#HowthYC - Howth Yacht Club will soon be hosting an ISA-sanctioned powerboating course for beginner youths in mid-May ahead of a certification course at the end of the month.

The 'introduction to powerboat' course runs on the weekend of 18-19 May and is open to all club members aged between 14 and 20.

Members who complete this course would be at an advantage going on to the national powerboat qualification course on the weekend of 25-26 May, which is open for club members aged 16 to 20.

Both courses commence at 9.30am each day.

Application forms are available from the Howth Yacht Club website and must be returned by Thursday 16 May.

#HYC - Next week Howth Yacht Club will host international race officer Jack Roy of the National Yacht Club, who will give an illustrated talk on his experiences in Weymouth at the London Olympics last summer.

Roy was selected by the ISAF as a technical officer, one of only seven race officers selected to supervise the UK race management teams at the Olympics.

He was also the only one of the seven who rotated through all the courses, and his talk gives a fascinating insight on how the Olympic regatta was managed.

Roy's talk takes place at the HYC on Wednesday 13 March at 8pm, and will last about 75 mins with time for questions afterwards. Admission is free, but a voluntary donation to the RNLI is expected (€5 suggested).

#HYC - Howth Yacht Club's Sailing Committee has secured the Irish Sailing Association's Sailfleet J80 keelboats for Howth for the entirety of the 2013 sailing season, according to the club's website.

The eight boats in the J80 fleet will available to club members throughout the year and will be used for keelboat club racing and for open events as a one-design class including the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta, the Lambay Race and the Autumn League.

The fleet will also be incorporated within the club's Adult Sail Training programme and used to introduce young sailors to keelboat sailing.

Other events to feature the J80s will be the 2013 ISA National Senior Helmsmans Championships, the HYC Helmsmans Championships and the HYC Family Championships.

Details regarding the schedule and arrangements for members to borrow the J80s will be posted early in the new year. In addition, there are opportunities for corporate sponsorship of each of the boats for the year. Interested parties are asked to contact the Honorary Sailing Secretary.

Meanwhile, Howth YC has also posted its full timetable for next year's summer courses.

All courses are of 10 days' duration and run Monday to Friday 9.30am–5pm (with the exception of Taste of Sailing, Teen Dinghy, Kites & Wires 2 and Keelboat Sailing, which are all one week only). The dates are as follows:

Taste of Sailing Course: 1/8/15 July & 5 August

Start Sailing Course: 3 June, 1/8/15 July & 5 August

Basic Skills Course: 17 June, 1/8/15/22/29 July & 5 August

Improver Skills Course: 1/22 July & 5 August

Advanced Boat Handling Course: 1/22 July & 5 August

Kites & Wires 1 Course: 15 July (two-week duration)

Kites & Wires 2 Course: 29 July (one-week duration)

Teen Dinghy Sailing Course: 22/29 July (one week duration)

Keelboat Sailing Course: 3/10/17/24 June, 1/8/15 July & 5/12 August

Information on all courses and recommended pathway is available at www.hyc.ie/dinghies and queries may be directed to [email protected].

#HYC - The K25 team at Howth Yacht Club is planning for 2013, including the considerable challenge of competing in the BMW J/24 World Championships next August.

If you are interested in applying for the youth keelboat team, please attend the open evening on Tuesday 27 November at 8pm in Howth Yacht Club.

Candidates need to be under 25 on 30 August 2013 and become a cadet member of HYC for the 2013 season. Applications received on the night will be given a free drink from the bar.

See the HYC website for more details.

#hyc – Pat Kelly's J109 'Storm' continues to dominate Class 1 after Howth Yacht Club's penultimate race of the Autumn league on Sunday.  A cold drizzly morning greeted the 700 sailors for the Beshoff Motors/ Bloody Stream jointly sponsored series but crucially there was wind too for the event that this year has seen a mix of weather conditions over the first 5 weeks. This week was the turn of the rain and cold to test competitors, although it improved gradually as the start sequences began and the wind stayed reasonably steady, fluctuating between  260 and 270 degrees for the day at about 10 knots.

On the Offshore course, Kelly and team on 'Storm' recorded their fifth consecutive win to put them in an unassailable lead in Class 1 IRC, while 'Flashback' will be fighting to stay ahead next week on ECHO.

Anthony Gore Grimes and crew on 'Dux' can also afford to take a leisurely attitude next week (although it is very unlikely), as they are clear leaders at the top of Class 2 in IRC. However, 'Maximus' and 'Bushwakka' will have no such luxury in the ECHO division - as they share the lead going into the final day.

Vince Gaffney in 'Alliance II' might also consider a rest next week as he and his team will take the honours in Class 3 IRC. The ECHO prize will be a closer fought affair for 'Starlet', 'Tobago' and 'Goyave'.

In Non Spinnaker Class 4, 'Tiger', 'Bite the Bullet' and 'Orna' will battle for top spot in IRC next week and 'Tiger' and 'White Lotus' should be the contenders for the ECHO prize.

Harry Byrne's 'Alphida' will have a  real battle next week with 'Demelza' for the Class 5 IRC trophy, but there is little that they will be able to do to stop 'Sandpiper of Howth' taking the ECHO honours.

Meanwhile, the inshore fleet will see similar battles in the 17's between Isobel and Oona to secure a win on scratch and the Turvey's will also be chasing Eileen for the ECHO prize.

J24, Crazy horse will be chased by Flor O'Driscolls Hard on Port for the overall prize in their class. The Puppeteers are comfortably led by Harlequin (Clarke & Egan) on scratch, but the ECHO prize will be fought out between the two joint leaders Mayfly and Odyssey.

The Squibs are being led in both scratch and ECHO by Fantome and after another win this week, Mike Evans leads the Etchells in Valkyrie.

Hopefully the elements will be kind to us again next Saturday and all classes will get a race, which will mean that all races bar one inshore fleet cancellation last week will have been run, bucking the trend for the last few years.

For the final race, our co sponsor, The Bloody Stream is putting up a prize for each class which will be presented at the final prize giving next Saturday afternoon. There is still limited availability in the dining room, there is a special €25 menu being offered for that evening.

#hyc – Big westerly winds and a flat sea were the features of the third race of Howth Yacht Club's Autumn League this Sunday. Many of the crews decided to stay ashore this week, following forecasts giving varying wind strengths of between 18 and 30 knots.

The results of this week mean that many classes now have an assortment of boats competing for the top places and the extensive array of silverware while a select few competitors managed to consolidate their leads in their respective divisions.

A 70 degree wind-veer in the middle of the races meant that most crews were spared the decision to hoist spinnakers from that moment, but the remainder of the 'round-the-cans' courses provided few opportunities for boats to gain and lose places.

The forecasted wind took its toll in the early part of the day and might have had its part to play in an incident involving 'Arctutus' and 'Xebec' before their Class 5 start, which saw both boats disqualified after a lengthy protest hearing. Meanwhile in the Etchells class, Simon Knowles and his crew on 'Jabberwocky' had to deal with a de-masting when their backstay gave way under the pressure of the gusting conditions.

Following the completion of their fourth race next week, boats may discard their worst result and a clearer picture will emerge of the overall standings in this jointly sponsored event (Beshoff Motors - Bloody Stream), albeit still with plenty of racing left to complete in this six-race series

#hyc – Boat of the year, Pat Kelly's J109 'Storm', reveled in lively conditions to take first place in Class 1 IRC of Howth's Autumn league yesterday, but had to share the honours for the ECHO prize with the Reilly-Chambers owned 'Crazy Horse'. Autumn league race one results here.

Third was Stephen O'Flaherty's Spirit 54 'Soufriere' and Ross McDonald and his team on 'Equinox', who will have been pleased to take 3rd place in IRC by a margin of 19 seconds after over two hours of racing.

A fresh westerly wind provided the 114 entries to the 2012 League with a lively start on the first of this 6-race series.

Nine classes in two separate fleets enjoyed perfect conditions with 15-20 knot conditions and race officers David Lovegrove and Richard Kissane made the most of the opportunity that facilitated ideal 'round the cans' racing.

In Class 2 Patrick Kyne's 'Maximus' dominated both IRC and ECHO divisions and only 11 seconds separated 'Dux', 'Sunburn' and 'King One' in that sequence in IRC. Malahide Yacht Club's Vincent O'Shea and James O'Brien in Buskwakka proved that the weather was on their side with a 2nd place in ECHO.

Howth's Vince Gaffney in 'Alliance II' showed the other boats in Class 3 that he will be the one to watch over the next 5 weeks, beating 'Starlet' and 'Goyave' in IRC with more than 3 minutes to spare - quite a margin in a day full of very close results. Eddie Bourke and his team on 'Starlet' were 1st in the ECHO division, with Malahide's 'Goyave' and 'Tobago' keeping the pressure up immediately behind.

Paul Tully and his crew on Dun Laoghaire's 'White Lotus' must have had the Harris-Hughes owned 'Tiger' baring their teeth when they finished ahead of them in the White Sails Class 4 ECHO division by just 1 second. They will be strongly challenged in this series by NYC's Philip Dilworth and crew on his Grand Soleil 42 'Orna' who finished 3rd but took 1st prize in the IRC division and their record in recent Howth events means that they will certainly be the boat to beat in this class.

The Class 5 White Sails race was won by Peter and Declan McCabe's 'Arcturus', narrowly pushing 'Sandpiper' into second place in ECHO. Stephanie Ennis and Windsor Laudan's classic Club Shamrock 'Demelza' took the honours in IRC and will be a tough boat to beat in this class.

On the one-design racecourse, Simon Knowles and team on his Etchells 'Jabberwocky' just finished ahead of Mike Evans's 'Valkyrie', with a gap of only 16 seconds separating them.

Howth's Flor O'Driscoll in the J24 'Hard on Port' won a close race from Stefan Hyde and his team on RCYC's 'Nyah', closely followed by Mossy Shanahan's 'Crazy Horse' and Brian McDowell and Noel Davidson's 'Scandal'.

Twenty entries and a very busy start line for the Puppeteer class saw two boats OCS at the start gun, but not Susan Sheridan's 'Ibis', which finished 1st ahead of 'in-form' boats 'Gold Dust' and 'Eclipse', with Susan and team also taking the Handicap prize.

In the Squib Class, Ronan MacDonnell's 'Fantome also did 'the double' winning both Scratch and Handicap divisions.

Turvey brothers Brian and Conor with their crew in the Howth 17 'Isobel' took line honours from 'Pauline' while the winner on handicap was Bryan and Harriette Lynch's 'Echo'.

Ten teams are be competing for the Olympus Team Trophy and the standings after this first week show the Howth trio of 'Crazy Horse' (Class 1), 'Bite the Bullet' (Class 4) and 'Voyager' (Class 5) leading the field by 14 points.

#hyc – HOWTH YACHT CLUB (HYC) AUTUMN LEAGUE (RACE) 16/09/2012 Class 1 IRC: 1, Storm P Kelly HYC/RSC; 2, Crazy Horse Chambers/Reilly HYC; 3, Equinox R McDonald HYC; Class 1 ECHO: 1=, Crazy Horse Chambers/Reilly HYC; 1=, Storm P Kelly HYC/RSC; 3, Soufriere S O'Flaherty HYC; Class 2 IRC: 1, Maximus P Kyne HYC; 2, Dux A Gore-Grimes HYC; 3, Sunburn I Byrne HYC; Class 2 ECHO: 1, Maximus P Kyne HYC; 2, Bushwakka O'Shea/O'Brien MYC; 3, C'est la Vie Flannelly/Others HYC; Class 3 IRC: 1, Alliance 11 V Gaffney HYC; 2, Starlet Bourke/Others HYC; 3, Goyave Camier/Fitzpatrick MYC; Class 3 ECHO: 1, Starlet Bourke/Others HYC; 2, Goyave Camier/Fitzpatrick MYC; 3, Tobago Ray/Others MYC; Class 4 ECHO: 1, White Lotus P Tully DunM; 2, Tiger Harris/Hughes HYC; 3, Orna P Dilworth NYC; Class 4 IRC: 1, Orna P Dilworth NYC; 2, Bite the Bullet C Bermingham HYC; 3, Tiger Harris/Hughes HYC; Class 5 ECHO: 1, Arctutus P & D McCabe HYC; 2, Sandpiper A Knowles HYC; 3, Jokers Wild G Knaggs HYC; Class 5 IRC: 1, Demelza Ennis/Laudan HYC; 2, Alphida H Byrne HYC; 3, Voyager J Carton HYC; Puppeteer SCRATCH: 1, Ibis S Sheridan HYC; 2, Gold Dust Walls/Browne HYC; 3, Eclipse A & R Hegarty HYC; Puppeteer HPH: 1, Ibis S Sheridan HYC; 2, Mayfly Guinan/Browne HYC; 3, Gannet T Chillingworth HYC; Squib SCRATCH: 1, Fantome R MacDonell HYC; 2, Too Dee D Sheahan HYC; 3, Puffin E Harte HYC; Squib HPH: 1, Fantome R MacDonell HYC; 2, Puffin E Harte HYC; 3, Too Dee D Sheahan HYC; 17 Footer SCRATCH: 1, Isobel B & C Turvey HYC; 2, Pauline O'Doherty/Ryan HYC; 3, Rita Lynch/Curley HYC; 17 Footer HPH: 1, Pauline O'Doherty/Ryan HYC; 2, Isobel B & C Turvey HYC; 3, Rita Lynch/Curley HYC; Etchells SCRATCH: 1, Jabberwocky S Knowles HYC; 2, Valkyrie M Evans HYC; 3, Glance O'Reilly/Dix HYC; J 24 SCRATCH: 1, Hard on Port F O'Driscoll HYC; 2, Nyah S Hyde RCYC; 3, Crazy Horse M Shanahan HYC

Howth Yacht Club's Autumn League, sponsored this year by Beshoff Motors, gets its six-race schedule underway this Sunday (September 16th) morning, with over 100 entries in nine classes expected on the two starting lines.

As in previous years, the White Sails Division accounts for the largest entry with 22 boats competing while the Puppeteers and Class 3 will have competitive fleets of 16 and 14 respectively.

The successful format of six round-the-cans races will be repeated, with five successive Sundays and the final day's racing on Saturday 20th October.

The Heineken Trophy will be presented to the best overall winner and the Olympus Trophy will go to the best team of three boats (each boat from a different class) declared before the first race.

#HOWTH YACHT CLUB - Children's charity Variety Ireland celebrated the return of its 'Boat for Hope' event at Howth Yacht Club at the weekend.

Almost 60 vessels of all shapes and sizes were used to bring special needs children and their families and carers from HYC out to Balscadden Bay for a pirate adventure on the high seas.

Dressed as pirates, the youngsters teamed up with Captain Rocket and his buccaneer crew aboard Mick Hunt's 'Pirate Ship', helping to offload his treasure - with a little help from the Howth Yacht Club RIB team - while coastguard and lifeboat vessels attacked with water cannon fire!

After all that excitement, the kids were treated to a tour of the fishing harbour where the resident seals demonstrated their swimming skills, followed by some proper clowning around and a BBQ lunch in the marquee on the green.

Organisers described it as a "very special day for the children and their families" and thanked the hundreds of supporters and volunteers who made it all happen.

Howth Yacht Club also thanked the sponsors and services that provided support, including the Dublin Fire Brigade, the Red Cross Ambulance Service, Howth Coastguard and Howth RNLI, as well as guests such as Fingal Mayor Cian O'Callaghan, Harbourmaster Capt Raja Maitra, Terrance Flanagan TD and co-ordinators from the Variety Club of Ireland.