SAILING:The presence of Tokyo Olympians Eddie Kelliher and Harry Maguire at the Royal St George YC on Tuesday was a link not only to Dún Laoghaire's long tradition in the Dragon keelboat, but a reminder that until 1972 this three-man boat was also an Olympic class.
The staging of the Aberdeen Asset Management Dragon World Championships on Dublin Bay this September represents far more than a trip down memory lane, however. Irish team members have the chance - for the first time - to compete for world honours on home waters.
Andrew Craig's fourth overall at the 2003 World championships in Tasmania remains Ireland's best performance of recent times, but there is a strong line of significant results going back 20 years celebrating Edinburgh Cup wins by Cork's Conor Doyle and Tony O'Gorman.
Performances in the past two seasons, chiefly by Dublin boats, promise a strong showing by the local fleet in six months.
Irish champion and former European silver medallist Craig, of the host club, will head the 16-boat Irish challenge. Club-mate John Ross-Murphy won the Douarnenez Grand Prix in 2005, and last year Don O'Donoghue was the Regattes Royales winner, again in France, in one of the largest gatherings of the class with 105boats.
A fleet of around 70 boats will contest the eight-race series on Dublin Bay, including multiple Olympic gold medallist and former world champion Poul-Richard Hoj-Jensen, defending champion Jorgen Schonherr and European champion Lars Hendriksen (all Denmark).
Former Gold Cup winner Tommy Müller of Germany, who won the Irish Open title last year, will also compete.
In their annual yearbook published last week, Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) devote the inside back cover to acknowledging the pioneering spirit of rival race organiser Royal Alfred YC.
DBSC commodore Tim Costello advises there will be no club racing on Saturday, June 16th, in order to allow all who sail on the bay join in "sesquincentennial" celebrations.
Squeezing any fixture into this year's Dublin Bay season and expecting a good turnout is going to be tricky. Volvo Dún Laoghaire week, with entries already received for 136 boats and expected to top 500, inevitably takes pride of place in July.
Costello argues in a thought- provoking foreword to this year's Dublin Port-sponsored annual that there must be appropriate time set aside to celebrate not only Ireland's but one of yachting's oldest institutions.
Costello is pushing against an open door. There are many who salute the work of the RAYC over the past 150 years, even if its role as principal racing club has been passed to DBSC who now cater for up to 350 boats and 1,500 crew each week.
Costello admits that even the DBSC structure, the biggest in the country, is feeling the strain.
The club relies heavily on volunteers, and a team of 40 people are required to keep it going each week. But it's not just the race organisers who are in need of extra help.
The bay fleet has increased in numbers but the boats have increased in size and technology too. New fleets such as the Beneteau 31.7 and, newer still, the JI09 have crew requirements of eight to 10 people. Is it any surprise that, by some estimates, up to 90 per cent of bay cruisers regularly race with less than a full crew?
That fewer crew are required in the white-sail cruisers division, now numbering 27 and the largest in the bay, is one of the reasons behind this fleet's success over the past three seasons.
In other news, just nine months after joining the Irish Sailing Association (ISA) as racing manager, Seán Craig is quitting to return to work in the financial sector.
All four provinces are represented tomorrow at the National Schools' Team Racing Championship in the Royal St George Yacht Club. The event will be held in 12foot Firefly dinghies.
From today, Beneteau, among other makes, are showing their new 34.7 model at a three-day, on-the-water display of new models at Malahide marina.
