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The National Yacht Club has teamed up with Wild West Sailing to run online ICC refresher and RYA day skipper navigation courses for its members.

It follows the success of the small boat coastal navigation course currently running for NYC members that’s been organised by Women on the Water.

The RYA day skipper navigation course (€400 pp for NYC members) runs on Zoom over five weeks on Thursday and Friday evenings from 6pm-9.30pm starting this coming Thursday 11 February.

Meanwhile, the ICC refresher course (€150 pp for NYC members) will run over four Wednesday evenings from 6pm-9.30pm from 17 February.

It will cover buoyage and pilotage; IRPCS (Col. Regs); chartwork, position fixing and tidal streams. There will also be a mock exam ahead of assessments that can be organised in Dun Laoghaire and Sligo.

Published in National YC
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The National Yacht Club has offered its congratulations to Dublin Bay Sailing Club on its recognition as Mitsubishi Motors Sailing Club of the Year for 2021.

As our own WM Nixon wrote last week, it marks only the second time that the unique Dublin organisation — primarily comprising members of the Dun Laoghaire waterfront clubs, the NYC included — has received the accolade.

“DBSC did a fantastic job in difficult circumstances in 2020 to get our members out sailing for most of the summer,” said National Yacht Club Commodore Martin McCarthy.

“The NYC is delighted that our member Ann Kirwan has taken on the role of Commodore of DBSC this year, with club stalwart Chris Moore being Hon Sec, and other NYC members also heavily involved on other fronts.

“Congratulations also to 2020 Commodore Jonathan Nicholson on his fine stewardship of the club.”

Published in DBSC
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The National Yacht Club has cancelled its previously scheduled January training sessions in the RS Aero due to the extended Level 5 coronavirus restrictions.

It's hoped the sessions will be rescheduled for future weeks as restrictions allow. The NYC website will have an update on details accordingly.

While this training cannot go ahead as planned, it nevertheless marks a recognition of the growth of the RS Aero class which now has 25 boats across Ireland, as recently reported on Afloat.ie.

Published in RS Aero
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Summer dinghy parking at the Royal St George Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire ended this past Sunday 11 October, and all dinghies were expected to be removed by that date to facilitate the club’s annual lift-out.

A limited number of storage slots are available for those signed up for winter training and/or the DMYC Frostbite racing series, and anyone who has not yet done so is invited to apply HERE.

Temporary space has also been secured in the Old Ferry Terminal until Friday 30 October for boats that do not yet have a winter parking slot. Please note that you will need to bring over your own boat and collect it on the assigned dates.

Optimists are currently exempt from these requirements, but storage space is available — with preference given to those actively sailing, who will get the bottom racks.

Meanwhile, the neighbouring National Yacht Club is now taking applications for dinghy platform parking over the winter.

Dinghies taking part in either the junior training sessions or the Frostbite series must complete this form prior to bringing their boats back on the platform.

Boaters must note that platform parking does not reopen before Saturday 31 October as the boathouse still has to lift many keelboats on trailers and position them on the platform following the main lift-out scheduled for Saturday 24 October.

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The National Yacht Club welcomes new general manager John O’Grady, who started this morning (Tuesday 29 September) and brings a wealth of experience in the hospitality sector, particularly with the neighbouring Royal Marine Hotel.

O’Grady joins at a crucial time, as Level 3 lockdown restrictions in Dublin put paid to so much hard work by the NYC staff in ensuring safe dining for members in the clubhouse.

The club says it is learning from its first week of Level 3 catering, with upgrades to the outdoor shelter and heating, and reconfiguring the balcony and outside the JB Room to make things more comfortable.

There is a rolling catering programme from noon to 7pm each day, and these hours may be extended if weather allows. Chef Cormac and his team are also offering a full takeaway service.

In the meantime, O’Grady and the clubhouse team have started planning for events for once Dublin emerges from Level 3 and following next month’s scheduled lift-out, with quiz nights, awards nights, speakers’ suppers, ladies’ lunches and more.

They may take on a different format, the NYC says, but with the adjustments everyone has made this year they can still bring members together.

Published in National YC
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Dun Laoghaire sailors are advised that lift-out day on the National Yacht Club platform is scheduled for Saturday 24 October, weather permitting.

Platform space for winter storage is limited and, for essential planning purposes, applications for keelboats should be returned prior to Monday 21 September.

Applications must include a cheque made payable to the National Yacht Club and come with confirmation of intention via email to [email protected]

Published in National YC
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The National Yacht Club hosts the Flying Fifteen East Coast Championship in Dublin Bay next weekend, Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 September.

The Notice of Race is available to read or download, and the online entry form can be found HERE.

Please note that due to the coronavirus pandemic, there is no race office for the event.

All competitors, skippers and crews, are invited to join the WhatsApp group dedicated to facilitate communications for this event.

The competitors’ briefing will be via Zoom (link emailed to competitors) on Saturday 19 September at 9am and all helms and crews are encouraged to download and unstall the Zoom app ahead of time.

Published in Flying Fifteen
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The National Yacht Club’s planned two-day race weekend for its own 150th anniversary has been scaled down to a single-day event now known as the Sesquicentennial Race Day.

The decision was reached earlier this week following the latest Government announcements concerning the coronavirus pandemic.

Now scheduled solely on Saturday 5 September, the event will be on-the-water only with no social events or catering on land other than regular offerings available to club members by prior booking.

The NYC website has further details of the reconfigured event and how to enter.

Elsewhere, Wicklow Sailing Club has offered its apologies to the catamarans that were expected to visit the club next weekend as due to the current restrictions, the club is not in a position to host visiting boats.

The East Coast club, which last month was forced to cancel this year’s edition of the Round Ireland Yacht Race, says it hopes to welcome the catamarans again in 2021.

Published in National YC

The Notice of Race and entry form are now available for next month’s Dun Laoghaire Regatta, celebrating the National Yacht Club’s 150th anniversary.

This special event, an initiative of all five Dun Laoghaire waterfront clubs, will take place over the weekend of 5-6 September and comprises the Rationel J80 National Championships and Shipman National Championships, as well as the respective Eastern Championships for the SB20 and 29er classes.

The Notice of Race is available to download below, and entry is online via the NYC website HERE.

It is with great reluctance that Irish Sailing have decided, along with hosts the National Yacht Club, to cancel the Women at the Helm regatta that had been set to take place later this month, writes Gail McAllister.

Despite the tremendous energy behind the event, the health and safety of sailors is our number one priority, and in the light of the ongoing Covid-19 situation and the complexities arising from this it became clear that the event could not go ahead.

Irish Sailing are extremely disappointed for yet another event to be lost to Covid this year, but now look forward to next year and the Women at the Helm in Royal Cork Yacht Club on the weekend of Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th September 2021.

On a personal note, I would like to thank everyone for their incredible support and enthusiasm for Women at the Helm as an event and the Take the Helm campaign to encourage more women to move into positions of leadership. The campaign goes beyond the race course and creates leaders on committees, instructor teams and management.

Published in ISA
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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

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

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

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.

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.

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

Up to 500 boats regularly compete.

Up to 70 different yacht clubs are represented.

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

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.

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.

 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

©Afloat 2020