SAILING: Although brave efforts were made by Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) to revitalise a dozen dinghy classes as far back as 1993, it turns out nine years later that it was a lack of interest that scuppered the chances of revival and today small boat club sailing on the bay - after a long period of decline - stands on the brink of collapse.
Numbers plunged from 118 in 1970 to 40 in 1992, and this season the remnants of a once vibrant dinghy scene, the envy of Ireland and Britain, now averages 13 boats across three classes for Tuesday night racing.
This column recorded the fact that dinghy sailing faced an uncertain future under the burgee of DBSC in the mid-1990s, and, a decade on, the worst fears of that committee have come to pass.
It is propped up by a supportive club that prepare weekly racing - more out of sentiment than economic sense - as a race management team, including committee and rescue boats and personnel, are mustered each Tuesday and Saturday for nothing more than a handful, while keelboat classes (with sailors drawn from the same waterfront clubs) have reached record levels.
The problem may be symptomatic of a national trend, addressed at the Irish Sailing Association's clubs and classes forum last April, where turnouts at championships or open events remain high but local weeknight club racing appeared to be in decline.
The writing, however, has been on the wall for a long time, and DBSC's annual records point to the drop in fleet sizes for the last 30 years and suggest that the case for dinghy club racing may now be all but lost at sea.
The number of dinghies racing in 1992 was 40, less than a third of the fleet racing on the bay 33 years ago. Entries from the 1970 DBSC yearbook are as follows: 505s - 11, Finns - 12, Enterprises - 15, GP 14s - 10, Fireflies - 26, IDRA 14s - 31, 12-footers - 13. Total - 118.
In 1974, the 505s had disappeared, but had been replaced by the new Fireball design with a fleet of 23 boats. The 420s had also arrived and were boasting 24 entries, with Fireflies topping the list with 34 boats. DBSC officials saw the start of the dinghy decline in the mid-1980s, however, and had been working - in vain - to turn the tide on dwindling numbers since then.
The importance of the dinghy is that it breeds the best sailors, and without dinghy experience competitive big boat sailors seldom emerge.
Though it is up to classes to help themselves, they have found it difficult to maintain turnouts.
A glimmer of hope rests with a resurgence in Fireball numbers; this two-person, high-performance boat boasts 20 entries in 2002, a remarkable comeback that will hopefully continue.
The 2002 yearbook also reveals three other active classes - the Mermaid, IDRA 14 and a menagerie fleet - but it belies a much smaller weekly gathering.
Any growth has been patchy and new blood seems to have come from Glenans sailors and adult graduates from sailing schools rather than from traditional grounds, where there has been a virtual failure of transition from buoyant junior to senior racing classes.
This is despite the fact that an estimated 400 juniors enjoy waterfront dinghy sailing each summer.
Costs attached to dinghy sailing have also risen sharply, and the increasing worldwide cost of dinghy construction, coupled with the costs of access to the water through the waterfront yacht clubs, must also be contributing to the demise of the dinghy.
More recently, the argument has been put forward that keelboat and dinghy sailing does not happily co-exist, and the case is a strong one when a flourishing Dún Laoghaire harbour dinghy scene resumes - almost as a cruel irony - shortly after the keelboats are hauled out for the winter.
The arrival of the 750-berth marina, therefore, which has done so much to extend keelboat sailing, may turn out to be a death knell for harbour dinghies.
Yet, all-in handicap fun racing that turns out over 100 dinghies each Sunday runs successfully throughout the winter (both inside and outside the harbour), organised by Dún Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club.
The club's most enterprising commodore in recent times, Fintan Cairns, who stands down after three years in office next month, admits, in his final report to members, that the dinghies continue to provide DBSC with a constant challenge.
Despite mounting expenditure, the club's "undertaking was not made an easier in 2002 by a further fall-off of entries on the dinghy course", Cairns says. (Mermaids down four, PYs down nine, Fireballs down three, and IDRA 14s down one).
And in a further twist to the sorry tale of the DBSC dinghy decline is the fact that it has not affected the world's first dinghy, the Dublin Bay Water Wag, which has been racing autonomously since 1887.
Boasting the strongest dinghy fleet on the bay, the class association have regular turnouts of 17 boats per race in spite of the diminution of its harbour race track.
AMERICA'S CUP: OneWorld finally beaten
SWITZERLAND'S Alinghi Challenge yesterday achieved something no other syndicate has done in the America's Cup challenge round - they defeated the powerful American OneWorld challenge.
Nine syndicates are racing on the Hauraki Gulf for the Louis Vuitton Cup, which gives the winner the right to take on Team New Zealand in February's America's Cup.
After nine consecutive wins, OneWorld went into the match with a slight advantage, having beaten Alinghi by 10 seconds in the first round.
But it was Alinghi's turn as they joined Sweden's Victory Challenge, Prada and Oracle as the winners in the second day of the second round.
Alinghi tactician Brad Butterworth admitted it was a tough match as the two teams are relatively even.
"We were always scared of losing our lead," Butterworth said.
"But if you get a little bit ahead it is hard to pass. They sailed well all the way around, it was a tough race but very enjoyable. These are the sorts of races we need to get the big picture."
At the start, OneWorld, with financial backer telecommunications tycoon Craig McCaw on the boat for the first time as 17th man, opted for the left and were first over the line.
Alinghi followed but immediately tacked away, and a small wind shift allowed them to edge ahead and round the first mark 22 seconds ahead of their rivals.
OneWorld gained on every downwind leg but never had the opportunity to pass, handing Alinghi a 27-second victory.
Oracle went onto the course with a new helmsman, veteran New Zealander matchracer Chris Dickson, and had an easy victory over Italy's Mascalzone Latino.
Prada scored their third win in two days by beating Team Dennis Conner by 41 seconds. "We are really struggling a bit right now," said helmsman Ken Read.
