Displaying items by tag: Matt Davis

22nd October 2010

Funding Remains Big Issue for Irish VOR Bid

After a struggle to complete the course both financially and on the water in the last Volvo Ocean Race two years ago, Green Dragon is to set sail again if the money can be found to fund a campaign. In this morning's Irish Times David Branigan indicates a potential skipper, Matt Humphries, has been advising the Galway based team but the real problem, as it always has been for the Irish boat, is finding the funding (ten million) to start the race in Spain next year. Full article HERE.

Published in Ocean Race

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Matt Davis and Raging Bull are 2010 ISORA Champions

Race 10 – Pwllheli to Howth – James Eadie Sailing Race 11th September 2010. From an entry list of 31 boats, 13 boats came to the line in Pwllheli for the last race in the 2010 ISORA Offshore series writes Peter Ryan. It was the James Eadie Trophy race. While in the past this race was one of the most popular, the bad weather on Thursday night and Friday put off many boats from delivering to Pwllheli. Those boats that braved the weather were reward with another great race. The race was started by Richard Tudor of Pwllheli sailing Club.

Due to the extraordinary strong spring tides it was decided to omit Bardsey Sound from the course and to take Bardsey Island to starboard. From there the course was direct to Howth – 75 miles. The start was at 09.00.

The forecast for the race was for south-west winds 10-15 knots to veer west then continue and increase north west. The forecast was correct at the start with a beat to Bardsey and the wind increasing to 20 knots. The strong tides produced some spectacular overfalls at Bardsey Island. First around Bardsey was "Tsunami", Vincent Farrell followed closely by "Raging Bull", Matt Davis and "Team Windmill", Andrew Sarratt. The overfalls appeared to take toll on the fleet with the remainder of the fleet having difficulty in rounding Bardsey. This caused a split in the fleet with the first three boats taking advantage of the last of the north going tide.

The course to Howth first seemed like a simple reach but this changed regularly and often with the wind oscillating and fluctuating continuously. The front-runners appeared to escape the holes that formed and held the bulk of the fleet back. What started as a reach ended in a beat into Howth into a 20 knot north westerly.

The first into Howth was "Tsunami", crossing the line at 23:19 followed closely by "Raging Bull" at 23:27 and "Team Windmill" at 23:54. "Lula Belle", Liam Coyne and "Dinah" Barry Hurley were separated by only 2 seconds on the line at 00:51. Four boats crossed the finish around 01:40 while the last boat "Sarnia", Michael Creeedon, crossed the line at 08.35. John Doran of Howth Yacht Club stood the long watch and recorded the boats finishing.

"Raging Bull" took 1st in Class 1 and Overall while "Tsunami" took 2nd in Class 1 and Overall and "Team Windmill" took 3rd Class 1 and Overall. "Just Enough" took 1st Class 2 with "Dinah" taking 2nd Class 2 and "Lula Belle" taking 3rd Class 2.

The Overall ISORA Champion of 2010 is Matt Davis and "Raging Bull" from Skerries Sailing Club. "Just Enough", Stephen Tudor from Pwllheli Sailing Club took 2nd place while "Tsunami", Vincent Farrell from the National Yacht Club took 3rd. The prize giving dinner will be in the National Yacht Club on the 6th November.

Published in ISORA

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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 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.

About the ILCA/Laser Dinghy

The ILCA, formerly known as the Laser, is the most produced boat in the world, with 220,000 units built since 1971.

It's easy to see why the single-handed dinghy has won the title of the most widely distributed boat of all time.

The Laser is a one-design dinghy, the hulls being identical but three rigs that can be used according to the size and weight of the sailor.

The class is international, with sailors from 120 countries. The boat has also been an Olympic class since 1996, being both the men's and women's singlehanded dinghy.

Three rigs are recognised by the International Laser Class Association (ILCA):

ILCA 4: sail of 4.70m2

ILCA 6: sail of 5.76 m2

ILCA 7: sail of 7.06 m2