#kinsale – The seasonal sharp drop in temperature heralded the opening day of the 2013 ASM-Marine Frostbite League at Kinsale Yacht Club on Sunday. The long established winter league, offering early competitive racing opens the KYC sailing season and continues to appeal in the main to the local Laser and Squib Fleets on the South coast. Though entries to the Mixed Dinghy fleet were predictably down in numbers this year, appetites for an injection of excitement were somewhat sated by the appearance of a Rondar built K6.

A chill though steady Force 4 Easterly was the dominating feature of the first day's racing that saw two races completed. The windward-leeward course set by OD's Bruce Mathews and Clem McElligot placed the upwind mark just shy of Kinsale Boatyard crossing the ebbing tide at the start of its cycle.

The three Laser Classes comprising Standard, Radial and 4.7 had a combined start and were first off at the usual time at 12.00 hours. Setting the early pace in the Standard Fleet was RCYC's Edward Rice who expected to take the lead overall with two on-course results of a first and second. Due to missing a mark of the course in error, he settled for an RAF scoring –retirement from the first race. Taking the advantage, KYC's Sean Murphy with a third in race 1 ended the day with a fine win in race 2 and leads the field overall on four points. Eoin Keller (LDYC & KYC) with a consistent showing of a second and third is one point adrift in second position overall. James Long (Inniscarra SC) despite taking line honours in race 1, had to settle for third overall due to a fifth in final race.

KYC's Dara O'Shea has set an early marker in this year's Laser Radial league with his initial results of a second and first, putting him in the top spot on three points. Just two points off the lead is Dermot Lyden (RCYC & BSC) with a win in the first race and a fourth in Race 2. Two points off this mark is Ross O'Sullivan (KYC) due to a fourth and a third.

It is encouraging each year to see the progression of young sailors through the different ranks of the Laser Fleet, and in particular to welcome the new entrants coming into the 4.7 class and gaining their first experience of frostbite series. After the first day of racing Richard Thompson (KYC & RCYC) tops indisputably the league table with two excellent wins. Thomas McGrath's (RCYC) second in the first race against Scott O'Sullivan's (KYC) third being the difference in the battle for second overall.

KYC's familiar stable of Squib crews gathered once again for their annual contest in the Frostbite League with Glandore's Diarmuid Wrenne & Finbar Durgan in Scooby Doo hoping to shake up the local fleet. With last year's winners James and Bruce Mathews participating in Laser this time around – James to the Standard and Bruce to the 4.7 – the way is clear for a compelling and hopefully close-fought competition. Off to a flying start on the first day were Marcus & Meagan Hutchinson in Sensation by winning the league's first two races. Determined to put pressure on the leaders in the weeks ahead are the crews of Colm Dunne & Mark Buckley of Allegro and Victor Fusco & Ruth Ennis of Espresso (is that a double?). With both crews scoring a second and a third they hold the next two positions on the league table on equal points.

Sole entrant to date in the Mixed Dinghy Class was the Peadar Murphy owned K6 - The Widowmaker, crewed on its maiden race by fellow adrenalin junkies Alan Bateman & Keith O'Riordan (KYC). Spectacular performance on the run as the boat leap onto a plane ably assisted by the increasing Force 4 and manfully handled by the crew before succumbing to a spreader bolt giving up the ghost. Looking forward to next week lads?

The league continues over the next five Sundays and is an Open Event for all Lasers, Squibs and Mixed Dinghies. F.G. @ 11.55.

#laser – The Irish Laser Nationals are heading for Crosshaven in 2013 and Cork reader Paul Tingle has been in touch to remind us there will be a celebration of a 30–year anniversary there when the class sails again, a 92-boat fleet having  sailed for honours off Cork Harbour in 1983.

In that event a young Mark Lyttle, Ireland's first Olympic representative in the Laser class in 1996, finished sixth in an event won by F. Douglas.

The Tingle family scrap book has revealed a computer print-out (possibly dot-matrix type) of the results from that event with many notable names present. You can download the file below as a PDF document and a quck read is a welcome blast from the past!

Paul's brother Ed was event chairman and the late George Bushe was the OOD.

UK Laser sailors Steve Cockerill and David Summerville embarked on a challenge of a lifetime last May when as they sailed Laser dinghies across the Irish Sea from from Howth (Ireland) to Holyhead (Wales) to raise funds for Mind and the John Merricks Sailing Trust. The total time involved was 13 Hours 37 Minutes, a distance of 115 nautical miles as this latest video reveals.

As out going Chairman of SB20 Ireland it gives me great pleasure to be handing over to the very experienced Justin Burke.

Being part of an emerging class was a very exciting prospect when I took over three years ago.

The SB20 class has had a number of challenges, changing its name from SB3 to Sb20. A new regime of Sportsboat World has recently taken over the franchise.

One of the main reasons for the success of the SB20 has being the number high quality sailors who compete in the class.

The class has maintained very strong numbers and there is very good value to be had in the second hand market.

With a very strong Dublin Bay fleet of 28 boats and good numbers Nationwide bringing the total to in excess of 60 boats, second largest fleet after the UK. The strength of the fleet has being enhanced by having an exciting calendar year on year, point in case is 2013 with Galway hosting the Nationals for the first time.

A real testament to racing around Ireland is the very warm welcome the fleet receives from all the host clubs, and especially its members who volunteer their time to ensure we the competitors have the superb time on the water.

Having the Worlds in 2008 hosted by the National YC with over 140 boats, the class has fleets in Australia, Belgium,Germany,France,Italy, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, Holland & the UK.

This years worlds are this December in Hamilton Island Australia.

In 2013 the Worlds return to Europe and will be held in September in Hyeres in the South of France. This promises to be very well attended regatta as many boats will make a family holiday out of the trip.

As the season ends and we pack our boats away for the winter, we can contemplate a wonderful season ahead in 2013, see below.

Jerry Dowling

Chairman SB20 Ireland ( outgoing)

Calendar 2013

Spring Warmer HYC - April 6/13/20

Followed by the Easterns

Easterns Howth Y.C. - April 27/28th

Westerns L.Ree - May 11/12th (or18/19)

Southerns (Kinsale) - June 08/09th

DunLaoghaire week - July 11/14th

Nationals Galway - July 26/28th

Northerns - Aug 10/11th

Carrickfergus or Royal Ulster

Worlds France - Sept.7th – 13 th

Midlands L.Derg - Oct 19/20th

#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

#sailing/cycle – Dun Laoghaire's Royal St George Yacht Club is hosting a cycling/sailing event that features a 70km cycle plus three Laser races on Sunday. The novel races takes full advatantage of Dun Laoghaire's unique location between the mountains and the sea. Entries close tomorrow and you can download a poster for the event below as a pdf.

Sailing and cycling are proving popular combination sports appealing to a wide range of sailors, even our London Olympians.

Well known sailing names such as Sean Craig and Colin Galavin have turned their hand to sailing Lasers these days and have been training for the event.

Other class stalwarts Chris Arrowsmith and Theo Lyttle have been seen far from the sea in the Wicklow mountains on their bikes. Paul Keane will be challenging hard for the title after his week training in the south of France.

Earlier this month Olympians Annalise Murphy and Scott Flanigan returned to competition as they competed in a sprint distance triathlon - 750m swim, 20K bike, 5K run, held in Collinstown, Co. Westmeath. They both gave a good account of themselves, results here.

The two day Laser Masters Sail/Cycle Challenge takes places on Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th October 2012. Details below.

Day 1, Cycle, Saturday 6th October

Start: 13:00 sharp from the Club forecourt.

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/51168846

Route: The event will feature a cycle of about 70km, starting at 13:00 on Sat 6th October from the Club. The cycle will finish back at the Club at about 17:00. Have a look at the route on the link for full details.

We invite everyone to come along. You may participate in the cycle or the Laser racing alone, but as the weekend is all about the social we would encourage everyone to jump on a bike and do a few km. The cycle route will take us up to Enniskerry in the Wicklow mountains, so the roads are quiet and the scenery great. This year the challenge has been increased, with the route taking us to the summit of Kippure. It is a tarmac road to the top, but it is steeeep! Total altitude for the cycle is 996m.

There are good places to stop for coffee (or other drink) in Enniskerry and Glencree.

Scoring:

Kippure Summit 1 point

Sally Gap 3 points

Glencree 5 points

Enniskerry 7 points

DNC 10 points

Back to the Club to watch the Leinster Vs Munster Rugby match at 18:30.

Dinner

There is a 3 course dinner in the Club room at 20:00, with a few prizes for the cycling afterwards. The dinner is 25 euro per person. Book early as the dinner was popular last year and the Club room is limited to about 40 people.

Day 2, Sail, Sunday 7th October

On Sunday there will be 3 Laser races starting at 11:00. The races will be short (about 30 minutes), with the emphasis on skill rather than endurance!

The aim is to finish at about 14:00 with prize giving. If 3 races are sailed there will be 1 discard, with your two best races and the cycle score to count.

The entry fee for the sailing/cycling is 15 euro, and for the cycling alone is 5 euro.

Enter online at www.rsgyc.ie

#laser – The VonZipper Laser National Championships under International Race Officer Con Murphy concluded on Dublin Bay yesterday with two final races in a stiff SE'ly sea breeze. In the Standard (Full) rig class, Irish London Olympic Men's Single handed representative James Espey of Ballyholme YC narrowly beat Annalise Murphy of the host club who, sailing the full rig for the first time, had a great event with four race wins and three seconds.

The two London Olympians sailed neck in neck up to the final race and gave the spectators and fellow sailors a great display of superb competition. Mattie O'Dowd of the RSGYC finished in third place with Chris Penny of East Antrim in fourth and Cork's Nick Walsh the first Master.

In the Radial class, the battle of the 'Darraghs' from Cork saw Darragh O'Sullivan from Kinsale take the title ahead of Baltimores Darragh Mc Cormack. Dan O'Beirne of the RSGYC took third and Suzanne Flanigan of Ballyholme took the Ladies Championship.

Mark Hassett of Schull SC comfortably won the 4.7 Championships with a 17 point lead over second place Richard Maher from Perth, Australia. 6 points behind in third was Conor O Beirne from the RSGYC followed by the first girl in the fleet Sorcha Ni Shuilleabhain from Kinsale.

The championships, sponsored by Dalkey Optician Paul Gill, was deemed a great success with excellent racing conditions and the Parade of Tall ships and fleet of spectator boats giving a fantastic backdrop on the final day. Full results below.

#laser – A highlight of the Laser class National championships at the National Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire has to be Annalise Murphy's performance in her first event ever sailing the bigger standard rig as opposed to her usual Radial rig with two race wins yesterday in the tough conditions. The event has seen some great racing between five Olympians in the standard rig. The event sponsored by VonZipper sunglasses have reached their half way stage on Dublin Bay yesterday with 6 races completed by the standard rigs and 5 by the Radial and 4.7 classes.

Being run over 4 days this week by the National Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire, the large entry includes 4 of the Irish London Olympic Sailing Team - Laser men's representative James Espey, Laser Women's helm Annalise Murphy, 49er Helm Ryan Seaton and 470 crew Scott Flanagan - and Volvo round the world race officer Bill O Hara all in the Standard rig class. The opening day on Thursday saw light southerly and shifty winds and Friday gave excellent racing with a 15 knot steady easterly breeze. The 4 Olympians have dominated the first 2 days along with local sailor Mattie O'Dowd.

The event continues today and Sunday with five more races scheduled. Results available here. Laser National Championship photos are here.

#laser – London Olympian Annalise Murphy who scored Ireland's top Olympic sailing result for 32 years earlier this month in Weymouth made a welcome return to her home waters of Dublin Bay yesterday to compete in the first race of the Irish Laser National Championships hosted by her home club the National Yacht Club.  Scroll down for the first day's action captured by photographer Aidan Tarbett.

#LASER - The Irish Laser National Championships begin today in Dun Laoghaire running till Sunday 26 August, and the National Yacht Club has posted all the details Laser sailors will need regarding their visit for the weekend's competition.

Aside from the parking and event info are the all-important social arrangements for competing sailors, kicking off with a welcome barbecue after today's racing with a selection of burgers, spit roast and chicken. Tickets are €10 and available at registration.

Tomorrow will see the NYC AGM at 5pm after the racing in the JB Room, followed at 6.30pm with a special reception for Laser Radial Olympian Annalise Murphy - not to mention soup and rolls for the hungry sailors after their day on the water.

On Saturday the fleet will be treated to a pasta dish coming off the water, followed by a Tall Ships farewell evening in the Docklands. And Sunday's post-competition activities include the prizegiving ceremony and a farewell barbecue.

Full details for Laser sailors are available on the National Yacht Club website HERE.