As the Royal St George Yacht Club was celebrating 175 years of success in Dún Laoghaire last weekend, one of its offshore crews was smashing another record for Ireland’s biggest yacht club, the first ever on the Arabian Sea.
Adrian Lee's Cookson 50, Lee Overlay Partners, claimed line honours for the IRC Racing Division in the 22nd Dubai to Muscat Race in the Gulf of Oman, also breakinga 13-year speed record .
Finish line
The Irish canting keel racing yacht crossed the finish line at Muscat on Tuesday with an elapsed time of two days 53 minutes and 40 seconds for the 360-mile race.
At home, Royal St George club-mates were urging the Irish crew on after a spectacular champions dinner saluting a roll call of 175 years of sailing achievement.
The club have produced 322 national champions and 10 Olympians were present.
Ireland’s only Olympic sailing medallist, silver gong winner David Wilkins from Moscow 1980, attended.
Other offshore achievements were also noted, including circumnavigations of the globe by eight members and ocean passages by Paddy Barry and Michael Holland.
In dinghy news, last weekend’s inaugural foiling Moth championships, with five competitors, was won by Graeme Grant over four races off Howth, Co Dublin.
Laser European champion Annalise Murphy, who attended the world championships in Hawaii last month, recorded the weekend's fastest speed of 24.1 knots (45kph).
Mermaid to lose its start
The Dublin Bay Mermaid looks certain to lose its start in next season's Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) racing due to lack of numbers. Five are currently racing but the 17ft clinker built wooden dinghy can only muster three boats for 2014,insufficient for the separate class start held since the 1930s.
Some 20 teams have entered tomorrow’s Irish Team Racing National Championships in Dún Laoghaire, with others still on a waiting list. Four teams are travelling from the UK, including last year’s overall winners Wessex Exempt.
Meanwhile, in Cork Harbour, a similar class plans to reinvent itself this winter. A National 18 prototype has been trialling a new design by top dinghy designer Phil Morrison. The class will vote on whether to adopt the boat next summer.
The entry fee for Cork Week 2014 is to be reduced by 30 per cent compared to 2012. A reduction in racing days and other measures will effectively reduce the cost of attending next July’s Cork Week by at least 20 per cent. Royal Cork organisers are also introducing two-handed racing for the first time.
