The first four teams at this Saturday's Leinster Schools Team Racing Championship on Saturday at the Royal St. George Yacht Club will qualify to compete in the Irish Schools National Championships which will be held in Schull, Cork on April 28th/29th.

Teams are made up of three boats with two students per boat with entries to date coming from Saint Andrews College, Gonzaga College and Loreto College, St. Stephen's Green.

Short, sharp races in Firefly dinghies are 'rolling' all day with multiple races. The focus is on the team as opposed to the winning boat with results of the individual teams boats combining to the teams overall result.

Royal St. George's Ronan Adams says 'Team racing is enjoying a revival in Ireland at the moment with college and university sailing growing along with younger sailors enjoying the alternative racing and team competition of 'team racing' that fosters team thinking and inclusion'.

University College Dublin Sailing Club (UCDSC), the defending Varsities champions, hosted the Irish University Sailing Association (IUSA) Intervarsities out of Clifden Boat Club from the 10th to the 12th March. 26 teams were racing at the final IUSA event of the year representing UCD,Trinity (DUSC), DIT, DCU, UCC, CIT, NUI Galway, Queen's University Belfast, Loughborough, Edinburgh and the Scottish University Sailing Association (SUSA). In total the event was attended by over 160 sailors.

The event kicked off on Thursday with Trinity, three UCC teams and SUSA building early leads. Trinity, two of the UCC teams, and SUSA finished the day unbeaten to carry over their one hundred percent records to the second day of the round robin. After finishing day two with eleven wins from twelve races, Trinity, along with three UCC teams, booked their place in the final day’s Gold Fleet semi-finals.

The third and final day of sailing saw the culmination of the round robin and the division into the Gold, Silver and Bronze Fleets for the knockout stages. Hosts UCD were represented across the fleets with their Fourth team taking victory in the Bronze final. UCC’s Fifth team took the Silver Fleet final while in the best-of-five races Gold Fleet final was contested by Trinity’s Firsts and UCC’s Thirds. After Trinity took a 2-1 lead, a black flag offence by UCC boat on the finish line meant that Trinity team of Scott Flanigan, Cara McDowell, Daniel Gill, Kate O’Reilly, Richard Roberts, and Laragh Lee returned to shore as 2017 Varsities champions.

The Colleges go afloat in Clifden for the 2017 IUSA Intervarsities

Trinity club captain Daniel Gill said “it's the best week of results in recent history for Trinity Sailing and the first time we have won varsities in eleven years. Results have been consistently strong at all the regional events this year and the changing of helms and crews throughout shows how strong the club is at the moment, particularly given that many of them are sailing on our seconds, thirds and fourths, showing the depth we have in the club."

The culmination of such a well-run event resulted in UCDSC being awarded IUSA Event of the Year at the final evening’s awards ball, where UCC’s Florence Lyden was awarded Fresher of the Year with Brendan Lyden, also of UCC, awarded Sailor of the Year.

The IUSA AGM also took place during Varsities, with UCC’s Paddy Hogan elected as the incoming Treasurer/Secretary and Trinity’s Chris Phelan elected as President.

The 2017 Colours Match between Trinity and UCD will take place on April 1st in Grand Canal Dock and the Student Yachting Nationals will be held at the end of April, doubling as the qualifiers for the Student Yachting World Cup (SYWoC) and marking the official end of the student sailing season for 2016/17.

Although the Leinster Schools Team Racing Championships may have been postponed at the weekend, it did not stop Dublin's Saint Andrews College from putting in a busy practice session in the Royal St. George Yacht Club Fireflies dinghies on Saturday afternoon. 

The youth event is rescheduled for March 24th at the Royal St. George Yacht Club.

#RCYC -The Royal Cork Yacht Club was represented this weekend at the Venice leg of the international 2K team racing circuit, hosted by the Compagnia della Vela di Venezia.

The mixed Cork crew, who enjoyed a strong finish in Anzio this summer, placed behind Britain’s Serpentine Racing and the winning Dutch-Italian contingent from the Yacht Club Costal Olanda, but ahead of the home team at Compagnia della Vela di Venezia.

The event, taking place from the 4th to the 6th of November, had 11 teams from Italy, Germany, The Netherlands, Britain, Ireland and Sweden competing in generally very light wind conditions. Unfortunately the final day of racing was cut short due to light winds and the results were awarded based on the round robin standings. The RCYC team were beaten by Britain’s Serpentine Racing and the winning Dutch-Italian contingent, known as Yacht Club Costa Olanda.

The team consisting of Fred Cudmore, Lisa Tait, Philip O'Leary, Sonia Minihane, George Kingston, Emma Geary, Sean Cotter and Sarah O'Leary finished in third place.

The 'George Dragon Team claimed victory yesterday at the International Dragon Team Racing Event with race wins in the final against the Dutch and British teams from Royal Netherlands Yacht Club and Royal Thames YC.

The Royal St. George Team with Martin Byrne, Tim Pearson & Peter Bowring (helms) and John O'Connor, Marcus Pearson and Paul Maguire (crew) were tied with the Dutch and British teams going into the finals. However a last minute "photo finish" on the line gave the Irish a 1,3,6 winning score against the Royal Thames Team. The 'George Team won all their races today.

The annual event was hosted this year by the Royal Netherlands Yacht Club in Amsterdam, Holland.

Eleven teams of four sailors each took part in the IODAI–organised Optimist event on Friday 1st July at Malahide Yacht Club. Royal Cork Yacht Club and Monkstown Bay Sailing Club were well represented with five teams. The sailors completed 25 races in the group stages in very changeable but warm four knots to 30 knots, bright sunshine to heavy rain.

After two round robin flights, RCYC Pumas, Jaguars and Panthers teams were eliminated with MBSC Panthers being particularly unlucky, losing on count-back to a Royal St George team.

In the semi-final, RCYC Leopards were pitted against RCYC Cheetahs, ensuring one Cork team made it through to the final. The former won through and met the RStGYC counterparts who sailed well to even up the best of 5 series 1/1. In the third race, RCYC won narrowly in quite squally conditions but in the fourth race, with much less wind, Royal Cork proved quicker and comfortably won.

The Leopards, captained by Harry Twomey, with Diego and Alexandra Peletiero and Michael Crosbie, successfully defended the V-P trophy they won last year.

Over 3 days and no less than 42 races it was all down to the last match between the Dutch and their great rivals from Royal Cork. It was one of those starts that one wants to forget, but the Dutch clearly down, gambled on banging the corners to great effect. Back in the action at the windward mark the four boats were all within a boat length then it all started to unravel for Cork.

2K Team Racing is two on two team racing, in keelboats, without spinnakers.

Twin penalties for Smit (NED) and Kingston(IRL) saw the game balanced. then Cudmore(IRL) collected a penalty for tacking too close... the Dutch are in the lead... a final Irish penalty and it is all over...as the Dutch move into their tried and tested tight defence mode for the final run to the finish.

Host team Rome had had a hard regatta, losing to a rookie British team from the Royal Thames and to the young Italians from 3CV sailing as Banana 2....but the final honours were to go to them as then outplayed the Dutch to the closest of finishes in the final match....but all too late for the podium.

1st Dutch Match and Team Race Association (NED)
2nd Royal Cork Yacht Club (IRL)
3rd Royal Thames Yacht Club (GBR)

The 2K Tour now moves to another Italian Yachting paradise in Gaeta.

The Rome 2K was hosted by the Platu 25 Class and the Reale Circolo Canottiere Tevere Remo at the club's Anzio base.

The Royal St. George Yacht Club hosted the Leinster Schools Team Racing Championships in Dun Laoghaire Harbour last Tuesday. In glorious sunshine 8 teams completed 31 races to provide a result.

The Round Robin was tightly fought, with a 3 way tie between Loreto St. Stephens Green, Loreto Dalkey and St. Conleths, with Loreto St. Stephens Green coming out on top after a count back on points to break the tie.

In the finals it was Gonzaga versus Kilkenny and this went to the wire, with both teams having a win each. Now we were down to a nail biting 3rd race in which Gonzaga took the spoils. This was the second time running that Gonzaga have won the Leinster Schools Trophy. Commiserations to Kilkenny who gave Gonzaga quite a challenge.

Leinster Schools Team Racing action at Dun Laoghaire

The top four teams qualify for the Irish Schools Team Racing Championships which will be hosted at the F.O.M.E.C. sailing centre in Schull on the 9th & 10th of April.

Adam Hyland (R.S.G.Y.C.) was the Race Officer and did an excellent job of completing the event, with a number of wind shifts throughout the day. Ailbe Millerick was the Chief Umpire and was assisted by Dave Sheahan.

Thank you to everyone who assisted in the organising and running of the event.

All the competitors deserve acknowledgement for the lovely manner in which they conducted themselves both on and off the water throughout the event.

The final results were as follows:
1st Gonzaga College
2nd Kilkenny
3rd Loreto St. Stephens Green (Tie Break 20 Points)
4th Loreto Dalkey (Tie Break 21 Points)
5th St. Conleths (Tie Break 22 Points)
6th St. Andrews 1
7th Belvedere College
8th St. Andrews 2

Dublin University Sailing Club (DUSC) team will represent Ireland this summer at the Laser Performance Collegiate Cup (LPCC), an international team racing events to be held in Lake Garda, Italy. The event, hosted in 2015 by Yale Corinthian Yacht Club in Connecticut and won by the USA Women’s team, attracts college sailors from all around the globe and is raced in Z420 dinghies. Last year’s competition saw eight teams from seven countries compete, including representation from Oman and Japan.

Last year’s Irish team contained four Trinity sailors, one UCD sailor and one sailor from UCC. 2016 will see a full team of six sailors and two subs from Trinity representing Ireland.

Those who will travel to Lake Garda are 2012 London Olympian Scott Flanigan, Lucy Bolger, Dan Gill, Lindsey Watters, Mark Bolger, Maeve Lavelle, Dan O’Beirne, and Charlotte Bowen.

The event takes place from 23-27th August.

Dublin University Sailing Club, more commonly known as Trinity Sailing, is the largest student sailing club in Ireland with over 200 active members, 75 of whom compete regularly.

The International Schools Team Racing Championships sailed in Schull, West Cork at the weekend was a huge success, with the event being the first time this number of schools from the United States, England and Ireland had competed together in Team Racing.

15 teams sailed in ideal conditions;  winter switched off and summer switched on.

The event was tightly fought for between Schull Sharks and Presentation Brothers Cork from Munster and Tabor Academy and Cape Cod Academy from the United States, all taking races from each other.

The final outcome was not known until the second last race, when Cape Cod Academy lost to Tonbridge college from the UK allowing PBC through as the overall winners.

1st PBC (Ireland)
2nd Cape Cod (USA)
3rd Tabor Academy (USA)
4th Schull Sharks (Ireland)
5th International (Ireland & USA)
6th Tonbridge college (England)