CONGESTION AND steady demand has meant a little-known Dublin race course that is nevertheless as visible as the Aviva Stadium or Croke Park has undergone a winter make-over, involving hundreds of hours of careful calculations, so it may now be enjoyed by thousands.

Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) has rearranged its floating race marks to create two course areas that will allow fleets to be split and avoid hazardous converging of boats on busy racing days.

Veteran club racer Tim Goodbody, who has been involved with designing DBSC courses since 1964, last winter spent 240 hours reconfiguring the marks to account for wind-strength and direction. "We expect purer (race) legs and using as many marks on the bay as possible," he told The Irish Timesyesterday. Almost 400 boats and thousands of sailors take part in DBSC racing annually.

The number of marks has increased from 18 to 24, each named alphabetically using local historical and literary references, such a Bligh of the Bounty fame and Poldy from Joyce's Ulysses. The two course areas also neatly skirt the main anchorage area for the club's main sponsor, the Dublin Port Company.

The result is two daisy-wheel networks of buoys to the north and southeast of Dún Laoghaire Harbour, each served by separate committee boats that drop anchor in the centre of each array. After a month of use, reaction has been very positive. “The new courses are totally different because we’re not using a fixed line off the pier anymore,” commented one regular crew member. “It means we’re getting a true windward start, but the old fixed line from the hut often meant a running or reaching start.”

The courses are safer also because there are no more common finishing-lines that created congestion, mainly on Thursday evenings due to the short races that gather several hundred crews at sea together.

Dublin Bay’s sometimes fickle winds have caused problems in the past where boats have been scattered across the bay when the breeze dies or goes light.

The new courses make it easier to shorten the race thanks to using the Mac Lír and Spirit of the Irish committee boats which can despatch their rigid inflatable boats with a race official to end a race early.

Meanwhile, the new courses on Thursdays have seen an end to the landmark DBSC West Pier hut, the nearest the club has to a premises. It is dismantled for the winter months.

“I think that it’s a great facility for us to retain with a good team of people, but its difficult to spot sail numbers for the almost identical one-design classes on busy nights,” said Goodbody, who is adamant it should not be got rid of.

As well as Saturday racing, the hut would be ideal for starting and finishing offshore races or for use in longer day courses.

Already, Goodbody can see things that need to be modified, perhaps for next season. However, the new format is expected to last at least a decade.