#HYC - Howth Yacht Club's Sailing Committee has secured the Irish Sailing Association's Sailfleet J80 keelboats for Howth for the entirety of the 2013 sailing season, according to the club's website.

The eight boats in the J80 fleet will available to club members throughout the year and will be used for keelboat club racing and for open events as a one-design class including the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta, the Lambay Race and the Autumn League.

The fleet will also be incorporated within the club's Adult Sail Training programme and used to introduce young sailors to keelboat sailing.

Other events to feature the J80s will be the 2013 ISA National Senior Helmsmans Championships, the HYC Helmsmans Championships and the HYC Family Championships.

Details regarding the schedule and arrangements for members to borrow the J80s will be posted early in the new year. In addition, there are opportunities for corporate sponsorship of each of the boats for the year. Interested parties are asked to contact the Honorary Sailing Secretary.

Meanwhile, Howth YC has also posted its full timetable for next year's summer courses.

All courses are of 10 days' duration and run Monday to Friday 9.30am–5pm (with the exception of Taste of Sailing, Teen Dinghy, Kites & Wires 2 and Keelboat Sailing, which are all one week only). The dates are as follows:

Taste of Sailing Course: 1/8/15 July & 5 August

Start Sailing Course: 3 June, 1/8/15 July & 5 August

Basic Skills Course: 17 June, 1/8/15/22/29 July & 5 August

Improver Skills Course: 1/22 July & 5 August

Advanced Boat Handling Course: 1/22 July & 5 August

Kites & Wires 1 Course: 15 July (two-week duration)

Kites & Wires 2 Course: 29 July (one-week duration)

Teen Dinghy Sailing Course: 22/29 July (one week duration)

Keelboat Sailing Course: 3/10/17/24 June, 1/8/15 July & 5/12 August

Information on all courses and recommended pathway is available at www.hyc.ie/dinghies and queries may be directed to [email protected].

Howth Yacht Club continue to put their time with the ISA Sailfleet J80s to innovative use with a regatta pitting Howth's top sailing families against each other in a one-design race-off series over the weekend. The HYC Family Sailing Championships saw 14 famliy teams racing in the J80s off Howth, with the Evans Familybesting all the families who participated. The regatta turnout included the Buckleys, Burkes, Cagneys, Cahills, Coopers, Evans, Harrisses, Kissanes, Klimckes, Knowles, Lynches, Markeys, McMahons and Reillys.

A very wide range of competitors participated with ages ranging from approx 6 years to 76 years. Bonus points were added for teams with extra generations of family aboard and it was great to see so many of the junior sailors out sailing in the J80s and showing their parents and grand-parents how sailing should be done!

Particular congrats to Erica Markey who was the youngest helm in the regatta.

A great family day was had by all in varying breeze conditions, ranging from 3-18 knots in a changeable wind direction - initially north-westerly changing 180 degrees to south easterly!

2 flights were held (with 3 races in each flight), to determine which top 8 teams would progress through to the finals. In heat 1 the top 4 teams to progress through to the final were as follows:

1. Evans
2. Knowles
3. Kissanes
4. Burke

In heat 2 the top 4 teams to progress through to the final were as follows:

1. Lynch
2. Harris
3. Reilly
4. Cooper

An exciting 2 race final was held in a decreasing south-easterly breeze. The racing was very close and in the end the Evans sailed excellently to win overall! The Knowles and the Kissanes finished joint second, followed by the Coopers in 4^th, the Burkes in 5^th, Reillys in 6^th, Lynches in 7^th and Harrisses in 8^th. Please see excel spreadsheet for full results. A fun day of racing was followed by a family BBQ where all the competitors relaxed in the sunshine after 8 exciting races!

Emmet Dalton kept interested supporters updated via live Twitter updates all day which can be read on http://twitter.com/HYC_Events