Glorious June
After the challenging weather in May June has provide some excellent sailing with both racing and special events.
The three June Saturdays so provided superb conditions with excellent and most enjoyable racing for crews. Geraldine took line honours on June 7th while Estelle led the way on the other two outings. On Tuesdays Naneen and Estelle shared a win each. Oola is performing very well achieving a good number of 2nd places while the others share the spoils. There is no appreciable difference in boat speed therefore crew performance and tactics must surely be the differentiating factor as should be the case for one design racing.
We also had two special events in June. The first was to mark Bloomsday so on Sunday 15th the full fleet set sail. 26 sailors attended, many suitably attired with hats of various type and Hal very resplendent in authentic Edwardian attire right down to circular gold rim glasses and straw boater hat. All 5 boats sailed in formation past Sandycove Martello tower which houses the Joyce Museum. A large crowd was assembled there to view the fleet who provided an encore. Following a certain win the previous day a blue flag with stylised harp logo briefly appeared – we can only speculate on what Jim Joyce might have to say on that matter? Many thanks to Patricia Boyd for liaising with the Joyce Museum to set this up and to all Sailors who participated and entered the spirit of the occasion.
Conor O’Brien Centenary Return
On Friday 20th June three of our fleet were on hand to acclaim the centenary to the hour of the return of Conor O'Brien from his pioneering round the world sailing adventure on 20th June 1925- exactly 2 years to the day and hour from his departure in 1923. As he returned on a Saturday DBSC racing accorded him special honour by cancelling their racing scheduled for that day allowing the Dublin Bay fleet escort Saoirse back to its Moring and to a great reception where it is claimed that over 10,000 were on hand to celebrate this great achievement.
There were much less than 10,00 present for the centenary celebrations however Estelle, Oola and Naneen led the receiving party to welcome Ilen, a sister Conor O’Brien vessel of equal renown, which had travelled in company from Baltimore, where both Saoirse and Ilen were originally built. As the Twentyones are the only large boat still in active service from that era and would have formed part of the original welcoming flotilla, it was entirely fitting that we took pride of place to provide close escort for Ilen as she crossed Scotsman Bay and entered the Harbour before docking at the RIYC for onshore celebrations.
Upcoming Events
The July sailing register is now open and for those who have yet to submit your availability we would encourage you all to do so as soon as possible, This is very important for crew planning and full marks to Elaine and Gillian for all the huge time and effort they put in to rostering crews and ensuring an appropriate mix of skipper and experience on each boat at all times.
In addition to the DBSC racing Tuesday and Saturdays and Sunday Sailing Programme we draw your attention to 3 other events:
· 6 July - Parade of Classic Sail – For boats and classes at least 50 years old
· 10 – 13 July - Volvo Regatta – Biennial Combined Clubs Regatta over 4 days
· 26 July - Clontarf 150 - celebrate CYC’s sesquicentennial.
The Parade of Classic Sail and CYC 150 are one day events and replace a regular Sunday sail and DBSC Saturday racing respectively.
Volvo DLR Regatta
This Biennial event is a 4-day programme from Thursday 10th to Sunday 13th as follows
· Thursday 10th July single race around the bay warning gun at 1355 – assemble 12.30
· Friday 11 July – 2 / 3 races in Scotsman Bay warning gun 11.25 - assemble 9.50 am
· Saturday 12 July - 2 races in Scotsman Bay warning gun 11.25 - assemble 9.50 am
· Sunday 13 July – 2 W/L races near Seapoint Mrk warning 10.55 assemble 9.15am
We would love all 5 boats to participate even for some of the days however that wholly depends on crew availability. Some of you may be able to commit to the full event while some may only be available for some of the days but that is no problem, and we will allocate crew accordingly.
If you have not already done so, please register your availability as soon as possible please via the crew availability page: https://www.dublinbay21.ie/index.php/availability
Please note there will be no Sunday leisure sail on 13 July.
Detail of the regatta schedule and races courses are shown below. All fleets do a Bay race on Thursday. We are on the South course for round the cans racing on Friday and Saturday and on the West Course on Sunday for Windward leeward races.
On the social front each club has a full social programme throughout the regatta., The NYC is hosting a dinner for the Classic Boat fleets including ourselves, Howth 17, Glens, water wags and others on Thursday and we hope that as many Sailors as possible can attend and partners welcome of course.
There are also plans for Saturday evening in preparation – probably more casual and details to follow in due course.
Guest Sails
June has seen several guests coming out to experience what we enjoy all the time. This is a very welcome initiative and an excellent way to try before you buy for anyone interested in the fleet but would like to understand what we do further, remember that gust sail fees are deductible from membership when you sign up.