#dbsc – BENETEAU 31.7 - 1. Bluefin Two (M & B Bryson), 2. Magic (D.O'Sullivan/D.Espey), 3. Attitude (T Milner J Sugars M Branigan)

BENETEAU 31.7 ECHO - 1. Levante (M.Leahy/J.Power), 2. Fiddly Bits (Timmins/Quigley/Murray/Breen)

CRUISERS 0 ECHO - 1. Lively Lady (Derek Martin), 2. Tsunami (Vincent Farrell), 3. Wow (George Sisk)

CRUISERS 0 - 1. Wow (George Sisk), 2. Lively Lady (Derek Martin), 3. Tsunami (Vincent Farrell)

CRUISERS 1 ECHO - 1. Bon Exemple (C Byrne), 2. Boomerang (Paul Kirwan), 3. Powder Monkey (C Moore)

CRUISERS 1 - 1. Bon Exemple (C Byrne), 2. Gringo (Tony Fox), 3. Boomerang (Paul Kirwan)

CRUISERS 2 ECHO - 1. Antix (D Ryan), 2. Bendemeer (L Casey & D Power), 3. Red Rhum (J Nicholson & C Nicholson)

CRUISERS 2 - 1. Red Rhum (J Nicholson & C Nicholson), 2. Bendemeer (L Casey & D Power), 3. Utopia (J Healy)

CRUISERS 3 - 1. Cartoon (McCormack/Brady/Lawless), 2. Quest (J Skerritt), 3. Asterix (Boushel/Meredith/Counihan)

CRUISERS 3 ECHO - 1. Papytoo (M Walsh/F Guilfoyle), 2. Pamafe (M Costello), 3. Asterix (Boushel/Meredith/Counihan)

FIREBALL RACE 2 - 1. Licence to Thrill (Louis Smyth), 2. Blind Squirrel (Frank Miller)

FLYING FIFTEEN RACE 1 - 1. The Gruffalo (K Poole/I Mathews), 2. Fflogger (Alan Dooley), 3. Kooigjug (K Dumpleton)

FLYING FIFTEEN RACE 2 - 1. The Gruffalo (K Poole/I Mathews), 2. Fflogger (Alan Dooley), 3. A Mere Triffle (P Sherry)

GLEN - 1. Glenluce (D & R O'Connor), 2. Glendun (B.Denham et al), 3. Pterodactyl (R & D McCaffrey)

MERMAID RACE 1 - 1. Aideen (B.Martin/D.Brennan), 2. Jill (P.Smith/P.Mangan), 3. Tijuana (David Stedmond)

MERMAID RACE 2 - 1. Jill (P.Smith/P.Mangan), 2. Aideen (B.Martin/D.Brennan)

RUFFIAN 23 - 1. Bandit (Kirwan/Cullen/Brown), 2. Ruff Nuff (D & C Mitchell), 3. Ruffles (Michael Cutliffe)

SHIPMAN - 1. Curraglas (John Masterson), 2. Gusto (C Heath/G Miles), 3. Malindi (B.Smith/A.Gray)

SIGMA 33 - 1. White Mischief (Timothy Goodbody), 2. Gwili Two (D.Clarke/P.Maguire), 3. Popje (Ted McCourt)

SQUIB RACE 1 - 1. Anemos (Pete & Ann Evans), 2. Tears in Heaven (M Halpenny & G Ferguson), 3. Femme Fatale (V Delaney)

SQUIB RACE 2 - 1. Tears in Heaven (M Halpenny & G Ferguson), 2. Anemos (Pete & Ann Evans), 3. Femme Fatale (V Delaney)

WHITE SAIL CRUISERS ECHO - 1. Sweet Martini (Bruce Carswell), 2. Vespucci (S & K O'Regan), 3. Fortitudine (D & A Clarke)

WHITE SAIL CRUISERS - 1. Vespucci (S & K O'Regan), 2. Persistence (C. Broadhead et al), 3. Calypso (Howard Knott)

#flyingfifteen – On a cool evening with a NE force 3 breeze a great turnout of 18 Flying Fifteens took part in Thursdays DBSC series. There was great excitement as David Mulvin and Ronan Beirne launched a brand new boat IRL 4028. 

The first mark was Zebra, Tom Galvin and Alan Dooley came in from opposite sides to lead from guest helm Prof Maurice O'Connell sailing with Mary Jane Mulligan in IRL 3606 in third place and David Mulvin in fourth. Prof was fouled at the mark by Doorly/Green but soon got going downwind to keep in touch with the leaders. This group stayed ahead as those behind kept bringing each other up high downwind and downtide!

On the last downwind leg Prof and MaryJane stayed low and with the incoming tide were able to take advantage coming into the leeward mark and take the lead and the race. Galvin was second with Dooley a very close third, Mulvin fourth, Doorly fifth and Murphy sixth.

Once again it was great racing and fantastic to see such a large turnout and once ashore and packed the fleet had a very enjoyable meal together in the NYC.

Full results here

#sb20 – A gentle force 2 North Easterly tested the nerves of the SB20 fleet on Dublin Bay this evening in an increasingly treacherous flooding tide. 9 boats made it out to the start line this evening making it a new season record and it is very encouraging to see the numbers continue to build as we head into June writes Michael O'Connor.

A fairly square line was set (based on the fact that half the fleet maintain it was a committee boat bias and the other half of the fleet claim it was a pin end bias, we are just going to sit on the fence and say it was square!) and the boats were clean away at the first time of asking. A short beat to the centre of the bay with neither side of the beat proving heavily favoured meant that things were going to be fairly lively at the weather mark and it certainly didnt disappoint with Alert Packaging (Justin, Darren et al) coming in from the left and squeezing in ahead of Manamana (Doug, Ronan and Catriona) coming in from the right followed by a tightly packed bunch including SacreBleu (Richard, Ben and Matt), Bad (Jimmy Downling et al), Rubadubdub (Nick et al), Should Be... (Michael, Dave and Gavan), Probably (Ian, Mark and Caroline) and Smoke on the Water (Bob, John et al).

A broad reach to mark 2 with the tide pushing the fleet above the mark meant that the boats were walking a tightrope between going low enough to avoid a gybe back against the tide and high enough to protect their air. At the second mark, Alert held onto their lead from Manamana followed by SacreBleu. A tight reach (bleeuugh!) to mark 3 ensued (in fairness our first this year I think) so we will just fast forward beyond mark 3 because nothing ever happens in an SB on a tight reach! The beat from mark 3 was a tricky affair with patchy wind covering Dublin Bay meaning finding the puffs was essential with big gains and losses to be made on the beat. Probably made a storming surge up the beat getting herself into 4th place at mark 4, comfortably overtaking both Should Be... and Rubadubdub. Meanwhile, the first three boats were having a great tussle and Manamana refused to let Alert Packaging sail off into the sunset and SacreBleu clinging on to Manamana to set up a grandstand finish.

Another broad reach ensured that these boats compacted even further and some tense moments up the last beat followed. In the end, Alert Packaging held their nerve and grabbed the win by approximately 20 seconds from Manamana with SacreBleu a similar distance behind in third. Probably unfortunately couldn't get back in touch with the top three but took 4th comfortably from Should Be... with Rubadubdub 6th, Smoke on the water 7th, Bad 8th and Venuesworld (Rory et al) who had started late, closing worryingly close to the earlier starters in 9th.

After sailing, 19 sailors and friends gathered for the first SB social of the year in the NYC. A few pints were followed by a very pleasant sailing supper in the dining room of the NYC. Great value at €20 for starter, maincourse and tea/coffee. Although most didn't seem quite ready to let loose in typical SB20 style before the bank holiday weekend, there was plenty of banter and it was great to see such a good turnout. Thanks go to James Gorman for organising the event in the NYC. There will be an SB-Social dinner after sailing on the last Thursday of each month rotating around the clubs. Next up is the RStGYC on the last Thursday in June. Looking forward to seeing you all there!

Finally, a special mention is due for both Billy Riordan and Lorcan Burke who manned the line on Tuesday night, fulfilling our DBSC requirement for the year. 

Full results DBSC results here

#dbsc – BENETEAU 31.7 Echo- 1. Kernach (Eoin O'Driscoll), 2. Fiddly Bits (Timmins/Quigley/Murray/Breen), 3. Prima Nocte (Patrick Burke et al)

BENETEAU 31.7 - 1. Levana (Jean Mitton), 2. Prospect (Chris Johnston), 3. Prima Nocte (Patrick Burke et al)

CRUISERS 0 Echo - 1. Wow (George Sisk), 2. Loose Change (P Redden & M Mitton), 3. Lively Lady (Derek Martin)

CRUISERS 1 Echo - 1. Bon Exemple (C Byrne), 2. Jedi (A Sarratt), 3. Boomerang (Paul Kirwan)

CRUISERS 1 - 1. Bon Exemple (C Byrne), 2. Joker 11 (John Maybury), 3. Jedi (A Sarratt)

CRUISERS 2 Echo - 1. Antix (D Ryan), 2. Red Rhum (J Nicholson & C Nicholson), 3. Jester (Declan Curtin)

CRUISERS 2 - 1. Red Rhum (J Nicholson & C Nicholson), 2. Jester (Declan Curtin), 3. Bendemeer (L Casey & D Power)

CRUISERS 3 A - 1. Quest (B Cunningham/J Skerritt), 2. Cartoon (McCormack/Brady/Lawless), 3. Supernova (McStay/Timbs/Monaghan/Costello)

CRUISERS 3 A Echo - 1. Supernova (McStay/Timbs/Monaghan/Costello), 2. Huggy Bear (Doyle & Byrne), 3. Grasshopper 2 (K & J Glynn)

CRUISERS 3 B Echo - 1. Cacciatore (M Ni Cheallachain), 2. Wynward (W McCormack), 3. Gung Ho (G & S O'Shea)

CRUISERS 3 B - 1. Gung Ho (G & S O'Shea), 2. Asterix (Counihan/Meredith/Bushell), 3. Cacciatore (M Ni Cheallachain)

DRAGON - 1. Zinzan (Daniel O'Connor et al), 2. Phantom (D.Williams)

FLYING FIFTEEN - 1. Mellifluence (T Leonard & B Mulligan), 2. Thingamabob (T Galvin), 3. Fflogger (Alan Dooley)

GLEN - 1. Glendun (B.Denham et al), 2. Glencoe (Rose Mary Craig et al), 3. Glenmiller (P Cusack)

RUFFIAN 23 - 1. Diane ll (A Claffey/C Helme), 2. Shannagh (S.Gill/P.MacDiarmada), 3. Cresendo (L Balfe)

SB20 - 1. Alert Packaging (J Burke D Burke), 2. Manamana (Smith\Downing\O'Reilly), 3. Sacrebleu (B Fusco/R Hayes)

SHIPMAN - 1. Whiterock (Henry Robinson), 2. Gusto (C Heath/G Miles), 3. The Den (A. Costello/G.Millar)

SIGMA 33 - 1. White Mischief (Timothy Goodbody), 2. Popje (Ted McCourt), 3. Moonshine (R.Moloney)

SQUIB - 1. Perfection (Jill Fleming), 2. Chillax (Colin Galavan), 3. Anemos (Pete & Ann Evans)

WHITE SAIL CRUISERS Echo - 1. Nauti-Gal (J & J Crawford), 2. Fortitudine (D & A Clarke), 3. Warrior (D Shanahan)

WHITE SAIL CRUISERS - 1. Persistence (C. Broadhead et al), 2. White Lotus (Paul Tully), 3. Vespucci (S & K O'Regan)

#beneteau21 – The Beneteau 21 (B21) class association, which caters for owners of Beneteau 210, 211 and 21.7 boats is hosting an open day in Dun Laoghaire on June 7th. The new 'Dublin Bay 21' class featured in Winkie Nixon's sailing blog on Afloat.ie last season.

The B21 is emerging as a strong one design class where the racing is friendly and the ownership costs are low. The boast are versatile, being a good compromise between racing and weekend cruising.

The objectives of the open day are twofold. The first is to give people with a little sailing experience a chance to race on the Beneteau 21 and they might then become regular crew on one of the boats. The second is to give prospective owners and owners who don't currently race the opportunity to try out racing in a low pressure environment.

The format for the day is:

Meet 09:45 at the Dun Laoghaire Marina.
10:00 Briefing
10:30 Introductory sail on a Beneteau 21.
12:00 Raft up for lunch in the Royal St George Yacht Club
13:00 Leave to compete in the afternoon DBSC race (weather permitting)
17:00 Debriefing and a pint!

There is no charge for the day, however we are asking people to register by texting your name and email address to 087 1228665.

#fireball – Last night's dinghy racing in Scotsman's Bay was the first "genteel" session since the DBSC season opened on 29th April. The forecast was for 4-6 knots of Easterly at 19:00 (XCWeather) but on the water the wind was coming out of the South-East, though the strength was probably about right. Some evening sunshine added to the ambience of the evening.
The Fireball race itself was a combination of the board games Monopoly and Snakes and Ladders, except in the latter case we were playing blind!
The "Monopoly" reference describes the start to finish domination of the lead by Noel Butler & Stephen Oram (15061) who simply sailed away from the rest of us, picking up a proverbial €200 at each rounding mark to stretch their lead further and winning by a margin of over two minutes. As the defending Tuesday night champions, they are showing every sign of retaining their title because for the present they are almost untouchable!
Another "monopoly" reference is that of the straight line speed of the all-lady combinations of Mary Chambers & Brenda McGuire (14865) and even more significantly Cariosa Power & Marie Barry (14854) who simply sailed into the upper echelons of the pecking order of six boats.
The "blind snakes and ladders"? With a tide that was flooding for 2 hours by the race start of 19:00 and a light wind scenario, logic would appear to suggest that getting out of the tide would be the thing to do. Six boats thus took an early port tack hitch off the start line to head for shore, with the weather mark of the 3-lap triangular course off the rocks at the 40-foot. The furthest boat to sea was the aforementioned Chambers & McGuire, who one would have thought, were fighting a stronger element of tide as the fleet converged on the first weather mark on starboard tack. Not at all, they rounded in second place, even being lifted around the mark. Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (14775) rounded third followed by Louis Smyth & Cormac Bradley (15007), Power & Barry (14854) and Louise McKenna & Hermine O'Keeffe (14691).
With Butler & Oram gone, the remaining five boats were set for their own race with not a great deal of distance separating 2nd from 6th. At the gybe mark Smyth & Bradley had a faster gybe to leave them upwind and overlapped with Chambers & McGuire, but Power & Barry were closer than they had been.
On the 2nd beat, first Chambers & McGuire, then Power & Barry simply sailed faster in a straight line than Smyth & Bradley who thus dropped to fifth and were fighting to keep McKenna & O'Keeffe at bay! Coin & Casey tacked out into the tide but managed to stay ahead to the 2nd weather mark. Seeing no ill effects from that tactic, Chambers & McGuire followed suit and opened up distance on Smyth & Bradley who had taken the inshore option. Meanwhile Power & Barry did their own thing to close on Colin & Casey and round third at the 2nd weather mark.
To compound the sense of blind snakes and ladders, going inshore on the downwind leg didn't appear to cost the two proponents of this tactic any distance – McKenna and Smyth still struggling to close on Power and Colin who rounded the 2nd leeward mark bow to transom.
On the third beat, McKenna went further out to sea than the others, but unlike the 2nd beat it didn't bring any rewards and by the top mark her opportunity to pass Smyth seemed to have gone. In the meantime, Power had overtaken Colin who was taking short hitches to sea – just to confuse the rest of us he would later claim – and Chambers closed the gap on Colin. At this stage, final weather mark, Butler & Oram were ⅔ of the first spinnaker reach ahead of the 2nd placed boat, Power & Barry, who were followed at a fairly safe distance (for them) by Colin & Casey and Chambers & McGuire. Smyth & Bradley closed the gap down the two reaches but spent the 2nd reach of the triangle looking over their shoulders at McKenna & O'Keeffe who were travelling faster.
The short hitch to the finish should have been academic but the different approaches taken to this 150m stretch meant that finishing margins came down to one or two boat-lengths (with the exception of the first placed boat – who were long gone!) and prompted some cover tacking in the final approach to the finish line!
DBSC Tuesday Nights, Series 1: May 27th (Race 5)
1 Noel Butler & Stephen Oram 15061 NYC
2 Cariosa Power & Marie Barry 14854 NYC
3 Neil Colin & Margaret Casey 14775 DMYC

In overall terms, Butler & Oram lead with a six point cushion over Power & Barry and Colin & Casey who are tied on 10 points each.
On the previous Saturday, three Fireballs contested the Royal Irish Yacht Club Regatta, with Smyth & Bradley taking the event with two race wins. Louise McKenna & Hermine O'Keeffe and Frank Miller & Ismail Inan shared the second and third places to tie on 5pts. However, Ismail would have enjoyed the Sunday of his weekend when he attended the Ireland – Turkey soccer game at Aviva - that result went his way!!

#dbsc – CRUISERS 2 - 1. Red Rhum (J Nicholson & C Nicholson), 2. Graduate (D O'Keeffe), 3. Bendemeer (L Casey & D Power)

CRUISERS 3 Tuesday - 1. Maranda (M Kelly), 2. Solidarity (Whelan/McCabe/Cary/Cramer), 3. Asterix (Boushel/Meredith/Counihan)

FIREBALL - 1. No Name (S Oram), 2. Incubus (C Power/M Barry), 3. Elevation (N.Colin/M.Casey)

GLEN - 1. Glendun (B.Denham et al), 2. Glenmiller (P Cusack)

IDRA 14 FOOT - 1. Slipstream (Julie Ascoop), 2. Dart (Pierre Long), 3. Dunmoanin (Frank Hamilton)

MERMAID - 1. Aideen (B.Martin/D.Brennan), 2. Jill (P.Smith/P.Mangan)

PY CLASS - 1. R Kenneally (Laser), 2. Colin Galavan (Laser), 3. D O'Connell (Laser)

RUFFIAN 23 - 1. Alias (D.Meeke/M.McCarthy), 2. Carmen (B Duffy), 3. Ripples (Frank Bradley)

#riyc – It may have been grey and overcast but there was plenty of breeze for the Top Secuity sponsored Royal Irish Yacht Club regatta today, the first of Dublin Bay's waterfront regattas of the season.

Keelboat classes trialled new race courses that have been designed for next month's ICRA Championships at the same venue.

The RIYC regatta also started the ten race Royal Alfred Superleague.

The results for all 20 competing keelboat and dinghy classes are below, downloadable as jpeg files.

#ffirl – On a cool summers evening with a NE breeze 18 Flying Fifteens took to Dublin Bay last night for Thursday night DBSC racing. David and Claire Gorman of the National Yacht Club took the gun in their first outing of the year in IRL 3920 followed by Tom Galvin in IRL 3757 with Tom Murphy third and Geraldine O'Neill fourth. This group got ahead on the first beat and as many struggled in the light airs to get going.

PRO Jack Roy and his team set a great but challenging course around the Bay with three beats. After a frantic start bunched at the pin end most of the fleet headed out to the left. At the first weather mark Geraldine ONeill/Ben Mulligan lead from Tom Murphy followed by the Gormans with Tom Galvan close behind.

Down the fleet there were some good recoveries after poor first beats notably Ken Dumpleton/Mary Jane Mulligan who got finished fifth and Alan Green who redeemed himself with a seventh!

It was great to see such a large turnout and once ashore the club bbq was in full swing and a great evening was had by all.

Full DBSC results for last night here.

#sb20 – After a cracking SB20 Easterns last weekend with 20 boats in the NYC (won in great style by the Dinghy Supplies team of Daragh, Shane and John), it was back to work in DBSC tonight and 9 boats gamely made it out for Thursday night racing - just one shy of the magic double figures - we will get there yet! With 60 minutes to go before the start, many competitors were wondering whether or not there would be enough wind to get them out to the start line on time however Windguru was true to its word and the wind picked up gradually throughout the evening and built to a very pleasant F3 from the north-east by the finish.

The OOD set a pin end bias and once again it was Venuesworld (Ger, Chris and Rory) that claimed the pin with Bad (Gerry, Jimmy and Enda) on their hip, drag racing out to the left hand side. Most of the rest of the fleet were left wallowing in their wake and several tacked off out right to clear their air. The wind was shifting through about 20 degrees with big gains and losses to be made up the first beat. Many of the boats that chose a middle route up the beat fared best. By the first weather mark, a 10 degree left hander meant that Venuesworld had pulled a few boatlengths ahead of the chasing pack with Probably (Ian, Billy and Mark) in second, Alert Packaging (Justin, Darren and Anonymous) in third and then a gap to SacreBleu (Richard, Ryan and Ben) in fourth, Should Be... (Michael, Owen and Gavan) in fifth and a few more boatlengths back Manamana (Ronan, Dave et al), Lupi d'Irlanda (Marco et al), Bad and Seriously Bonkers (Peter, Caroline et al) were fighting tooth and nail to get back into it.

The second leg was a broad reach all the way into Bay mark in Scotsman's bay and the fleet had the added challenge of navigating their way through the Dragon fleet en route to the mark. As it turned out, this gave the back markers a chance to get back into the mix as the leaders that chose to go high above the Dragons turned the leg into a run for themselves and had to gybe back against the strengthening tide. At the mark, Probably had taken over the lead and got a clean getaway up the next beat. They were followed by Alert Packaging and Venuesworld but an uncharacteristic slow "group" mark rounding by that pair allowed Should Be... to sneak inside at the mark and Sacre Bleu to get perilously close.

On the next beat, those boats favouring the right hand side including Probably, Alert Packaging and Should Be... hooked in to some more breeze and pulled a jump on the rest of the fleet. At the end of the beat as the boats turned onto the run it was Should Be... followed closely by Probably with Alert Packaging squeezing around ahead of Venuesworld and SacreBleu still nipping at the heels of the top four. The top four boats gybed shortly after the mark and an inspired call by Venuesworld to gybe back early down the run allowed them to make big gains and by the leeward mark they had passed out both Probably and Alert Packaging and were only a couple of boatlengths behind Should Be... Unfortunately for Venuesworld, they went too far right up the next beat, overstanding the weather mark which allowed both Alert Packaging and Probably to slip past into second and third respectively. From there, it was a straightforward run back home to pier mark and at the finish it was Should Be... in first followed by Alert Packaging in second, Probably in third, Venuesworld in fourth and SacreBleu in fifth.

SB20 Social
There is a plan to have an informal sailing supper next Thursday evening (29th May) after sailing in the NYC. Depending on the options, it will probably be sailing supper washed down with a few pints/glasses of vino. (The plan is to have sailing supper on the last Thursday of each month rotating amongst the clubs so pencil it into your diary now...) We did this on the last Thursday of the season in the George last year (thanks John O'Driscoll for the suggestion!) and it was a great success with about 20 thirsty sailors in attendance. Everyone is welcome, the more the merrier. Why not adopt an old SBer and bring them along?! Further details will follow during the week...

For those sailing in the RIYC regatta this Saturday, best of luck!

Full DBSC Thursday night DBSC winners here