Starting on Monday, May 18th Dun Laoghaire Harbour's Royal St. George Yacht Club will allow limited access to its forecourt to enable members to prepare their boats for launching on the new lift in date of June 6th.

The club will also aim to facilitate single-handed dinghy sailing as well as multi-handed sailing (with the crew coming from the same household) in line with Government COVID-19 guidelines.

Commodore Peter Bowring stresses in a note to members that 'these activities will only be possible on the understanding that the protocols designed for each activity are strictly followed'.

The club has set out protocols on its website here

A new Dublin Bay regatta involving the whole Dun Laoghaire sailing waterfront has been announced for July 31st to August 3rd. 

The 'Dun Laoghaire Combined Clubs Solidarity Regatta 2020' is an initiative of all five of Dun Laoghaire's yacht clubs as a response to the COVID-19 interrupted season.

"The event is a joint effort of the DMYC, RIYC, RStGYC, NYC and DBSC", according to Mark McGibney, the sailing manager of the Royal Irish Yacht Club.

We plan to run this regatta from Friday 31st July to the 3rd August.

In these uncertain times, the clubs have also decided to 'book' the weekend of the 5th/6th September as reserve dates if the August dates fall through.

More details as we have them.

Read also: 2020 Irish Sailing Fixtures (The Beyond COVID-19 Version)

The Royal St George Yacht Club hosted its annual Sailings Oscars for the 2019 Season at a black-tie gala event held in the Dun Laoghaire Club last Saturday.

The event was very well attended and was an opportunity to celebrate the sailing achievements of club members over the 2019 sailing season. The event was hosted by Mark Hennessy, Rear Commodore (Sailing) who paid tribute to the performance of clubs members over the 2019 season which included success at the All Ireland Sailing Championships and the Irish Sailing Pathfinder Women at the Helm event.

A total of seven prize categories were up for grabs on the night with a wide range of very worthy nominees.

The RSTGYC Sailing Trophies ready for presentation

The awards recognised high-level performances across dinghies and keelboats, including Michael O'Connor and Davy Taylor's victory in the All Ireland Sailing Championship. Michael was presented with the Enriquetta Cup, while Frank O'Beirne and Kieron Guilfoyle were awarded the O'Hanlon Cup for their cruising adventure as featured in Afloat and recognised by the ICC.

David Williams of the Water Wag class was a worthy winner of the Waterfront Award for his significant contribution to sailing which has seen a strong resurgence in the class with new boats, class members and a great mix of high-quality racing and great social scene.

The Commodores Cup was won by Lady Rowena (David Bolger and Crew) who won their class in the Cruising Division of the Dun Laoghaire to Dingle and were proud recipients of the Sam and Emma Trophy.

For the second year in a row Tom Higgins was presented with The Vice Commodores Cup. Tom's Championship results for 2019 are Laser Radial Youth World Championships, 5th place overall. Winner, Andalusia Olympic Week, Laser Radial. Laser Radial Europa Cup, Hyeres, 6th place overall. Laser Radial Europa Cup, Lake Garda, 7th place overall. Laser Radial Nationals, 2nd place overall. Royal Yachting Association NI Laser Radial Youth Nationals, Open Champion. Leinster Schools' Team Racing Champions, Gonzaga College. Tom is sailing both the Radial and Standard rig in 2020 and will compete in Genoa for the Irish Olympic spot at the Tokyo 2020 games. Tom is captain of the Gonzaga College Sailing Team in 2020.

Jessica Riordan was the winner of the Youth Award. Jessica has had a very strong 2019. She was first girl at Irish trials and competed in Optimist European Championships at Crozon in France. She was first girl at British Nationals at Weymouth. She was first girl at Irish Nationals and won a gold ISA medal. She has competed at the North Americans and at several events in Europe and is on Winner team for the second consecutive year and was ranked 6th in the rankings for the year and Top Girl Overall.

The sailors representing the RStGYC at the Irish Sailing Pathfinder Women at the Helm Regatta Winners of the Causeway Trophy

The Causeway Trophy was won by 'Team George' who were the sailors representing the RSGYC at the Irish Sailing Pathfinder Women at the Helm Regatta. They were the Inaugural winners of The Roy Family Trophy- The Overall Club Team Trophy. The team consisted of skippers Helen O'Beirne (Laser Radial) Grace O'Beirne (420) and the Under 25 Team skippered by Niamh Henry. In a very strong showing by the RSGYC Louise McKenna won the "Silver Sailor" prize for helms over 60 and the PY Trophy (Fireball), Grace O' Beirne (420). In the Laser Radial Helen O' Beirne, Shirley Gilmore and Ali Robinson were on the podium along with Sarah Byrne for the SB20. Superb sailing by the RSGYC Club members taking home seven prizes in what by all accounts was a great regatta.

Speaking at the prize-giving, RStGYC Commodore Peter Bowring paid a special tribute to the performance of the club's youth sailors who excelled across team racing and in Optimist, Feva and Laser classes and especially the female club members. He also thanked the large pool of volunteers who gave generously of their time to support the club in hosting events.

The club is looking forward to another busy season on the water with Lift-in confirmed for April 4th and the annual RSGYC Club Regatta on Saturday 4th July.

Update Saturday 14 March: Due to the evolving situation with the COVID-19 Virus and that all schools are currently closed, this event is postponed for this term.

Royal St George sailing manager Ronan Adams says: “Discussions are ongoing as to when the Leinster Championships and National Championships will take place and the Irish Team Racing Association will update all school representatives as soon as is reasonably possible.”

Dun Laoghaire's Royal Saint George Yacht Club is once again hosting the Leinster Schools Team Racing event on Wednesday the 11th of March.

The event is open to all schools in the Province of Leinster. In the event of bad weather, there is a fall back date for the 25th of March.

As Afloat reported in 2019, Gonzaga College were Leinster Championship victors after eight teams competed in Firefly dinghies for the title in mostly light airs in Dun Laoghaire harbour.

The Royal St. George leads the way in Irish Team Racing affairs with Junior, Schools, Youth and Adult Team Racing squads training and competing locally, nationally and internationally from the club. Queries can be made to Eunice Kennedy, Leinster Schools Team Racing Representative at the following email:- [email protected]

Barry Hayes from UK Sailmakers Ireland is at the Royal St George Yacht Club on Dublin Bay to talk about sail trim and boat optimisation for cruiser-racers on January 30th.

Hayes worked as a sailmaker in Ireland for five years under Des McWilliam. He then worked in New York on the east coast for UK Sailmakers for four years and also in Hong Kong.

In 2017, Hayes purchased the sailing loft from McWilliam and today is the director of UK Sails Ireland.

Interestingly, the Cork Harbour based sailmaker is planning to split the RStGYC talk in half. The first session is on sail trim and the second half deals with deck gear, winches, servicing and maintenance plus layout with a hands-on workshop showing how to correctly and easily service winches.

Booking and further details here

The 71st annual National Team Racing Championship hosted by Royal St George YC in the mid-November weekend attracted 16 squads from all over Ireland, and it was one of the furthest-travelled teams - Baltimore Sailing Club - which went home with the honours after a convincing 3-0 win in the finals against a hyper-talented squad – including an Olympic sailor – which sailed under the moniker of Fast Not Furious. Ably led by West Cork-based sailor Mark Hassett, Baltimore kept their cool against everything that the rest of Ireland and particularly Leinster could throw at them, and Captain Mark Hassett carries the “Sailor of the Month” honour on behalf of his team-mates Fionnn Lyden, Johnny Durcan, Amy Harrington, Trudy O’Hara and Adam Hyland.

The annual lift-out of yachts and boats in Dun Laoghaire Harbour at the neighbouring Royal St.George and National Yacht Clubs took place in fine weather conditions on Dublin Bay today.

Boats will be stored ashore now on club platforms for the winter period and launched again in advance of the Summer season next April.

It's not the end of Dun Laoghaire sailing, however, as Dublin Bay Sailing Club runs year-round racing for cruisers based at the town marina with its popular winter Turkey Shoot Series before Christmas and its Spring Chicken event in the new year that attracts up to 70 and 50 yachts respectively for each series.

More details of the forthcoming Turkey Shoot here.

The CH Marine Laser sponsored, Final Fling regatta took place in Dun Laoghaire on Saturday with a whopping 45 entries across two race courses writes Gavan Murphy,
Dun Laoghaire Laser Class Captain

Competitors were greeted by a punchy 20 knot South Westerly on Saturday morning as they came down to rig, so Regatta Fleet Race Officer, Sean Craig, wisely postponed launching his fleet by an hour to ensure they raced in optimum conditions to match their experience. This gave Sean an opportunity to do a rig set up session with some of the more apprehensive sailors in this fleet so they were confidently ready to hit the water as soon as the breeze came down.

Meanwhile, in the 34-boat, DBSC hosted Main Fleet, the weather God's attempted to make life difficult for not only the competitors but race officer, Suzanne McGarry and her mark layers, who were frequently charged with moving the weather mark and pin end to facilitate the constantly shifting and dying breeze. That said, the fleet managed to get four close races in on a windward-leeward course. In the Laser 4.7's, Archie Daly and Oisin Hughes of RSGYC were 1st and 2nd, while Christian Ennis of NYC was 3rd. In the Laser Radial's, Barry McCartin of CBSC/RSGYC showed his class with four wins from four, Conor Clancy and Kate Fahy of RSGYC were 2nd and 3rd respectively. In the Laser Standard's, Damian Maloney of the RSGYC showed a clean set of heels with three 1st places and one 2nd. Ian Simington and Robbie Walker also of the RSGYC were 2nd and 3rd respectively.

"There was a whopping 45 entries across two race courses"

On the Regatta Fleet race course, Race Officer Sean Craig managed to get 5 quick-fire races in on a short triangular course for his charge of 11 boats. In the Laser Standard class, Maurice Mason of the RSGYC took the honours with Mick Shelley, also of the RSGYC close on his heels throughout. Indeed, there was a funny incident in the last downwind leg of the last race, where both competitors main sheet's managed to run clear of the blocks at the same time....a mad scramble ensued only for Maurice to get his main sheet re-tied and got to the line just ahead of Mick. A course in stopper knot skills is duly noted for these two! In the Radial Class, Oisin Hannon, Heather Craig and Rachel Crowley of the RSGYC took the honours, while in the Laser 4.7 class, Lorraine O'Connor and Alec Munro took 1st and 2nd respectively. For the majority of the sailors in this fleet, this was their first regatta which they did remarkably well to compete in and manage so effectively. Indeed, coach Richard O'Rahilly commented he was really encouraged by the closeness of racing and boat handling ability he witnessed. We hope to see some of these sailors make the transition to frostbiting this winter and indeed on to the regatta and Laser circuit next season.

A casual prize giving took place for the Lasers on the balcony of the George after racing, thanks to CH Marine. This was followed by a Grant Thornton sponsored champagne reception, compliments of Mick Shelley and the now infamous Dun Laoghaire Laser class end of season dinner in the George that evening which was superbly attended by 30 people.

Huge thanks again to Laser prize sponsors, CH Marine; DBSC; George Sailing Manager, Ronan Adams; Race Officers, Suzanne McGarry and Sean Craig and their respective rescue and committee boat teams; namely, Shirley Gilmore, Caroline Liddy, Barbara Conway, Liz Aylmer, Hilary Bloxham and Brian Mulqueen.

The Royal St George hosted the combined International 12 Foot Dinghy Championship & D.B.S.C. 12 Ft Championship on 15th September,- a day which will be remembered both for the incessant rain, and for the tight competition. The event was held in Seapoint Bay, the original racing area for the Dublin based 12-Foot Dinghies from the 1920s and 30s. This year’s entry was reduced due to ‘Dorado’s’ owner not being available, and ‘Sgadan’ being under restoration in Tralee in preparation for next year’s ‘Clinkerfest 250’. However, the International rigs were represented by three boats. We understand that one potential owner is heading to the UK soon to purchase a Dutch-built dinghy currently for sale there.

In race one, with patchy winds of less than 4 kts George Miller’s ‘Pixie’ held the lead for the entire race, but behind her there was a great battle between ‘Albany’ (Gavin Johnson) and ‘Cora’ (Mark Delany). It was ‘Albany’ who won this battle.

In race two with a steady 5 kt. Breeze, ‘Cora’ won the start but was overtaken by the faster ‘Pixie.’ But due to an error at the finish line, ‘Cora’ regained the lead.
The dinghies were left at anchor in Seapoint Bay while the competitors came ashore for their lunch, and in some cases, extra clothing or extra waterproofing, or additional pumps.

By the afternoon the wind has increased to about 8 kts. Race 3 was won by ‘Pixie’ after a good battle with ‘Cora’ which lasted for the entire race. The improving ‘Scythian’ (David Shackleton) took third place.

The final race was to be the decider of the championship. ‘Cora’ used her team-racing skills to push ‘Pixie’ away from the start line. During the race ‘Pixie’s’ yard support broke, causing her rig to slip down 300mm and, of course, lessened her speed. As ‘Cora’ approached the finish line she slowed up with the hope of bringing ‘Scythian’ into second place and pushing ‘Pixie’ into third place, but her plan went awry, and ‘Pixie’ stole second place to win the championship.

At the prize-giving, Pat and Sheelagh McGloughlin presented the Altair Cup to Andrew Miller crew of ‘Pixie’ noting that the trophy despite being almost ninety years old, has not been won for 42 years.

The Cora trophy for international dinghies was awarded to George and Andrew Miller in ‘Pixie’.

The Edmond Johnson Ltd. Trophy for DBSC dinghies was awarded to Gavin Johnson and Tim Varian in ‘Albany’.

Vincent Delany chairman of the 12-foot organisation explained how next year’s Irish Championship with International entries will take place at Lough Ree Yacht Club over the June bank holiday weekend.

Next Sunday the ‘Altair’ trophy will be presented to the highest placed crew in the Irish 12-foot dinghy championships to be held in the Royal St George Yacht Club writes Vincent Delany.

This trophy was originally won at the Dublin Coast Championship for International 12 Foot Dinghies, an event held in Dun Laoghaire Harbour on 21 September 1931 (although the engraving on the trophy describes it as Kingstown). This was probably the first ‘open meeting’ for a one-design class ever to be held in the Republic of Ireland. Despite none of the owners having road trailers, and the dinghies sailing from their home ports, there were fifteen entries from Howth Sailing Club, Sutton branch of Howth Sailing Club, Seapoint Boat Club and Malahide (where a sailing club was yet to be established). The event took place despite there not being an overall Class organisation to encourage entries. Perhaps things were done by word of mouth in those days. After four rounds of the Water Wag course, in a single race, the event was won by A.W. (Billy) Mooney in ‘Altair’ from Howth Sailing Club, followed by Mr. G. Bayly Spencer’s ‘Kittiwake’ from the Seapoint Boat Club, and Mr. Mc Cracken's ‘Snipe’ from Howth in third place. Mooney went on to win many races in other classes such as the Howth 17 foot class and in International Dragons.

The ‘Altair’ trophy was held by the Mooney family until 1970 when it was represented to the D.B.S.C. 12 Foot Dinghy fleet as a prize, for crews steering 12-foot dinghies. The trophy was competed for every year until 1977. It was represented to the International 12 Foot Dinghy Association of Ireland this week by the McGloughlin family.

Under event rules, 12-foot dinghies may sail either single-handed or two-handed.