SailingDublin Bay Sailing Club aim to improve cruiser racing next season by tightening handicap racing bands and giving the bay it's first zero fleet.
Club commodore Jim Dolan dealt with the ratings issue at a meeting of class captains this week where a proposal to change the handicap class bands will affect upwards of 100 boats racing under the East Coast Handicapping System (ECHO) and the IRC handicap rule.
Entries in 2004 came to 347 boats and members to 1,545 and there was a renewed call to tighten class handicap bands to provide tighter racing for the bay's biggest yachts of 40 foot or more.
The proposal to divide the existing class one fleet into two has not yet been finalised but if successful it would produce a viable fleet of high-tech class zero boats, of which there may already be a dozen in the bay area. Older, heavier boats of the same size will continue to race in class one.
Class one will be rated between .981 and 1.040 and class zero will be 1.041 and upwards.
Class two bands will also be tightened to between .921 and .980 and it is also proposed to divide up the Cruisers 3 class, although they will all start off the same line.
A class 3a is to be formed and it will race between .801 and .860. Class three races between .861 and .920.
Significantly, Dolan consulted with the Irish Cruiser Racer Association (ICRA) before adjusting the bands and local conditions aside, the bands proposed are in line with those used in other sailing centres such as Howth and Cork, which is seen by the ICRA commodore as a possible forerunner to a national breakpoint rule that could be introduced over the next few seasons.
The club's winter series, the Turkey Shoot, which has attracted 20 entries, starts on Saturday.
Jochem Visser will be the guest speaker at the second annual ICRA conference in Kilkenny on November 20th, when a shortlist of names for the ICRA Boat of the Year will be revealed.
Anthony O'Leary's Antix (Corby 35), Colm Barrington's Flying Glove (Ker 39), Barry Rose's Obsession (First 36.7), Tom Brennan's Respect (Corby 25), Eamon Crosbie's Voodoo Chile (Ker 32) and George Sisk's Wow (J133) are all in the running for ICRA's top prize.
The day-long conference is divided into two sessions, from 10.30am-1pm (with a boat speed presentation from Visser) followed by a session from 2 to 4pm at the River Court Hotel
In dinghy news, Roger Bannon has withdrawn - out of 'frustration' over the attitude of the class committee - from trying to get the Mermaid Class to adopt the composite hull he built. The class have deferred evaluation of the project until 2005.
The idea was to build a cheaper fibreglass version of the traditional timber clinker hull.
Bannon, from the National YC, undertook to build the prototype boat called Dolly on the basis that a decision would be made at this year's class 2004 a.g.m. but it now looks certain the fibreglass project will be shelved.
In Schull, Dublin Business School outwitted 24 teams at the Irish University Team racing south coast championships last weekend to win the Sail Chernobyl Cup in the sixth year of the championship.
Abroad, Dun Laoghaire's Max Treacy has joined the America's Cup Italian syndicate +39 as a navigator. Treacy (26), who sailed with +39 in the recent ACT2 Regatta at Valencia, will also be making an Olympic bid for Beijing in the Star Class.
