Sailing News: Although plans to implement two additional starts to accommodate tighter handicap bands for cruisers may have been deferred until 2006, Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) are proceeding with an experiment for two of their classes next week to carry additional sail identification numbering to ease the burden of recording close finishes.
Next Tuesday's first race of the season not only marks the return of regular summer racing for over 350 Dun Laoghaire yachts, but the 122nd season will also see important race management changes being made under commodore Jim Dolan.
The Sigma 33 and Cruisers 3, two of the biggest of the 18 competing classes, will have to carry canvas dodgers displaying sail numbers on their lifelines when passing either starting and finishing areas, because the West Pier hut race team have struggled to identify boats during mass finishes.
Such is the popularity of the club's Dublin Port-sponsored racing format that Dolan admits the club is grappling with the twin challenges of both growth and technical change.
The club now has 1,500 members, a growth of some 550 in 10 years. The number of competing boats has grown too, from 285 in 1995 to 350 for this season.
Crowded finishing lines is one result of this expansion, but course-setting constraints in providing courses for both high-spec craft and more traditional craft, sometimes within the same class structure, is another difficulty facing the club.
Of course, all this activity bodes well for July's inaugural regatta week at Dun Laoghaire which will involve all the DBSC boats plus a fair number of visitors to produce a fleet of over 500 boats to become the biggest sailing event in Ireland at its first attempt.
More details are available at www.dlregatta.org.
Down south, over 150 boats will compete in the Sovereign's Cup regatta at Kinsale from June 22nd-25th, with a waiting list for new entries now in place. The regatta incorporates the Irish Cruiser Racing Association (ICRA) National Championships.
Three fleets will be in operation. Fleet 1 will be for Divisions 0 and 1, Fleet 2 for Divisions 2 and 3, and Fleet 3 features the White Sail division.
Fleets 1 and 2 will have separate finishing boats for each of the divisions to facilitate timely starts to the second race of the day. Results in Divisions 0, 1, 2 and 3 will be under both IRC2000 and Echo handicaps, Echo only for White Sail.
The Sovereign's Cup will be awarded to the best performing yacht over all classes under IRC2000, and the Portcullis Trophy will be awarded to the best performer under Echo.
The regatta organisers have lined up an excellent race management team. Jeanot Petch will take charge of the windward/leeward course, Alan Crosbie will handle the round the cans, while Donal Hayes and his team will look after the White Sail division, that has been split this week.
Entry details on www.kyc.ie.
Anthony O'Leary from Royal Cork, the overall winner of the 2004 Scottish Series Trophy with IRC Class 2 boat Antix, is planning to compete for the trophy again having repaired damage sustained at Calves week last summer. Entries are flooding in for this year's series, Scotland's biggest racing event, held in Tarbert over the weekend of May 27th-30th.
See www.clyde.org
