Displaying items by tag: Royal Alfred YC

20th May 2012

Squib fleet Boosts the Numbers At Royal Alfred Baily Bowl Weekend

#BAILYBOWL – Dragons, Squibs and RS Elites lined up for the Royal Alfred Baily Bowl one design series at the Royal St. George at the weekend, the modest RS Elite fleet included the recently crowned Miss Northern Ireland Tiffany Brien.

Winds gusting up to 25 knots and a big rolling sea made for challenging conditions for the series on Saturday but winds on Sunday were so light the titles were settled on Saturday's scores.

By far the biggest fleet at this Royal Alfred Yacht Club Championship was the National Squib Class with 13 entries, 3 from the Royal North of Ireland Y.C., 2 from Wexford Harbour Boat and Tennis Club, 2 from the Royal Irish Yacht Club and the rest from the host club the Royal St. George Yacht Club.

Race One on Saturday took place in tumultuous seas (waves up to 3m high) despite the wind strength being about 12 kts. Racing Squibs in these conditions is difficult with many waves breaking over the bows, causing the boats to take water and killing the forward momentum. The windward leeward races were not tactical- but the were won by boat speed and boat handling.

Race One Results: 1st. 'Andromeda', Nigel and Paddy Barnwell RIYC.

2nd. 'Toy for the Boys', Peter Wallace and Kerry Boomer. RNIYC.

3rd. 'Halloween', Fred Campbell. RNIYC

Race two followed immediately afterwards with the seas remaining steep and confused, but the North Easterly wind dropping slightly.

Results: 1st. 'Halloween', Fred Campbell. RNIYC.

2nd. 'Toy for the Boys', Peter Wallace and Kerry Boomer.

3rd. 'Quickstep III', L. Mc.Carthy Nolan & Gordon Patterson.

Race three followed with similar wind and sea conditions.

Results: 1st. 'Perequin', Vincent Delany and Noel Colclough. DMYC.

2nd. 'Quickstep III' L. Mc.Carthy Nolan & Gordon Patterson. RNIYC

3rd. 'Halloween', Fred Campbell. RNIYC

Race four and five on Sunday were abandoned due to a flat calm, no wind and poor visibility.

The Dublin Bay boats achieved two out of three first places but they could not compare with the consistency of the Northern boats, so the final results were:

First 'Halloween', 3,1,3 placings. Sail No. 148.

2nd. 'Toy for the Boys' 2,2,5 placings. Sail No. 818.

3rd. 'Quickstep III' 5,3,2 placings. Sail No. 820.

Best of the rest was 'Andromeda' with 1,4,6 placings.

Best Wexford boat was 'Chubble', Michael Jones. The Wexford club is new to Squibs and they now have a fleet of 7 boats which normally sail above the road bridge in Wexford town in the South Eastern corner of Ireland.

Best all lady team: 'Chillax' sisters Angela Heath and McLoughlin who had the benefit of a double dolphin escort while they were waiting for the second race to start.

Royal Alfred Baily Bowl one design series 2012:

Dragons

1st Sir Ossis of the River Dennis Bergin, 2nd Kin Simon Brien, 3rd Aphrodite Micheal Doorly.

Elites

1st Momentary Laps, John Patterson, 2nd Kin Tiffany Brien, 3rd, Fullmarks Mark Brien.

Squibs

1st Halloween Fred Campbell, 2nd Toys For The Boys Peter Wallace, 3rd Quickstep III McCarthy Nolan and Patterson.

Thanks to Eunice Kennedy and Vincent Delany for assistance with this report

Published in Royal Alfred YC

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3rd May 2012

Royal Alfred's 'NIOBE' Event Teams Up with Howth's Spring Warmer

#RAYC – 50 boats entered the Royal Alfred Yacht Club Niobe Trophy, run in conjunction with the last day of the Howth YC Spring Warmer series on Saturday 28th April.

The RAYC Niobe Trophy has long been a feature of the racing calendar in Howth. This year, in a change of format, the Niobe Trophy was sailed in conjunction with the last day of the Howth Yacht Club Spring Warmer Series. In this way, boats had an extra reason to compete on the closing day of the series.

Traditionally both the Niobe Trophy and the Spring Warmer series were events for one-design keel boats. This year they were also open to the Cruiser Classes.

The blustery north easterlies, with associated lumpy seas and cold rain, made for exciting conditions. All classes sailed two races. In keeping with objective of providing additional motivation for crews winning the Spring Warmer series winning boats did not guarantee victory in the Niobe Trophy.

At the prize-giving, RAYC Rear Commodore Joe Carton thanked the owners and crew for ensuring the success of this new formula, which will be repeated next year.

The Royal Alfred Yacht Club will be providing more racing for boats from Howth this year. The revived Royal Alfred Superleague will be open to boats from Howth, with a special welcome this year for the Puppeteers.

	Boat Name	Crew Details:
Class 1	Equinox	Ross McDonald
Class 2	Sunburn	Ian Byrne
Class 3	Starlet	Bourke/others
Etchells	Kootamundra Fetching	Dan O’Grady Stephen Quinn / Des O’Flaherty
SB3’s	Sharkbait Dinghy Supplies TBC	Ben Duncan / Moran Shane Murphy Ronan Downing
Puppeteers	Trick or Treat Harlequin	Alan Pearson Dave Clarke / Liam Egan
J24	James Encore Hard to Port Kilcullen Euro Car Parks	J.P. Caldin Flor O’Driscoll HYC Team 25
Squib	Kerfuffle	Jonathan Craig / Hazel Ruane

Published in Royal Alfred YC

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22nd May 2011

RS Elites Add Colour to Baily Bowl Weekend

Low pressure systems played havoc with the Royal Alfred YC Baily Bowl on Dublin Bay this weekend with visitors from Belfast Lough adding much needed colour writes our Dublin Bay Correspondent. The one design fixture struggled to attract big numbers in any of the four fleets sailing and the local Flying fifteen class opted out altogether.

The one design weekend is part of the 2011 Royal Alfred Season.

Race officers Brian Reddy and Barry MacNeany succeeded in completing three races on Saturday on both race courses but 50 knot gusts on a white Dublin Bay put paid to Sunday racing entirely.

Simon Brien from Cultra sailing Kin won the six boat Dragon fleet with two firsts and a second from Richard Goodbody and the Johnson Brothers Diva. Next week the class East coast championships will be held on the bay.

Peter Wallace's Toy for the Boys took the Squib class from local Frank Whelan in Lola.

Vincent Delany, a favourite for the Squib event, didn't show his usual form in third returning twice at starts and struggling up through the fleet.

Requests for redress from the race committee after recall signal misfire were denied according to the RAYC.

Peter and Marie Dee in Kookaburra after winning race two, lost third place overall to Delany after retiring from the final race.

In the six boat RS Elite fleet which decamped from the shores of Belfast Lough, Tiffany Brien crewed by Jay Bourke tied with John Patterson in Momentary Lapse on 7 points but lost on tie break. The Laser radial sailor still beat her uncle Mark in Full Marks!

Trevor Darcy and Simon Hutchinson from Carrrickfergus in Bullet won the SB3 fleet by a point from Colin Galavan's Defiant after the fleet retired from the final race as the wind touched force six.

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16th May 2011

Joker and White Mischief are Baily Bowl Winners on Dublin Bay

Joker was the winner of the Royal Alfred's J109 Baily Bowl prize and White Mischief was the Sigma 33 winner following a one day event on Dublin bay at the weekend. The regatta featured a merger of results with Dublin Bay Sailing Club.

There were two windward leeward races on Saturday morning staged for a fleet of seven J109s and six Sigma 33s. Results from Saturday afternoon's regular DBSC racing were then added to the score tally. The full results are: Sigma 33: 1. White Mischief (Tim Goodbody) 2. Rupert Dick Lovegrove 3. Alandra. (John Molloy) J109: 1. Joker (John Maybury) 2. Storm. (P. Dillon) 3. Jalapeno (Dermod Baker).

The second part of the Baily Bowl one design competition will be held next weekend for Dragons, Flying fifteens, Squibs and SB3s, although that sportsboat class says it has not had much local take up for the event to date.

Published in Royal Alfred YC

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17th August 2010

25 Entries for ISORA's M2 Buoy Race

25 sailing boats are entered for this Saturday's Dun Laoghaire – ODAS M2 Buoy – Dun Laoghaire race starting at 10 am. This is the eighth race of the ISORA series and it is organised in conjunction with the Royal Alfred Yacht Club. The start line will be located in Scotsman's Bay in the vicinity of DBSC 'Pier' mark between the mast of a committee boat flying the RAYC burgee and a start mark at the port end. An entry list and sailing instructions are attached.

Published in ISORA

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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.