#hyc – Howth Yacht Club's new Commodore is Breda Dillon, the first female Commodore in the 117 year history of the North Dublin Club.

Breda has been an active committee member and Flag Officer of the club for many years.

Club members attended their AGM in Howth last night in big numbers to vote for their incoming committee as well as a review of subscription levels which were radically adjusted to allow for the difficult times that all clubs are facing.

The annual subscription for categories of Ordinary (€720), Cadet (€125) and Family Membership (€1000) have all been significantly reduced while the club intends to further reduce the main Ordinary Membership subscription level to circa €500 over the coming years.

Incoming Vice Commodore Brian Turvey explained "Our aim is to increase value for all members by adjusting fees to affordable levels whilst continuing to provide the high quality and intensive level of activities and excellent facilities that is synonymous with our club. Our new phased subscription levels allows Cadet members 'step up' into full Ordinary membership more easily than ever before." At last nights AGM, Commodore Breda Dillon thanked the members for supporting the radical steps, particularly the Senior members whose fees will increase in by €90 per annum from next year. Howth Yacht Club's sailing schedule for 2013 will include the use of the ISA's Sailfleet J80s for events sich as the Keelboat Team Racing Nationals and the ISA Senior Helmsman's Championships. The eight boats will also be used by younger club members for club racing and training.

HYC's major event in 2013 will be the BMW J24 World Championships to be held in Howth in August.

#HYC - Howth Yacht Club's Sailing Committee has secured the Irish Sailing Association's Sailfleet J80 keelboats for Howth for the entirety of the 2013 sailing season, according to the club's website.

The eight boats in the J80 fleet will available to club members throughout the year and will be used for keelboat club racing and for open events as a one-design class including the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta, the Lambay Race and the Autumn League.

The fleet will also be incorporated within the club's Adult Sail Training programme and used to introduce young sailors to keelboat sailing.

Other events to feature the J80s will be the 2013 ISA National Senior Helmsmans Championships, the HYC Helmsmans Championships and the HYC Family Championships.

Details regarding the schedule and arrangements for members to borrow the J80s will be posted early in the new year. In addition, there are opportunities for corporate sponsorship of each of the boats for the year. Interested parties are asked to contact the Honorary Sailing Secretary.

Meanwhile, Howth YC has also posted its full timetable for next year's summer courses.

All courses are of 10 days' duration and run Monday to Friday 9.30am–5pm (with the exception of Taste of Sailing, Teen Dinghy, Kites & Wires 2 and Keelboat Sailing, which are all one week only). The dates are as follows:

Taste of Sailing Course: 1/8/15 July & 5 August

Start Sailing Course: 3 June, 1/8/15 July & 5 August

Basic Skills Course: 17 June, 1/8/15/22/29 July & 5 August

Improver Skills Course: 1/22 July & 5 August

Advanced Boat Handling Course: 1/22 July & 5 August

Kites & Wires 1 Course: 15 July (two-week duration)

Kites & Wires 2 Course: 29 July (one-week duration)

Teen Dinghy Sailing Course: 22/29 July (one week duration)

Keelboat Sailing Course: 3/10/17/24 June, 1/8/15 July & 5/12 August

Information on all courses and recommended pathway is available at www.hyc.ie/dinghies and queries may be directed to [email protected].

#HYC - The K25 team at Howth Yacht Club is planning for 2013, including the considerable challenge of competing in the BMW J/24 World Championships next August.

If you are interested in applying for the youth keelboat team, please attend the open evening on Tuesday 27 November at 8pm in Howth Yacht Club.

Candidates need to be under 25 on 30 August 2013 and become a cadet member of HYC for the 2013 season. Applications received on the night will be given a free drink from the bar.

See the HYC website for more details.

#hyc – The Beshoff Motors/Bloody Stream jointly-sponsored Autumn League finished in pleasant conditions for the hundreds of sailors contesting the final race in the six-race series.

The finishing order in Class 1 on both handicaps produced the exact same results in the overall standings, with Pat Kelly's Storm heading the pack ahead of Ross McDonald's Equinox on IRC and Flashback (Hogg/Breen) taking the ECHO honours from Storm.

Third place on IRC behind race winner King One (Dave Cullen) and second-placed Sunburn (ian Byrne) was enough to see Anthony Gore-Grimes' Dux head Class 2 overall ahead of Cullen and crew while on ECHO, Malahide visitor Bushwakka (O'Shea/O'Brien) maintained their consistency, winning the last race by a large margin to take the spoils ahead of Maximus (Paddy Kyne).

Starlet and Holly dominated Class 3 on both handicaps on the last day but it wasn't enough to stop Vincent Gaffney's Alliance II from winning overall on IRC, although Starlet had the consolation of winning overall on ECHO from two Malahide boats Tobago and Goyave.

In the White Sails Class 4, Colm Bermingham's Bite the Bullet beat Tiger (Hughes/Harris) in the sixth race and that gave them a one point advantage in the overall IRC standings. Another second on ECHO (behind White Lotus) though was all Tiger needed to win overall on ECHO.

The McAllister's Force Five had a good day winning the last race impressively on both handicaps but it was Harry Byrne's Alphida which headed the rankings on IRC from Demelza (Ennis/Lauden), while on ECHO it was Andy Knowles' Sandpiper on top overall by five points from Jokers Wild (Gordon Knaggs).

Michael Evans took the honours in the Etchells overall in Valkyrie, with three points to spare over Simon Knowles' Jabberwocky who took line honours in the last race. In the J/24s, Mossy Shanahan and his crew on Crazy Horse went into the last race in the overall lead and winning the final race from Scandal (Davidson/McDowell) confirmed his supremacy over Flor O'Driscoll's Hard on Port.

No Strings (Terry Harvey), Eclipse (A&R Hegarty) and Yellow Peril (Murphy/Costello) filled the first three places on both scratch and handicap in the Puppeteers but only Yellow Peril featured in the overall rankings on scratch, just a point adrift of series winner Harlequin (Clarke/Egan). On handicap, it was Mayfly (Guinan/Browne) who took the overall honours by four points from Odyssey (Byrne/Stanley).

The Squibs on the final day was a match race berween winner Too Dee (Dave Sheahan) and Shadowfax (Phil Merry) but that didn' prevent Fantome (R.MacDonnell) from winning the series by three points from Sheahan.

In the Howth 17s, Ian Malcolm enjoyed winning the last race from Pauline (O'Doherty/Ryan) but it was the latter which enjoyed the overall success, winning by the narrowest of margins from the Turvey's Isobel and Peter Courtney's Oona. On handicap, Eileen (Finucane/O'Byrne) headed the fleet overall from Sheila (M.Flaherty)

#lasersailing – With news that Finn Lynch has added a European youth title to his ISAF Youth Silver medal Irish Laser sailing is on a high with international results coming at Olympic and youth level and for the domestic scene it looks like Howth's venerable winter league is returning to some sizeable fleet numbers as the Laser emerges as the ideal recession beating boat.

Lynch is the current U17 European Champion in the Laser Radial following a great regatta in Nieuwpoort, Belgium. It ends a fantastic season for the National Yacht Club sailor.

The superb result was followed when clubmate Philip Doran won the Europa Cup Regatta U19 category on Lake Balaton in Hungary earlier in September. Doran was second overall in the international event finishing on equal points with the winner.

Howth Laser Frostbite

Among a number of top dinghy sailors are moving to the Laser dinghy next month for the Howth Yacht Club's Laser Frostbites starting on November 4th.

The low maintenance single hander is proving to be a great recession boat and making a comeback at club level on both sides of Dublin Bay with DBSC's own handicap fleet dominated by the Olympic boat.

Up to 50 Lasers are expected for the frostbite series at Howth in a few weeks time. There's a handy format of two short races each Sunday with a first gun at 10:45 am.

There's a wide range of standards entering from high ranked national level sailors to beginners. The club is reporting strong interest to the extent

it may yet end up at 1990 levels where the long running series attracted up to 80, making it the biggest laser club racing series in the world at the time.

Laser Radial Programme

With an emphasis on preparation for overseas competition a Munster and Leinster Laser Radial Academy squad has been announced along with training dates for Autumn 2012 starting this weekend. The full squads named are below.

MUNSTER

Mark Hassett

Darragh O'Sullivan

Daire Cournane

Dara O'Shea

Tadhg O'Loingsigh

Darragh McCormack

Sorcha Ni Shuilleabhain

Darragh O'Sullivan

Conor Murphy

Dermot Lyden

Aisling Keller

Ross O'Sullivan

LEINSTER

Dan O'Beirne

Rory McStay

Kevin Harrington

Cian Cahill

Patrick Cahill

Luke Murphy

Aoife Hopkins

Stephen Craig

Frank Devlin

Ronan Jones

#hyc – Dun Laoghaire RS200 Champion Sean Craig is among a number of top dinghy sailors moving to the Laser dinghy next month for the Howth Yacht Club's Frostbites starting on November 4th.

The format consists of two short races every Sunday morning with a first gun at 10:45.

Previous top performers Darragh Sherdian and Joe Cull are among the early entries.

The 2011/2012 series was one of the most successful ever with almost 50 boats and a very wide range of standards from high ranked national level sailors to beginners and those new to the laser. Organiser David Quinn says all are welcome and this year Howth Yacht Club will have a special mentoring / team event where the top sailors will mentor.

The Notice of Race and Online Entry now available on the Howth Yacht Club website here.

#hyc – In a break from the high winds that have prevailed so far for Howth's 2012 Autumn league today unusually light and variable conditions in the race area north of Howth allowed the cruiser classes a short but tricky race while the lack of wind inshore for the one-design keelboats conspired against race officer Richard Kissane and his team, leaving them with no option but to abandon racing for the day.

Pat Kelly and team on the J109 'Storm' continue to dominate Class 1 in the IRC division - the competition in this class appears to be for second place, with 'Flashback' now in contention after a second place this weekend, while consolidating their position at the top of the ECHO division.

Dave Cullen's widely campaigned half-tonner 'King One' found form in Class 2 this week, by winning on IRC and placing the boat in contention for overall honours with division leader 'Maximus' and second placed 'Dux'. Maximus will discard their 5th place result today in ECHO, affording them a close lead of 3 points from next best placed 'Bushwakka'.

Team 'Toy Yot' revelled in the light winds to post a victory in Class 3 IRC, three minutes ahead of Kevin Darmody's 'Gecko', but well behind Vince Gaffney and team on 'Alliance II' in the overall standings. 'Alliance II' remain on a 'perfect score' of 3 points following this weeks discard. After today's win in Class 3 ECHO, 'Starlet' now lead 'Goyave' by 3 points at the top of that division.

A win in Class 4 IRC puts Colm Bermingham's 'Bite the Bullet' in equal first place with Philip Dilworth's Grand Soleil 40 'Orna' and sets up some close competition for the remaining two races in this 6-week long series. In the Class 4 ECHO division, 'White Lotus' and crew's win puts them within two points and closes the gap on 'Tiger'.

Stephanie Ennis and Windsor Laudan's 'Demelza' was beaten by Harry Byrne's Sunrise 34 'Alphida' in the Class 5 IRC division while 'Jokers Wild' win in the ECHO division still leaves 'Sandpiper of Howth' in top spot with just 4 points to spare.

Average points were given to the Olympus Team Prize competitors that had their inshore race abandoned due to a lack of wind, leaving the 'Anybody but us' team of 'Orna' (Class 1), 'Valkyrie' (Etchells) and 'King One' (Class 2) ten points in front of "The Lads Again', a team that includes one of Howth's oldest boats (Aura - an 1898 vintage Howth Seventeen) and newest arrivals (Crazy Horse - a J24 new to Howth in 2012) as well as Algie Pearson's Puppeteer 'Trick or Treat'.

#ISA ALL IRELAND - Howth Yacht Club will be rallying behind Robin Hegarty as he represents the Puppeteer class as the club's 2012 champion at the ISA Senior All Ireland Sailing Championship in Tipperary this weekend.

As previously reported on Afloat.ie, Ireland’s 'most prestigious' annual national sailing event will take place from Friday 5 to Sunday 7 October at Lough Derg Yacht Club in Nenagh.

The invitational championship, which began in 1947, will see 21 of Ireland’s leading sailors compete over the three days in the ISA’s fleet of J80 keelboats for the title of 2012 champion and the ISA Helmsman’s Trophy.   

Following a review of the event earlier this year, the championship qualification process has undergone some changes. A total of 16 boats will compete across two fleets of eight on Saturday. 13 of these places are allocated prior to the event; one to the reigning champion, two wild cards and 10 to particular classes based on their attendance figures at national championships.

The remaining places will be filled following an eight boat qualifier on the Friday. There the top three boats will earn their place in Saturday racing. And the top three boats from each fleet on Saturday will progress to Sunday’s final fleet with two places remaining for the top two boats from a two race repechage on Sunday morning.

#hyc – Big westerly winds and a flat sea were the features of the third race of Howth Yacht Club's Autumn League this Sunday. Many of the crews decided to stay ashore this week, following forecasts giving varying wind strengths of between 18 and 30 knots.

The results of this week mean that many classes now have an assortment of boats competing for the top places and the extensive array of silverware while a select few competitors managed to consolidate their leads in their respective divisions.

A 70 degree wind-veer in the middle of the races meant that most crews were spared the decision to hoist spinnakers from that moment, but the remainder of the 'round-the-cans' courses provided few opportunities for boats to gain and lose places.

The forecasted wind took its toll in the early part of the day and might have had its part to play in an incident involving 'Arctutus' and 'Xebec' before their Class 5 start, which saw both boats disqualified after a lengthy protest hearing. Meanwhile in the Etchells class, Simon Knowles and his crew on 'Jabberwocky' had to deal with a de-masting when their backstay gave way under the pressure of the gusting conditions.

Following the completion of their fourth race next week, boats may discard their worst result and a clearer picture will emerge of the overall standings in this jointly sponsored event (Beshoff Motors - Bloody Stream), albeit still with plenty of racing left to complete in this six-race series

#howth – Minister for the Marine, Simon Coveney TD, has signed a significant contract today in Agriculture House for remediation and upgrade development works at Howth Fishery Harbour Centre.

The works will be carried out by an Irish company Wills Bros Ltd., Civil Engineering Contractors, located at Ballylahan Bridge, Foxford, Co. Mayo. The total value of the contract is €868,000. The Consultants on the project are RPS Consulting Engineers.

Howth Fishery Harbour Centre is one of six Fishery Harbour Centres for which Minister Coveney has responsibility. The Shipyard and Syncrolift facilities at the Fishery Harbour Centre are pivotal to the repair of fishing fleet vessels and the maintenance industry as they provide a means of lifting vessels out of the water and working on those vessels in a self contained repair area. This investment in facilities at Howth Fishery Harbour Centre will provide a better working environment for various skilled craftsmen already working in the vessel repair sector while also providing a centre to develop employment opportunities in the sector.

Minister Coveney referred to the many benefits accruing from the investment and stated; "the investment here today will not only improve the facilities at the harbour for vessel owners and the ship repair industry but will serve to boost employment opportunities in the industry".

The works were, he said, being carried out in an Irish harbour by an Irish company with huge expertise and provide the potential to reap significant benefits to the Irish economy.