Dublin Bay 9ers Season Opens With Eight-Race Series

27th April 2026

Afloat.ie Team

Full Send: A 49er FX crew powers up on Dublin Bay, trapezing hard in a building easterly seabreeze during the National YC 9ers opener, with spray flying in fast, flat-water conditions Credit: Alan Leddy

Dublin Bay delivered one of these April glorious sailing conditions with ideal sailing conditions. The Easterly seabreeze materialised on both days delivering simply the conditions skiffs are designed for allowing a full series of eight races to be completed over the two days.

The National YC hosted the first 9ers event of the year welcoming a fleet of 13 boats. Race officer Alexander Walsh and his team set up the course by Scotsman's bay on Saturday delivering action packed 5 races to the view of the East pier walkers. If the first race was a bit light, the seabreeze clocked right and matured to give fast paced racing in 12-15 kts for the remaining 4 races. Elysia OLeary and Chris Bateman sailing a 49er FX were the fastest off the starting blocks taking the first race win chased on PY by the 29ers of Juliet Ryan and Ella Rock just edging out Gemma Brady and Grace Keating. The increase of breeze suited James Dwyer and Thomas Chaix sailing an FX. They secured a strong series to take a narrow lead overnight over Elysia and Chris and the 29er of Juliet and Ella.

Three’s Company: A tight pack of 29ers race off Dun Laoghaire, sails glowing in the sun as crews duel for position in steady easterly breeze during the National YC 9ers season opener

If a glassy harbour welcomed the fleet in the morning, Our race officer call to posponne for an hour was on the button and the fleet launched just after 11.00am in a building seabreeze. This time the fleet turned left with the course moved to seapoint for the remaining 3 races. The breeze gradully built from 8-10 to 12-14 kts giving yet again ideal skiff sailing conditions. The FXs dominated the day on PY. Elysia and Chris had found the extra gear on their FX with a crazy fast low mode neither Lauren O Callghan/Charlotte Eadie and James/Thomas could match. The fourth FX made visible significant progress hanging on on the tail of top 3 more experienced teams. The 29er battle were tight and it went down to teh final race between Juliet/Ella and Gemma/Grace to decide the gold medal recipients. It eventually went to the George Girls Juliet and Ella. The two teams will be joined by NYC partnership Louise Hanley and Sebastien Wright to represent Ireland at the 29er worlds, the class having completed their selection process with the Easterns.

The 9ers concept is once more proving great with post sailing banter at the club, friendships, the return of ex-29er sailors enjoying the FX... The NYC launched the season in style with an amazing weekend of speed! Next stop next door at the RstGYC for the nationals mid June.

Results

29ers: https://www.sailwave.com/results/29ereasterns2026.htm

49ers: https://www.sailwave.com/results/49ereasterns2026.htm

Race Results

You may need to scroll vertically and horizontally within the box to view the full results

Published in 29er, National YC, Youth Sailing

Published in 29er

Tagged under

29er

About The Author

Afloat.ie Team

Email The Author

Afloat.ie is Ireland's dedicated marine journalism team.

Have you got a story for our reporters? Email us here.

We've got a favour to ask

More people are reading Afloat.ie than ever thanks to the power of the internet but we're in stormy seas because advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news sites, we haven't put up a paywall because we want to keep our marine journalism open.

Afloat.ie is Ireland's only full-time marine journalism team and it takes time, money and hard work to produce our content.

So you can see why we need to ask for your help.

If everyone chipped in, we can enhance our coverage and our future would be more secure. You can help us through a small donation. Thank you.

You might also want to read...

About the 29er Skiff Dinghy

The 29er is a one-design double-handed, single trapeze skiff for youth sailors.

There is an active class in Ireland, just one of the 38-countries from across all continents now racing the high-performance skiff.

The 29er is one of the latest dinghy classes to arrive in Ireland and has a 50/50 split between boys and girls.

The class like to describe the boat as "The most popular skiff for sailors who want to go fast!".

Derived from the Olympic class 49er class and designed by Julian Bethwaite the 29er was first produced in 1998.

Two sailors sail the 29er, one on trapeze.

The class is targeted at youth sailors aiming at sailing the larger 49er which is an Olympic class.

The 6.25-metre high rig features a fractional asymmetrical spinnaker; a self-tacking jib decreases the workload of the crew, making manoeuvres more efficient and freeing the crew to take the mainsheet upwind and on two-sail reaches.

The 15.00 m2 spinnaker rigging set-up challenges crews to be fit and coordinated, and manoeuvres in the boat require athleticism due to its lack of inherent stability and the high speed with which the fully battened mainsail and jib power up.

The 74kg weight hull is constructed of fibreglass-reinforced polyester in a foam sandwich layout.

The fully battened mainsail and jib are made from a transparent Mylar laminate with orange or red Dacron trimming, while the spinnaker is manufactured from ripstop Nylon.

The mast is in three parts - an aluminium bottom and middle section, with a polyester-fibreglass composite tip to increase mast bend and decrease both overall weights, and the capsizing moment a heavy mast tip can generate. Foils are aluminium or fibreglass.