There was a fine turnout of 27 Dublin Bay Water Wag dinghies for Wednesday evening racing inside Dun Laoghaire Harbour.

DBSC Race Officer Tadgh Donnelly ran two races, each had two rounds (three beats) in a light souther-easterly breeze of 5-11 knots.

Vincent Delany in No.3 Pansy won the first race with William Prentice in No. 42 Tortoise, the winner of the second.

The Dublin Bay Water Wag fleet under spinnaker in a gentle south-easterly breeze at Dun Laoghaire Harbour Photo: Ann Kirwan

Race 1, 27 started & finished. The top 3 were:

1. No. 3 Pansy - Vincent Delany
2. No. 8 Barbara - Ian Malcolm
3. No. 38 Swift - Guy Kilroy

Close finish - No. 40 Swallow, David Sommerville just pips No. 1 Eithne Seán Craig to take second place in the second Water Wag race of the evening at Dun Laoghaire Photo: Ann Kirwan

Race 2, 22 started & finished. The top 3 were:

1. No. 42 Tortoise - William Prentice
2. No. 40 Swallow - David Sommerville
3. No. 1 Eithne - Seán Craig

Full results in all DBSC classes are below. Three live Dublin Bay webcams featuring some DBSC race course areas are here

Wicklow Sailing Club's Michael Norman, who won the Great Grandmaster title at the ILCA 6 Irish Laser Master Championships on Dublin Bay on Sunday was still in winning form on the Bay last night, taking the gun in the DBSC's AIB Summer dinghy series Tuesday evening Laser Radial Race. 

Second was Alison Pigot of the National Yacht Club. Third was Royal St. George's, Hugh Cahill. Four competed. 

In the PY fleet, the National Yacht Club's Noel Butler sailing his RS Aero 'Orion' was on top again with another win in his RS Aero dinghy to bring his strike rate to eight wins from nine races sailed.

Full results in all DBSC classes are below. Three live Dublin Bay webcams featuring some DBSC race course areas are here

Given that the Heineken Cup, as it was then, has made an appearance in at least one of the Dun Laoghaire clubs at a major regatta in times past (a Volvo Regatta), it was hardly surprising that Saturday’s DBSC’s schedule of races was adjusted to accommodate those who wanted to watch the Leinster – La Rochelle game first-hand rather than rely on a delayed recording. For the 14 Flying Fifteens and others on the Green Course that meant we had a single race with a start area literally just outside the harbour mouth. Of course, this location was also impacted by the fact that the Dragons (12 boats) were having an East Coast Championship NE of the harbour and the ILCAs were having a Masters’ Championships to the West and all the other DBSC fleets were out. Even the DBSC dinghies sailed inside the harbour!

Green Course Race Officer Barry O’Neil set a long Windward -Leeward course, with weather mark offset, with 4 laps signalled but the prospect of a shortened course in his radio briefing to the fleet. In the better-than-expected easterly breeze which moved around a bit and under an ebbing tide, there was some excitement when Alan Balfe, crewed by his son, (3995) decided to upset what had, until then, been an orderly approach to the start. There was nothing improper about his manoeuvring other than the fact that it wasn’t what we were expecting. Post-race David Mulvin & Ronan Beirne (4068) were of the view that it didn’t help their cause whereas it opened an opportunity for Ben Mulligan & Cormac Bradley (4081) that Mulvin had endeavoured to cut off.

The gap created by these “shenanigans” allowed Mulligan and Bradley a clean break to go right initially, before working the left-hand side of the beat on port tack. Further to leeward of them on port tack were David Gorman & Michael Huang (4099), the aforementioned Mulvin & Beirne, Tom Murphy & Carel (4057) and Alistair Court & Conor O’Leary (3753).

With what appeared to be better breeze on the left-hand side of the course, Mulligan was able to go into the lead at the first rounding of the weather mark. Behind him were Gorman, Mulvin and Murphy, in close company. These four stayed on the right-hand side of the run and then put in late gybes to get round the leeward mark, by which time Mulligan had pulled out by a couple more boat-lengths.

On the second beat, Mulligan followed the recipe from the first, working the middle and left of the beat. The others had twigged to what he was cooking and while the gap didn’t close significantly initially, Gorman, Mulvin, Murphy and latterly, Jill Fleming & Margaret Casey (4028), made sure Mulligan & Bradley didn’t get too comfortable and by the end of the beat Gorman and Mulvin were just that bit closer for Mulligan’s comfort. For all three, the starboard tack run lasted longer before late gybes were again put in to get around the leeward mark.

A slight wind shift came into play as the fleet rounded the leeward mark and Gorman took best advantage to gain the weather slot relative to Mulligan. Mulvin peeled off immediately at the mark to go left but Mulligan and Gorman worked the right-hand side on port tack with Gorman pulling through Mulligan’s weather to go into the lead. As they got further up the course, they went right working the shifts, but Gorman didn’t relent and extended his lead into the weather mark for the third time. Mulvin, too had closed on the lead pair.

With spinnakers set, Gorman had 10 – 15 boat lengths on his chasers, while only a couple of boat lengths separated Mulvin and Mulligan with Mulvin to starboard of Mulligan and also to weather. For Mulligan the challenge was not to let Mulvin past as well. As they approached the leeward mark with a RIB flying an “F” flag and making sound signals – “Go straight to the Finish” - a potential fly in Mulligan’s ointment appeared – a Squib who didn’t quite grasp the significance of the F flag and sound signals. It left Mulligan having to go around the Squib, while Mulvin had the better choice of going to windward. Naturally, he seized the chance with both hands and closed on Mulligan – to within half a boat length. However, Mulvin’s attempts to pass to weather were thwarted each time and at the finish, there may have only been a boat length between the two red-spinnakered boats, in Mulligan’s favour.

DBSC; Saturday 28th May 2022. Flying Fifteens (14 boats)

1. David Gorman & Michael Huang 4099 
2. Ben Mulligan & Cormac Bradley 4081 
3. David Mulvin & Ronan Beirne 4068 3. Ben Mulligan & Cormac Bradley 18pts
4. Tom Murphy & Carel 4057 4. David Mulvin & Ronan Beirne 20pts
5. Jill Fleming & Margaret Casey 4028 5. Niall Coleman & crews 33pts.

Saturday Series Overall: 7 Races sailed/5 to count

1. David Gorman & Michael Huang 8pts
2. Neil Colin/Jill Fleming & Margaret Casey 15pts
3. Ben Mulligan & Cormac Bradley 18pts
4. David Mulvin & Ronan Beirne 20pts
5. Niall Coleman & crews 33pts.

John Hall's J/109 Something Else from the National Yacht Club was the winner of the Cruisers One IRC Race six in DBSC's AIB Summer Series on Saturday.

It was a busy day on Dublin Bay for Race Officer Barry McNeaney, who started the ISORA fleet on the cross-channel race to Holyhead at 8 am in light westerly wind and then started the DBSC cruiser fleets in light easterlies at 2 pm.

Hall beat Fintan Cairns' Mills 31 Raptor from the Royal Irish with Raptor's clubmates Tim and Richard Goodbody in the J/109 White Mischief third in the six boat fleet.

In the four boat Cruisers Zero division, Royal Irish yachts finished 1,2,3. Patrick Burke's First 40 Prima Forte beat Timothy Kane's Extreme 37 WOW in a one and a half hour race. Third was Paddy McSwiney's X-35 D-Tox.

There was Sigma 33 success for Royal St. George's Richard Lovegrove sailing Rupert who beat James McCann's Mustang 30 Peridot in a one hour race. Third was overall class leader Lindsay J. Casey's J122 Windjammer from the RStGYC.

Kevin Byrne's Formula 28 Starlet was the winner of IRC Three from Myles Kelly Senator Maranda. The overall series leader Edward Melvin in Ceol na Mara was third.

In the one design B211 class, the overall series leader Jimmy Fischer of Royal St. George Yacht Club took another win to give him four victories from five races sailed. Second was Pat Shannon's RIYC Beeswing from club mate Jacqueline McStay's Small Wonder.

After 11 races sailed, overall Ruffian 23 leader David Meeke in Alias placed second yesterday in a seven boat fleet. The race was won by DMYC's Michael Cutliffe in Ruffles. Third was Ann Kirwan in Bandit. 

See full DBSC individual and overall results in all classes below. Three live Dublin Bay webcams featuring some DBSC race course areas are here

On a night where winds of 20knots were recorded, as reported elsewhere on this website, 12 Flying Fifteens answered Brian Mathews’ DBSC starting call last night in the robust conditions that caused the cancellation of racing for the Mermaids and Squibs. While the numbers are a bit on the low side, there were justifiable absences as evidenced by departures to a UK regatta and an important family occasion as documented on Facebook.

Initially, a postponement was flown, possibly due to shifting winds as the racecourse selection went from N to P, but when the final course was declared for the evening, it was one where there were a lot of turning marks, eight in total. Some may have fallen foul of the navigation and lost out on the water, but that didn’t detract (I hope) from a very enjoyable session on the water.

PW3 was the course of choice, suggesting a wind direction of NW (292°) and a sequence of marks that read – Harbour-Pier-Poldy-Pier-Poldy-East-Molly-East-Finish.

The fleet was spread along the starting line under a flooding tide and this correspondent found himself at the pin end in the company of Frank Miller & Patrick Kearsey (3845). Both boats were early but Miller peeled away to find another starting slot back towards the committee boat while Mulligan & Bradley started between 5 and 10 seconds too early and had to go round the pin and start. This left them on the left-hand side of the shortish beat to Harbour and marginally behind a line of boats making their way up the port lay-line. An equally sized group of boats came in on the starboard lay-line to make the first mark rounding a bit tighter than might normally be the case. As the fleet headed off to Pier, the majority set spinnakers. The lead group at this stage was David Mulvin & Ronan Beirne (4068), Keith Poole & Niall Meagher (4093), Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (4028), Joe Coughlan & Michael McCambridge (3913) and Alistair Court & Conor O’Leary (3753). The leg to Pier was a three-sail reach and over the length of the leg, Mulligan & Bradley took a number of places and closed on Poole, Mulvin and Colin. The next leg to Poldy saw a broader spinnaker leg and a tightening of the distances at the front of the fleet behind Mulvin.

A stiff beat back up to Pier saw the lead group pull away from the rest of the fleet and Mulligan gained another place to get ahead of Poole & Meagher and possibly Colin & Casey. On the next leg to Poldy, for the second time, Colin & Casey went hard left whereas the others kept to a more direct line to the mark. Colin came up smiling by going into second place behind Mulvin, with Mulligan ahead of Poole as the latter had a rounding complicated by keelboats going around the same mark. That caused him to take an unnecessary hitch inshore before tacking back to port for the leg to East. There was an easing of the physicality of the sailing on the leg to Molly as it was more of a two-sail fetch. There had also been a change of leader as Colin took over from Mulvin and Mulligan closed again on the new second-placed boat. By Molly, Mulligan had taken Mulvin, though not by much and on the return leg to East, Mulvin closed back on Mulligan. So, at the last turning mark before the beat to the finish, the order was Colin, Mulligan, Mulvin and Poole.

Mulligan tacked off early due to traffic and on tacking back again found a vein of wind that lifted him on port tack. Having gone to sea initially, Colin then headed inshore while Mulvin also stayed offshore. Mulligan and Mulvin crossed paths twice, the first time by a very short distance with Mulligan clearing Mulvin’s starboard-tacked transom and latterly when Mulligan, on port, crossed about a boat-length ahead of Mulvin. The port tack was still paying! The question was -Would there be the necessary header to get back inside and close in on the finish? The answer was Yes! And, as an added bonus, Mulligan had got away from both Colin and Mulvin who were now in very close company and playing cat and mouse with each other. Poole too had staged a recovery distance wise.

Mulligan crossed the line with a few boat-lengths in credit while Colin and Mulvin finished within a second or two of each other. Even tighter was the finish between Poole & Mulvin as they were credited with the same score and place, equal third. There were three OCSs and one DNF in the results.

Thursday 17th May 2002.

1. Ben Mulligan & Cormac Bradley,
2. Neil Colin & Margaret Casey,
3. David Mulvin & Ronan Beirne and Keith Poole & Niall Meagher (Tied)
4. Frank Miller & Patrick Kearsey.

Overall (5 races, 4 to count).

1. Neil Colin (9),
2. Keith Poole (10),
3. David Mulvin (15.5),
4. Ben Mulligan (17),
5. Frank Miller (20).

Tony Fox's Archambault 35 Gringo from the National Yacht Club took a well-earned win in tonight's windy fifth race of the AIB Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) Thursday night series.

The win puts Fox into third overall in a 14-boat Cruisers One IRC division.

Second tonight was Tim and Richard Goodbody's RIYC J109 'White Mischief' which maintains her overall lead after five races on seven points. 

Tim Goodbdody’s 80th birthday was celebrated on the water when the Race Officer sang happy birthday over the VHF with other competitors joining in the impromptu sing-along.

Andrew Craig's RIYC J/109 Chimaera finished in third place tonight and is second overall on nine points. 

Flat seas with strong westerlies up to 20-knots made for some excellent racing. 

On the eve of Saturday's ISORA cross channel race in which Paul O'Higgins is competing, his JPK 10.80 Rockabill VI crew produced yet another race win to lead DBSC Zeros overall after five races with five straight wins. 

Patrick Burke's First 40.7, Prima Forte was originally recorded as second but, in fact, Chris Power Smith's J122 Aurelia (who is also on the ISORA line on Saturday) took second after a result input error was corrected. Prima Forte finished third and stays second overall on 11 points.

Third overall is Rodney and Keith Martin's 44.7 Lively Lady on 14 points.

In IRC 2, a win for Leslie Parnell's First 34.7 Black Velvet puts him on top overall and ahead of Lindsay Casey's J97 Windjammer from the Royal St. George Yacht Club that finished second in tonight's ten boat race. After finishing fourth in tonight's blustery conditions, Richard Lovegrove's Sigma 33 Rupert lies third overall. 

The DBSC Cruiser division Race Officer was Eddie Totterdell.

See full DBSC individual and overall results in all classes below. Three live Dublin Bay webcams featuring some DBSC race course areas are here

27th May 2022: This article was updated after a results input error was corrected

The National Yacht Club's Noel Butler sailing his RS Aero 'Orion' was on top again in the DBSC's AIB Summer dinghy series with two more wins in Tuesday night racing (May 24th) in his RS Aero dinghy to bring his strike rate to seven from eight races sailed.

Richard Tate's Finn took second last night with Aero helmsman Roy Van Maanen in third place in race eight. These top three positions are reflected in the overall leaderboard. 

Seven competed in the two races held in Scotsman's Bay under Race Officer Suzanne McGarry. Westerly winds ranged from 14 to under ten knots.

Laser

Like Butler, Gary O'Hare sailing Buster III maintains his overall lead in the Laser Standard division with two wins last night giving him seven wins from eight.

Only three Lasers competed in last night's racing with Conor O'Leary second and Theo Lyttle in third in race eight. All three are from the Royal St. George Yacht Club. 

Fireball

In a five boat turnout for the Fireball class, Neil Colin's Elevation from the DMYC also won both races last night. Overall, Colin leads after eight races with clubmate Frank Miller in second and Pink Fire skippered by Royal St. George's Louise McKenna third. 

Full results in all DBSC classes are below. Three live Dublin Bay webcams featuring some DBSC race course areas are here

Andrew Craig's Chimaera from the Royal Irish Yacht Club was the winner of the Cruisers One/J109 Race five in DBSC's AIB Summer Series on Saturday. 

Racing was held in light southeasterly winds that never reach ten knots on Dublin Bay.

Craig beat RIYC club mate Tim and Richard Goodbody on White Mischief with Polly Barrington's Jalapeno in third place in an eight boat fleet.

Vincent Delany adds: 

The wind in Dublin Bay threw up plenty of surprises on Saturday 21 May.

In the J109 fleet, a gust of wind caused much of the fleet to broach, such that they had great difficulty getting back on course.

Meanwhile, in Cruisers 0, the lead boat was the new WOW, which had a huge lead over her co-competitors as she flew what looked like a brand new white gennaker as she ghosted along in three-four knots of wind from the east. She rounded a mark (possibly the Merrion Mark) and instead of rounding up onto the wind, she tacked. This was because the wind had flipped around to the south west.

On the Green fleet, with Barry O'Neill as OOD, he started the SB20s, Sportsboats and Dragons, Flying Fifteens etc. in less than 3 knots of wind with a beat to the east to a laid mark about one kilometre away. Eac fleet started three minutes after the previous fleet. The last fleet to start, twelve minutes after the Dragons and Sportsboats were the Squibs and Mermaids.

Tony and Avril Mullett's Squib 'Allsorts' hoisted her spinnaker pole as she approached the start line, and threw up her spinnaker. on the start gun. To her surprize, she was on a broad reach and she cruised past all the beating Ruffins, most of the beating Flying Fifteens, all of the beating Dragons and Sportsboats. At the finish at the 'Windward' mark, 'Allsorts' finished in the Dragon Fleet to win her class.

In Dublin Bay, there is no such thing as an unexpected wind, If you are thinking of building a wind farm there - you might find that other places provide more reliable winds.

Full results in all DBSC classes are below

After last Thursday’s healthy breezes and the “pea-souper” that prevented last Saturday’s racing, fourteen Flying Fifteens answered the DBSC Race Officer’s call last night in conditions that started off as being “robust” with a wind against tide situation generating choppy conditions.

The course for the evening was set at KW2 – Bay, Battery, Zebra, Molly, Zebra, Battery, Molly – Finish. Initially, the first mark of the course, Bay, was hidden, from certain angles, by a moored Irish Naval Vessel, but shortly after the starting signal for the Flying Fifteens she moved off. The fleet was pretty much agreed that the first leg to Bay had to be an inshore leg, the only question seemed to be which end of the line to start that trek from. In reality, there was a reasonably even split of the fleet between the pin end and the committee boat end of the line. At the former were Tom Galvin & Keith Poole (4093) with Tom helming, Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (4028), Ben Mulligan & Cormac Bradley (4081) and possibly Frank Miller & Ismail Inan (3845).

However, at Bay, the lead was taken by John Lavery & Alan Green (4083) by a few boat lengths, but there was a tight chasing pack behind them that included the aforementioned “committee boat enders” Tom Murphy & Carel (4057) and Alan Balfe & Patrick Kiersey (3995). The leg to Battery was a two-sail fetch and this stretched the chasing pack to a single file of boats behind Lavery & Green. A spinnaker leg to Zebra followed with a number of gybes necessary to get into a rounding position at this the most seaward mark of the course. Lavery & Green kept a watching brief on the chasing pack with Miller/Inan and Alistair Court & Conor O’Leary (3753) in close company with Mulligan & Bradley, Colin & Casey hovering and Balfe & Kiersey also in the frame. A slightly early drop at Zebra saw Mulligan into a windward berth and he got to the head of the chasing pack for the leg to Molly. However, none of the others were too far away as Galvin/Poole, Colin/Casey, Miller/Inan and Niall & Susan Coleman made sure Mulligan stayed honest.

After the second rounding of Zebra, there was a long leg back to Battery. Here the fleet split with Colin, in particular, going inshore early. Lavery and Mulligan played the middle and left of this beat initially, before Lavery decided to head inshore as well. Meanwhile, Galvin & Poole played the offshore aspect of this leg as did Miller & Inan. Court & O’Leary also went inshore for the latter stages of the leg, resulting in them coming up the starboard layline for the mark. Not sure how the Colemans played this one, but it worked as the rounded behind Mulligan and Court, in quick succession. Having thought they had caught some distance on Lavery & Green, Mulligan & Bradley found that the reverse had happened as both Galvin & Poole, from the left and Colin & Casey from the right steamed in to place themselves ahead of Mulligan. Mulligan had the misfortune to sail into a hole as the brisk breeze faded and became quite tricky. Thus, the revised order at Battery was Lavery, Galvin, Colin, Mulligan, Court and Coleman.

On the leg to Molly, the Colemans sailed low and steamed (a poetic licence term in the conditions) through Mulligan’s lee, while Court went to windward of Mulligan and through him. No further place changes occurred on the leg to Molly. Enough is enough!

The hitch to the finish seemed to be academic – initially, everyone headed inshore. But then to varying degrees, the fleet tacked off. The first three were comfortable at this stage but there was a sneaking suspicion that some late changes might be possible between the latter three boats. In the final approach to the finish line, both the Colemans and Court/O’Leary were outside of Mulligan/Bradley with the latter on starboard on a final approach to the finish. The Colemans got that little bit extra to put daylight between themselves and the other two, but it was very close on the finish line with Court getting the decision over Mulligan, but there was only a second between the finishing “hoots” for these two.

Thursday 19th May 2002 results

1. John Lavery & Alan Green (4083)
2. Tom Galvin & Keith Poole (4093)
3.  Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (4028)
4. Niall & Susan Coleman (4008)
5. Alistair Court & Conor O’Leary (3753)

Overall: Keith Poole & Others (7), Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (7), David Mulvin & Ronan Beirne (12), Frank Miller & Others (15), Ben Mulligan & Cormac Bradley (16).

In the ten-boat scratch race for the Beneteau 211s, Peter Carroll's Yikes won from Andrew Bradley's Chinook in the fourth IRC race of the AIB Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) Thursday night series.

Third was Pete Evans in Anemos 2. 

Race Officer Ed Totterdell set a course for the Red fleet from DBSC Committee Boat Freebird in 10 to 17-knot winds from the south and southwest with a turning mark at the Forty Foot to give classes a broad spinnaker reach in the excellent sailing conditions.

National Yacht Club sailors occupied the top two places of an 11-boat Flying Fifteen race. John Lavery's Phoenix won from Keith Poole's Mike Wazowski with Neil Colin of the DMYC sailing FFuzzy third.

In a two boat Sportboat race, Sabrina Mahony's RIYC1 won from Declan Curtin's J80 Jester.

As the SB20s build up for their RIYC based World championships this September, Davy Taylor's Ted from the Royal St. George won from Colin Galavan's Royal Irish based Carpe Diem. Third was Patrick McGrath's Smoke on the Water. Two boats did not finish in the five boat race.

DBSC Cruiser Classes

In the Cruiser Classes, Andrew Craig's J109 Chimaera from the Royal Irish Yacht Club won tonight's windy fourth IRC race of the AIB Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) Thursday night series.

Colin Byrne's XP33 Bon Exemple from the RIYC was second, with clubmate Tim Goodbody's J109 White Mischief in third place in the 12-boat fleet.

Flat seas with strong south-westerlies up to 20-knots made for excellent Thursday night racing.

In a six-boat Cruisers Zero contest, the top three were an entirely RIYC affair. Paul O'Higgins JPK 10.80 Rockabill VI, who will contest Saturday's cross channel ISORA race, was the winner of Tim Kane's Extreme 37 WOW. Third was Rodney and Keith Martin's 44.7 Lively Lady.

In IRC 2, Royal St. George's Lindsay J. Casey's Windjammer (the most successful DBSC IRC yacht for the past two seasons) won from Leslie Parnell's First 34.7 Black Velvet with Richard Lovegrove's Sigma 33 Rupert third in a nine boat turnout.

In IRC 3, in a three boat turnout, Krypton sailed by Alan Turner won from Kevin Byrne's Starlet. Myles Kelly in Maranda was third. 

Tonight's DBSC Race Officer was Blue fleet (MacLir), Con Murphy.

See full DBSC individual and overall results in all classes below.