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Displaying items by tag: Fairy class

The Fairy class from the Royal North of Ireland fleet at Cultra on Belfast Lough and the River class-based at Strangford Lough YC have raced since 1960 for a special trophy called the Friver Cup.

The Rivers, designed by Alfred Mylne, celebrated their Centenary last year and the Fairy Class was designed by Linton Hope in 1902 for the then-new Royal North of Ireland YC at Cultra on Belfast Lough.

The River Class hosted this year's event, and the boats used were Quoile, Faughan, Roe, Glynn, Strule and Lackagh. Representing the Rivers were Class Captain John McVea, James Nixon and Jack Irwin, and the Fairy class helms were Class Captain David Carlisle along with Jamie Hume and Leah McLeave.

Last Sunday (22nd), the River Class claimed back the Cup from the Fairy Class, sailing two races on windward-leeward courses. The first race saw the Fairy Class ahead on 10 points, to 11 points for the Rivers, and in the second race, the Rivers performed better with eight points to 13 for the Fairy Class. The River Class achieved a 1st, 2nd and a 5th.

Friver Cup (from left) John McVea (River class captain and David Carlisle Fairy class captainFriver Cup (from left) John McVea (River class captain and David Carlisle Fairy class captain

SLYC Commodore Henry Anstey was Race Officer.

Published in Belfast Lough

New York Yacht Club’s biennial Invitational Cup

Ireland has a proud history in New York Yacht Club’s biennial Invitational Cup, with Irish participation from the very start and a podium result in 2019.

In 2009, two Irish Clubs,  Royal St. George in Dun Laoghaire and Royal Cork in Crosshaven, entered into New York's newest sailing competition that was reminiscent of Newport’s America’s Cup days when 19 yacht club teams from 14 nations descended on this “City by the Sea”.

The Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup is a competition between yacht clubs, with strict eligibility rules ensuring that each team is comprised exclusively of amateur sailors.

The competition, which was first run in 2009, has drawn entries from 49 clubs from 22 nations on all six inhabited continents.

The New York Yacht Club won the inaugural event in 2009, with the Royal Canadian Yacht Club winning in 2011 and 2013, England's Royal Thames Yacht Club winning in 2015 and Southern Yacht Club from New Orleans winning in 2017.

In 2019 the regatta was sailed for the first time in the New York Yacht Club’s fleet of IC37 yachts, and Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron, from Australia, became the first Southern Hemisphere club to win the trophy. And it was in this edition that Anthony O’Leary’s Royal Cork team took the bronze medal.