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#varsitysailing – The upcoming Irish University Sailing Association Intervarsity Championships will be hosted by the University College Cork Sailing Club next weekend.

This team racing event will run from the 26th to the 28th of February in the Fastnet Marine Outdoor Education Centre in Schull, Co. Cork. The F.M.O.E.C. is no stranger to events of this calibre, having hosted the Team Racing World Championships in 2011.

28 teams will travel from 9 colleges in Ireland, namely University College Cork, Cork Institute of Technology, University of Limerick, National University of Ireland Galway, University College Dublin, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin City University, Dublin Institute of Technology, and Queens University Belfast. The Scottish University Sailing Association will also be represented by two teams from Loughborough University.

Following day one, teams will be divided into Gold, Silver and Bronze fleets, and will race in these respective fleets on day two. On the third day, the top teams in each fleet will compete in the finals series.

In 2013/2014 the Intervarsity title was won by University College Dublin, with University College Cork finishing in second place, and University of Cork (2) in third position.

Published in Team Racing

#teamrace – The Schull Alumni team showed themselves to be the 'in form' team, confirming their ITRA Irish team racing Champion status.

The ISAF Team Racing World Championship is the ultimate test of the three boat versus three boat format. The Irish Team Racing Association ran trials on 14th February to select the Irish representatives. The event was sailed in light airs within Dun Laoghaire Harbour with five teams competing in the double round robin. Royal St George Yacht Club's excellent Fireflies provided the ideal platform, as identical boats will be used in the Worlds on Rutland Water, UK.
In the first match Alumni were drawn against rivals George Knights as youth and speed took on the experience and cunning of the Knights. It was cut and thrust from the warning signal with no quarter asked for or given. The umpires were kept busy answering protests. Schull got the upper hand and retained control sailing faster to take the first match in the rubber. The second match saw the George Knights start strongly but were reeled in by Schull's superior speed. It was all to play for down the run but Knights held onto the lead with a 1,4-5. Mark 4 saw 4 boats frenetically tacking and gybing as Schull tried to get into a winning combination. The George held the combination with last place swapping between the teams but a misjudgement by Knights on the finish line saw Schull sneak the win. The George didn't drop another match (6 wins) and Schull (7 wins) fell only to Aidan McLaverty's Hoop Dream, who took third place with 4 wins.
ITRA will recommend to the ISA that Alumni and Knights be selected as IRL1 and IRL2 for the ISAF Team Racing World Championships and if a third place is offered to Ireland Hoops will be selected as IRL3.
Thanks to Gordon Davies for organising the event, the RStGYC for providing the facilities and the race and umpire teams for supporting an enjoyable event.
Schull Alumni:
Mark Hassett, Fionn Lyden, Oisin O'Driscoll, Liam Manning, Ellen O'Regan, Katie Moynihan
George Knights:
John Sheehy, Rebecca Killian, Nick Smyth, Rachel Guy, Ger Owens, Maeve Judge
Hoops:
Aidan McLaverty, Sonia Minihane, William Clarke, Madoline O' Connell, Ross Murray, Niamh Connoly
For more information contact Gordon Davies (Hon Sec ITRA) 086 150 1220

Published in Team Racing
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#2kteamracing – Teams from Howth Yacht Club and the Royal Cork Yacht Club travelled to Porto Ercole, Tuscany for the Italian- Cala Galera leg of the 2014 2K team Racing Circuit, from the 5th to 7th of September. Both teams enjoyed high intensity racing, some very tight matches, exceptional racing conditions, and beautiful scenery.

The Royal Cork team, led by skippers Fred Cudmore and George Kinsgton won 6 of the 9 races in the round robin, over the first and second day of the event. They went into day 3 of the event in second place, and faced the highly experienced 2K racers, Yacht Club Costa Smerelda in the first to two wins semi final. Racing went down to the wire, but unfortunately YCCS won 2-1. The Rebel army won their petit final, against the British Team Magnum, finishing the regatta in 3rd place. YCCS stormed on to beat the Rome Racing Team in the final.

Howth Yacht Club, competing at their first 2K event, had a slow start getting in only two races of their round robin on Friday. With more breeze on day 2, skippers Simon Rattigan and Geoff Tait were more in the groove of the 2 v 2 racing and they went on to win 4 from 7 of their races. On day 3, the team had the best seats in the house to watch the gold fleet finals, from their luxurious changeover yacht. They then took part in the "king of the castle" silver fleet final, and finished the event in 9th place.

The Royal Cork were represented by: Fred Cudmore, Emma Geary, Philip O'Leary, Sarah O'Leary, George Kingston, Ian Mc Namee, Philip Mc Glade, and Eimear O'Leary.
Howth were represented by Simon Rattigan, Aoife English, Ross Mc Donald, Rachel O'Brien, Geoff Tait, Lisa Tait, Rob Kerley and Jess Armstrong.

Full event report and results are available here

Published in Team Racing

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).

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