Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

After three days of challenging racing and race management, the Flying Fifteen Championship of Ireland concluded on Sunday 4th September, with a well-deserved victory by father and daughter combination Peter and Juliette Kennedy (3920), flying the burgees of Strangford Lough…

Yachties, like any other sportspeople, enjoy consistency. Footballers and rugby players want consistency of interpretation of the rules when they are playing. Football has introduced VAR to try and enhance the application of consistency to offside decisions and instances of…

This coming weekend, the Irish Flying Fifteen community have their biggest regatta of the year, the National Championship of Ireland, hosted by the National Yacht Club. A seven-race programme is on the agenda over Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 2nd, 3rd…

Lough Derg Yacht Club in County Tipperary, Ireland is quiet this morning! The yacht club, which played host to the 2022 GUL Fireball World Championships over the past seven days, is a scene of tents being dismantled and trailers being…

Tom Gillard of Sheffield Vikings and Shandy from East Antrim Boat Club in N. Ireland dominated today’s racing at the GUL Fireball Worlds in Lough Derg in County Tipperary. Another two races were sailed today and Gillard and Shandy won…

The dinghy park at Lough Derg Yacht Club, hosts to the GUL Fireball World Championship, is quiet this morning! Is that down to Irish hospitality on Crews’ Night? Or is it rather that the sixth race of the World Championship…

After the loss of two races yesterday, Sunday, to insufficient wind, IRO Con Murphy advised the fleet at the GUL Fireball Worlds that three races would be on the agenda for Monday with an earlier start time of 11:00. He…

There was no sailing today at the GUL Fireball World Championships on Lough Derg in County Tipperary. The Race Officer held the fleet ashore as there was no wind in the proposed race area. He went afloat in a rib…

The Pre-Worlds phase of the GUL sponsored Fireball World Championships started off yesterday morning in much the same way as it had concluded the day before – with lots of breeze, from a broadly similar direction - 240°. However, early…

If Mother Nature was considered stingy with her allocation of wind to the 5o5 Worlds recently sailed in Cork and the start of the GP14 Worlds currently being hosted by Skerries, she lavished her bounty on the Fireball Pre-Worlds and…

This morning in Lough Derg the Fireballs have grey skies and low clouds on the County Clare side of the water. A briefing is scheduled for 10:30 from Race Officer Con Murphy (IRO) who arrived on site this morning. Racing…

Thirteen Flying Fifteens contested their Southern Championships in the sunny South-East in the company of sixteen 420s when Waterford Harbour sailing Club hosted both fleets over this past weekend. The host club had three boats on the water and the…

The Flying Fifteen fleet completed three races in light conditions in Dunmore East, County Waterford today for their Southern Championships, together with the 420 dinghy fleet. Thirteen boats are contesting the Championships, with three boats from Northern Ireland, three from…

Race Officer Neil Murphy and the Green Fleet had a difficult day on the water for Saturday’s DBSC racing. Initially, the Race Officer took the fleet well to the west of the bay with the bigger boats and a WAZP…

After an extended run of light wind conditions for Thursday night racing, Flying Fifteen Race Officer John McNeilly had some wind to play with on Thursday night (August 4). The DBSC results sheet for the night suggests we had 10–18…

Sixteen Flying Fifteens made the start of the first race of the two-race programme for the Facet Trophy – an August Bank Holiday weekend fixture for the Dublin Bay class, now in its tenth year. At 10:00, the signs for…

The last check on the weather forecast for last evening, before departing work suggested 6/7 knots SE going south and dying as the evening wore on. DBSC Race Officer John McNeilly in his briefing to the fleet on the water…

Late Saturday morning signalled a change in the recent weather, with blue skies giving way to overcast conditions and the light winds of the previous Thursday night’s racing disappearing to be replaced by wind that whistled through the rigging on…

Last night’s DBSC race for the Flying Fifteens was challenging on Dublin Bay! And post-race, ashore, the Race Officer, John McNeilly, also conceded that it wasn’t an easy night! Of course, it wasn’t his fault, Mother Nature gave us another…

Thirteen Flying Fifteens enjoyed fabulous conditions on Saturday past on Dublin Bay. Race Officer Barry O’Neil set himself up well to the west of the harbour to avail of a wind that was blowing around the 130°mark. The day saw…