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Displaying items by tag: Elmo Cup

Royal St. George's Robert Walker shot this short timelapse video showing the training that is ongoing this week for the Elmo Cup team racing and the Dun Laoghaire Harbour granite pond venue looks superb in the August sunshine! 

See the vid below

The Elmo Cup takes place on 27/28 August at the Royal Saint George.

As Afloat previously reported, this year sees the return of last year's debutants Glandore Harbour Yacht Club, as well as the first ever Donegal entry, Rathmullan Sailing Club.

The home club will look to defend the trophy after the success of ‘Sea Buoys’ last year as Afloat reported here.

The event will be sailed in three flights of Firefly dinghies, where teams of six crews will race each other in a round-robin format.

RStGYC currently have 30 teams in five flights entered with six in each team, so a total of 180 sailors aged between 12 and 18.

Published in Team Racing
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The full lineup of 18 teams will be ready to battle in Dun Laoghaire Harbour this weekend for the sixth Elmo Trophy.

This youth sailing team racing event will see teams of six sailors representing their clubs or classes race in the 18 Firefly dinghies that are supplied for the event.

The 108 competing sailors at the Royal St George Yacht Club are aged between 13 and 19 with a 50:50 split between boys and girls.

The team travelling the furthest is a first-time entry from Glandore Yacht Club skippered by Conor Cresswell, while one of the host teams will include a member of Liverpool's West Kirby Sailing Club.

On paper, very strong lineups are entered from Royal Cork skippered by Lola Kohl, National Yacht Club skippered by Natasha Hemeryck, the 29er class skippered by Trevor Bolger and the Waszp class skippered by Max Goodbody.

A host team skippered by Finn Walker will look to defend the trophy won last time by 'Curious George' in 2019.

Over 130 races are expected to be sailed with the final scheduled for Sunday afternoon.

Published in Team Racing
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The 2020 Elmo trophy for team racing at Dun Laoghaire Harbour has been cancelled. With the current measures in place to halt the spread of the coronavirus event organisers RStGYC have made the difficult decision to cancel the event for 2020.

Unlike conventional fleet racing regattas, the Elmo Trophy sees groups of young sailors sharing Firefly dinghies, carrying out on-water changeovers using support RIBs and often being in close proximity to one another ashore.

It also requires a high number of support staff and volunteers, as well as attracting a large number of spectators to the club.

A postponement to October and a change in format to 2v2 Team racing was considered to enable the event to be sailed but with the recent rise in cases, the event has now had to be cancelled.

This year's event was to have seen the addition of the new ISA fleet of fireflies and the introduction of a Swiss league to ensure teams on similar standards continued to race against each other all weekend. Both of these would have helped build on last year's record entry of 22 teams and 4 flights of boats.

RStGYC looks forward to welcoming teams back in 2021.

Published in Team Racing
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"Curious George" from the host yacht club emerged the winners of the fifth Elmo Team Racing Trophy sailed this weekend at the Royal St George Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire Harbour. 22 teams from all over Ireland competed in the event, with most of Ireland's top youth sailors enjoying sailing with and against each other in almost perfect team racing conditions.

Despite a slight delay waiting for wind on Sunday morning, the race team successfully completed almost 120 races over the two days.

Elmo Team Racing 9116Almost 120 races took place over the two days

After the initial round-robin on Saturday, the teams were split into seeded fleets for racing on Sunday. Curious George (Toby Hudson Fowler, Kathy Kelly, Henry Higgins, Isabelle Kearney, Jack Fahy and Emily Riordan) narrowly beat Goats in Boats, led by last years winning captain, Tom Higgins. Showing the competitiveness of the sailing, and how our youth sailors are developing as keen team racers, the next three places had to be decided on count backs, with Morgan Lyttle's 420 Blaze it just edging ahead of George Clooney (captained by Helen O'Beirne) and Atlee Kohl's 3 Amigos. First in the Silver Fleet was Harry Twomey's RCYC team.

Elmo Team Racing 908922 teams from all over Ireland competed in the event

Raced in four flights for the first time in its 5 year history, the organisers hope this event will grow to a fifth flight and even more teams next year as youth team racing grows around the country.

Published in RStGYC

Howth 17 information

The oldest one-design keelboat racing class in the world is still competing today to its original 1897 design exclusively at Howth Yacht club.

Howth 17 FAQs

The Howth 17 is a type of keelboat. It is a 3-man single-design keelboat designed to race in the waters off Howth and Dublin Bay.

The Howth Seventeen is just 22ft 6ins in hull length.

The Howth 17 class is raced and maintained by the Association members preserving the unique heritage of the boats. Association Members maintain the vibrancy of the Class by racing and cruising together as a class and also encourage new participants to the Class in order to maintain succession. This philosophy is taken account of and explained when the boats are sold.

The boat is the oldest one-design keelboat racing class in the world and it is still racing today to its original design exclusively at Howth Yacht club. It has important historical and heritage value keep alive by a vibrant class of members who race and cruise the boats.

Although 21 boats are in existence, a full fleet rarely sails buy turnouts for the annual championships are regularly in the high teens.

The plans of the Howth 17 were originally drawn by Walter Herbert Boyd in 1897 for Howth Sailing Club. The boat was launched in Ireland in 1898.

They were originally built by John Hilditch at Carrickfergus, County Down. Initially, five boats were constructed by him and sailed the 90-mile passage to Howth in the spring of 1898. The latest Number 21 was built in France in 2017.

The Howth 17s were designed to combat local conditions in Howth that many of the keel-less boats of that era such as the 'Half-Rater' would have found difficult.

The original fleet of five, Rita, Leila, Silver Moon, Aura and Hera, was increased in 1900 with the addition of Pauline, Zaida and Anita. By 1913 the class had increased to fourteen boats. The extra nine were commissioned by Dublin Bay Sailing Club for racing from Kingstown (Dún Laoghaire) - Echo, Sylvia, Mimosa, Deilginis, Rosemary, Gladys, Bobolink, Eileen and Nautilus. Gradually the boats found their way to Howth from various places, including the Solent and by the latter part of the 20th century they were all based there. The class, however, was reduced to 15 due to mishaps and storm damage for a few short years but in May 1988 Isobel and Erica were launched at Howth Yacht Club, the boats having been built in a shed at Howth Castle - the first of the class actually built in Howth.

The basic wooden Howth 17 specification was for a stem and keel of oak and elm, deadwood and frames of oak, planking of yellow pine above the waterline and red pine below, a shelf of pitch pine and a topstrake of teak, larch deck-beams and yellow pine planking and Baltic spruce spars with a keel of lead. Other than the inclusion of teak, the boats were designed to be built of materials which at that time were readily available. However today yellow pine and pitch pine are scarce, their properties of endurance and longevity much appreciated and very much in evidence on the original five boats.

 

It is always a busy 60-race season of regular midweek evening and Saturday afternoon contests plus regattas and the Howth Autumn League.

In 2017, a new Howth 17 Orla, No 21, was built for Ian Malcolm. The construction of Orla began in September 2016 at Skol ar Mor, the boat-building school run by American Mike Newmeyer and his dedicated team of instructor-craftsmen at Mesquer in southern Brittany. In 2018, Storm Emma wrought extensive destruction through the seven Howth Seventeens stored in their much-damaged shed on Howth’s East Pier at the beginning of March 2018, it was feared that several of the boats – which since 1898 have been the very heart of Howth sailing – would be written off. But in the end only one – David O’Connell’s Anita built in 1900 by James Clancy of Dun Laoghaire – was assessed as needing a complete re-build. Anita was rebuilt by Paul Robert and his team at Les Ateliers de l’Enfer in Douarnenez in Brittany in 2019 and Brought home to Howth.

The Howth 17 has a gaff rig.

The total sail area is 305 sq ft (28.3 m2).

©Afloat 2020