Did we really manage it? Did we really cram all those major special and routine regular sailing events into the one season of 2022? And all that despite its three main months afloat experiencing decidedly mixed weather? And also despite the fact that many folk had simply got out of the way of packing lots of active racing and hectic après sailing into an already complicated way of life?

Yes, it was the Bounce-back Summer and no mistake, making up for the Pandemic’s lost time with major international events running back-to-back, and all that in the midst of a crowded programme on the local front, with some clubs finding that – thanks to their prime restriction-compliant place at the heart of the community – they were actually emerging into the new reality with more members than they’d had going into the plague years.

Thus we’re a bit like someone who resumes swimming after an absence, and begins by diving off an excessively high board which leaves them gasping as it is, yet they persist in swimming determinedly on with excessive speed and enthusiasm for fear that some new restrictions will suddenly bring it all to a sudden end.

BREATHLESS WITH ACHIEVEMENT

In other words, at the moment the sailing community is simply breathless with exhaustion and achievement. And it takes an extra effort to contemplate the season of 2023, at a time now - in November/December - when many of the more sociable clubs are still holding frequent functions to celebrate the remarkable amount of sailing – and successful sailing at that – which has been done at home and abroad during 2022.

So in contemplating the 2023 season at this stage, we’ll take a fairly broad-brush approach. What will be the pillar events, and what will be the main underlying themes?

 Secret waters. The usually private Shannon One Desigs went public for their Centenary in 2022

As ever with Irish sailing’s long history, there’ll be significant commemorations to be marked. 2022 saw the Centenary of the Shannon One Designs, celebrated by that normally rather private class with very public festivities on Lough Ree and Lough Derg during July, following which they were able to go back into their time-honoured closed-shop mode during August’s traditional lake regatta weeks.

SAOIRSE CIRCUMNAVGATION CENTENARY

In 2023, the big One Hundred to be marked is the Centenary of the start from Dun Laoghaire on the 20th June 1923 of Conor O’Brien of Limerick’s pioneering voyage around the world south of the great Capes in his new own-designed Baltimore-built 42ft ketch Saoirse.

Conor O’Brien’s new Saoirse takes her departure for the Great Southern Ocean from “Dunleary” on June 20th 1923

As Saoirse was to become the first sea-going vessel to fly the ensign of the newly-established Irish Free State, everyone – but everyone – quite rightly feels that they own part of this remarkable achievement. Yet as a consequence, those who have been quietly flying the O’Brien voyaging achievement banner for decades, trying to ensure that it is all properly placed in a national and global context, found that they were in danger of being swamped by new enthusiasts who wanted to make a complete circus out of the entire affair.

The re-created Saoirse newly-launched at Oldcourt in September 2022 - looking good, but with too much work still to be completed for a full programme in 2023. Photo: John Wolfe

However, reality has intervened. The West Cork summer resident who has a Saoirse re-build being created at Oldcourt has indicated that the boat won’t really be in a properly tried and tested seaworthy condition for any Dun Laoghaire celebration planned for June 2023. And in any case he tends to feel that it is more appropriate to keep her in West Cork in celebration of that area’s often-overlooked contribution to the magnificent O’Brien circumnavigation of a century ago, and his subsequent success with the 56t ketch Ilen.

REALISTIC CENTENARY CELEBRATION SAILING ILEN

But as the 1926-built O’Brien-designed 56ft Ilen has been sailing again as a multi-purpose vessel for some years now, thanks to a meticulous restoration programme by Gary MacMahon of Limerick and the Ilen Project working with Liam Hegarty’s boatyard in Oldcourt near Baltimore, a more realistic commemoration scenario has been devised by the Irish Cruising Club in co-ordination with the Ilen Project.

Saoirse’s “big sister”, the 56ft Ilen, has been recruited to take on a celebratory role for the Saoirse Centenary. Photo: Gary Mac Mahon

The ICC was not founded until 1929, but one of its first acts was to make Conor O’Brien its first Honorary Member. However, during his voyage it had been the 1880-founded London-based Royal Cruising Club which gave him enthusiastic support through the regular award of its premier trophy, the Challenge Cup.

This was done three years in a row in 1923, ’24 and ’25 as his voyage progressed to its successful conclusion in Dun Laoghaire exactly two years to the day after departure. And the RCC’s leading officer was also very encouraging in the promotion of O’Brien’s book of his voyage, Across Three Oceans, which in terms of its genre, became a best-seller.

All this was in a time of political turmoil in Ireland with Dublin/London conflict, when O’Brien, moreover, was entering the international sailing arena with a personal history of having been one of the 1914 gun-runners in favour of Irish Home Rule, along with Erskine Childers and Sir Thomas Myles. Thus it was courageous and generous to come out so openly in London in his support, and in recognition of this, the ICC will be joining the RCC with he Ilen as flagship in a Centenary cruise-in-company from Dun Laoghaire to Madeira and back, while the two clubs will be joining forces in publishing a re-introduced re-print of Across Three Oceans.

Cape Horn pioneer Conor O’Brien as portrayed by his wife, the artist Kitty Clausen, in 1930

DUBLIN BAY SAILING CLUB JOINED CELEBRATION

This neat solution to what was shaping up to be a possible clash of viewpoints as to how best the Centenary of the beginning of Conor O’Brien’s Saoirse voyage should be marked is further enhanced by realising that the major celebration should really be on the Centenary of his return, on June 20th 2025. It happened to be a Saturday back in 1925, yet Dublin Bay Sailing Club cancelled its legendary Saturday racing programme in order that its complete racing fleet could welcome Saoirse home.

That in itself was such a totally unprecedented gesture by the 1884-founded DBSC that its Centenary deserves celebration in its own right. So maybe harmony can be maintained by everyone anticipating some special celebration on June 20th 2025, when a sense of completeness might be possible with the more relaxed presence of the re-created Saoirse.

THIRTY YEARS OF THE DUN LAOGHAIRE-DINGLE RACE

Meanwhile, 2023 is already very Dun Laoghaire-focused with the 30th Anniversary staging of the biennial Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race from the National Yacht Club on Wednesday, June 7th, and the all-clubs four day Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta from July 6th to 9th. The Regatta Director this year is Paddy Boyd, whose extensive sailing experience and interaction with Dun Laoghaire and Dublin Bay are so intertwined as to be part of his DNA.

Paddy Boyd is bringing an unrivalled wealth of Dublin Bay sailing and administration experience to the challenge of the VDLR 2023. Photo: Robert Bateman

Nevertheless, it will take all the expertise and enthusiasm of Paddy and his team to get the VDLR machine up and running at full blast again. It’s a formidable setup when it gears fully into smooth action, which made it a doubly-cruel blow when it all had to be pandemic-dismantled early in 2021. Back then, Don O’Dowd (who will continue as Chairman for 2023) was heading the large group of volunteers who finally learned that their already much-worked-at and intensely-sociable VDLR 2021 simply wasn’t going to happen.

SOVEREIGNS AT KINSALE WILL MAKE COMEBACK

In their racing to Dingle, the D2D competitors - with the Murphy family’s Grand Soleil 40 Nieulargo of the Royal Cork YC the defending champion, having been welcomed back to Crosshaven after her victory in 2021 with a full gun salute by Admiral Colin Morehead – will be battling past Kinsale, which hosts its own battles with Sovereign’s Regatta on June 21st to 24th.

Every major regatta in Ireland – whether it be Bangor Town on Belfast Lough, Wave at Howth, the VDLR in Dun Laoghaire, Volvo Cork Week in Cork Harbour, the Sovereigns in Kinsale, or Calves Week at Schull – manages to have its own unique character, partly because those seven premier sailing centres somehow all manage to be completely different in character from the other six.

Kinsale. Every major regatta centre in Ireland is unique, and the special charms of Kinsale are obvious Photo: Wikimedia

Yet the Sovereigns at Kinsale - sponsored in 2023 by Simply Blue - will have at least one significant carry-over from 2022’s Volvo Cork Week. The 1720 Euros were the highlight of Crosshaven last July with a crack fleet of 42 boats, many of them with superb restoration and re-spray jobs which belied their class’s 1994 origins. The Crosshaven-Howth team of the English and McDonald talents combined on Atara to come out tops, which means that at Kinsale they’ll be the target boat, while the other target is to push the fleet of these eternally attractive boats through the 50 mark.

After thirty years, the Cork 1720 Sportsboat is as attractive as ever. They’ll be hoping for a fleet of 50-plus at Kinsale next June for their Euros as part in the Sovereigns Regatta

THE INTERNATONAL SCENE

We’ll be taking a much more comprehensive look at the international prospects for 2023 in a future SailSat, but anyone who thinks that the Irish representation afloat for the 2024 Olympics in Paris (with the sailing at Marseille) will be selected by the end of 2023 might be surprised when some of it goes right down to the wire in April 2024, which has happened in times past.

Be that as it may, on the offshore scene 2023 gets going early with the Caribbean 600 in February – there’s almost invariably Irish involvement, and we’ve collected more than our fair share of its silverware since it was inaugurated in 2009.

The dream of thousands – racing in the RORC Fastnet Race. 2023’s edition - the 50th – will start earlier than usual, on July 22nd. Photo: Kurt Arrigo

But inevitably the focus will mainly be on the Fastnet Race 2023, which unusually for this 50th Edition, will be starting in July, on Saturday 22nd July from Cowes, but taking in the new extended course to finish at Cherbourg. Presumably this timing is partly to allow the heavy brigade to take in Cowes Week itself in August, but meanwhile, looking ahead to the Fastnet Centenary in 2025, we still don’t really know if the old course to finish at Plymouth will be acknowledged and used. But either way, Ireland certainly has skin in the game as the first racing of the new course in 2021 saw Irish Offshore Sailing’s vintage Sun Fast 37 Desert Star from Dun Laoghaire - skippered by Ronan O Siochru - put in an appropriately stellar performance to take a close second in Class IV and an impressive 14th overall in a huge fleet.

Stellar performance – the crew of Desert Star (Ronan O Siochru on right) have a nano-second of relaxation towards the end of the 2021 Fastnet Race, as it becpmes increasingly clear they are second in class and 14th overall in a fleet of hundreds

INSS & THE DUN LAOGHAIRE PHENOMENON

The fact that Desert Star’s success was just one of many achievements being logged by the continually-developing Dun Laoghaire sailing and training scene – both commercial and in the clubs – reflects the new interest that sailing attracted as the first small easings of the pandemic began to apply in the local context.

Ultimately, it’s all about the numbers game. The Rumball family of the multi-function and high-achieving Irish National Sailing School are originally from Malahide, while Ronan O Siochru of IOS took his first serious steps afloat in Kinsale. But in facing business realities, they all realised that the population package right beside good sailing water which Dun Laoghaire and South Dublin offers made it no contest in deciding to base their locations around The Old Granite Pond, and sailing history has proven them right.

“THE HOWTH PRODUCT”

That said, the slightly quirky appeal of Howth Harbour, which prides itself on NOT being part of Dublin Bay, proved to have its new and established adherents in considerable numbers as sailing emerged from the plague years. The modern HYC clubhouse/marina reaches the end of 2022 with 2,173 members when you include all categories, and they look forward to a 2023 season which is fascinatingly book-ended by the National Youth Championship from 13th to 16th April 2023, and the ICRA Nats from 1st to 3rd September.

For those who try to take in all the information they can from developing situations, it w be fascinating in getting an overview of sailing development to see how many juniors who take part in their own multi-class championships in April then reappear in some crewing or helming capacity in the ICRA Nationals at the beginning of September.

HOWTH SEVENTEENS’ 125th ANNIVERSARY TO BALTIMORE

Meanwhile Howth’s eternal 17ft OD Class - founded in 1898 - continues to attract all ages, and they celebrate their 125th Anniversary in 2023 with many events, a highlight being a week’s “one class” regatta visit to Baltimore in mid-June.

They’re no strangers to West Cork, as master-shipwright Rui Ferreira of Ballydehob has done significant work on some of the boats, and back in 2003 no less than 15 of them decamped en masse to the Glandore Classics Regatta, dropping out of the regular programme to take in circuits of the Fastnet Rock and other eccentricities.

The Howth 17 Leila (Roddy Cooper) at the Fastnet Rock during the Glandore Classics 2003. The 1898-built Leila was already six years old when the Fastnet Lighthouse began signalling in 1904. Photo: W M Nixon

In fact, when the Howth Seventeens are hunting as a pack, it’s really easier for everyone if they do their own thing, and even then you need to be tuned in to their system of in-class communication, which supposedly relies on a WhatsApp, but in practice seems to be utilizing some form of supernatural telepathy.

So my thoughts are with anyone with a bigger boat with an auxiliary who happens to be detailed off to be the Mother Ship to the Seventeens in June. For as we learned in in 2003, you’re called the Mother Ship because the Mother is always the last to know.

Thus the fleet found themselves on a foggy windy morning in Castlehaven when - just along the coast in Glandore - the rest of the Classics fleet were being confined in-harbour for their racing. But the Seventeens’ race plan for that day was a slightly offshore sprint from Castlehaven to Glandore, with the winner being the first boat to have a crewperson down a pint in Casey’s of Glandore, thereby throwing in a brief but intense bit of hill running to add to the sailing sport.

With the poor visibility and the brisk onshore wind, the Mother Ship was assured that they’d take the more sheltered route inside High Island. But once we’d cleared the entrance to Castlehaven, it was quite clear that the class was determined to face the more challenging seas running outside High Island.

Summertime in West Cork. The Casey’s Pint Race from Castlehaven to Glandore, July 2003, with Aura (1898, left), and Deilginis (1907, right), shaping up to use the breaking Copper Rock off High Island as the weather mark. Photo: W M Nixon

Moreover, they seemed to have agreed among themselves that it was safe enough to chance going over or inside the submerged Row Rock, and therefore the half-tide Copper Rock southwest of High Island became the weather mark.

When you see a bunch of Howth 17s racing flat out past the Copper Rock as the seas break over it within a metre or two of the boats, you know you’re dealing with a bunch of total free-thinkers. So good luck to whoever is the Mother Ship in June next year, twenty years down the track from that first Casey’s Pint Race.

Track the progress of the 2021 Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Yacht Race fleet below here on the live tracker when the race starts at 2 pm on Wednesday, June 9th from Dublin Bay.

Read the full 2021 race preview by WM Nixon here.  

Read all the D2D Race News in one handy link here

WM Nixon will be posting regular race updates during the race

Kinsale Yacht Club rivals its South coast Royal Cork neighbour with four offshore entries into Wednesday's 280-mile Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race. 

It's a strong turnout for the West Cork club that also has the biggest entry into the race in the form of Conor Doyle's fifty-foot X-yacht Freya. 

Kinsale also has a potent double-handed entry from Cian McCarthy sailing his Sunfast 3300, Cinnamon Girl (stratospherically rated at 1.026)

Kinsale's Cian McCarthy is sailing his Sunfast 3300, Cinnamon Girl double-handed in the Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race Photo: Bob Bateman

Finbarr O'Regan's new J109 Artful Dodger will make its debut in the race and with one favourite J109 now out of the race and O'Regan's successful track record in his former Elan 333, this new Kinsale combination may be something of a dark horse in a race that will be raced along largely familiar south coast waters for the KYC crew.

The Dublin J109 Wakey Wakey has been sold to the south coast, is now known as Artful Dodger and makes her racing debut under the Kinsale Yacht Club burgee this week in the Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race Photo: Afloat

As Afloat's WM Nixon visualises here there could be a scenario where the Xp50 and the Xp44 WOW (George Sisk, RIYC) – along with other biggies like Robert Rendell's new Grand Soleil 44 Samatom – will get themselves clear ahead in a separate group and keep piling on the lead in increasingly different conditions from the rest of the fleet.

Kinsale Yacht Club Entries in the 2021 Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race

• Artful Dodger J109, IRL1713, Skipper: Finbarr O'Regan, Class: IRC Racing, Rating: 1.006
• Cinnamon Girl SUNFAST 3300, IRL 1627, Skipper: Cian McCarthy, Class: Double handed Racing, Rating: 1.026
• Freya Xp50 IRL 5077, Skipper: Conor Doyle, Class: IRC Racing, Rating: 1.084
• Meridian Salona 45, IRL 4076, Skipper: Thomas Roche, Class: IRC Racing, Rating: 1.094

Tom Roche's Meridian Salona 45 from Kinsale Photo: Bob Bateman

As Afloat reported, the race is shaping up to be a highlight of the sailing season and has attracted a formidable line-up of Irish offshore sailing talent.

38 boats are lined up for Wednesday's start at 2 pm, a date that WM Nixon is calling a Clarion Call for Ireland's 2021 Sailing Season.

The 2019 Volvo Dun Laoghaire to Dingle “D2D” Race will start from the National Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire on Wednesday, June 12th 2019. The 2019 edition of D2D brings with it some important and exciting changes while retaining the spirit and ethos of the race as a 300-mile coastal racing challenge for Cruiser/Racing boats racing under the IRC rule.

Firstly, the 2019 race forms part of the Royal Ocean Racing Club “RORC” calendar for the season. This is in addition to the race continuing as part of the ISORA programme and much of the fleet participating in ISORA using the same race tracking technology. The association with RORC has been growing over the past few years and we expect this to further develop for future editions. What this association brings this year is the superb race management team from the National Yacht Club is further enhanced with international racing best practice in terms of the RORC offshore racing standards, and it is expected that boats campaigning in RORC will look towards the D2D race as a great workout for crew and equipment in advance of the RORC Fastnet Race in August 2019.

"This change means that navigators and skippers can plot courses to hug the coastline, and to go inside Islands and lighthouses as part of their strategy"

Secondly, the course for the race has been amended for 2019 in that the course is defined as “Dun Laoghaire Harbour to Dingle Harbour leaving the Mainland of Ireland to Starboard”. This change means that navigators and skippers can plot courses to hug the coastline, and to go inside Islands and lighthouses as part of their strategy to get from the start to finish lines in the quickest (and safest) times. This innovation has occurred as a result of the experience of the Volvo Ocean Race fleet earlier in 2019, where the fleet could take a similar approach on the leg around Ireland. It can make a great spectacle as the fleet get close inshore, even if some of the towns and pubs along the way are difficult to pass late in the evening!

Finally, to encourage entries from mixed crews there will be a new sub-category and prize for entries with at least two female crew/competitors.

So the 2019 edition of the D2D (Dun Laoghaire to Dingle) Race builds on the wonderful ethos and tradition of this great race. With Volvo Car Ireland continuing as the title sponsor to the traditional local support from the Dingle Skellig Hotel. Since its inception in 1984 this race has always thrived on the wonderful co-operation between the National Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire and those local businesses in Dingle that provide a great welcome and hospitality at the finishing destination.

The timing of the 2019 race is designed so boats participating in the IRC Nationals in Dun Laoghaire (June 7th – 9th) can use the race to get south in time for Sovereigns Week in Kinsale (June 26th – 29th).

The Notice of Race is now available to download here.

#d2d – The National Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire harbour has announced its 12th staging of the biennial Dingle Skellig Hotel Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race which will start on Friday 12th June. It follows on a week from Howth Yacht Club's Lambay race so this time round it may be viewed with more interest by several more boats from across Dublin Bay too. The Notice of Race for the 2015 D2D is downloadable below. 

For 2015, defending champion in the Dingle Race is Brian O'Sullivan of Tralee with the veteran Oyster 37 Amazing Grace, which came good in the end in 2013 with a new breeze which knocked pending leader Antix (Anthony O'Leary) off the winning perch.

The 2015 Dingle Race also acts as a useful if rather indirect feeder for the ICRA Nationals at the Sovereigns Cup in Kinsale from June 24th to 28th, there could be all sorts of sharp boats lining up to take the prize.

More in Afloat's 2015 sailing season preview by WM Nixon here.

The Notice of Race for the 2015 D2D is downloadable below as a pdf file.

#d2d – Scroll down for the overall results showing corrected times on IRC handicap for each of the 22 competing boats. Also provided as an attachment (below) are Xcel files for download purposes with separate class results.

Track the progress of the 2019 Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Yacht Race fleet below here on the live tracker when the race starts at 6 pm tonight on Dublin Bay. Forecasts show gusty north and northwesterly winds for the start, the 13th edition of the 275–mile race.

Read the full 2019 race preview by WM Nixon here.  

Read all the D2D Race News in one handy link here

WM Nixon will be posting regular race updates during the race

22 offshore yachts are confirmed for the start of the National YC's Dingle Skellig Hotel Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race 2013 on Friday 7th June.  See entry list below and also downloadable as an attached excel file.

As well as a large proportion of Dun Laoghaire's ISORA crews this year's race benefits from having Royal Cork's Antix on the startline. The former Commododre's Cup winner will use the race as a feeder for June 13th's ICRA Nationals in Fenit, Co. Kerry.

2011 winner Martin Breen's Reflex 38 is back as well as ISORA's potent J109 trio, Joker II, Jedi and newcomer Ruth of the host club.

There are four double handed entries in the two-handed division. 

All boats will be equipped with GPS trackers for the race.

 

Boat Name	Sail no	Model	Sun Division	Name	Surname	Club	IRC TCC
Antix	IRL 3939	Ker 39	Racing	Anthony / Peter	O'Leary	BSC/ RCYC	1.136
Joker II	IRL 1206	J109	Racing	John	Maybury	RIYC	1.017
Blue Eyes	IRL 9849	Elan 340	2-handed	Colm	Buckley	HYC	0.983
Lisador	IRL 1295	Dehler 36	Racing	Henry	Hogg	Garrykennedy SC	0.958
Ruth	IRL 1383	J109	Racing	Liam	Shanahan	NYC	1.02
Jedi	IRL 8088	J109	Racing	Andrew	Sarrath	RIYC	1018
Spindrift	IRL 1503	HR34	Cruising	David	Kelly	Waterford SC	0.938
Polished Manx	GER8666	Sigma 33	Racing	Kuba	Szymanski	DBYC	0.898
Discover Ireland	IRL 7386	Reflex 38	Racing	Adhan	Fitzgerald	GBSC	1.055
Black jack	IRL 1988	Pocock 38	2-handed	Peter/ Darren	Coad/Nicholson	WHSC	0.934
Conundrum	IRL 3503	Hanse	Cruising	Michael	Pomeroy	RStGYC	0.968
Amazing Grace	IRL1966	Oyster 37	Racing	Brian	O'Sullivan	TBSC	0.931
Rockabill V	IRL 3307	Corby 33	Racing	Paul	O'Higgins	NYC/IRIYC	1.041
Aquelina	IRL 1281	J-122	Racing	James S	Tyrrell	ASC	1.084
Chancer	IRL 1583	Elan 40	Racing	Brian	Carroll		1.027
White Tiger	IRL 4470	Beneteau First 44.7	Racing	Anthony	O'Brien	KYC	1.113
Mojito	GBR9047R	J109	Racing	Peter	Dunlop	CHPwllheli SC	1.014
Ocean Tango	GBR6848T	Dehler34	2-Handed	Robert	Floate	DMYC/ WSC	0.928
Legally Blonde	IRL 3175	Beneteau First 44.7	Racing	Cathal/Paul	Drohan/Egan	RStGYC	0.952
Lulla Belle	IRL 3607	Beneteau First 36.7	2-Handed	Liam/Brian	Coyne/Flahive	NYC	1.001
Wow	IRL 4208	Farr42	Racing	George	Sisk	RIYC	1.144
Adelie	IRL 9631	Beneteau First 44.7	Racing	Peter	Hall	NYC	1.003