#teamracing – The Royal St George Yacht Club continues to develop as the centre of team racing in Ireland. The "George Invitational" sailed on 23rd – 24th March marked another important step – with the inauguration of a flight of brand new Firefly dinghies.

Nine teams competed this year for the Invitational trophy The top Irish teams were competing: - the National Champions the George Knights; the newly crowned University Champs, University of Limerick and double School Champions (both UK and Ireland) from Schull Community College. Two teams from the UK competed, 'Spinnaker' and, above all 'Wessex Exempt' the current Irish Open Champions, who had drafted in World Champion Andy Cornah into their line up making them the pre-event favourites.

The weather did not cooperate. Event organiser Marty O'Leary, acting as OOD, ably assisted by Nin O'Leary and Richard Bruton did well to complete two rounds of sailing on Saturday in a gusty 25 knot south-easterly.

Competitors raced in the home club fireflies, 6 of which were the brand new Orange and Blue boats. The multiple mark rounding in winds gusting up to 30 knots meant for plenty of thrills and spills. With some marks within feet of the the East Pier the passing Saturday strollers were entertained by some skilled and spectacular sailing.

After an initial mini round robin, the 5 top teams went through to the Gold Fleet with the bottom 4 sailing in the Silver. After this round Wessex Exempt led the Gold Fleet with 3 wins, breaking the tie break with their Southampton rivals Spinnaker who also had three race wins. The home club's team the RSGYC knights had 2 wins to lie third, defending champions Howth Yacht club lay fourth with one win and the college stars of UL were fifth.

Sailors and Umpires enjoyed a great dinner in the Royal St. George's formal dining room on Saturday night, with Marty O'Leary acting as compere for the evening and encouraging each team to perform a party piece.

Sunday morning brought more South Easterly breezes but with winds now gusting 35 knots and an air temperature of 4 degrees, competitors, race committee and umpires were keen to stay ashore. A second Gold Silver league had been started on Saturday evening with the Knights making the early running. But ultimately the weather had the final say and the results of the previous Gold/Silver rounds determined the trophy.

So the team of Wessex Exempt ; Jon Pinner, Sharon Quigley, Andy Cornah, Rachel Williamson, Claire Lasko and Bethan Carden ended up winners of the 2013 RSGYC Invitational.

For further information on team racing in the Royal St George contact John Sheehy: [email protected]

For information on team racing in general contact Gordon Davies, Hon Sec Irish Team Racing Association: [email protected] and telephone 0861501220

Link to the latest Irish Team Racing News

#teamracing – Eight Leinster schools gathered at the Royal St George Yacht Club on Sunday to battle for provincial bragging rights and coveted places at the Irish Nationals in Schull writes Heather King. The sailors raced in two six-boat flights of Firefly dinghies owned by the RStGYC, including one flight just out of the wrappers!
Under the stewardship of Organiser John Sheehy and Racing John Downey, the racing was slick and very competitive. Conditions were fairly light and tricky though, with the finish line just yards away from the changeover point halfway down the East Pier. Great spectating for competitors, parents and strollers.
After the twenty eight race round robin with each team racing seven times, a clear divide emerged with 4 teams ahead on 5 or 6 wins. Kilkenny College and Gonzaga both had six and St Andrews and Belvedere College were both on five. In the second half of the table Mount Anville emerged top on 3 wins with a young team that very nearly took one or two big scalps along the way. The other teams – Gonzaga B, St Gerards and a selection from Bray schools - all had their finer moments and consistently displayed great teamwork and camaraderie.

Royal St. George organiser John Sheehy (left) with (top) Kilkenny College winners and (below) the third placed St. Andrews College team
By 1600 hours the harbour had become a glassy pond and despite an effort to run another round, the RO called a halt. The big round robin series decided the results with tie-breaks going the way of "who beat who" in individual matches.
This gave the title to Kilkenny College and their team of Heather O Connor, Conor O'Reilly, Scott Levie, Sean Landers, Douglas Elmes and Emily McGrath, with Gonzaga 2nd and St Andrews 3rd and Belvedere College 4th. Mount Anville in 5th took 1st all-girl team. It is top 5 that are guaranteed places at the All-Irelands in Schull on April 13,14.

#teamracing – On Saturday 18th May Royal St. George YC will hold a Team Racing 'Reunion' to mark the 175th anniversary of the club and the arrival of a new fleet of Firefly dinghies. RSt GYC teams from the 70s onwards will take on an away team led by old friends and rivals from West Kirby Sailing Club in the UK.

The plan is at least one team will representing each decade from the 70s, 80, 90, 00s and 00s. These teams will race against a visiting team representing the same decade.

3 on 3 Team Racing will take place in small keelboats and Fireflies with a dinner to follow on Saturday night. A chance to renew old rivalries and share old stories!

The idea of Team Racing was first mooted early in 1947, but due to various difficulties including the non-arrival of the necessary number of Fireflies, the first event of this type did not take place until September 1948, when the winners were the Royal St. George Yacht Club who defeated West Kirby Sailing Club in the final! Old rivalries die hard!

#teamracing – Schools from across Leinster will sail for the province's Schools Team Racing Championship title in March at the Royal St.George Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire.

The Leinster Schools Team Racing Championship 2013, for three boat teams, will take place on Saturday March 16th. The Championship will be sailed in the club's two person Firefly dinghies. Last year the title was won by Dublin's Gonzaga College.

The event run by the Irish Schools Sailing Association is open to all secondary schools. Each school will put forward a team of 6 sailors aged 18 years of age and under on 14 April 2013.

Prizes will be awarded to the first three school teams with up to four top teams then being selected to represent Leinster at the National School Team Racing Championship in Schull from the 13th to the 14th of April (subject to eligibility).

Teams wishing to compete should contact Carol Healion in the Royal Saint George Yacht Club; 01 214 7859 or [email protected].

A notice of race and an entry form are available to download below.

#dinghy –In a welcome boost for Irish dinghy sailing,  senior sailors are invited to what is Ireland's first ever 'dinghy summit' to hear 'thought provoking' comment from some of the country's leading exponents of the sport, including 2012 Irish Olympic Laser sailor James Espey and former Laser II world champion Noel Butler.

Butler will talk about his psychology of winning, being prepared and some specific Fireball topics.

Butler will also cover his story about how he came into the sport late and took a measured approach towards training to eventually win a world championship.

James Espey is expected to share tips for going fast in a Laser.

Also speaking is Graham Elmes who has represented Ireland in many classes including the Mirror, SB20, Etchells, Firefly (team racing).

Following on from his very popular talk on starting techniques and the first beat Graham plans a revised version of this talk.

The event takes place on 23rd Feb from 10:30am in the Royal St. George George Yacht Club's Junior Room. A fee of €10 at the door.

#rsgyc – The Royal St George Yacht Club, the country's largest yacht club, is offering adult Sail training courses for 2013. The training season is about to get under way at the Dun Laoghaire waterfront club with a variety of courses for all levels of sailors including racing courses which participate in the weekly local Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) summer series.

'Courses run on Sunday mornings, Wednesday and Friday evenings for beginners and intermediate levels' says the club's Gina Liuzzi.

For more contact the Royal St. George sailing office on 01-2147859 or email on [email protected]

#rsgyc – Dun Laoghaire's Royal St. George Yacht Club second cycling and sailing event got off to a promising start on Saturday with the Wicklow cycle stage of the event but lack of wind today meant prizes were awarded based on the cycling event alone.

The format for the Cycle Superstore Masters Sail / Cycle Challenge was a 70 km cycle on the Saturday followed by 3 Laser races this morning.

It was a beautiful day on Saturday with sunny blue skies and little wind. 39 cyclists gathered in the RSGYC for a 13:00 start.

The route went on the Vico Road to Shankill, past Dun Laoghaire golf club to Enniskerry. Things were going well with only one cyclist thinking better of the plan  to get to Enniskerry. The team regrouped and set off up and down the hills towards the waterfall. The sun still shone, the roads were quite and there was a hint of Autumn in the air as the first leaves turned to yellow. The steep hill out of the waterfall gave people a foretaste of the pain that lay ahead of them. The steepness of the hill declined and cyclists were again able to breath and talk at the same time!

Glencree was reached, and after a short rest the cycle continued on up the steep winding road past Lough Bray. Paul Keane, Neil O'Toole, Rory Fiztpatrick lead a  break away group towards the gate to the entrance of Kippure. An altitude of 522 m had been reached at this point, but there was a further 223m of steep climbing ahead. The mast at the top of Kippure looked deceptively close in the late afternoon sun. The final ascent got steeper and steeper, pushing hard in first gear, standing up on the pedals, lungs bursting to reach the summit of 725 m. Out of a group of 39, 17 reached the summit of Kippure (Troy Hopkins, David Cahill, Ger Owens,  Rory Fitzpatrick, Colin Galavan, Chris Arrowsmith, Phillip Lee, Aubrey Shaw, David Sommerville, Paul Keane, Cian Guilfoyle, Helena Barret, Neil O'Toole, Rory Mc Stay, Michael Raymond, Theo Lyttle and Hilary Williams).

The descent was back past Glencree to Enniskerry and to RSGYC for some well earned refreshments. In all 73 km and 990 of altitude gain.

The next morning dawned a beautiful sunny but calm day! Not what was required for the sailing. The Race Officer, David Williams, waited for the wind to fill in but to no avail. The sailing was cancelled. The masters prizes were awarded on the cycling alone.

The Cycle Superstore Masters Sail / Cycle Challenge Results:

First  Paul Keane

Second David Cahill

Third Colin Galavan

#sailing/cycle – Dun Laoghaire's Royal St George Yacht Club is hosting a cycling/sailing event that features a 70km cycle plus three Laser races on Sunday. The novel races takes full advatantage of Dun Laoghaire's unique location between the mountains and the sea. Entries close tomorrow and you can download a poster for the event below as a pdf.

Sailing and cycling are proving popular combination sports appealing to a wide range of sailors, even our London Olympians.

Well known sailing names such as Sean Craig and Colin Galavin have turned their hand to sailing Lasers these days and have been training for the event.

Other class stalwarts Chris Arrowsmith and Theo Lyttle have been seen far from the sea in the Wicklow mountains on their bikes. Paul Keane will be challenging hard for the title after his week training in the south of France.

Earlier this month Olympians Annalise Murphy and Scott Flanigan returned to competition as they competed in a sprint distance triathlon - 750m swim, 20K bike, 5K run, held in Collinstown, Co. Westmeath. They both gave a good account of themselves, results here.

The two day Laser Masters Sail/Cycle Challenge takes places on Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th October 2012. Details below.

Day 1, Cycle, Saturday 6th October

Start: 13:00 sharp from the Club forecourt.

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/51168846

Route: The event will feature a cycle of about 70km, starting at 13:00 on Sat 6th October from the Club. The cycle will finish back at the Club at about 17:00. Have a look at the route on the link for full details.

We invite everyone to come along. You may participate in the cycle or the Laser racing alone, but as the weekend is all about the social we would encourage everyone to jump on a bike and do a few km. The cycle route will take us up to Enniskerry in the Wicklow mountains, so the roads are quiet and the scenery great. This year the challenge has been increased, with the route taking us to the summit of Kippure. It is a tarmac road to the top, but it is steeeep! Total altitude for the cycle is 996m.

There are good places to stop for coffee (or other drink) in Enniskerry and Glencree.

Scoring:

Kippure Summit 1 point

Sally Gap 3 points

Glencree 5 points

Enniskerry 7 points

DNC 10 points

Back to the Club to watch the Leinster Vs Munster Rugby match at 18:30.

Dinner

There is a 3 course dinner in the Club room at 20:00, with a few prizes for the cycling afterwards. The dinner is 25 euro per person. Book early as the dinner was popular last year and the Club room is limited to about 40 people.

Day 2, Sail, Sunday 7th October

On Sunday there will be 3 Laser races starting at 11:00. The races will be short (about 30 minutes), with the emphasis on skill rather than endurance!

The aim is to finish at about 14:00 with prize giving. If 3 races are sailed there will be 1 discard, with your two best races and the cycle score to count.

The entry fee for the sailing/cycling is 15 euro, and for the cycling alone is 5 euro.

Enter online at www.rsgyc.ie

#RS SAILING - Howth Yacht Club hosted 54 boats in three classes for the RS400, RS200 and RS Feva National Championships over the weekend (click HERE for photos).

The Irish version of the 'RS Games' proved a big hit with all competitors. The race management team, headed by PRO David Lovegrove, did a fantastic job to get 10 races in for all three classes in spite of some shifty conditions.

This was all the more impressive as each course change required the moving of up to 10 marks. No mean feat, but the Howth Yacht Club team took it in their stride.

In the RS400 class, bothers Emmet and James Ryan from the Royal St George Yacht Club took the top spot. They didn’t make things easy by using up a discard on the first race of the event and only snatched the win on the last run of the last race having rounded the final weather mark in fourth place.

Greystones class stalwarts Simon Herriott and Tom Moran took second place, while in third place, and the top youth RS400 team, was a very impressive display by Andy Verso and Oisin Baugh, also from Greystones.

In the RS200 class it was another family affair and another Royal St George win with father-and-son pair Sean and Stephen Craig taking first place. It was extremely tight at the top of the 200 fleet with only three points separating the top four boats in the end.

Teams from Greystones filled the next two podium places with Frank and Kevin O’Rourke taking second and last year’s champions Roy Van Maanen and Glen Reid taking third place.

In the Feva class, GB sailors filled the top three slots with Elliott Wells and Jake Todd taking the title on count back from fellow Hayling Island sailors Tom Darling and Will Dolin. Chay and Stirling Taylor took third place.

In the battle for local/Irish bragging rights, Eoin Lyden and Brian Stokes from Cork got one over the Dublin rivals to claim top Irish Feva spot.

Full results can be found at the Howth Yacht Club website at www.hyc.ie, while photos of the event are available HERE.

#rsgyc – Vincent Farrell's Tsunami was the winner of the IRC Zero division in yesterday's Frank Keane BMW Royal St. George YC Regatta sailed on Dublin Bay in an excellent turn out of 184 boats for 16 classes. Full results are downloadable below in an xcel format below. Photos below too.

In the one designs Tim Goodbody sailing White Mischief won the Sigma 33s from Paddy Maguire's Gwilli Two. New Flying fifteeen arrival Perfect Ten sailed by Lorcan Balfe of the National Yacht Club won the class ahead of Ben Mulligan sailing Mellifluence.

Mermaid class boats Aideen (left) helmed by Brendan Martin and Jill helmed by Patrick Martin pass each during the Frank Keane BMW St George Yacht Club regatta in Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin last Saturday. Photo: Joe St Leger

In the dinghy classes Conor Clancy's Clandogg MIllionaire from the host club was the Fireball class winner.  In the Water Wag's John Ross Murphy's Little Tern took two wins to claim top prize over Lawrence Hanley's Gavotte and scoring a 3 and a 2 Ross O'Leary was the Laser class winner.