#rsgyc – As part of this weekend's Frank Keane BMW Royal St. George Yacht Club regatta, the club is staging a White Sails & Non-Spinnaker team challenge event.
The reasons behind the initiative is to encourage a sociable, time friendly, event with a mixture of competitive and fun sailing. As previously reported by Afloat.ie The emphasis, say organisers, is as much on the activities ashore as well as those on the water.
Dun Laoghaire could be described as the home of White sails racing in Ireland. Trevor Wood a member of the RSGYC and, then Beneteau Oceanis 411 owner, had in 2002, come up with the concept of regular fleet racing in Dublin Bay within the DBSC series. The idea was not just to provide racing for boats that could be more properly described as cruising or family boats than racers, but to enjoy meeting and eating in the Clubs afterwards.
The Dublin Bay White sails fleet rapidly grew into one of the strongest classes in the Bay with consistent Thursday evening turnouts of over twenty boats, though with numbers dropping off a little as thoughts turn to cruising. The White Sails fleet also makes up about a quarter of the DBSC Turkey Shoot and Spring Chicken fleets.
For Regattas and other open events the White sail Class races as a separate division within the Non-Spinnaker fleet, thus giving the, essentially cruising boats a chance to collect some silverware.
Over the years the Class has run a number of non-racing events, trips to Greystones etc. and this year approached the RSGYC to put into place a new event running over three days of very varied racing and socialising linked in with the Club Regatta. This event would be more than one for local boats but an opportunity to sail and enjoy the company of Non-Spinnaker sailors from elsewhere as well.
The Royal St. George YC took on the event with enthusiasm. It fits well within the active programme there of broadening sailing opportunities in Dun Laoghaire and has proposed running the Challenge alongside future Club regattas.
In order to make the challenge more fun and "different" it will be based on a club team basis with the best scores of the top three boats representing each Club counting towards the prize. Over the years inter-Club rivalry is expected to become more intense and with it, a strong growth of White sail and non-Spinnaker racing.
More details on the event from Howard Knott on +353 86 810 3025.