There has been no Irish Championship for Droleen Dinghies since 2021. However, the 12-foot dinghies have had one annually since 2015.
On Saturday next, the Dublin Bay 12-foot dinghies will team up with the International 12-foot dinghies and the Bray Droleens for a combined Irish Championship at Bray Sailing Club.
The international 12-foot dinghies were the only dinghy class at the 1920 (Antwerp) and 1928 (Amsterdam) Olympic Games. They were omitted from the 1924 games because the French Olympic Federation wanted to use French-designed equipment. These 1913 George Cockshott-designed dinghies carry a single lug-rigged mainsail and can be sailed by one or two crew today.
The Dublin Bay 12-foot dinghies use the same hull but have a modified gunter rig and jib, with the mast located further aft than on the international rig. They are usually sailed by a crew of two.
The Bray Droleen Class is also a twelve-foot-long clinker dinghy with a crew of one or two, dating from 1896. It was probably designed by Greg Foley of Ringsend, but William Ogilvy of Bray was given credit.
This year, no Irish 12-foot dinghies attended the Vintage Yachting Games (the event for former Olympic classes) at La Baule, France, because such an exposed sea venue is unsuitable for small open dinghies. Instead, they competed at the Princenhoftocht organised by the Oostergo Sailing Club, Holland, with 24 boats competing.
This year in Bray, only Irish-based boats will be competing. The competitors to watch are Mark Delany from Lough ReeY.C. sailing the 100-year-old International 12 Foot 'Cora', Ian and Jenny Magowan from Tralee Bay S.C. in the 1944 built DBSC 12 Foot 'Sgadan' and Michael Weed from Donegal in his self-built 2019 Droleen.
