Vintage boats of the Elan marque have been making themselves so comfortable at the front of Non-Spinnaker IRC1 of Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta that they had seemed to be taking an "After you" approach to the leading places, but this (Saturday) evening it is Johnnie Phillips' Elan 333 Playtime (National YC) which is clear ahead after a run of wins, and the full deck of Elans have been interrupted by Michael Murphy's Sigma 38 State O'Chassis (RIYC) sliding into second overall, with the Elans White Pearl (David Greene, Malahide YC) and Percy (John Roberts, Pwllheli) third and fourth.

IRC Non-Spin 2

Burke Murray's Sigma 33 Leeuwin from Howth firmed up her overall lead in Non-Spin 2 by being able to discard a third from today's scoreboard, and currently sits on 3 points to the 6 of Dun Laoghaire's UFO 31 Menapia (J Sweeney & P Madigan), and the 8 of Derek O'Reilly;s UFO 34 Kon Tiie from across the channel in Whitehaven. Leeuwin's crew enjoyed today - they won the final race by four minutes.

The arrival of more normal sailing conditions saw noted Hamble River visitor Ian Southworth with his Quarter Tonner Protis right in the groove, taking wins all the way on Saturday in IRC3 of Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta on Dublin Bay.

And it is now Classic Quarter Tonners all the way too in filling the frame, with Courtown's Martin Mahon second overall in Snoopy and Cove Sailing Club's Kieran Dorgan carrying the honours for Cork Harbour with third OA for Illegal, a Ceccareli creation originally from Italy.

Courtown's Snoopy, sailed by Martin Mahon is second overall in the IRC 3 division of Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta Photo: Michael Chester

In fact, in some ways, IRC3 is the most visitor-laden class of all - the top-placed Dublin Bay boat is Michal Matulka's Trapper 300 Eleint at tenth.

Michal Matulka's Trapper 300 Eleint from Dublin Bay Photo: Afloat

The 2023 regatta, the ninth edition of Ireland's largest sailing event, concludes on Sunday with two final races for most classes and a great festival of sailing across the waterfront and Dun Laoghaire town as four sailing clubs come together for the biennial event; Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club, Royal Irish Yacht Club, Royal St. George Yacht Club and National Yacht Club.

The quirky Classic Half Tonner Swuzzlebubble (James Dwyer, RCYC) may have found the ferocity of the winds in Friday's early races not quite to her taste, but with Olympian Andy Beadsworth on the mainsheet, she was flying today, winning everything that happened in IRC2 Division of Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta.

Stephen Quinn's J97 Lambay Rules Photo: Bob Bateman

Slightly down the fleet, however, there's a changed picture, as Howth's two J/97s, Stephen Quinn's Lambay Rules and Colin Kavanagh's Jeneral Lee, have moved themselves into second and third overall through consistency. However, it should be noted that Swuzzlebubble's wins have by no means been horizon jobs - she took the final race by just 45 seconds from Brendan Foley's First Class 8 Alligbr (RStGYC).

Brendan Foley's First Class 8 Allig8r (RStGYC) Photo: Afloat

The 2023 regatta, the ninth edition of Ireland's largest sailing event, concludes on Sunday with two final races for most classes and a great festival of sailing across the waterfront and Dun Laoghaire town as four sailing clubs come together for the biennial event; Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club, Royal Irish Yacht Club, Royal St. George Yacht Club and National Yacht Club.

We've sometimes thought that the Archambault 35 has more in her than has so far been revealed, but John Minnis and his team from RUYC headed by helm Gareth Flannigan now seem to have lifted Final Call II onto a completely new level in IRC 1 at Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta.

There, in her up-graded form, she is blithely seeing off the challenge of the cream of Ireland's J/109s and sundry other rockstar boats. A scoreline of 1,2,1,1 after five races with a third place discarded speaks for itself, though admittedly, the times were sometimes squeakily close - in today's final race, she bested John Maybury J/109 Joker II by just 11 seconds.

John Maybury's J/109 Joker II (left) and Mike & Richie Evans's J/99 Snapshot (HYC) in a tight duel in Friday's big breeze in IRC 1 at Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta Photo: Bob Bateman

Overall, the points are more decisive, as Final Call is on 5 to the 12 of the Goodbody family's J/109 White Mischief (RIYC) and the 13 of Mike & Richie Evans's J/99 Snapshot (HYC).

The Goodbody family's J/109 White Mischief Photo: Bob Bateman

The 2023 regatta, the ninth edition of Ireland's largest sailing event, concludes on Sunday with two final races for most classes and a great festival of sailing across the waterfront and Dun Laoghaire town as four sailing clubs come together for the biennial event; Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club, Royal Irish Yacht Club, Royal St. George Yacht Club and National Yacht Club.

It was Super Saturday on Dublin Bay for VDLR23 Day 3, with brisk but very manageable sailing conditions matched by a brisk throughput of three races by the Race Teams, setting up everything nicely on track for two intense races in the Grand Finale tomorrow (Sunday).

A southeast-to-south breeze at premium competition strength provided some notably close finishes, made even more so by the application of the handicap system of your choice, but for now we concentrate on IRC.

Pete Smyth's Sunfast 3600 Searcher Photo: Michael Chester

Class 0 has seen a real ding-dong developing between two very different boats, Paul O'Higgins JPK 10.80 Rockabill VI (RIYC) and Pete Smyth's Sunfast 3600 Searcher (NYC).

With one discard now in use, Rockabill is on 5 pts to the 7 of Searcher after winning the final race of the day from Searcher by 49 seconds.

Shaun Douglas's First 40.7 Game Changer Photo: Michael Chester

Also in the frame is that grand veteran from Belfast Lough, Shaun Douglas's First 40.7 Game Changer (RUYC), whose crew delighted themselves by winning Race 4 by twenty seconds from Rockabill, while Game Changer's newer sister, the First 40 Prima Forte (Patrick Burke, RIYC) is on equal points at 14, but is notched at fourth through the count-back.

The 2023 regatta, the ninth edition of Ireland's largest sailing event, concludes on Sunday with two final races for most classes and a great festival of sailing across the waterfront and Dun Laoghaire town as four sailing clubs come together for the biennial event; Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club, Royal Irish Yacht Club, Royal St. George Yacht Club and National Yacht Club.

Day 3 of the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta saw the Flying Fifteens return to the race management of David Wilkins and the South Bull course, which was pushed further northwards. The sunshine helped with the sense of the breeze which was still up. A 1-hour postponement had been signalled ashore, possibly because in the expectation of a major wind shift or maybe to allow the slightly softer breeze to come in.

The day saw three different race winners, with Lee Statham redeeming his swimming yesterday by taking the first race of the day with crew Andy Paul. Second home were regatta leaders Shane McCarthy and Alan Green, with Phil Lawton & Neil O'Hagan third. Fourth, again were Tom Galvin & Cormac Bradley.

In the second race of the day, an OCS was signalled and while boats went back, not all the transgressors did. Among those on the naughty step were Galvin and Statham. In the actual race the wind started changing about halfway up the second beat, swinging severely south and making the run into a glorious 3-sail reach. On the water the 1-2-3 was McCarthy, Statham and Galvin. However, the actual result saw Lawton elevated to second, with Niall Meagher & Nicki Mathews third.

The RO relocated his committee boat for the last race, which was sailed in a good south-easterly. A clean start saw the fleet off on a long beat. At the top mark the order was McCarthy, Meagher, Galvin, Lawton and Statham and we enjoyed a great run down to the gate.......which McCarthy sailed through en route to a finish, with Meagher and Lawton following. In between, Bradley confirmed to Galvin that the course was 2A, meaning 2 laps, and Statham/Paul shared that view by also dropping spinnaker.

It gave Galvin/Bradley a commanding win on the water, with Statham/Paul second, Lawton/O'Hagan third, Meagher fourth and McCarthy 5th.

McCarthy & Green still lead with Lawton & O'Hagan second and Statham & Paul and Galvin & Bradley tied on points!! All to play for!

After five races sailed in the Beneteau 211 class, Royal Irish's Andrew Bradley in Chinook leads the 11-boat class by two points going into Sunday's final races of the 2023 Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta. 

The Chinook crew have overtaken early leader Joe Smyth in Yikes, who sits in second place on seven points, and Pat Shannon in Beeswing is third on 13 points in a one-two-three-for the Royal Irish.

Racing was postponed for one hour on the penultimate day to allow strong winds to decrease, which proved correct as Dublin Bay yielded perfect summer sailing conditions in the afternoon.

The breeze was in a westerly quadrant at 15 knots, with strong gusts and significant wind shifts off the Dun Laoghaire shoreline to make for some exciting racing.

The 2023 regatta, the ninth edition of Ireland's largest sailing event, concludes on Sunday with two final races for most classes and a great festival of sailing across the waterfront and Dun Laoghaire town as four sailing clubs come together for the biennial event; Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club, Royal Irish Yacht Club, Royal St. George Yacht Club and National Yacht Club.

Anthony O'Leary's Antix crew from Royal Cork Yacht Club maintain their lead after five races sailed at the Cape 31 Irish Nationals at Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta.

Antix, who were the UK's top Corinthian Cape 31 crew at Royal Lymington in June, counted a win in race four followed by a third place this afternoon in the six-boat fleet that they are discarding to be two points clear going into Sunday's final races.

Howth's Dan O'Grady sailing Aja has been overtaken for second place by Mike Bartholomew's Tokoloshe who sits on eight points.

Racing was postponed for one hour on the penultimate day to allow strong winds to abate, a decision that proved correct as Dublin Bay yielded perfect summer sailing conditions in the afternoon.

The breeze was in a south-westerly direction at 15 knots, with some strong gusts and big wind shifts off the Blackrock shoreline to make for some exciting racing on the South Bull course.

The 2023 regatta, the ninth edition of Ireland's largest sailing event, concludes on Sunday with two final races for most classes and a great festival of sailing across the waterfront and Dun Laoghaire town as four sailing clubs come together for the biennial event; Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club, Royal Irish Yacht Club, Royal St. George Yacht Club and National Yacht Club.

Results are provisional and subject to protest.

With four wins from six races sailed, Josh Porter and Cara McDowell lead the Fireball class by six clear points into the final two races of the 2023 Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta on Sunday.

Second place in the 13-boat fleet is held by Sligo Yacht Club's Adrian Lee and Ossian Geraghty, who earned his first race win in Saturday afternoon's Race Five on the sheltered Salthill Course in the northwest Dublin Bay area.

Lying third is the DMYC's Frank Miller on 17 points.

Racing was postponed for one hour on the penultimate day to allow strong winds to abate, a decision that proved correct as Dublin Bay yielded perfect summer sailing conditions in the afternoon.

The breeze was south westerly at 15 knots, with some strong gusts and big wind shifts off the Blackrock shoreline to make for some exciting racing for the dinghy course.

Results are provisional and subject to protest.

The 2023 regatta, the ninth edition of Ireland's largest regatta, concludes on Sunday with two final races for most classes and a great festival of sailing across the waterfront and Dun Laoghaire town as four sailing clubs come together for the biennial event; Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club, Royal Irish Yacht Club, Royal St. George Yacht Club and National Yacht Club.

Some decidedly rugged racing yesterday (Friday), though with rapidly improving conditions, managed brilliantly to pull the wind-battered VDLR-23 back into line. But there’s no doubting the fact that it is all being achieved with weather that is a little bit too interesting for many folk.

We’re clamped in the malevolent maw of the North Atlantic Jetstream. It’s a remote enough high-altitude presence in itself, but when its distant effects are visiting themselves closely upon us in all-too-evident form, the Jetstream becomes extremely personal, often bringing a highly-humid air quality whose density will add to any existing wind pressure, and in any case the humidity saps the spirits.

If the main line of this extreme stream of perverse ultra-energy was well clear to the north or south of us - instead of snaking about more or less directly above - then the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta 2023 might have had hopes of a normal feel to the weather for the past couple of days, possibly even with a healthy infusion of Atlantic air.

JETSTREAM A SERIES OF WHIRLING DERVISHES

But not a bit of it, No sooner do we get ourselves out from under one Ireland-bound whirling dervish of remote yet very evident Jetstream than the next batch is on the way down the line from somewhere above Greenland, gathering itself up with renewed vigour for a closely-focused assault on the Emerald Isle. It’s such that it looks a though this morning (Saturday) will see us get another portion, before things settle back a bit once more.

All sorts of meteorological malevolence – the Jetstream targeting Ireland yesterday (Friday) morning Credit: Netweather

But be careful what you wish for. The next image is of seemingly idyllic Jetstream conditions for Ireland in June 2018. Certainly it was a time of apparent summer perfection. But there was damn all in the way of a decent and lasting sailing breeze. As we’ve all been saying in recent years in sudden recollection of Voltaire, the perfect is the enemy of the good. You have to expect a few flaws in a good day’s weather if you’re going to get any proper sailing at all.

One day in June….this seemingly idyllic Jetstream on a June day in 2018 certainly brought very summery weather, but with sea breezes slow to develop if at all, it was not a great day for sailing races.

“WE NEVER HAD WEATHER LIKE THIS WHEN THE CLUBS HELD THEIR OWN SEPARATE REGATTAS”

Yet a “few flaws” has definitely not been the case for the last couple of days, so we have to console ourselves with history when certain old salts assert that “we never had weather like this when the clubs held their own separate regattas”.

Admittedly with four separate weekends involved as of yore, there’d be a better chance of at last two or even three hitting the good sailing jackpot. But who on earth would reasonably expect a club on its own to provide the setup to cater for today’s 350 boats in 40 divisions for just one or perhaps two days of racing?

And with today and tomorrow (Saturday and Sunday) still in prospect as this is posted, with yesterday (Friday’s) full suite of results in addition to that one heroic Flying Fifteen result on Thursday with the win for Tom Galvin and Cormac Bradley, hope must be maintained.

Somebody should print them appropriate T-shirts…..Tom Galvin & Cormac Bradley’s win in Thursday’s only race – for the Flying Fifteens – was unique every which way. Photo: Afloat.ie/Bob Bateman

For there’s no doubt that being in the inner bay is being in a different world, and yesterday (Friday) afternoon, as conditions continued to settle, this image of Larne’s Curly Morris - Grandfather of the GP14 Class and racing his boat with Meg Tyrrell - makes it look easy, even when we remember that the helmsman has had several joints replaced to keep himself a smidgin ahead of the osteoarthritis.

It’s just a breeze! Ultra-veteran Curly Morris racing the GP14 in Friday afternoon’s improving conditions with Meg Tyrrell crewing. Photo: Afloat.ie/Bob Bateman

HISTORY LESSON ON ANCIENT NEED FOR HARBOUR

Meanwhile, if ever you needed a demonstration of why Dublin Bay needed an Asylum Harbour with such urgency in 1817 at what was then Dunleary, then recent days have been highly educational. Thanks to the topography of the Bay, any strong southerly will almost inevitably have a distinct touch of east in it as it comes round the mountains, and a full-blooded sou’easter with the strong Spring Tide ebb running against it in the afternoon – as it was on Thursday - is a case of the situation being much more than just the sum of its parts.

The entire setup has been a reminder of how much Dun Laoghaire Harbour and its key location in Dublin Bay was such a gift for the city’s many marine artists in the High Victorian era. With a bit of weather out in the bay, a short train journey on the new Kingstown railroad took our artists to an accessible sea and sailing scene which, when skillfully recorded, inspired awe and a sense of comfort-by-contrast when displayed in some well=appointed sitting room in the fashionable new suburbs and the Georgian townhouses on the city squares.

It may have been 1873’s Royal Irish Yacht Club Regatta, but this technically-perceptive racing scene painted by Richard Brydges Beechey reflects the conditions experienced on Thursday this week. Courtesy RIYC

The range of talent working this seam was remarkable, and while we were giving the nod to Matthew Kendrick last week, a call to remember the “Artist Admiral” Richard Brydges Beechey should be acknowledged this morning. His painting of the Royal Irish Yacht Club Regatta of 1873 could have emerged from Thursday’s sailing conditions, but for some tastes, as a painting it was just too rugged. Yet fortunately for delicate sensitivities, the Royal St George YC Regatta of the following year (1874) produced his very memorable recording of an in-harbour mark-rounding in wellnigh perfect regatta conditions.

Ever so genteel….rounding an in-harbour mark at the Royal St George YC Regatta of 1874 by Richard Brydges Beechey. Courtesy RStGYC.

EXCITEMENT OF IN-HARBOUR FINISHES

We’d a reminder of the extra sense of occasion provided by in-harbour finishes yesterday (Friday) when Frank Whelan’s canting-keel Elliott 57 Opal from Greystones swept through the Offshore Race’s finish line in Dun Laoghaire Harbour entrance to take line honours with a flourish, but we’re still a whole safety-conscious era away from times past, when spectacular finishes right at the clubs were expected.

Line honours winner - Frank Whelan’s canting-keel Elliott 57 Opal from Greystones at the Offshore Race’s finish line at Dun Laoghaire Harbour entrance Photo: Michael Chester

Back in 1867, the new super-schooner Egeria – owned by John Mulholland of Belfast – led the way in a sou’easter in a race into the harbour well-filled with large non-racing yachts at anchor, and hosting partying spectators. They’d anchored where they wished, with no thought of leaving a fairway for the finishing racers. But starting at full speed, Egeria could carry her way for ever, so her afterguard simply took the chance that they’d find a gap, and go for it. However, some of the spectating yachts and their attendant boats weren’t totally settled in location, there were slow manoeuvres taking place, and as Egeria swept through like a hot knife through butter, there were short sharp scrapes before she reached the line to take the gun.

“The wonderful Egeria”. In the 1860s, she set the gold standard for in-harbour finishes

Some boats thought to complain, but it was generally considered unsporting and was certainly unpopular, as this was to be considered the highlight of the regatta. Thus by the time the fleet sizes increased with smaller boats from the new Royal Alfred YC and Dublin Bay SC supposedly providing greater manoeuvrability. it was considered an integral part of the sport to be able to find your way through a maze of moored boats.

So by 1903, we have this image of the Viceroy’s Dublin Bay 25 Fodhla somehow getting the win after coming through gaps in a wall of anchored yachts, while additionally avoiding boats of the new-type Maimie Doyle-designed Water Wag also trying to finish a race. It remains to be seen if Con Murphy can come up with something similar on Sunday afternoon to finish Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta 2023 in traditional style.

The Dublin Bay 25 Fodhla wins the 1903 RStGYC Regatta after threading the eyes of several needles.

Read all of Afloat's coverage of the VDLR 2023 in one handy link here

Day Two (Friday, July 7) Photo Gallery of Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta by Michael Chester