#rayc – The Royal Alfred Yacht Club (RAYC) Coastal Series out of Dublin Bay provided a nail-biting finish to the silver fleet outcome with only one point separating first and second places overall. Full results are downloadable below.
Pippa IV and Yahtzee, despite only sailing in three of the four races, organised jointly with ISORA, and thereby not having the cushion of a discard were on equal points going into the last race of the Series. Pippa IV shaded it in the final tussle and emerged the victor.
In the Gold Fleet, following Jedi's success over the last couple of years with Liam Shanahan's Ruth nipping at his heels, it was the turn of Ruth to take the Trophy and round off a great year for the Liam Shanahan crew. 

The Royal Alfred Yacht Club will hold a river Liffey racing event for the Laser dinghy class on Saturday 11th October. Dublin's East Link bridge is being opened at 10.30am to allow the passage of the fleet up the river and racing is due to start at 11.00.

Royal Alfred Yacht Club Commodore Barry MacNeaney reports there will be continuous races with a short lunch break until 15.00 and the bridge will open again  at 14.30 to let the competitors return to the Poolbeg Yacht Club where refreshments will be available before the prize-giving. 'This format tests the skills of the sailors in an environment of narrow waters and changing winds and provides an extra dimension to the more normal sailing conditions they usually experience', says MacNeaney.

Entry forms are available for downloading on the Royal Alfred website from next Monday (29th September).

#bloomsdayregatta – Lack of wind for sailing on Dublin Bay today means Royal Alfred Yacht Club's Bloomsday regatta that is being run in conjunction with the ICRA National Championships has made a change to its sailing instructions. 

Scoring in certain classes has been changed so a boat's RAYC Bloomsday Regatta score will be the total of her race scores for the first two races sailed at the ICRA National Championships tomorrow. Download the change to SIs below.

Meanwhile results for the B & C courses today are available to download below as an excel file.

#rayc – The Royal Aflred Yacht Club (RAYC) is offering an extra dimension to Dublin Bay sailing for 'the price of a pint', says RAYC Commodore Barry MacNeaney. Covering all cruiser and keelboat classes and with a very modest entry fee of €5 per crew member, the RAYC Superleague series gives a flexibility that allows every competitor a fighting chance.

In 2012, the RAYC racing club  re-launched the 'Superleague' concept – first staged in the 1990s – to a new generation of sailors in 2012 with the aim of 'rewarding the best boats, skippers and crews', across the whole season, in each class in Dublin Bay, the country's biggest sailing centre.

Saturday's Royal Irish Yacht Club Regatta marks the first of the 2014 RAYC league's ten race series. With a generous discard of four races if all ten races are sailed, winners may not be decided till the final race!

Prizes for the winners and for their crew will be presented at the RAYC Annual Black Tie Dinner being held this year in the RIYC on November 21st

Entry forms are in all the Dun Laoghaire Clubs and Howth Yacht Club. On-line entry is also possible here.

#rayc - Saturday 12th April was a busy day for the Royal Alfred Yacht Club, being actively involved in simultaneous events on the Liffey and in Howth.

On the Liffey the Royal Alfred was coordinating the on-the water part of the highly successful Colours Race between UCD and TCD. Royal Alfred committee member Eunice Kennedy, working with the overall event organiser, UCD Sailing Club, managed a cooperative effort involving resources from the Royal St. George Yacht Club, the Poolbeg Yacht and Boat Club and the collaboration of Dublin Port,who agreed to open the East Link Bridge.

This was an exceptional day for the students, with Trinity taking the honours in the Colours Race from UCD, who had already triumphed in the precceding round robin. It was however business as usual for the 'Alfred', as they have been running racing in the Liffey for many years.

At the same time, the last day of day of Howth Yacht Club's Spring Warmers Series was also Royal Alfred Day. With another set of prizes to fight for, even those whose previous results left them with no chance in the overall series could aspire to take home some glassware from the Royal Alfred event, thus adding further interest to the competition.

Other 'Alfred' events are planned this year, many of them in cooperation with other clubs. Thus the Royal Alfred Yacht Club's annual Bloomsday Regatta will neatly avoid a potential clash of dates in an overcrowded season by running the event alongside the Irish Cruiser Racing Association's National Cruiser Nationals which runs from 13th to the 15th June. The cruiser classes will sail the ICRA courses, and all entrants in the ICRA Nationals will be automatically entered in the Bloomsday Regatta. The first 2 races sailed on the ICRA course on Saturday 14th of June will count for the Bloomsday results. All other classes will sail on courses managed by the RAYC.

The Royal Alfred Superleague is also run in cooperation with the waterfront clubs and DBSC. The Dun Laoghaire and Howth Club regattas, including, naturally the RAYC Bloomsday Regatta and designated DBSC races count towards a season-long competition, with a prize-giving at the prestigious RAYC dinner.

In much the same way, the Royal Alfred continues it's ancient association with offshore racing (a sport the club can claim to have invented) by running the RAYC Coastal Series within the Irish Offshore Racing Association Series. By awarding prizes for the shorter races, the Royal Alfred YC offers competition for those who are tempted by racing offshore.

The Royal Alfred continues to add something extra to the Dublin sailing season. It is also satisfying to see ideas developed by the club, such as a multi-class regatta for one design keel-boats, being taken up elsewhere. The RAYC continues to develop and confirm its long tradition of Corinthian sailing.

#rayc – At Friday's Royal Alfred Yacht Club Annual Dinner, past Commodore Ailbe Millerick was awarded the Dr John O'Leary Memorial Trophy for Services to Sailing.

Royal St George member Ailbe Millerick has had a long and distinguished sailing career which is far from over. He has competed successfully in dinghies, offshore racing and in Dragons. He was with John Ross Murphy and Ed Peel when they won the Dragon 75th Anniversary Race in St. Tropez. This was an all Dublin Bay affair with Tony O'Gorman in charge of trying to start the 267 Dragons.
For many years Ailbe lead the revival of Irish team racing, trailing boats round the country to events. He became an International Umpire in 1999, and has been a mentor and guide to Irish umpires ever since.
Not least, Ailbe was a committee member of the Royal Alfred YC for 15 years, of which he spent 7 years as Commodore. He was very much a hands-on Commodore, out starting RAYC's offshore races, serving as race officer, judge and many other functions, including towing boats up the Liffey for RAYC racing in the heart of Dublin. Ailbe Millerick continues to maintain the Royal Alfred YCs ideals of Corinthian racing.

The RAYC dinner was attended by 142 members and guests. The prizegiving for the Bloomsday Regatta and the RAYC Superleague was onc eagain the opportunity to admire a spectacular array of silverware, dating, for many of the trophies from the 19th Century.

#rayc – Following an excellent four race series, the final positions in the Royal Alfred Yacht Club (RAYC) Offshore Series run in association with ISORA have been published writes RAYC Commodore Barry McNeaney.

In the Gold Fleet it was the last race that decided the result as "Jedi's" (Andrew Sarratt) magnificent first place allowed a discard on race two and they just pipped "Ruth" (Liam Shanahan) at the post! A margin of one point at the finish – it could not have been closer!

In the Silver fleet "Polished Manx" took a commanding lead from early in the Series. It was unfortunate that there were not more competitors in the last race as "Polished Manx" did not compete and "Windshift" ,who did compete and finished well could not amass the points needed to overtake them. Well done to "Polished Manx"!

Gold Fleet: points
1st Jedi 26
2nd Ruth 25
3rd Adelie 20
4th Lula Belle 18
5th Jointly Mojito and Tsunami 16

Silver Fleet: Points

1st Polished Manx 26

2nd Windshift 21
3rd Jointly Desert Star and Yahtzee 19
5th Quite Correct 17
6th African Challenge 14
7th Orna 5

The Royal Alfred Yacht Club enjoyed a brilliant day of sunshine for its annual regatta. The Bloomsday Regatta was hosted at the Royal Irish Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire. 

With gust south westerly winds, the A & B courses completed two windard/leeward races with White Sails enjoying a race around the cans. In three of the classes there were tie breaks broken by the best placing in the last race of the day. Result highlights below and full results downloadable as MS Word files below.  No Beneteau 31.7 or Shipman results have been issued by RAYC.

Cruisers 0 IRC 1st, Loose Change, Morris Mitton and Petter Redden, RIYC
Cruisers 0 Echo 1st, Tsunami, Vincent Farrell,RIYC

Cruisers 1 IRC 1st Gringo, Tony Fox
2nd Jalapeno, Barrington, Bourke & Phillips,RIYC
Cruisers 1 Echo 1st Adrenain, Joe McDonald, NYC
2nd Axiom, M. O'Neill

Criusers 2 IRC 1st Sunburn, Ian Byrne, HYC
2nd Bendemeer, L Casey & D Power, RSGYC
3rd Red Rhum, J & C Nicholson
Cruisers 2 Echo 1st Helter Skelter, Adrienne Jermyn, RSGYC
2nd Kamakassie, Peter Nash, RSGYC
3rd Graduate, Dominic O'Keefe, RIYC

White Sails IRC 1st Orna, Phillip Dilworth NYC
2nd Warrior, Dave Shanahan
3rd Voyage, Joe Carton HYC
White Sails Echo 1st Sweet Martini, Bruce Carswell, RSGYC
2nd Vive, Brian Cumerford, DMYC

Cruisers 3A IRC 1st Cri-Cri, Paul Colton
2nd Hyflyer, John Barnard PYBC
3rd Supernova, McStay/Timbs/Monaghan/Costello,
Cruisers 3A Echo 1st Borraine, Ean Pugh, RIYC
2nd Carrabeg, D. Martin, RSGYC

Cruisers 3B Echo 1st Saki, Ryan/McCormack, RIYC
2nd Asterix, Boushell.Conimhan/Meredith

Sigma 33's 1st Springer, Ian Bowrning, RSGYC

Ruffian 23's 1st Alias, D. Meeke & M. McCarthy
2nd Paramour, Sastree/Russell/Power NYC

Glens 1st Glenluce, Richard O'Connor, RSGYC
2nd Glendun, Brian Denham, RSGYC
3rd Pterodacty R & D McCaffrey, RIYC

Beneteau 21's 1st Yikes, Joe Conway, RIYC

Squib's 1st Perfection, Jill Flemming, RSGYC
2nd Little Demon, Sheila Power, RSGYC
3rd Tais, Micheal O'Connell, RIYC

In the Laser fleet the results were very interesting in that we had a number of under 18's competing with one of them taking 3rd place. The results are as follows:

Juniors 1st Rory McStay RIYC
2nd C O'Beirne RIYC
3rd L. Murphy RSGYC

Senior 1st Mattie O'Dowd RSGYC
2nd Paul Keane RIYC
3rd Sean Craig RAYC

Bloomsday Regatta will be held this Saturday on Dublin Bay under the Burgee of the Royal Alfred Yacht Club and in association with all four Dun Laoghaire waterfront Yacht Clubs. The host club is the Royal Irish Yacht Club.

The regatta caters for Cruiser Classes 0,1,2, 3a and 3b & White Sails, Laser SB20, Dragon, Sigma 33, Beneteau 31.7, Beneteau 21, Puppeteer, Ruffian, Glen, Shipman 23, Flying 15, Squib, Mermaid, Fireball, 420, IDRA 14, Laser 1, Radial, Water Wags and Portsmouth Yardstick.

There are two races back to back scheduled and the forecast indicates high winds for race time.

A notice of race is downloadable as a PDF below. 

Results from last weekend's RAYC Baily Bowl Weekend at the National Yacht Club, Dun Laoghaire

Dragons:
3rd Rick Johnson in Diva
2nd Peter Bowring in Phantom
1st Andrew Craig in Chimaera

Elites:
3rd Mark Brien in Fullmarks
2nd Stephen Polley in Storm
1st Tiffany Brien in Kin

Squibs:
3rd Jill Flemming in Perfection
Joint 2nd Peter Wallace in Toys for the Boys and Frank Whelan in Lola
1st Gordon Patterson in Quick Step 111