Following the launch of the new build IDRA 14 wooden dinghy on Saturday, after a three year long project, the Clontarf Yacht & Boat Club team lead and novice boat builder Ronan Melling has thanked all of those involved in making the day so successful.

"Three years ago I had a crazy idea to build a boat. It was crazy because I have never attempted anything like it before. I didn’t know then that it would take a team of amateurs almost three years, over six thousand hours, three different types of wood and almost 2000 rivets to build this boat. I couldn’t have comprehended how much I would learn. I didn’t know how many incredible people would respond to my calls for help, advice and support. I didn’t realise how many of these people, after willingly offering what they could, would stay with the project - through ups and downs, setbacks and challenges, breakthroughs and milestones.

"All of the blood (mostly Donal Heney’s) sweat and tears culminated in the launch of Wicked Sadie on Saturday the 25th of June.Wicked Sadie is a boat with soul. Her soul, my soul, the soul of the incredible build team, of the IDRA14 class, of CY&BC.

It was a passion for the sea, for wooden boats that inspired me to attempt this project but it would not have been possible without the support of my club and its Executive and membership. The Club provided the space for us to complete the project and our Commodore led others in promoting and supporting the project and all of the club members who lent a hand, particularly with the riveting and sanding. We also had huge support from other clubs, particularly the East Wall Water Sports club who shared their boat building expertise.

I owe all of these supporters and contributors a huge debt of gratitude. We wouldn’t be here without you.

"We were so delighted to see so many people turn out for the launch on Saturday – to sail off in Wicked Sadie and look back and see so many family, friends, supporters and visitors line along the sea wall to wave us off was incredible. A huge thanks to all of the IDRA14s who accompanied us on that first sail around – it was amazing to have such company on the water.

"This boat is all about family, not only mine who bore all my absences with patience and good grace, but the IDRA14 family. The work that we have done here in building Wicked Sadie, developing the plans, recording the stages, marking the best practice is all there for future generations, for all of those brave fools who want to pour their souls into a newbuild IDRA14. We have played our part and got our own Pearly Queen, our very own Wicked Sadie, who is a testament to the strength of the past and the potential of the future."

To celebrate the 70th anniversary of the wooden dinghy IDRA 14, a group of amateur boat builders from Clontarf Yacht and Boat Club (CY&BC), led by Ronan Melling have built the first boat in almost 50 years.

The clinker boat has taken three years to build so the launch on the 25th of June at 12:30pm will be an historic occasion for CY&BC.

Speaking in advance of the launch, project lead and first-time boat builder Ronan Melling said, "The IDRA14 dinghies have a unique Irish history. They are single design wooden boats that were designed by an Irish naval architect, George O’Brien Kennedy in the winter of 1938 in Dorset. The design was adopted and adapted by the Irish Dinghy Racing Association in 1945 to regulate small boat sailing and encourage more people into the sport.

“The first IDRA14s were launched in the summer of 1946 and the first races were held in Clontarf and Dun Laoghaire so it is fitting that the first one built in almost 50 years will be launched from the same slipway.

"It has taken over 6,000 hours, the work of 30 plus volunteers and the incredible help and support of so many people from within Clontarf Yacht and Boat Club and outside to get us to this point so we are really excited about sharing our official launch with boats from clubs across Dublin who will join our new IDRA14. There is a lot of excitement and speculation about the name of the new boat, which will be revealed on the day."

The Harold’s Cross Brass Band will be there to provide music for the launch. Afterwards from 3pm Bryan Smyth will entertain guests in the Club with live music. There will also be face painting and food available.

Date: Saturday 25th of June
Time: 12:30pm
Location: Slip opposite Clontarf Yacht and Boat Club, Clontarf Road, Dublin 3

As the venerable IDRA 14 dinghy prepares for its 70th anniversary year, a launch date has been announced for the new addition to the clinker fleet, being built in Clontarf Yacht & Boat Club, the first in over 35 years.

Fourteen Number 166 will be named on 25th of June with a celebratory drinks reception in the Dublin Bay clubhouse, marking over a year in build under the guidance of Ronan Melling. 

Riveting on the new wooden dinghy has recently been completed, floorbearers in place, spinny chute in place, foredeck on - and the construction team ready now to put the deck on and close up the boat!

The build team are looking for a name for the new boat. The new name will continue the IDRA 14 tradition of bearing a name beginning with the letter 'C' to denote her home port of Clontarf.  Leave your suggestion in the comment box below.

It's taking shape! The IDRA newbuild is progressing well. #sailing @Tarfboatbuild pic.twitter.com/9Hpr4IXQL9

— Clontarf Y&BC (@TarfYBC) January 14, 2016

Clontarf Yacht and Boat Club (CYBC) will host Cormac F. Lowth of the Irish Maritime Archaeological Society who will deliver a free illustrated historic boats lecture, ‘The Sailing Trawlers of Ringsend’ this Friday, October 30th at 8pm.

'Cormac’s talk is a fascinating story of the history of boating building in Ringsend which offers an insight into the life and times of the communities, the builders and the boats they constructed', says CYBC commodore Larry Meany.

There was a thriving industry along the Dodder in the early 1800s where many of the boatyards were based and Cormac has an incredible collection of unique and rare illustrations of the vessels as well as extensive lists of the names and crews of the boats.

'Cormac’s knowledge and interest in this era of history, the boats and people who built and sailed them is incredible. He is spent several years at sea on merchant ships and is the author of many historical and travel articles. Anyone interested in boating, building, or the industry and people in Dublin in the early 1800s will find this illustrated lecture interesting, informative and entertaining says Meany.

The illustrated lecture ‘The Sailing Trawlers of Ringsend’ by Cormac F. Lowth will take place in Clontarf Yacht and Boat Club, Belvedere, Clontarf Road on Friday 30th of October.

IDRA 14 stalwart Charles Sargent of Sutton Dinghy Club and granddaughter caoimhe were winners of the IDRA14 Kenilworth Cup at this weekend's final races of the Clontarf Yacht & Boat Club Autumn Open series.

The end of the Irish Fireball Regatta Season came to a rather damp end when a reduced fleet took to the water after today's rugby and the dry weather of recent days gave way to drizzle and then rain writes Cormac Bradley.

Defending champions and ovetnight leaders didn't have to sail the last race and they didn't! The host club's two entries didn't make it either nor did two other visitors - from Killaloe and further west. McCartin & Kinsella couldn't lose so they were literally "in the pound seats".

This opened the door for Butler & Oram to close the gap, but they left it late to secure the race win. Niall McGrotty & Neil Cramer initially led the final race quite comfortably but they were progressively reeled in by Butler & Oram before yielding the lead just before the last winward mark. These two had a significant lead over the rest of the fleet who were led home by Creighton & O'Reilly. Team Clancy, Conor & James have acquired more fourth places than anyone and so another one appeared on the last race of the year.

Grattan Donnelly & Ed Butler (14713) kept the range of their results tight - an eighth their best, two tenths their worst. This would be enough to give them the Silver Fleet prize.

Fireball Leinsters.
1. McCartin & Kinsella (15114) - 5pts
2. Butler & Oram (15061) - 7pts
3. Clancy & Clancy (14807) - 11pts
4. Creighton & O'Reilly (1506X) - 16pts
5. Henry & Reville (14645) - 20pts
10. Donnelly & Butler (14713) - 36pts

Contarf Yacht & Boat Club hosted the event at short notice and did a very good job of it, working the racing around the rugby today and getting four races in yesterday.

15 Irish Fireballs enjoyed sunshine and moderate breezes for the opening day of the last regatta of the season at Clontarf writes Cormac Bradley. With boats from N Ireland, Skerries, the host club and Dun Laoghaire, it was the most representative fleet we have had this season.

Due to the tidal constraints of the venue a five-race programme was scheduled and four races were sailed today. The race area was inside the confines of the harbour with Olympic courses used for each race.

The wind tracked northwards as the day progressed causing the RO to move the weather mark progressively leftwards.

On the water, proceedings returned to a sense of normality with the return of Barry McCartin & Conor Kinsella who were to have a successful day on the water, scoring three race wins and dropping a second place.

Noel Butler & Stephen Oram weren't always where they would have preferred to be at the first weather mark but it's the finish that counts and a scorecard of 3,3,2,1 sees them in second place overall.

Team Clancy, Conor & James, kept their favourite number, 4, off their scorecard using a 2,2,6,3, sequence to take third overall.

Mick Creighton & Joe O'Reilly are fourth overall, with two fourths and two fifths.

Alan Henry & Simon Reville had a very good day by their short Fireball career standards to lie fifth with a 4,7,10,4 run of results.

McCartin & Clancy had very good speed on the water and won the first race very comfortably, but thereafter the margins became tighter. Butler & Oram seemed to have the reverse problem, below par first beats, but recovering as the race progressed.

With a very important rugby game due to be played tomorrow at 13:00 racing will start after Ireland's game against Argentina.

After 4 races;

1. McCartin & Kinsella (15114) - 3pts
2. Butler & Oram (15061) - 6pts
3. Clancy & Clancy (14807) - 7pts
4. Creighton & O'Reilly (1506X) - 13pts
5. Henry & Reville (14645) - 15pts

There was not much wind for last weekend's Barts Bash on Dublin Bay but enough to get Clontarf Yacht & Boat Club around the bay in accordance with the world record requirements for the charity event. CYBC reported 42 finishers (eventually!) and also produced this time–lapse vid of the event. Nice!

#fireball – The Fireball dinghy Open championships have been won by Barry McCartin and Conor Kinsella. Second were Kenny Rumball with Brian "Teddy" Byrne/Shane McCarthy and third were Conor and James Clancy. The Classic trophy was won by Neil Colin and Margaret Casey.

The event, attended by well over twenty boats, was sailed at Clontarf Yacht and Boat Club (CYBC) in extremely frustrating light and shifty conditions which tested competitors and the CYBC race team to the limit.

The Irish Fireball Class enjoyed a weekend of positives this past weekend at Clontarf Yacht and Boat Club when they sailed their Open Championship and Classic Fireball events. The overall turnout of 21 boats was a huge positive in an era where we have seen pressure on the numbers attending regattas. The Silver fleet had a very healthy turnout of 7 boats, there were three "wooden deckers" contesting the Classic Event and a number of the home based fleet joined us for the racing. The sun shone, it was warm and the only real inconsistency was the wind – details later.
In the Classis Event Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (14775) showed that hull age isn't an obstacle to success when they put three top ten results on their scorecard (7, 4, 5) to finish in a very commendable 6th place overall. Dara & Niall McDonagh (14330) had three scores just outside the top ten to take 2nd place in the Classics, where Henry Rice and Tim McAuley (14244) finished third.
Mary Chambers & Brenda McGuire (14865) won the Silver fleet with four top ten finishes with the McDonagh brothers, Dara and Niall (14330) in second place. This result gives Mary & Brenda a perfect Silver fleet score as they also won this division at the Ulsters in Ballyholme a few weeks ago.
Another combination with a perfect score over two regattas is Barry McCartin and Conor Kinsella (15114) who added this title to their Ulster title. They didn't wind a single race here in Clontarf but put together four second places to take the title, after discard, by a single point.
Kenneth Rumball (15058) used two crews over the weekend, Brian Byrne (Saturday) and Shane McCarthy (Sunday), to take second place overall, courtesy in large part to a win in the last race from what appeared to be a hopeless position down the fleet. Given the conditions, this was an incredible individual race result. Rumball and his "crews" won three of the six races, but also had a "22" to discard – maybe a start line transgression.
The fact that Rumball and McCarthy won the last race combined with a drop from 1st to 5th was the undoing of the third placed combination, Team Clancy, Conor and James, who led the last race at the last leeward mark, but fell away to fifth at the finish – a situation that Clancy later claimed cost him the regatta. They won two races.
The last race win, on Sunday morning, went to Noel Butler & Stephen Oram (15061) who by their standards (and former results) had a poor weekend. For the first time in a very long time they had a double digit finish on their score card which was later discarded, but a solitary race win and only one other result inside the top three makes this a weekend they might prefer to forget.
There were some other performances worthy of special mention, over and above the ones already mentioned – Niall McGrotty & Neil Cramer (14938) had a great weekend with four podium places in individual races and a worst discard of 8th, to finish fourth overall. Mick Creighton & Hugh Johnson (14698) also enjoyed the weekend with four top ten finishes and relative newcomers Alan Henry & Simon Revill (14645) will have enjoyed the fourth place in the last race.
Race Officer Ian Sergeant deserves huge praise for persisting with the weather and getting six races in! At the briefing on the Saturday morning he advised that with the forecast being what is was (light and variable), he was contemplating racing inside the harbour. Of course the fact that the big boats were struggling to race the ICRA Championships in the main body of Dublin Bay was a substantial indication of the actual wind conditions on the water as opposed to what the forecast was saying. (ICRA had very limited race completion on Saturday.) A further signal to the conditions was the fact that Ian advised that Windward-Leewards would be sailed until the wind settled – Mother Nature didn't allow him that option on Saturday so we sailed three of these. It was the sort of day when a seven-faced dice would have been useful! For those fans of The Big Bang Theory, one could imagine Mother Nature shouting "Bazinga" every time she inflicted another wind change on the Race Officer and the fleet. The wind was light and fickle meaning that Ian and his team had to change the course for every race – swinging the weather mark left or right (and back again) to try and get a decent starting beat in! And even then the wind didn't stay for the second beat. The middle race on Saturday started well, but a wind shift to starboard effectively made the second beat a fetch and thus the race became processional. Another shift in the last race of the day forced Ian to shorten course at the second rounding of the top mark of the last race.
Overnight the cut-off for the last start on Sunday afternoon was extended by three-quarters of an hour. (ICRA started an hour earlier, prompted by the same condition.) Unusually, we had a second briefing from the Race Officer on Sunday morning – to confirm the extension to the cut-off for the last race start and to advise of the weather forecast which offered 5 more knots than the day before but from a less consistent direction – we were racing inside again! In truth we did get more wind, allowing trapezes to be used for the first time. Regrettably more breeze did not bring more consistency and the snakes and ladders character of the first day extended into the second day – just ask Louis Smyth, Niall McGrotty and Conor Clancy, who saw race leads evaporate (snakes) and Kenneth Rumball who climbed a huge ladder to take the final race of the day.
As ever the hospitality of Clontarf was commendable with teas and coffees available on both mornings, a generously proportioned barbeque on Saturday evening and sandwiches available after racing on Sunday.

Irish Fireball Open Championships & Classic Event Clontarf Yacht & Boat Club, Dublin Bay. 

1 Barry McCartin & Conor Kinsella 15114 RStGYC 4 3 2 2 2 2 11
2 Kenneth Rumball & Brian Byrne/Shane McCarthy 15058 INSC 2 1 1 22 7 1 12
3 Conor & James Clancy 14807 RStGYC 1 6 3 9 1 5 16
4 Niall McGrotty & Neil Cramer 14938 Skerries 3 2 7 3 8 3 18
5 Noel Butler & Stephen Oram 15061 NYC 5 5 12 1 3 8 22
6 Neil Colin & Margaret Casey 14775 DMYC 7 10 4 11 5 16 37
7 Mick Creighton & Hugh Johnson 14698 Clontarf 15 11 8 5 4 9 37
8 Alan Henry & Simon Revill 14645 13 9 5 12 10 4 40
9 Louise McKenna & Joe O'Reilly 14691 RStGYC 9 16 6 6 12 11 44
10 Louis Smyth & Cormac Bradley 15007 Coal Harb. 6 14 11 4 14 10 45

fireball – An encouraging turnout of 21 boats made the second regatta of the Irish Fireball Regatta circuit, the Open Championship, at Clontarf Yacht and Boat Club writes Cormac Bradley. Dublin Bay had been bereft of any significant wind on Friday for the first day of the ICRA Championships, but the wind forecast for today was slightly better. However, driving from Dun Laoghaire to the opposite side of Dublin Bay, there was no real sign that we were in for a better day wind-wise.

This lack of wind prompted the Race Officer, Ian Sergeant to advise the fleet that he might contemplate keeping the races inside the harbour. He was true to his word, for even though we got three races in, the wind was light and very variable. Ian did a great job of responding to the vagaries of the wind, by moving and tweaking the course set up to keep things as fair as possible. Mother Nature didn't always recognise his efforts for while he put the weather mark in the right place, during the races the wind would shift – significantly so in the second race when the second beat of the windward-leeward course became a two sail fetch.
Despite the "flexibility" of the wind, many of the names at the top of the page will be instantly recognised by readers of these Fireball Class reports.
Kenny Rumball & Brian Byrne (15058) may have got off to a slow start with a fourth, but they made amends by winning the second and third races to sit atop the "log" with a five point cushion. It was the sort of day when staying out of trouble and knowing how to keep the boat moving were the keys to success – Kenny & Brian shown those skills in spades – though they, like others, must have had some luck as well.
Barry McCartin & Conor Kinsella (15114) were slightly off the pace, by their standards, but showed progressive improvement by posting a 4, 3, 2 over the three races. A new boat beckons, but for the moment they are getting their current boat to go very nicely – admittedly with the sails of their new steed!
Team Clancy, brothers James and Conor (14807) started the day's proceedings with a very comfortable start to finish win. They worked the middle and right of the first beat and seemed to have that edge of speed to sail away from the chasing pack. They stayed on the same side of the course for the downwind leg.
When the wind goes light, the door opens to a number of additional combinations and there were lots of people who had at least one good race today. Michael & James Murphy (14908), a father and son combination scored a fourth in the difficult middle race. Alan Henry & Simon Revill (14645) also had their "moment in the spotlight" with a fifth place in the third race. Neil Colin and Margaret Casey led the last race at the leeward mark and were overtaken on the second beat, but still recorded a 4th place. This allowed them to occupy 5th place overnight.
However, the best performance outside the "usual suspects" was that of Niall McGrotty & Neil Cramer (14938) who scored a 3, 2, 7 to occupy 4th place overall overnight.
It doesn't happen very often, in fact it is a rare occurrence, but today was a relative shocker for perennial pace-setters Noel Butler & Stephen Oram (15061). A very uncharacteristic 5, 5, 12 sees them down in 6th place overall. The 12th place represents a "get out of gaol" opportunity because at a late stage of what became the last downwind leg, there was a prospect of a much larger number of their score sheet.
Neil Colin and Margaret Casey lead the Classic Fireball Division.