#hyc – Howth Yacht Club sailors were involved in August's US Grand Slam series which consists of four ISAF grade 2 match race regatta's held across the Mid West and East Coast of the United States during the month of August. The series included the Chicago Grand Slam sailed in TOM 28's , The Detroit Cup sailed in Ultimate 20's, The Knickerbocker Cup and the Oakcliff International meanwhile were sailed in the stunning "mini- America's Cup boats" the Swedish Match 40's on the waters of Long Island Sound, New York.

Based on a cumulative points system, the series annually attracts the world's leading match race teams – this year was no different with the reigning World Match Race Tour Champion Taylor Canfield and his US One team competing along with numerous other top ranked teams.

The series began in Chicago where both Shane Diviney and Scott Flanigan worked for the summer in the Chicago Match Race Centre and Chicago Yacht club respectively. Shane competed with former Optimist World Champion Chris Steele and his 36 Below team from New Zealand who are ranked 16th in the world.

Scott meanwhile called tactics and trimmed mainsail for the Californian based, Long Beach Match Racing (LBMR) team skippered by multiple Congressional Cup helm Dustin Durant. Sam O'Byrne joined the LBMR team for the finale as a very proficient trimmer at the Oakcliff International in Oyster Bay, New York.

Shane experienced the greatest success of the HYC contingent when the 36 Below team finished second overall in the Grand Slam series after a strong final regatta at the Oakcliff International losing out to series winner Pierre-Antoine Morvan of France in the final. Sam and Scott meanwhile also had some personal highs with LBMR beating Morvan's team along with top name Dave Perry in the Round Robin.

All four events were brilliantly organised and it was great to have Howth so well represented in the U.S this summer. Undoubtedly the experiences shared by this trio will provided the exuberance needed to reinvigorate the Irish match race circuit again, which could not have a better home than in Howth with the J80's.

#hyc – Almost 100 keelboats raced in Howth Yacht Club's idyllic conditions on Saturday for the second weekend of the MSL Park Motors Autumn League. Competitors enjoyed bright sunshine and the steady 10-13 knots of north-easterly wind enabled the two race management teams to challenge the nine participating classes with the finest selection of 'round-the–cans' courses.

The initial rolling swell on the racecourse was smoothened by the advancing flood tide and HYC Race Officers Derek Bothwell and Richard Kissane wasted no time in setting their planned 2-hour races for all classes, including some additional time on the water for the Class 3 participants.

Pat Kelly and his team on their J109 Storm have wasted no time in declaring their intent and suggested to the race organising team that there should be a good selection of X-Large MSL Park Motors Mercedes-Benz race winner jackets and shirts in stock for their confident and 'bulky' crew, this following their second race win in Class 1 IRC and ECHO. The conditions have been ideally suited to the half-tonners and J24s in Classes 2 & 3 respectively where the Evans brothers' The Big Picture and Brian McDowell's Scandal have dominated the top of the leaderboard, although HYC Past Commodore Anthony Gore Grimes' Dux is keeping the pressure on within Class 2.

On the start line in Class 4, HYC's Honorary Treasurer David Sargent in Indulgence counted on great boat speed to recover from being trapped On-Course-Side of the start line to win again on ECHO, while the IRC division is likely to become a hard-fought affair – with Stephen Harris and Frank Hughes' Tiger winning this weeks prize.

In Class 5, Kevin O'Byrne and his crew on Mary Ellen continue their recent event form with a win in the highly competitive ECHO division, while Emmet Dalton's Jebus was securing its second win on IRC.

The one-design keelboat classes settled into their racing after an initial general recall for the J80s. A race win in the ISA Sailfleet J80 class for Joe Phelan's team put them on a 3-way tie for the lead in a fleet that saw recently qualified 2016 Olympian Annalise Murphy join Alistair Kissane's team for this race.

Gold Dust and Cloud 9 emerged from the busiest start-line of the day winning the scratch and handicap honours in the Puppeteer class and both consolidating their positions at the top of those leaderboards.

Father and son duo of Fergus and Gus O'Kelly (14) won the Squib race for the second week and Marcus Lynch and John Curley's 116-year-old Rita took line honours in the ever-competitive Howth 17 class Scratch division, while Zaida won the handicap race prize.

While protest chairmen Neil Murphy and Ed Alcock were kept busy with their jury teams in the Protest Rooms, the fine weather afforded HYC's entertainment and catering teams to extend their afternoon offering of BBQ's and outdoor live music late into the evening. Event Chairman Feargal Kinsella explained that 'this helps consolidate the decision of our organising team to both raise the profile of the event in conjunction with sponsors MSL Park Motors Mercedes Benz and to provide the very best racing and social offering for our competitors and their guests.'

The series continues for another four weeks, finishing on Saturday 18th October.

Full results here

#hyc – The first race in Cruisers One of Howth Yacht Club's 2014 Autumn League was won by the local J/109, Storm skippered by Pat Kelly on Sunday. The six boat cruisers one fleet is part of a total entry of 97 in 17 different racing classes in a new format regatta sponsored by MSL Park Motors. 

Light winds gave race officers on both the Inshore and the offshore courses something to think about but all classes got a start and all competitors but Class 3 got a full race and finish. An extra race for the Class 3 fleet may be provided later in the series.

The results of the first day's racing are here.

#2kteamracing – Teams from Howth Yacht Club and the Royal Cork Yacht Club travelled to Porto Ercole, Tuscany for the Italian- Cala Galera leg of the 2014 2K team Racing Circuit, from the 5th to 7th of September. Both teams enjoyed high intensity racing, some very tight matches, exceptional racing conditions, and beautiful scenery.

The Royal Cork team, led by skippers Fred Cudmore and George Kinsgton won 6 of the 9 races in the round robin, over the first and second day of the event. They went into day 3 of the event in second place, and faced the highly experienced 2K racers, Yacht Club Costa Smerelda in the first to two wins semi final. Racing went down to the wire, but unfortunately YCCS won 2-1. The Rebel army won their petit final, against the British Team Magnum, finishing the regatta in 3rd place. YCCS stormed on to beat the Rome Racing Team in the final.

Howth Yacht Club, competing at their first 2K event, had a slow start getting in only two races of their round robin on Friday. With more breeze on day 2, skippers Simon Rattigan and Geoff Tait were more in the groove of the 2 v 2 racing and they went on to win 4 from 7 of their races. On day 3, the team had the best seats in the house to watch the gold fleet finals, from their luxurious changeover yacht. They then took part in the "king of the castle" silver fleet final, and finished the event in 9th place.

The Royal Cork were represented by: Fred Cudmore, Emma Geary, Philip O'Leary, Sarah O'Leary, George Kingston, Ian Mc Namee, Philip Mc Glade, and Eimear O'Leary.
Howth were represented by Simon Rattigan, Aoife English, Ross Mc Donald, Rachel O'Brien, Geoff Tait, Lisa Tait, Rob Kerley and Jess Armstrong.

Full event report and results are available here

#allirelandsailing – Royal Cork Sailor Anthony O'Leary is the 2014 ISA All Ireland Sailing Champion beating clubmate Stefan Hyde on count-back following a two day, 12 race battle against 15 other national class champions. The top five in the event were all Cork harbour sailors.

The Crosshaven sailor who brought home the Commodore's Cup to Ireland for a second time in August has competed in the Championship numerous times (including runner–up four times) but had never brought home the coveted Helmsman Trophy. 

Sunshine and a breeze of 10-12 knots again awaited the sailors today for the finale of the ISA All Ireland event hosted by Howth Yacht Club. First to take to the waters north of the harbour were the eight sailors competing in the repechage for the remaining two final spots.

Local sailor Conor Turvey and J24 Champion Flor O'Driscoll finished Race 1 at the top of the leader board. O'Driscoll went on to win Race 2, and the repechage, to qualify him for the Final but a penalty for Turvey cost him the remaining place. Ultimately it was consistency that paid off for Clontarf's Pat O'Neill. His 3, 3 earned him the eighth place in the Final.

O'Leary, who is also the 1720 national champion stormed into the lead in Race 1 of the Final and just could not be caught. He rounded each mark in pole position to take the win and push him to the top of the leader board. O'Leary was tailed by Pat O'Neill and RS200 sailor Alex Barry but fellow Corkonian Stefan Hyde's 4th was enough to keep him in 2nd place overall with defending champion Ben Duncan only a point behind in 3rd.

There was a significant shift in the leader board after the second race. Stefan Hyde, Anthony O'Leary and a third Cork sailor; Alex Barry were first to cross the line. This resulted in a Cork takeover of the top four places with overnight leader Ian Nagle rounding off the domination by moving up to 4th. Duncan pulled in his worst result of the championship and even the discard couldn't save him from dropping to 7th overall.

The penultimate race couldn't have been closer. All eight competitors were neck and neck throughout, jostling positions. In a shock result Stefan Hyde finished in last place but he discarded to hold on to the top spot. Alex Barry had his second consecutive bullet followed by Pat O'Neill who finished in 2nd place for the second time in three races. Now only 3.5 points separated the top four sailors in a Cork dominated fleet.

The wind dropped off to about 7 knots for the final deciding race. Again, it was so close that the positions changed frequently. At the first mark, Anthony O'Leary was at the back of the fleet but he then led around the second mark. Alex Barry, who had been 3rd around the first mark, dropped to the back of the fleet rounding the final mark. But O'Leary and his crew Dylan Gannon and Dan O'Grady could feel the win. They maintained their lead, crossed the line two places ahead of Stefan Hyde, tied them on points, and won on count-back in what was undoubtedly the closet fought All Irelands in many years. Hyde and his crew Jerry and Jimmy Dowling who were OCS in the final race ultimately took Silver and Alex Barry, Sandy Rimmington, Lisa Neary and Patrick Good claimed Bronze. 

Results

#allirelandsailing – Royal Cork sailors lead the way into tomorrow's All Ireland Sailing Championship final at Howth Yacht Club. RCYC's Ian Nagle and Stefan Hyde topped their respective flights after six preliminary races in near perfect 12–northerly winds. Full results from both flights are below.

Another Royal Cork helm, Commodore's Cup champion Anthony O'Leary, was first to get a win this morning, closely followed in Race 1 by defending champion Ben Duncan and Northern Irish Squib Champion Ross Vaughan. A technical problem with Ian Nagle's J80 keelboat meant he was unable to finish the race. His score would be awarded based on his average for the next two races - something that would later yield a dramatic change of the leader board.

Race two returned some interesting results with the initial top competitors all finishing back mid-fleet. Ben Duncan took the final bullet in Race 3 but a 1, 2 from Nagle gave him an average of 1.5 and total of 4.5 points to pip Duncan to the top spot. O'Leary, tied on points with Duncan but losing on count-back, earned the final guaranteed place in the Final. Ross Vaughan, Pat O'Neill, Flor O'Driscoll and Conor Turvey must now sail in the repechage in the hopes of progressing.

In Flight 2 former All Ireland Champion Stefan Hyde from Royal Cork stormed into the lead, winning the first two races. A 2nd in Race 3 gave him a total of 4 points putting him straight through to the Final in overall pole position. Chris Helme from the Royal St George and Alex Barry from Monkstown Bay Sailing Club finished 2nd and 3rd respectively. Joining the Flight 1 sailors in the repechage will be Richard Evans, Conor Phelan, Laurence Hanley and Guy Kilroy.

There are two races planned for the repechage tomorrow with racing scheduled to get underway at 10.15am. Only the top two teams will be given the opportunity to compete against the top six sailors in the Final. Flight results from today will carry forward to the four-race Final with a discard being applied after four races. Racing is under the direction of ISA President David Lovegrove.

Flight 1 Results

Flight 2 Results

#hyc – No sooner had Howth Yacht Club successfully staged a new double–handed fixture on the capital's waters this month than the north Dublin Club is back with a further announcement on a new format for the Howth Yacht Club Autumn league. Now opens for entries, MSL Park Motors Mercedes-Benz have announced a three-year sponsorship deal for the League that is celebrating its 35th anniversary in 2014.

With final date for entries of next Wednesday 10th September, entry-forms are arriving steadily with strong demand across all classes. Organisers are predicting a fleet of around 120 boats across in nine divisions starting on Saturday 13th September and ending on 18th October.

Although London 2012 Olympian Annalise Murphy was present for the announcement today (Tuesday 2nd September 2014) the Laser Radial sailor won't be competing in Howth as she will be on the road in her Mercedes Vito Mixto, en route to the ISAF Sailing World Championships in Santander where she hopes to qualify for Rio 2016.

Cruiser classes 1 to 3 will have racing under IRC and ECHO handicaps as will two white sails divisions competing on a separate course between Ireland's Eye and Lambay Island. Meanwhile, Puppeteer 22's, Squibs, Sailfleet J80's and the classic Howth Seventeen footers will have a separate course inshore closer to Howth. Racing begins at 1430 on each racing day.

"Our new three-year association with Howth Yacht Club is a perfect match between a world class sailing club and our North Dublin Mercedes-Benz dealership at MSL Park Motors," commented Brendan Grace, Managing Director at MSL Motor Group. "Sports sponsorship isn't new for us but sailing and Fingal's beautiful coastline makes this event an ideal fit for Mercedes Benz."

And in a new development for the long-running series, racing has been switched from Sunday mornings to Saturday afternoon. "We made the change as we recognise that while competitors enjoy the half-day competition format, they also want to socialise with the other crews and friends after racing ends so Saturday makes better sense," commented Brian Turvey, Commodore of Howth Yacht Club. "The new timing will boost racing and bring the crews ashore in time for a great social programme at the club."

#hyc – The new one-day Howth YC Double-Hander, with sponsorship from Aqua Restaurant and shaping its course round the islands and rocks of Fingal plus the Kish Lighthouse, struck a successful chord for its inauguration yesterday (Saturday August 23rd). Brainchild of Simon Knowles, who discovered his enthusiasm for double-handed challenges in last year's Dun Laoghaire-Dingle Race, it got off to a fine inauguration with 33 starters writes W M Nixon.

A fleet which had been comfortably on the 22 mark at mid-week surged on the day to these 33 boats, most of them from the host club, and ranging in size from Roy Dickson's Corby 25 Rosie and Vincent Gaffney's Laser 28 Alliance II up to craft like Stephen's Harris's First 40.7 Tiger and Stephen O'Flaherty's Spirit 54 Soufriere.

They were divided into Spinnaker and White Sail, with each division having both IRC and the Howth variant on the ECHO handicap. With the morning's crisp and sunny nor'west breeze forecast to fade as the day went on, and with a big tide hitting High Water an hour and a half after the 1000hrs start, it was reckoned the best option was north to Lambay and then southeast to the Kish, which would allow for the new flood in late afternoon to bring in stragglers to finish where they'd started, at the old HYC line on Howth's East Pier.

It was a reaching start, which seems to be the best option with double-handed events, and the non-spinnaker division first away saw Stephen Harris read it to perfection with Tiger. By the time they were shaping their course up the east side of Ireland's Eye the dark blue First 40.7 was well out on her own.

Things were closer in the more numerous spinnaker division, with David Kelly in the J109 Storm, Ross McDonald in the X332 Equinox, Jonny Swann in the classic Humphreys Half Tonner Harmony, and Ian Dickson in Rosie hitting the line together at the front of the fleet, with Equinox getting the best of it to be first around the turning mark.

A reaching start is the preferred option for Double-Handed events. In the spinnaker division, Storm, Equinox, Alliance II and Rosie have the best of it. Photo: W M Nixon

Stately and conservative perhaps, Soufriere plays it safe at the start, but very soon was milling her way past the fleet. Photo: W M Nixon

However, the queen of the fleet Soufriere was not only looking very well in the morning sunshine, but after an understandably conservative start, Stephen O'Flaherty and David Cagney wound the big girl up, and in conditions made for her, she marched through the fleet on the long leg to Lambay, and then consolidated her lead on the even longer run down to the Kish in the sluicing ebb.

But the zing was going out of the wind, and by the time the tailenders got to the Kish it had evaporated altogether - some reported being becalmed for nearly an hour before a faint new breeze began to make in from the east. Soufriere meanwhile was still on the pace closing in towards the Nose of Howth, her crew working so hard you couldn't help but think that it would be more fair if boats in these short-handed events were allowed to carry a percentage of their racing crew – something like 33% would be more equitable - instead of everyone racing with just two regardless of boat size.

Nearly there.....Soufriere gets close to the finish in the very last of the original breeze. Photo: W M Nixon

With the last of the ebb still against her, Soufriere has stopped very near the line, even though the two Howth 17s are still finding breeze close in to Ireland's Eye. Photo: W M Nixon

Be that as it may, Soufriere nearly made it, but the wind gasped its last within less than half a mile of the finish. Eventually, she got across in a little local zephyr from the southwest at 15.10.02, which was good going for the day that was now in it, and it looked better and better as the boats still at sea weren't getting anywhere much.

However, the new easterly sharpened just that tiny bit, and the Swann/Freyne team on Harmony were perfectly placed to take full advantage of it, heading steadily for the finish under spinnaker ahead of some much larger boats, and with the other classic Half Tonner, Dave Cullen's King One, somewhat out of it fifteen minutes astern.

Trickling in to the finish with the new easterly breeze are Colm Bermingham's Bite the Bullet. David Kelly's Storm tacking to lee northward, and Stephen Harris's Tiger leading the non-spinnaker class. Photo: W M Nixon

Dave Cullen's classic Half Tonner King One is going well in the easterly nearing the line, but Harmony is already finished. Photo: W M Nixon

Harmony was in just before 4.0pm, correcting to five minutes ahead of Soufriere which nevertheless stayed in second three minutes ahead of Equinox, with Demot Skehan's MG34 Tough Nut taking fourth ahead of King One in fifth.

In the non-spinnaker class, Tiger had sailed a wellnigh faultless race, but the chips just didn't fall her way, and though she took line honours, across both handicap system the most consistent performer was Jennie O'Leary with the First 33.7 Tantrum 3, as she won under IRC and was second in the Howth/ECHO division, where Joe Carton, sailing with Mossy Shanahan in the Dehler 34 Voyager, took the honours and they also took third in IRC, the other boat in the top three in the non-spinnaker division being the McAllisters from Malahide with Force Five.

The buzz throughout this new Howth event makes a repeat next year highly likely. Indeed, the third Saturday of August 2015 is already being suggested as the logical day, as the timing of this year's event seemed to hit the spot both for regular crews, and for former shipmates to getting together to give it their best shot for a very manageable one-day reunion challenge.

Meanwhile there's no doubt but it was the weekend for women sailors at Howth. Jennie O'Leary was setting the pace in the Aqua Double-Hander, at the same time HYC were hosting the Shipman 28 Nationals and the winner was Gusto sailed by Christine Heath of Royal St George YC, and the venerable Howth 17s were also having their annual Ladies Race, where the winner was Rachel Cronin sailing Deilginis. Ironically, Rachel and her husband Paddy have just sold their own Howth 17 Gladys after many years of ownership in which they won dozens of prizes but never the Ladies Race, but Rachel has done it now, helming for the lads in Deilginis.

#hyc – Top performing Cork Quarter tonner, Dom Losty's 'Illes Pitiuses' has won the seven boat Irish Quarter Ton Championships at Howth Yacht Club. High winds in Howth yesterday meant that the final day's racing in the Euro Car Parks East Coast Championships and Quarter Ton Cup was cancelled and the positions after Saturday's exciting 3 races stood as final results.

This well attended event offered the many competitors and visitors from all around the country excellent and highly competitive racing.

The Class 3 racing was dominated by the J24s including 'J Guevara', 'Scandal' and IRC and ECHO winner 'Hard on Port' skippered by Flor O'Driscoll.

Howth's Anthony Gore Grimes and his crew on 'Dux' beat Paddy Kyne's 'Maximus' by just one point in Class 2 but 'Maximus' won the ECHO prize.

The Team Trophy was won by the Class 3 entries: Hard on Port, Tiger Nathan Kirwan Trust and Anchor Challenge. 

At the prize giving, event organiser Eddie Bourke thanked the race management team for their skill in managing Saturday's racing, as well as Euro Car Parks for their generous sponsorship and remarked on the terrific number of entries in what was a very successful event for the Class 2, Class 3 and Quarter Ton boats.

Full results here.

#malahide – Malahide Yacht Club's annual cruiser regatta, sponsored by SPAR, attracted 24 boats in three classes who sailed two back-to-back races on courses set by PRO Neil Murphy in light southerly to south-easterly breezes.

Class 2 and 3 did windward-leeward courses while the White Sail class completed Olympic triangle courses and the day saw visiting Howth boats top the table in each class on both handicaps.

Class 2 was headed by Impetuous (Noonan & Chambers) from Sunburn (Ian Byrne) in 2nd and MYC's XtraTime (Michael & Paul Arthurs) 3rd.

Vincent Gaffney's Alliance II had two race wins to take the Class 3 honours, ahead of Blue Jay (MYC Youth Team) on ECHO and Scandal (Brian McDowell) on IRC. Scandal was 3rd on ECHO and Goyave (Russell Camier) was 3rd on IRC.

The White Sails division saw a comfortable overall win by David Sargent's Indulgence ahead of Toughnut (Simon Revill) and Spellbound (Graham Burrows).