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Winkelmann and Smith Sailing 'Mademoiselle' are Water Wag Captain’s Prize Race Winners

30th August 2023
The start of the DBSC Water Wag Captain’s Prize Race at Dun Laoghaire Harbour
The start of the DBSC Water Wag Captain’s Prize Race at Dun Laoghaire Harbour Credit: Ann Kirwan

Adam Winkelmann and Doug Smith, sailing Water Wag No. 46 Mademoiselle, clinched a late win in the beat to the finish of Wednesday evening's DBSC Water Wag Captain’s Prize Race. 

Race Officer Tadgh Donnelly set a three-round windward/leeward course, and the 24-boat fleet got off to a clear start after a brief postponement, as the line needed to be reset following a 20-degree wind shift in Dun Laoghaire Harbour.

Royal St. George's Sean and Heather Craig, sailing No.52 Puffin, led from the start but were hotly pursued by Mademoiselle.

Sean and Heather Craig, sailing No.52 Puffin in close competition with winners Adam Winkelmann & Doug Smith sailing No. 46 Mademoiselle in tonight's DBSC Water Wag Captain’s Prize Race at Dun Laoghaire HarbourSean and Heather Craig, sailing No.52 Puffin in close competition with eventual winners Adam Winkelmann & Doug Smith sailing No. 46 Mademoiselle in tonight's DBSC Water Wag Captain’s Prize Race at Dun Laoghaire Harbour Photo: Brendan Briscoe

On the approach to the final gate, Mademoiselle pulled up level with Puffin and went for the port gate, so Puffin went for the starboard gate.

Mademoiselle crossed ahead of Puffin on the final short beat to get the gun in a very close finish.

Water Wag Class captain David Williams (left), winning helmsman Adam Winkelmann and Berna WilliamsWater Wag Class captain David Williams (left), winning helmsman Adam Winkelmann and Berna Williams Photo: Ann Kirwan

Results were:

1. No. 46 Mademoiselle Adam Winkelmann & Doug Smith
2. No. 52 Puffin Sean & Heather Craig
3. No. 15 Moosmie John O’Driscoll & Sarah Dwyer

Race Results

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

Published in DBSC, Water Wag
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Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) is one of Europe's biggest yacht racing clubs. It has almost sixteen hundred elected members. It presents more than 100 perpetual trophies each season some dating back to 1884. It provides weekly racing for upwards of 360 yachts, ranging from ocean-going forty footers to small dinghies for juniors.

Undaunted by austerity and encircling gloom, Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC), supported by an institutional memory of one hundred and twenty-nine years of racing and having survived two world wars, a civil war and not to mention the nineteen-thirties depression, it continues to present its racing programme year after year as a cherished Dublin sporting institution.

The DBSC formula that, over the years, has worked very well for Dun Laoghaire sailors. As ever DBSC start racing at the end of April and finish at the end of September. The current commodore is Eddie Totterdell of the National Yacht Club.

The character of racing remains broadly the same in recent times, with starts and finishes at Club's two committee boats, one of them DBSC's new flagship, the Freebird. The latter will also service dinghy racing on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Having more in the way of creature comfort than the John T. Biggs, it has enabled the dinghy sub-committee to attract a regular team to manage its races, very much as happened in the case of MacLir and more recently with the Spirit of the Irish. The expectation is that this will raise the quality of dinghy race management, which, operating as it did on a class quota system, had tended to suffer from a lack of continuity.