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Displaying items by tag: Women At The Helm Regatta

The 2024 Women At The Helm Regatta (WATH) will be hosted by the National Yacht Club over the weekend of May 24-26.

The event encourages female sailors who may not normally lead, to step up and make the move from crew to helm. The event is open to all female helms from teenagers to seniors, with multiple prizes on offer, and participation is mixed.

The regatta will kick off with a Speaker Supper the evening of Friday, May 24th, with Olympic silver medalist sailor Annalise Murphy (and national road champion cyclist) and Joan Mulloy and moderator, former RTE news anchor, Bryan Dobson.

The regatta is for keelboats and dinghies, with all entrants aged 16+. The event is run  in association with SIA Partners.

The National Yacht Club hosts the 2024 Women At The Helm Regatta on May 24-26The National Yacht Club hosts the 2024 Women At The Helm Regatta on May 24-26

The criteria is for a female to helm all boats, but unlike the previous WATH regattas, the NYC organisers have dropped the requirement for at least 50% of the crew to be female.

There will be one race on Saturday afternoon, which will be the Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) race, and WATH entrants who are not members of DBSC will race in it. Boats entered in DBSC and WATH will be scored in both.

For classes that may have more than one DBSC race (dinghies and Green fleet), only the first race will count towards the WATH regatta.

Former Figaro sailor Joan Mulloy will speak at the 2024 Women At The Helm RegattaFormer Figaro sailor Joan Mulloy will speak at the 2024 Women At The Helm Regatta

Three races are scheduled for Sunday, followed by prize giving in NYC, including the coveted prize of the Roy Family Perpetual Trophy for best team performance. 

If all four races are sailed there will be one discard. The reality is that not all DBSC boat owners will pass the helm to a non-regular female helm, so if a male helms on Saturday, that race can be discarded, and all three Sunday races counted for WATH.

The Water Wags' second race on Wednesday, May 22nd, will be their single WATH race.

The event will include a female-helmed cruise in company on Sunday, the 26th.

In addition to the Speaker Supper the social activities will include a post-sailing BBQ with live music on Saturday evening, and a BBQ with music and the prize giving on Sunday afternoon.

The Notice of Race and Entry Form is here

Published in Women in Sailing

Beneteau 211 sailing in Ireland

A small, fast cruiser/racer – in style very much a miniature Open 60 or early Figaro, the Beneteau First 211 offers high sailing performance for her size, plus simple accommodation for up to four people.
The boat is very dinghy-style to sail, although the keel makes her self-righting, and foam buoyancy renders her unsinkable, according to the French manufacturer.

Designed by Groupe Finot and introduced in 1998 as a replacement model for the 1992 model First 210, the Beneteau First 211 is a small high-performance yacht designed to be simple to sail and take the ground or be trailed. The words' pocket rockets' tend to be used to describe these boats!
The design was revised to become the Beneteau First 21.7 in 2005. All three models, 210, 211 and 21.7, are very similar in style and concept and share many actual components.

The hull of the Beneteau First 211 is solid GRP, with sandwich construction for the deck moulding. There is foam buoyancy at the bow and stern, guaranteeing unsinkability. The ballasted drop keel is raised by a manual jack and allows easy transport of the boat and drying out if required, supported level by the twin rudders.
The sailplan has a non-overlapping jib to keep sheet loads down and a large spinnaker to achieve high speeds downwind. With almost six foot of draught with keel down and twin rudders for control, upwind performance is also excellent.

The design is popular in Ireland's boating capital at Dun Laoghaire Harbour, where up to a dozen race as part of a one-design class in regular Dublin Bay Sailing Club racing. The boats also race for national championship honours annually. The boats are kept on Dun Laoghaire Marina and look all the more impressive as the fleet of pocket rocket racers are all moored together on one pontoon.

At A Glance – Beneteau First 211 Specifications

LOA: 6.2m (20ft 4in)

Draught: 1.8m to 0.65m (5ft 11in to 2ft 2in)

Displacement: 1,100kg (2,200lb)

LWL: 6m (19ft 7in)

ARCHITECT
• Finot Conq et Associés

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