Overall leader Tim and Richard Goodbody's J109 White Mischief from the Royal Irish Yacht Club was the winner of the Cruisers One IRC Race eight in DBSC's AIB Summer Series on Saturday.

The Saturday DBSC racing marked a return to club racing after a four-week gap for the Dun Laoghaire waterfront yacht club's regattas.

Light airs predominated on both the cruiser and one design courses.

Goodbody beat Colin Byrne's Xp33 Bob Exemple, also from the Royal Irish, with Thomas Shanahan's J109 Ruth from the National Yacht Club third in the six-boat fleet.

In a two-boat Cruisers Zero division, Patrick Burke's First 40 Prima Forte beat Paddy McSwiney's X-35 D-Tox in a one-and-a-half-hour race. 

There was Sigma 33 success for Royal St. George's Richard Lovegrove sailing Rupert who beat Ian Bowring's Sigma 33 Springer in a two-hour race. Third was James McCann's Mustang 30 Peridot.

See full DBSC individual and overall results in all classes below. Three live Dublin Bay webcams featuring some DBSC race course areas are here

Lindsay Casey's Royal St. George J97 Windjammer was the winner of last night's (Thursday, 7 July) light air eight boat AIB Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) Series in the Cruisers Two IRC division.

Southeast winds were light for race 11 of the series leading many competitors to count a 'Did Not Finish' DNF score as the wind died almost completely on the bay later into the evening.

Second in IRC Two was Conor Ronan's Corby 25 Ruthless with third place going to James McCann's Mustang.

In the big boat IRC Zero class, Jonathan Nicholson's Puma 42, El Pocko, beat Paul O'Higgins' JPK 10.80 Rockabill VI. Third was Patrick Burke's First 40 Prima Forte.

There were no finishers recorded in the eight-boat IRC One class.

In the DBSC one design fleets, Ger Dempsey's Venuesworld from the Royal Irish won from Charlotte O'Kelly's National Yacht Club Sneaky B. Third was Patrick McGrath's Smoke on the Water. The class has scrubbed its national championships scheduled for next week's Cork Week due to a 'number of late cancellations, some Covid related'.

See full DBSC individual and overall results in all classes below. 

Three live Dublin Bay webcams featuring some DBSC race course areas are here

Dun Laoghaire yacht racing official Rosemary Roy has been appointed as Honorary Secretary of Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC), Ireland's biggest yacht racing club, following the retirement of the outgoing Chris Moore. 

Moore retired as DBSC Honorary Secretary on Thursday, June 30th.

He served three terms as Rear Commodore, Vice Commodore, and Commodore, followed by a further three and a half years as Hon. Secretary.

Moore also previously served as Commodore of Bray Sailing Club and Commodore of the National Yacht Club and is regarded as a stalwart of the Dun Laoghaire sailing community.

He is the Irish Commissioner of the World Sailing Speed Record Council and authenticates all Irish record bids including high-profile Round Ireland speed attempts.

Chris Moore Photo: Afloat

In paying tribute, Club Commodore Ann Kirwan said, "I have worked closely with Chris since I joined the DBSC committee in December 2012 when Chris was elected as Vice Commodore. Chris' wealth of knowledge and experience has been invaluable to us at DBSC".

"Chris always manages to achieve a good balance between embracing progress and innovation while not losing sight of Dublin Bay Sailing Club traditions, which are an important part of our 138-year history, " she said.

"It was during Chris' tenure as Commodore that the Green Fleet was introduced, and it now forms a key part of our Saturday Racing Programme", Kirwan said.

In addition to steering the DBSC ship during his time as Commodore, Chris could be seen working in the bilges of MacLir and Freebird, as well as doing demanding physical work on the Marks and the Hut. He will continue to be involved in these elements of DBSC operations. 

"We wish Chris the best of luck with his future involvement with DBSC, hopefully with a less onerous workload," Kirwan said.

Rosemary Roy is the new Honorary Secretary of DBSC, joining the committee at its AGM in December 2021.

A key member of the DBSC Race Management Team for many years, she is the regular Timer on DBSC Red Fleet on Thursdays.

As well as her Race Management duties with DBSC, Roy is in much demand for running events outside Dublin and is part of next week's Cork Week Race Management team.

Rosemary Roy and her late husband Jack Roy were named Afloat Sailors of the Month in March 2020 for their combined contribution to sailing in Ireland and abroad.

"We know that Rosemary will do a great job as Honorary Secretary, and we look forward to working with her in that role", the DBSC Commodore added.

Read the full DBSC statement here

Wicklow Sailing Club's Michael Norman, who won the Great Grandmaster title at the ILCA 6 Irish Laser Master Championships on Dublin Bay on Sunday was still in winning form on the Bay last night, taking the gun in the DBSC's AIB Summer dinghy series Tuesday evening Laser Radial Race. 

Second was Alison Pigot of the National Yacht Club. Third was Royal St. George's, Hugh Cahill. Four competed. 

In the PY fleet, the National Yacht Club's Noel Butler sailing his RS Aero 'Orion' was on top again with another win in his RS Aero dinghy to bring his strike rate to eight wins from nine races sailed.

Full results in all DBSC classes are below. Three live Dublin Bay webcams featuring some DBSC race course areas are here

Given that the Heineken Cup, as it was then, has made an appearance in at least one of the Dun Laoghaire clubs at a major regatta in times past (a Volvo Regatta), it was hardly surprising that Saturday’s DBSC’s schedule of races was adjusted to accommodate those who wanted to watch the Leinster – La Rochelle game first-hand rather than rely on a delayed recording. For the 14 Flying Fifteens and others on the Green Course that meant we had a single race with a start area literally just outside the harbour mouth. Of course, this location was also impacted by the fact that the Dragons (12 boats) were having an East Coast Championship NE of the harbour and the ILCAs were having a Masters’ Championships to the West and all the other DBSC fleets were out. Even the DBSC dinghies sailed inside the harbour!

Green Course Race Officer Barry O’Neil set a long Windward -Leeward course, with weather mark offset, with 4 laps signalled but the prospect of a shortened course in his radio briefing to the fleet. In the better-than-expected easterly breeze which moved around a bit and under an ebbing tide, there was some excitement when Alan Balfe, crewed by his son, (3995) decided to upset what had, until then, been an orderly approach to the start. There was nothing improper about his manoeuvring other than the fact that it wasn’t what we were expecting. Post-race David Mulvin & Ronan Beirne (4068) were of the view that it didn’t help their cause whereas it opened an opportunity for Ben Mulligan & Cormac Bradley (4081) that Mulvin had endeavoured to cut off.

The gap created by these “shenanigans” allowed Mulligan and Bradley a clean break to go right initially, before working the left-hand side of the beat on port tack. Further to leeward of them on port tack were David Gorman & Michael Huang (4099), the aforementioned Mulvin & Beirne, Tom Murphy & Carel (4057) and Alistair Court & Conor O’Leary (3753).

With what appeared to be better breeze on the left-hand side of the course, Mulligan was able to go into the lead at the first rounding of the weather mark. Behind him were Gorman, Mulvin and Murphy, in close company. These four stayed on the right-hand side of the run and then put in late gybes to get round the leeward mark, by which time Mulligan had pulled out by a couple more boat-lengths.

On the second beat, Mulligan followed the recipe from the first, working the middle and left of the beat. The others had twigged to what he was cooking and while the gap didn’t close significantly initially, Gorman, Mulvin, Murphy and latterly, Jill Fleming & Margaret Casey (4028), made sure Mulligan & Bradley didn’t get too comfortable and by the end of the beat Gorman and Mulvin were just that bit closer for Mulligan’s comfort. For all three, the starboard tack run lasted longer before late gybes were again put in to get around the leeward mark.

A slight wind shift came into play as the fleet rounded the leeward mark and Gorman took best advantage to gain the weather slot relative to Mulligan. Mulvin peeled off immediately at the mark to go left but Mulligan and Gorman worked the right-hand side on port tack with Gorman pulling through Mulligan’s weather to go into the lead. As they got further up the course, they went right working the shifts, but Gorman didn’t relent and extended his lead into the weather mark for the third time. Mulvin, too had closed on the lead pair.

With spinnakers set, Gorman had 10 – 15 boat lengths on his chasers, while only a couple of boat lengths separated Mulvin and Mulligan with Mulvin to starboard of Mulligan and also to weather. For Mulligan the challenge was not to let Mulvin past as well. As they approached the leeward mark with a RIB flying an “F” flag and making sound signals – “Go straight to the Finish” - a potential fly in Mulligan’s ointment appeared – a Squib who didn’t quite grasp the significance of the F flag and sound signals. It left Mulligan having to go around the Squib, while Mulvin had the better choice of going to windward. Naturally, he seized the chance with both hands and closed on Mulligan – to within half a boat length. However, Mulvin’s attempts to pass to weather were thwarted each time and at the finish, there may have only been a boat length between the two red-spinnakered boats, in Mulligan’s favour.

DBSC; Saturday 28th May 2022. Flying Fifteens (14 boats)

1. David Gorman & Michael Huang 4099 
2. Ben Mulligan & Cormac Bradley 4081 
3. David Mulvin & Ronan Beirne 4068 3. Ben Mulligan & Cormac Bradley 18pts
4. Tom Murphy & Carel 4057 4. David Mulvin & Ronan Beirne 20pts
5. Jill Fleming & Margaret Casey 4028 5. Niall Coleman & crews 33pts.

Saturday Series Overall: 7 Races sailed/5 to count

1. David Gorman & Michael Huang 8pts
2. Neil Colin/Jill Fleming & Margaret Casey 15pts
3. Ben Mulligan & Cormac Bradley 18pts
4. David Mulvin & Ronan Beirne 20pts
5. Niall Coleman & crews 33pts.

Royal St George Yacht Club skipper Chris Power Smith, won the Cruiser 0 DBSC Saturday Series Race in IRC today on the J122 Aurelia. The race which was nearly three hours long was sailed in light to medium winds against a flooding tide on Dublin Bay. It was very competitive both on the water and on the clock.

Royal Irish boats filled the rest of the podium in the AIB sponsored series. Second place was taken by Patrick Burke on the First 40 Prima Forte with Keith and Rodney Martin's First 44.7 Lively Lady in third.

Tim Kane skippering the new Extreme 37 Wow, with co-owner George Sisk onboard and a 'Happy 60th Birthday Balloon' flying from the backstay, celebrated his birthday in style by winning line honours by just over a minute from Aurelia.

Power Smith was competing for the first time in six years in DBSC after a long absence since winning the Cruiser 1 Series for two years in a row in his former J/109 Rollercoaster.

As Afloat previously reported, the Aurelia crew are preparing for the 240-mile Inishtearaght Race from Kinsale around the Blasket Island taking place on the 20th of May. The only Dublin boat entered in the race, they see it as the perfect warm-up race for the SSE Renewables Round Ireland Race starting from Wicklow on the 18th of June.

In an 11 boat race in the 'Cruisers 1 IRC fleet, also under Race officer Barry MacNeaney, Timothy Goodbody's RIYC J109 White Mischief won from John Hall's National Yacht Club J109 Something Else. Third was Colin Byrne's XP33, Bon Exemple.

James McCann's Mustang 30 Peridot was the Cruisers 2 IRC winner in a four-boat turnout from Lindsay J. Casey's Royal St. George J/97 Windjammer. Third was Casey's clubmate, Dick Lovegrove, in the Sigma 33 Rupert.

A similarly sized class, Class 3 'Cruisers 3 IRC, was won by Frazer Meredith's Asterix ahead of Myles Kelly's Maranda. Third was Kevin Byrne's Starlet. 

In the one-design divisions under Race Officer Barry O'Neill, Lee Statham won in a 16 boat Flying Fifteen fleet. Second was John Lavery's Phoenix, with third place going to David Gorman in new boat number 4099. 

Flying Fifteens exiting the leeward mark in Saturday's DBSC race on Dublin Bay

In an eight boat Ruffian 23 fleet, David Meeke sailing Alias won from Michael Cultiffe's Ruffles. Third was Frank Bradley in Ripples.

Full results here

Patrick Burke's Prima Forte from the Royal Irish Yacht Club was the big boat winner by just over a minute on corrected time of the first Saturday AIB Dublin Bay Sailing Club 2022 Summer sailing season after the cancellation of the first scheduled race a week ago due to strong winds.

Saturday's light southerly winds were often less than five knots and in some of DBSC's 22 classes, not all boats finished the course. 

Burke's First 40.7 beat clubmate Tim Kane and George Sisk's WOW, an X-Treme 37 from South Africa that is new to the Bay this season. Third in the DBSC Cruiser IRC Zero class was Keith and Rodney Martin's Lively Lady, a First 44.7.

While there is an impressive ten DBSC Cruisers 0s entered for 2022, a full turnout has yet to occur as yesterday's 15-boat ISORA fixture drew several entries to the coastal race to County Wicklow and back. 

An impressive nine boat DBSC Cruisers One IRC class (from a possible 14 entered) was won by the XP33 Bon Exemple skippered by Colin Byrne of the RIYC ahead of Timothy Goodbody's J109 White Mischief of the RIYC. Third was John Hall's J109 Something Else from the National Yacht Club.

See full results in all classes here

Strong winds and big seas on Dublin Bay led to the cancellation of the first race of the summer season for all Dublin Bay Sailing Club fleets this afternoon.

"The weather forecast looks better for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and next Saturday", Commodore Ann Kirwan told Afloat as the country's biggest yacht racing club rolls out its AIB sponsored summer programme that runs from April to October.

Earlier, in a preview of the season, Commodore Kirwan had outlined that up to 270 boats at Dun Laoghaire Harbour were preparing to race in Saturday's first race. Check out the season preview here.

We are delighted to be commencing our AIB Dublin Bay Sailing Club 2022 Summer sailing season tomorrow Saturday, April 23rd writes DBSC Commodore Ann Kirwan

After the past two years, the start of our racing season has been delayed due to Covid so it is great to be starting on time this year.

Racing Programme

The DBSC Flag Officers, Committee, and Racing Sub-Committee have been working over the winter months on producing an enhanced racing programme which will run from April 23rd to October 1st and will include new Saturday courses. Our sailing sub-committee led by PRO Ed Totterdell spent the winter months redesigning some of our courses, as well as compiling new ones. Thanks to Tim Goodbody and Paul Barrington for their efforts working with Ed on this.

The DBSC Hut on the West Pier

Our AIB DBSC 2022 summer racing programme consists of 9 fleet races each week:

Saturdays – 4 fleet courses
• Blue or Red fleet racing from a committee boat (including Cruisers 0 and 1) on fixed mark courses
• Blue or Red fleet racing from the West Pier hut (including DB21s) on fixed mark courses
• Green fleet racing on laid mark windward / leeward or triangular courses
• Dinghies racing on laid mark courses

Tuesdays – 2 fleet courses
• Keelboats racing from the West Pier hut on fixed mark courses
• Dinghies racing from a committee boat on laid mark courses

Wednesdays – 1 fleet course
• Water Wags racing from a committee boat on windward / leeward courses

Thursdays – 2 fleet courses
• Blue fleet keelboats (the larger ones) racing from a committee boat on fixed mark courses
• Red fleet keelboats racing from a committee boat with a combination of fixed mark and windward/leeward courses

Preparations for the Season

The DBSC Hut was repaired and painted during the winter. Chris Moore coordinated the hut maintenance programme and its transfer to its position on the West Pier at 07.30 on April 9th assisted by Brendan Dalton and Denis Nolan. It will be used for both Tuesday and Saturday keelboat racing this season.

Cruisers Zero yachts at DBSC Battery Mark on Dublin Bay near Dalkey

Our marks are all in place and ready for tomorrow’s race thanks to Philip Ferguson who organises their winter storage, maintenance and chain replacement, painting, and their setting in position over the Easter period. Our ribs have returned from Rush where they were maintained and stored during the winter months organised by Declan Traynor. Our committee boats are ready to go and our team of volunteers are all set for racing tomorrow.

Entries

We have over 270 boats entered so far. We expect a lower number of dinghies this season as our Laser entries in particular are well down on the past two seasons. However, we have a growing fleet of RS Aeros (10 entered so far), along with 9 Fireballs, 5 IDRA 14s, 3 Finns, and 17 Lasers.

The DBSC Laser fleet Photo: Afloat

Some of our keelboat classes have increased entries on last year with some impressive new boats among them. We have 10 Cruisers 0 entered and 14 Cruisers 1.

DBSC's largest keelboat class is the Flying Fifteen Photo: Afloat

We have good entries from other cruiser classes, and the Flying Fifteens are our largest keelboat class with 28 boats entered.

The Water Wags are our largest fleet overall with 37 entries at present.

The DBSC RS Aero class has ten entries Photo: Afloat

Results

The DBSC results will move from its current system, YR3, to HalSail and we are delighted to announce that Therese Tyrrell is taking on the role of Results Secretary.

Dublin Bay 21s

Geraldine wll join Naneen, Estelle and Garavogue in June and the 4 DB21s will race from the hut on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Dublin Bay 21 - Garavogue Photo: Afloat

Congratulations to DBSC member Hal Sisk on receiving the International Classic Boater of the Year award at the Royal Thames Yacht club in London last week for his decades of service to classic craft and sailing history, and along with his colleagues DBSC member Fionan deBarra and Steve Morris of Kilrush Boatyard they were awarded for their exceptional work in their shared project, the restoration of the Dublin Bay 21 Class.

Dublin Bay 21 - Naneen Photo: Afloat

DBSC start / finish dates

First Saturday Race: Saturday, April 23rd
Last Tuesday Race: Tuesday, August 30th
Last Thursday Race: Thursday, August 25th
Last Wednesday Race: Wednesday, September 21st
Last Saturday Race: Saturday, October 1st

We wish all our members a safe and enjoyable sailing season and look forward to a great summer on the water.

The Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) Squib fleet had their annual prizegiving at the National Yacht Club on 25 February 2022.

The two-man keelboat fleet say they expect to increase the number of boats competing in Dublin Bay for 2022 by one or two above the number for 2021.

Prizewinners were as follows:

The Royal St. George Offshore Trophy was originally presented by Billy Mooney in 1963 to the winner of the Royal Ocean Racing Club Irish Sea race. Some time later the RORC declared that Wales was too close to Ireland and that the Irish Sea no longer qualified as an Ocean and that Offshore Ocean races could no longer take part there. The trophy is engraved with famous yacht names as Korsar, Tritch-Tratsch, Finndabar of Howth, Swuzzlebubble and Moonduster.

The trophy was represented to the Squibs in 2006 and is now awarded to the Squib which competes in the most regional events and was won by Dave Stewart and Brian Hare of the Royal Irish Yacht Club in Granat which competed in Howth at the East Coast Championship and at Dromineer in the Inland Championship.

Tonia McAllister from Pintail

The Lucky Wooden Block is awarded to anybody who has an unlucky incident during the year like falling overboard 50 yards from the finish line. It was awarded to Tonia McAllister who didn't fall overboard!

The Cocktail Shaker was presented by Alf Delany in 2006. He originally won this trophy in 1930 with a powerboat called Hold Everythin’ which was about 3m. long and had a 100 horse-power Johnson engine screwed onto the back. That event was organised by the North Dublin Motor Boat Club (which no longer exists) and racing took place between the Bull Island and the mainland at Dollymount. Today the trophy is awarded to the most successful Squib in the twenty-six Saturday races of the Dublin Bay Sailing Club- Green Fleet and was awarded to Noel Colclough and Rupert Westrup in Periquin.

Avril Mullett and Vincent Delany from Allsorts

The Eamon Leahy Memorial trophy was awarded to the most successful Squib in the seven Thursday evening races organised by Dublin Bay Sailing Club in Scotsman's Bay and was awarded to Allsorts which is owned by Avril Mullet and her dad Tony Mullet and steered by Vincent Delany.