 points.

With seconds to go, Beadsworth shot clear of the pack, which was holding back for fear of being pushed over the line by the tide, midline and was able to tack onto port and port tack most of the right side of the fleet. It was almost impossible to keep up with who was leading, as the big shifts pushed boats down snakes and up ladders constantly. At one point Payne looked good on the left, but he ended up virtually last around the weather mark. Meanwhile, Martin Byrne and his team of Pedro Andrade and Conor Byrne in IRL216 Jaguar had done the best job of picking their way through the minefield to lead Graham Bailey, sailing GBR782 Aimee with Julia Bailey, Will Heritage and Will Bedford, off down the first run, with Goikhberg a very close third. Beadsworth and Hoj-Jensen both rounded just inside the top ten.

From here on in Byrne kept clear air and extended his lead, but Bailey had his work cut out to keep the pack at bay as Beadsworth and Hoj-Jensen dug deep to fight their way to the front. As the boats closed the line at the end of the third and final beat, Byrne took a comfortable victory from Bailey with Tom Vernon in GBR810 Badger crewed by Oliver Spensley-Corfield and Adam Bowers third. Beadsworth had made his way up to fourth, Dmitry Bondarenko in Hauschreckeand with Vadim Statsenko and Alexander Shalagin was fifth, Hoj-Jensen sixth and Goikhberg seventh, but Payne unable to do better than 20th, which he immediately discarded.

So the showdown in tomorrow's remaining race is going to be a humdinger. Bailey tops the leader board with 12 points, Hoj-Jensen is on 14, Beadsworth 15 and Payne 16. The forecast for that final race is 12 gusting 20 knots from the north-west, but we're beginning to learn that what is forecast and what we get are not necessarily related this week so stand by and watch this space.

After sailing the crews once again repaired to the Island Sailing Club's terrace where the daily prize giving included the presentation of the Crews Race Trophy, which went to Nigel Cole sailing Avalanche, and the Youngest Sailor Trophy which went to Will Heritage of Aimee. The prize giving was followed by the final special raffle draw of the event. Over £30,000 of prizes have been given away in the draw, for which all boats are eligible, and the top prize of a Petticrows Dragon radio model yacht was drawn tonight. One of the rules of the draw is that if the winning person is not present to collect their prize then they miss their turn and another ticket is drawn. Tim Tavinor of Petticrows assisted Regatta Chairman Gavia Wilkinson-Cox by drawing the winning ticket, but the name read out elicited no response and so Tim went in for a second ticket. As he read out the name Furious a huge cheer went up and owner Owen Pay was for once completely lost for words and clearly absolutely delighted with his new toy.

Today's final race is programmed to get underway at 11.00 and the regatta will conclude with the Edinburgh Cup 2017 Prize Giving Dinner Dance at the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club.

Although the Royal St. George Yacht Club officially welcomes its new Committee boat ‘Pegasus’ to Dun Laoghaire Harbour today, the new vessel has already started its 2017 work, pictured above, on station yesterday at the Leinster School's Team Racing Championships. 

The new acquisition will be the 'hub' for many of the sailing activities at the Dun Laoghaire club.

Alistair Kissane of Howth Yacht Club has finished in the top half of the UK's Moth Championships sailed at Portland Harbour. Kissane, who finished 34th, was one of two Irish in the 73–boat fleet. Royal St. George's Jim Devlin was 52nd. Results are here.

The wind just didn't play ball on the final day, with the odd gust reaching 7 knots across Portland Harbour, but more commonly 3-4 knots and much less. At 1pm the race team called time and raised AP over A to abandon racing for the day. This means the results at the end of Monday stand and Robert Greenhalgh has been crowned the UK International Moth class champion for 2016.

At the prize giving Robert thanked the Race Team, all the staff at the WPNSA, the UK Moth Class Association for putting all the work in ahead of the event and the sponsors; VRsport.tv, blueteq, Brand Identity, Ronstan and Noble Marine.

The podium was completed by David Hivey in second and Dylan Fletcher in third.

The next major event for the International Moth Class is the MS Amlin Moth Regatta in Bermuda from 2-9 December. In 2017 the World Championships are being held in Malcesine on Lake Garda from 23-29 July.

Final top five
1. Robert Greenhalgh, GBR, 8.0
2. David Hivey, GBR, 12.0
3. Dylan Fletcher, GBR, 18.0
4. Mike Lennon, GBR, 31.0
5. Jason Belben, GBR, 32.0

Royal St George Dragons "Phantom" & 'Jaguar Sailing Team' shared equal points well ahead at the top of the leader board at this weekend's Dragon East Coast Championships hosted by the Royal Irish Yacht Club.

Phantom helmed by Neil Hegarty took the overall title by virtue of their accumulation of three first place finishes. Martin Byrne & Adam Winkelmann's Jaguar scored all their results in the top three to finish second overall.

Richard Goodbody on "Diva" from the RIYC won the final race to take 3rd overall.

Martin Byrne, Donal Small and Adam Winkelmann'sailing Dragon Jaguar were second overall