Displaying items by tag: Richard Burrows

28th August 2016

Ireland Represented At Etchells Worlds and Europeans in Cowes

Malahide Yacht Club's Richard Burrows sailing an Etchells 22 with his son David

Ireland will be well represented across the fleet at the Etchells European Championships that starts in Cowes today.

The Etchells 22 Class is, by many, regarded as one of the most competitive one design keelboat classes left now that there is no longer an Olympic Keelboat class.

The 2016 Worlds are scheduled for Cowes, Isle of Wight from the 5th to the 12th of Sept and will have 61 top level entries. Prior to that, in the same venue, will be the Etchells 22 European Championships, over today and tomorrow, which will is an unofficial warm–up event for the worlds.

Irish Interest in these events will be Malahide Yacht Club's Richard Burrows who is sailing Bedrock, with his daughter Samantha and local top sailor James Downer from Cowes. Royal Cork Yacht Club's Mark Mansfield, a four times Olympian in the Star Class, fresh from Success at the Irish IRC champs, Round Ireland Race, and European IRC Champs will sail as tactician on Andrew Coopers’ Ice. Mansfield has already Competed in the Quarter Ton Worlds in Cowes this year where he finished sixth and a fortnight ago won Cowes week in the Etchells 22 class aboard Coopers’ Ice.

Also racing in Cowes is Doris, skippered by Jay Bourke of Dun Laoghaire. Paddy Dillon (ex–Mermaid National Champion), Ruairi Grimes (third at recent J111 Worlds), Cathal Leigh Doyle (a former UCD Student Worlds Champion) and Morgan Reeser (American 470 Olympian married to 1996 Olympian Louise Cole) are also competing. Maurice O'Connell is coaching USA 1000 and USA 1404.

The Etchells Class is the choice of Many top Americas Cup and Olympic sailors and some top sailors competing this year include John Bertrand, Lawrie Smith, Steve Benjamin, Andy Beadsworth, Ante Razmiloviz, Chris Larson, Jud Smith, Jeff Madrigal, Luis Dopreste.

Reigning Champion is Skip Diebal from the USA and he will have his work cut out for him with such a competitive fleet, the majority of whom come from the USA, UK, Australia, and Hong Kong.

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27th June 2014

Malahide Burrows Team Move Up to 27th at New York Etchells Worlds

#etchells – An eighth scored in race four of the Etchells World Championships has moved sole Irish boat, Bedrock sailed by Richard, David and Samantha Burrows, up to 27th overall in New York. Overall results are here

Bill Hardesty's resilience has brought him and his crew of Taylor Canfield, Stephanie Roble and Marcus Eagan to the top of the leader board despite a heavy downpour and fluky winds on the third day of the 2014 Etchells Worlds, hosted by the New York Yacht Club at Harbour Court in association with Sail Newport.

After a two-hour postponement on shore followed by another two hours on the water, storm clouds gathered, the wind velocity increased and the wind direction settled down enough to allow Race 5 to start. Shortly after that, the rain began, so forceful at times the weather mark was obscured. Those who sailed to the right, toward the squall, faired better and rounded the weather mark in the lead, albeit a bit wetter for their efforts. The wind shifted left throughout the race dropping slightly in velocity. Senet Bischoff and Ben Kinney won Race 5 by a healthy margin with Hardesty finishing fourth, giving him a 9-point lead over Hank Lammens, who finished 16th in today's race. Marvin Beckman sits in third overall followed by John Bertrand in fourth and Ante Razmilovic rounding out the top 5.

Today's start time has by moved up one hour tomorrow to maximize what is expected to be a dying northerly breeze. After six races have been completed, each team will be able to discard their worst finish.

The 2014 Etchells Worlds will continue until tomorrow Saturday.

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29th May 2014

Dublin Trio Enter Etchells Keelboat World Champs At New York Yacht Club

#etchells – Ireland has a single entry in a 95–boat fleet for the 2014 Etchells keelboat World Championship from June 21 to 28 in New York. The class's 46th world championship will be one of the biggest and most competitive in its celebrated history.

Malahide and Howth Yacht Club sailing family trio, Richard, David (a four time Olympian) and Samantha Burrows are entered in the Corinthian, Masters and Seniors divisions in a fleet that has already attracted some of the world's top professional and amateur sailors.

Long Island Sound yacht designer and builder Skip Etchells created the 31-foot keelboat in 1965 hoping to win selection as the new Olympic keelboat.

The design dominated the racing in the selection trials, but lost in the onshore voting for Olympic status. For the 2016 Olympics, there will be no keelboat sailed in the Olympic regatta.

But nearly 50 years after the first Etchells touched the water, the class is as strong as ever.

The number of entries in recent class world championships has varied from 41 last year to a high of 100 in 1998.

Up to nine races are scheduled, all but one of which will count toward a team's final score. Registration and measurement for the regatta will start on Saturday, June 21, with the racing taking place on Rhode Island Sound, Tuesday, June 24, through Saturday, June 28.

For an entry list click here.

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2nd June 2013

Is 'Bucket & Chuck It' All the Etchells Can Offer the Fairer Sex?

#etchells – There's not much interest in recruiting women into the Etchell's class as it prepares for the world championships in Rosignano Solvay, Italy this week if the response to an Irish 'bio break' query is anything to go by.

There was a howl of resistance – mainly Australian in origin – against any special provision for women when Irish skipper Richard Burrows from Howth asked about mother ship facilities for his female crew at this weekend's pre-world Italian championship.

Burrows is sailing with son David and daughter Samantha at this week's Italian championships and next week's worlds at the same venue.

"Bucket and chuck it" appears to be the mantra. Easy for some!

There will be no facility in high temperature and long days on the water. Is this the way forward at an international world championships or should regatta organisers make such a provision?

Or is it a wider issue where it appears class traditionalists would probably prefer if women were not taken as crew in the class?

A glance at the entry list so far shows the Howth trio is one of only two mixed crews in the entire line up.

The regatta site proudly boasts this Italian venue is the 'first Etchells Worlds to be held in a non–Anglo Saxon country'.

It's great to see the venerable class charting new waters but perhaps a more considerate approach to the fairer sex might also help in the drive to boost numbers?

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20th March 2013

Whither Irish Sailing? – Richard Burrows

#sailing – Former Irish Olympic Sailing Chief Richard Burrows has been following the debate on the future for Irish sailing and suggests the focus should be on recruiting the next generation of sailors. Writing today (as a grandfather), the 1986 Round Ireland race winner and former champion dinghy sailor is concerned that the proper fabric for training youngsters is in place.

I have followed the debate following on from the ISA meeting through the excellent facility of your Afloat updates.
The input from Roger Bannon contains much which I instinctively agree with but I do recognise that as far as young sailors are concerned I am very much out of date. However as a grandfather I look forward to introducing a new generation to sailing and I am concerned that the proper fabric for training, encouraging, and motivating youngsters is in place.
Clubs bear responsibility for this. And club members must play an active role. Junior sailing is not a babysitting service that can be outsourced to the ISA. An example of this being done well is to be found at Malahide Yacht Club. There, it comes down to active leaders on committee, great officers, and reasonable pricing. Choices about which boat are immaterial so long as the boats are safe, easily sailed, and cheap.
Roger makes some polemic comments about High Performance sailing and the funds devoted to this aspect of the sport. He won't mind me reminding him that he was in the Presidents chair when the foundation of today's policy was put in place with his full support. He is right that Olympic medals have proven to be elusive but this is just a matter of time.

At Weymouth two competitors were potential medal winners but it wasn't to be. Would this debate be taking place if medals had been won?

Yes, in my view, the two aspects of the sport are only connected by the fact that high performance sailing attracts publicity, and thus awareness of sailing. Club sailing will not produce column inches. And, spreading the funds devoted to support high performance sailing into club activities would not move the needle as the club base is so large.
So, my suggestion is to focus the debate on recruiting the next generation of sailors. And that means club members getting involved at club level. If ISA instructors are not up to it don't employ them. Charge nominal subscriptions to members under the age of 25. Embrace all forms of sailing including boards and kites. The responsibility lies with clubs. We cannot allow nanny state thinking to pervade and render clubs moribund in the expectation that the ISA will save them.

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Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta

From the Baily lighthouse to Dalkey island, the bay accommodates six separate courses for 21 different classes racing every two years for the Dun Laoghaire Regatta.

In assembling its record-breaking armada, Volvo Dun Laoghaire regatta (VDLR) became, at its second staging, not only the country's biggest sailing event, with 3,500 sailors competing, but also one of Ireland's largest participant sporting events.

One of the reasons for this, ironically, is that competitors across Europe have become jaded by well-worn venue claims attempting to replicate Cowes and Cork Week.'Never mind the quality, feel the width' has been a criticism of modern-day regattas where organisers mistakenly focus on being the biggest to be the best. Dun Laoghaire, with its local fleet of 300 boats, never set out to be the biggest. Its priority focussed instead on quality racing even after it got off to a spectacularly wrong start when the event was becalmed for four days at its first attempt.

The idea to rekindle a combined Dublin bay event resurfaced after an absence of almost 40 years, mostly because of the persistence of a passionate race officer Brian Craig who believed that Dun Laoghaire could become the Cowes of the Irish Sea if the town and the local clubs worked together. Although fickle winds conspired against him in 2005, the support of all four Dun Laoghaire waterfront yacht clubs since then (made up of Dun Laoghaire Motor YC, National YC, Royal Irish YC and Royal St GYC), in association with the two racing clubs of Dublin Bay SC and Royal Alfred YC, gave him the momentum to carry on.

There is no doubt that sailors have also responded with their support from all four coasts. Running for four days, the regatta is (after the large mini-marathons) the single most significant participant sports event in the country, requiring the services of 280 volunteers on and off the water, as well as top international race officers and an international jury, to resolve racing disputes representing five countries. A flotilla of 25 boats regularly races from the Royal Dee near Liverpool to Dublin for the Lyver Trophy to coincide with the event. The race also doubles as a RORC qualifying race for the Fastnet.

Sailors from the Ribble, Mersey, the Menai Straits, Anglesey, Cardigan Bay and the Isle of Man have to travel three times the distance to the Solent as they do to Dublin Bay. This, claims Craig, is one of the major selling points of the Irish event and explains the range of entries from marinas as far away as Yorkshire's Whitby YC and the Isle of Wight.

No other regatta in the Irish Sea area can claim to have such a reach. Dublin Bay Weeks such as this petered out in the 1960s, and it has taken almost four decades for the waterfront clubs to come together to produce a spectacle on and off the water to rival Cowes."The fact that we are getting such numbers means it is inevitable that it is compared with Cowes," said Craig. However, there the comparison ends."We're doing our own thing here. Dun Laoghaire is unique, and we are making an extraordinary effort to welcome visitors from abroad," he added. The busiest shipping lane in the country – across the bay to Dublin port – closes temporarily to facilitate the regatta and the placing of six separate courses each day.

A fleet total of this size represents something of an unknown quantity on the bay as it is more than double the size of any other regatta ever held there.

Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta FAQs

What is Dun Laoghaire Regatta?

Dun Laoghaire Regatta is Ireland's biggest sailing event. It is held every second Summer at Dun Laoghaire Harbour on Dublin Bay.

When is Dun Laoghaire Regatta?

Dun Laoghaire Regatta is held every two years, typically in the first weekend of July.

Where is Dun Laoghaire Regatta held?

As its name suggests, the event is based at Dun Laoghaire Harbour. Racing is held on Dublin Bay over as many as six different courses with a coastal route that extends out into the Irish Sea. Ashore, the festivities are held across the town but mostly in the four organising yacht clubs.

How big is Dun Laoghaire Regatta?

Dun Laoghaire Regatta is the largest sailing regatta in Ireland and on the Irish Sea and the second largest in the British Isles. It has a fleet of 500 competing boats and up to 3,000 sailors. Scotland's biggest regatta on the Clyde is less than half the size of the Dun Laoghaire event. After the Dublin city marathon, the regatta is one of the most significant single participant sporting events in the country in terms of Irish sporting events.

How old is Dun Laoghaire Regatta?

The modern Dublin Bay Regatta began in 2005, but it owes its roots to earlier combined Dublin Bay Regattas of the 1960s.

How many boats compete at Dun Laoghaire Regatta?

Up to 500 boats regularly compete.

How many yacht clubs are represented at Dun Laoghaire Regatta?

Up to 70 different yacht clubs are represented.

Where do the yachts come from to compete at Dun Laoghaire Regatta?

The Channel Islands, Isle of Man, England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Ireland countrywide, and Dublin clubs.

How many boats are visiting boats at Dun Laoghaire Regatta?

Nearly half the sailors, over 1,000, travel to participate from outside of Dun Laoghaire and from overseas to race and socialise in Dun Laoghaire.

What type of yachts race in Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta?

21 different classes are competing at Dun Laoghaire Regatta. As well as four IRC Divisions from 50-footers down to 20-foot day boats and White Sails, there are also extensive one-design keelboat and dinghy fleets to include all the fleets that regularly race on the Bay such as Beneteau 31.7s, Ruffian 23s, Sigma 33s as well as Flying Fifteens, Laser SB20s plus some visiting fleets such as the RS Elites from Belfast Lough to name by one.

What famous sailors race in Dun Laoghaire Regatta?

Some sailing household names are regular competitors at the biennial Dun Laoghaire event including Dun Laoghaire Olympic silver medalist, Annalise Murphy. International sailing stars are competing too such as Mike McIntyre, a British Olympic Gold medalist and a raft of World and European class champions.

How much does it cost to enter Dun Laoghaire Regatta?

There are different entry fees for different size boats. A 40-foot yacht will pay up to €550, but a 14-foot dinghy such as Laser will pay €95. Full entry fee details are contained in the Regatta Notice of Race document.

Where can spectators view Dun Laoghaire Regatta?

Spectators can see the boats racing on six courses from any vantage point on the southern shore of Dublin Bay. As well as from the Harbour walls itself, it is also possible to see the boats from Sandycove, Dalkey and Killiney, especially when the boats compete over inshore coastal courses or have in-harbour finishes.

How does Dun Laoghaire regatta compare to international regattas?

Very favourably. It is often compared to Cowes, Britain's biggest regatta on the Isle of Wight that has 1,000 entries. However, sailors based in the north of England have to travel three times the distance to get to Cowes as they do to Dun Laoghaire.

Why is Dun Laoghaire Regatta so unique?

Dun Laoghaire Regatta is unique because of its compact site offering four different yacht clubs within the harbour and the race tracks' proximity, just a five-minute sail from shore. International sailors also speak of its international travel connections and being so close to Dublin city. The regatta also prides itself on balancing excellent competition with good fun ashore.

Who organises Dun Laoghaire Regatta?

The Organising Authority (OA) of Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta is Dublin Bay Regattas Ltd, a not-for-profit company, beneficially owned by Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club (DMYC), National Yacht Club (NYC), Royal Irish Yacht Club (RIYC) and Royal St George Yacht Club (RSGYC).

What does Dun Laoghaire Regatta contribute to the local economy?

The Irish Marine Federation launched a case study on the 2009 Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta's socio-economic significance. Over four days, the study (carried out by Irish Sea Marine Leisure Knowledge Network) found the event was worth nearly €3million to the local economy over the four days of the event. Typically the Royal Marine Hotel and Haddington Hotel and other local providers are fully booked for the event.