Howth Yacht Club will be testing sailing options this weekend within parameters outlined by Commodore Ian Byrne in a missive direct to members and on the club website, issued late Thursday night.

After more than two months of total Covid-19 lockdown, local Irish sailing may be in some relatively uncharted waters in getting afloat again. But with many members living within 5 kilometres of the Howth clubhouse/marina complex, and with a significant element of family and household crews, some sailing should be possible within the Government protocols. That said, with some decidedly rugged weather in circulation, other factors may delay this pioneering step planned for Saturday, May 23rd, but better weather is expected on Sunday and Monday.

Commodore Byrne told members that the marks are laid, safety RIBs, launches and Committee boats are serviced and ready to go. The restaurant will re-open on June 29th and the hospitality team have a great plan in place to use the huge space available to serve great food and drink safely and in the familiar comfortable club surroundings.

He informed the membership that the Sailing Committee are busy planning new ways to create fun outings for single, two-handed and family sailing. This will be piloted with the smaller numbers over the next week or two. After June 8th, when the travel limit increases to 20km radius, more distant members will have access to the club and their boats and can join in.

He said there has been lots of activity on the marina after weeks in lockdown with cranes working hard and wheelbarrows busy bringing back sails and cushions to prepare the boats for a shorter, but no less fun, season. He is delighted to be in a position to announce that, while the club follow the Government & Irish Sailing’s directives, members can go sailing……

Full Directives are as follows:

• Every member must swipe in and out individually so that they are recorded for contact tracing purposes. Be firm but polite if asked to allow someone to tailgate or have a gate held. Our legal responsibilities on contact tracing are important socially and quite onerous.
• For the moment you can take fellow members and members of your ‘household’ sailing. If members of your ‘household’ who are not HYC members are sailing with you then you must send an email to [email protected] the previous day confirming the ‘household’ members name, mobile phone number and email address. Household groups do not have to distance and are not number constrained. A maximum of 4 people are permitted in a mixed or member groups, assuming 2m social distancing can be maintained.
• Our contact tracing process is naturally centred around members. To facilitate regular sailors and visitors who are not members the General Committee has introduced an easy fast track (target 48 hr turnaround) and convenient monthly DD membership for Asgard (€26), Country €22) and Associate (€18.75). Email [email protected].

Howth YC Commodore Ian Byrne racing his Jeanneau Sunfast 32 Sunburn

Howth Yacht Club has had 59 members sign up to take part in their Masts & Rigging-sponsored Virtual Regatta eRacing Spring Series. Thus with each eRace accommodating up to 20 “helms”, this past week saw three leagues being run side-by-side writes Christina Knowles. And with worthwhile marine equipment prizes provided by the sponsors through Gavin Laverty, interest is still rising among newcomers, who can join by signing up to a WhatsApp group to get Sailing Instructions and Race Codes to start, then log into Zoom to chat live at event time.

The entire eRacing programme was set up by techno-whizz Teddy Byrne, who is officially Brian Byrne, son-in-law of former ICRA supremo Nobby Reilly. He had initially started a League every Tuesday and Thursday evening since Lockdown began, and with the experience gained and the new muscle provided by the Masts & Riggings sponsorship, this week sees a sophisticated and attractive product being available for sailors frustrated from getting their racing afloat.

With Teddy Byrne still the “Principal Race Officer”, the two additional Leagues are run by Emmet Dalton and Ryan Sinnott.

There are two races run each Tuesday and Thursday at 8pm, and the banter-filled sessions have provided so much sport and entertainment that sometimes they add in an extra fun race whereby the winner gets a pint promised, and bragging rights guaranteed.

Results are online but in brief for Leagues 1, 2 & 3 the top placings went to:

• League 1:1st Shane Diviney, 2nd Czema Pico and our organiser Teddy Byrne who had a great win last Tuesday
• League 2: 1st Stephen Mullaney followed closely by 2nd George Curley and 3rd Sergio Olaya
• League 3: 1st Emmet Dalton, 2nd Catherine Pitcher & 3rd Willem Harting

HYC have also donated a prize for each league of a bottle of rum, while Nobby Reilly has promised any outsider (HYC Guest) a bottle of finest Champagne if they have a win. It certainly helps everyone get through what is hoped are the final stages of Lockdown, and Howth YC are keenly anticipating the time when the prizes can be officially handed over in the Clubhouse, where competitors can finally enjoy the celebration with a few long-awaited pints.

It would appear that the decision to reschedule Wave Regatta to the second weekend in September is strengthening the event and the inclusion of the ICRA National Championships within the regatta in Howth will certainly focus the plans of many racing sailors at the end of the summer.

The Government's phased easing of restrictions announced last night also appear to favour the postponement even though large gatherings will still not be allowed in September. Event Chairman Brian Turvey told Afloat after the government announcement: "Although I haven’t spoken with Irish Sailing yet, it appears to me that all going well, August 10th might be the date where we can all go back sailing and racing on multi-crewed boats. That would give us a month to refine our already evolving COVID-19 preparations. We’re already looking at doing temperature control checks, online crew symptom checking and branded face masks for all competitors"

The ICRA National Championships will sail at Howth in September Photo: Afloat

The Notice of Race has been published (download below) and it explains that entry to the ICRA Nationals includes qualification (at no extra cost) for Wave Regatta prizes also. This three-day sailing event has always been presented as an innovative experience and notwithstanding the considerations about the current pandemic, the organising team in Howth have been working hard and creatively to plan for every eventuality.

Racing Director Dave Cullen explains ‘Our focus has been to be able to run an excellent racing regatta and championships for the many competing sailors, boats and keelboat classes. It was important that we chose the right dates in September to make the most of favourable neap tides, avoid clashing with other major events and importantly to allow us the time to plan the regatta in consultation with the various authorities. It would appear that the sport of sailing is one that will be high on the list of sports to recommence over the coming weeks and we’re ready to support sailors with the highest quality racing that Howth is synonymous with’. In addition to the ICRA Nationals, the September dates for Wave Regatta also affords many classes the opportunity of hosting their own National Championships at a time of the year that is often touted as being ideal and normally after a full summer of racing. A number of other National Championships will be incorporated including the Sigma 33s and J80s as well as the Half Ton Cup.

Chairman Brian Turvey said ‘Understanding the predicament that many classes will find themselves dealing with such a short season in 2020, we are keen to see if there might be other ’natural synergies’ for class championships albeit within the parameters of the Notice of Race. As such, we’re keen to hear from classes that find themselves in that position and where we might be able to accommodate’.

J24 racing

Visitors to Wave Regatta in 2018 will remember the scale and quality of the onshore hospitality that lifted the event beyond a level normally associated with a sailing regatta in Ireland and the 2020 organising team, with help from sponsors such as Michael Wright Group and Fingal County Council, have promised an original and creative solution to the likelihood of some social restrictions and assert that competitors will be delighted with what will be presented.

The event is open to all keelboats and entry can be made for the single day Lambay Races or the full 3-day regatta which runs from Friday 11th through to Sunday 13th September.

Full event details including Notice of Race (downloadable below) and online entry can be found at waveregatta.com

A new sailing video of youth Laser Radial star Eve McMahon gives a clear understanding of why the Howth Yacht Club ace was awarded the 2019 Irish Youth Sailor of the Year Award in February.

The video below prepared for HYC members also gives an interview with the rising star who is one of four sailors seeking the Irish Radial nomination for the Tokyo Olympic Regatta, a trial that sees her up against Olympic silver medalist Annalise Murphy.

McMahon had an outstanding 2019 season becoming Irish youth national Radial Champion at Royal Cork in May 2019 before going on to take the Under-17 World title in Kingston, Ontario in August, also impressively finishing 3rd in the overall competition.

She was certainly the in-form competitor at the World Championships in Melbourne in February this year, where she won the Gold Medal again in the U17 event. 

Advancing to senior competition at 15 years-of-age is one thing but Eve has taken this a step further with her involvement in the Olympic trials, a campaign that should prove invaluable for her long-term career prospects on the international sailing circuit, not least for her ambition to advance to Olympic competition level. Eve made the most of her Transition Year by linking up and training with the Irish Olympic squad, battling back from injury and showing a determination and grit that will undoubtedly stand to her in the future.

In a first for Irish Sailing, the 2021 trialists now feature McMahon siblings in two classes with Eve’s older brother Ewan competing in the men’s Laser class and with Olympic qualification in his sights.

Eve took some time out before the COVID-19 'lockdown' to post a video on youtube to tell HYC members of her year and her plans ahead in a specially recorded interview with her other brother Jamie. The interview is below.

2020 marks the 125th anniversary of organised sailing in Howth and to mark the occasion, Howth Yacht Club is publishing a book that looks back on the memorable events from HYC’s history.

Work is in progress and the aim is to publish before the end of the year.  The club is seeking “war stories” or other club memories for inclusion. HYC is particularly interested in noteworthy cruises and offshore events. Pictures are also very welcome. More details on the HYC website here. 

Across Dublin Bay in Dun Laoghaire Harbour, the National Yacht Club, with reciprocal links to HYC, marks its 150th anniversary with a book by Bay sailing historian Donal O'Sullivan, also to be published later this year.

Following the cancellation of Cork Week 300, ICRA has decided to combine the National Championships with this year’s WAVE regatta which will take place at Howth Yacht Club from September 11-13th.

The decision was taken by unanimous vote by all the cruiser-racer representative Board Members at a strongly attended ICRA (remote) meeting this week, with the full support and backing of the RCYC Cork Week team.

The decision took into account a number of factors, including the desire to ensure that the event took place if at all possible and was not cancelled again, the costs and implications of running a standalone event at this stage and the understanding of ensuring boats and crews had some possible opportunity to get up to speed before the event.

The meeting chaired by Commodore Richard Colwell included Cxema Pico, RIYC; David Cullen, HYC; John Leech, LDYC; Ric Morris, RIYC; Johanna Murphy, GISC & SCORA; Peter Ryan, NYC; Denis Byrne, RCYC; Liam Lynch, TBSC. Brian Raftery of SBSC was absent.

The ICRA Committee also say they wish 'to thank generous offers from other clubs to host the regatta on alternate dates'.

ICRA Commodore Richard Colwell

Commodore Richard Colwell commented “The ICRA Committee is saddened that the efforts of Cork Week cannot come to fruition so we have considered several alternative options for our annual ICRA National Championships. It was agreed that it would be prudent in the current environment, to delay the important National Championship regatta until as late as possible to try and ensure it goes ahead this year, so we have taken up the offer from Howth Yacht Club to combine the event with the WAVE regatta in September.”

"it would be prudent in the current environment, to delay the important National Championship regatta until as late as possible"

WAVE Chairman, Brian Turvey added “Our team in Howth is delighted to be able to lend support to ICRA for their 2020 Championships. Wave Regatta provides a relatively simple integration for the ICRA Nationals with much of the fleet already intending to compete and at a time of the year which suits many classes for their annual championships, not least that we are hopeful that the pandemic will have abated by then.”

Due to the uncertainty of which events will proceed, it has also been decided to cancel the original Boat of the Year schedule of races and keep under review.

Once we get clarity on what events will be proceeding, we will reissue a revised Notice of Race, ICRA spokesman Dave Cullen said.

Howth Yacht Club in County Dublin has postponed it Club's Summer racing season, which was due to start on Tuesday, April 28th as a result of the Covid-19 emergency. The clubhouse, boat deck and marina are already closed until April 19 under Government restrictions and the club has already postponed its major summer WAVE Regatta in late May until September.

Howth plans to start its summer racing under in time for its second series. This would see the first club races held on Tuesday 2nd and Wednesday 3rd June.

Secretary Caroline Gore-Grimes told members 'If it is possible to start earlier and run a shortened Series 1, at least two weeks notice will be provided to all Classes in advance of their first race'.

All Open Events scheduled for Howth YC during the period up to April 19th have already been cancelled or postponed. This includes the WAVE Regatta, incorporating the Lambay Races, which is now rescheduled for Sept 11 - 13th. The 125th Anniversary Cruise in Company to Scotland, scheduled for June, has unfortunately been cancelled.

In the light of the ongoing restrictions, the situation regarding Open Events scheduled for the period up to June 2nd is now as follows:

• Spring Warmers: April 25th / 26th - cancelled.
• Fingal Series Coastal Race: May 9th - postponed to a date that will be advised
• Laser Leinsters – May 9th/10th - postponed to a date to be agreed with Irish Laser Class Association, possibly in Autumn 2020.
• HYC Family Fun Day - June 1st – Postponed to later in 2020.

Irish Sailing and Howth Yacht Club have decided that it will not be possible to hold the Youth Sailing Nationals in compliance with current advice issued from HSE over Coronavirus spread.

It is not possible to run an event of this size and comply with separation protocols on the shore, and although these are currently in place until 29th March, HYC and Irish Sailing have taken the decision now to postpone the event, giving everyone as much notice as possible.

Details of the rescheduled event now planned sometime in the Autumn will follow.

Howth Yacht Club has decided to move its WAVE Regatta from the end of May to 11-13^th September.

The decision comes today as the Government moved to stem the spread of the coronavirus.

WAVE Regatta is the first of the Summer's big Irish sailing regattas and along with the second edition of the three-day event, the club's traditional Lambay Races will also move to the Autumn date.

The schedule will continue to offer keelboat classes the options of racing in the 3-day regatta or a single-day entry for Saturday’s Lambay Races.

More on the new date as we have it.

All-Ireland Junior Champion Chris Bateman of Monkstown Bay SC on Cork Harbour and seasoned participant Ronan Wallace of Wexford showed that local knowledge is not a pre-requisite to success in taking the top places in the time-honoured Round Ireland’s Eye Race, which on Saturday concluded Howth YC’s traditional Laser Winter Frostbite Series, a fixture event since 1974.

With the breeze already brisk and forecast to build, some of the competitors decided that discretion was better than valour and spectating had distinct advantages. The remaining 15 Standards and 3 Radials headed out for the Warm-up, or to be more accurate, Cool-down Race in the Sound. As a concession to the conditions - south-westerly gusting to 20 knots and changeable in direction - and to avoid wearing the sailors out too early, the ‘three triangles’ course was signalled by the Race Committee, always popular with the fleet on windy days when running dead downwind in a Laser with the water temperature below 10oC becomes unappealing.

A general recall showed the fleet was well up for the day and a U flag was broken out for the restart with Chris Bateman, visiting from Monkstown Bay SC for the day’s racing, being the only casualty. With swimming practice well underway, there was a ferocious battle between 4 or 5 sailors to avoid finishing last, with positions gained and lost on each leg as they each struggled to get to grips with the conditions.

Conor Costello was involved for a while but his heavy weather ability allowed him to break away, leaving Zander Mackay and Mark Kennedy to fight it out for the honour of being the last finisher - but with bragging rights over the retirees - before Mark ultimately took the place due to an unfortunate capsize at the last mark rounding. At the front of the fleet, the honours were equally hard-fought before Ronan Wallace took the gun in the Standards and Peter Kilmartin led the Radials home.

Close quarters racing inshore before the offshore sections provided a “Capsizefest”
Paul McMahon and Darach Dinneen gave a masterclass in tactical thinking by opting to skip the warm-up race in favour of last-minute refreshments ashore, staying fresh and dry to then increase the fleet for the main event round the multi-faceted and challenging Ireland’s Eye. By the time of its start, the conditions had become even more challenging, with the dense-air breeze now regularly heading for the mid-twenties and a steeply-building sea. The late arrivals joined the rest of a fleet by now somewhat tired and wet and were rewarded with a clean start for the concluding highlight.

What followed would later be described as a fast, memorable, terrifying and challenging Capsizefest, with lots of what older generations of Laser sailors are rumoured to have called ‘orgasmic planing’.

A feature of the event is that sailors have the choice of leaving the Island to port or starboard, their assessment based on the impact of wind direction, tide, sea state and the extent of wind shadowing expected from the Island’s high points. Only two sailors, both in Standard rigs, chose the clockwise route this year, Mike Evans doing best of them to eventually finish fourth. The second decided to head for home after reaching his self-imposed capsize limit before reaching the Martello Tower at the north-west end of the Island, with approximately a fifth of distance completed and the long legs along the north and east still to do.

For those choosing anti-clockwise, sailing into an ebb tide on the seaward side of the island with a very confused win-over-tide sea to deal with at the corners meant the rounding of the southern tip and the Stack challenged many, resulting in lots of shiny hull bottoms being put on display as capsizes quickly turned into energy-sapping turtles. Having swum and sailed their way around, the leading pack rounded the northwest corner at the Martello Tower to head down the Sound for the finish with a close battle still underway in both fleets, the outcome being mainly determined by who had the fewest capsizes and most energy left.

Chris Bateman’s victory in his first outing at the event gave the Standard rig sailors with more experience of the local waters a lot to think about, and his return next year to defend his title - allowing them a chance to redeem their pride - is much anticipated. Ronan Wallace and Darragh Sheridan filled the remaining podium positions while in the Radials, Peter Hassett was the top survivor, followed by Peter Kilmartin in second.

He came, he saw, he conquered…..Chris Bateman’s debut in Howth’s classic Laser race Round Ireland’s Eye was a convincing success. He is seen here (left) with Howth Laser Captain Zander Mackay.

The fleet adjourned to the Clubhouse to ease tired bodies, rehydrate, share tales of adventure and enjoy the lunch and prizegiving for the Frostbite and Round the Island.

Next event for the Laser fleet is Howth’s Icebreaker Series (Sundays, March 22nd – Apr 12th) before the 2020 Laser Class Leinster Championship is hosted at HYC on the weekend of May 9/10.