With the conclusion of Saturday racing at the weekend, Ireland's biggest sailing club brought the curtain down on its summer season in style, and overall results in all classes for the series are published below (subject to protest).
Dublin Bay Sailing Club members enjoyed warm sunny weather with a good breeze for the final Saturday race of the AIB DBSC Summer Sailing Season, with 121 boats racing over three race courses.
As regular Afloat readers will know, the DBSC Saturday season commenced with race training on four Saturdays in May, followed by 17 Saturdays of great racing during June, July, August and September. DBSC only lost one Saturday due to too much wind on August 7th, when racing was cancelled for all fleets.
Otherwise, many DBSC Saturdays had 'champagne sailing' conditions, including the final day on Saturday, September 25th.
"A team of 50+ volunteers including race officers, committee boat drivers, race management teams, patrol crews and mark layers all worked together to ensure that our members got an excellent standard of racing, sometimes in a very busy Dublin Bay when the three DBSC fleets shared the Bay with other events, DBSC Commodore Ann Kirwan told Afloat.
The Blue/Red fleet raced over 17 Saturdays with seven race starts from committee boat MacLir each race day for Cruisers 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, B31.7s, Shipmans and Glens.
A total of 115 races were held, including three hut starts on the Saturday of the ICRA National Championships. DBSC PRO Ed Totterdell ran the majority of these races.
Patrick Burke's Prima Forte that made an instant impression by winning the best new yacht on the Bay in 2020 is in the prizes again this season, the First 40 from the Royal Irish Yacht Club winning the Cruiser 0 IRC prize on Saturdays. The second was clubmate George Sisk in the XP44; Wow. Third was Vincent Farrell's First 40.7 Tsunami from the National Yacht Club.
Colin Byrne's XP34 'Bon Exemple' has won overall in Cruiser 1 IRC from Royal Irish clubmate Tim and Richard Goodbody's J/109 White Mischief. Third was the National Yacht Club J109 Jalapeno (Barrington/Despard/O'Sullivan/O'Reilly). The J order was repeated in the Cruiser 1 J/109 division with White Mischief victorious and John and Brian Hall's Something Else from the National Yacht Club in third.
The National Yacht Club were tops in the 31.7 One Designs, with Chris Johnston's Prospect winning from RIYC's Attitude (T Milner/D Owens/J Sugar). Third was Johnston's clubmates Michael Leahy and John Power in Levante.
Royal St. George J/97 (Lindsay J. Casey and Denis Power) took the overall prize in Cruiser 2 IRC from Jim McCann's RIYC based Mustang 30 Peridot, a 2019 winner of DBSC's best handicap boat prize. Third, in IRC2 was the Royal St. George's Sigma 33 (Richard and Philip Lovegrove).
In the Cruiser 2 Sigma 33 division, the Lovegrove's were winners finishing ahead of Gwilli II (Dermot Clarke/Paddy Maguire) from the RSt.GYC. Third was Henry Leonard and Bobby Kerr's Leeuwin from the RIYC.
In Cruiser 3 IRC, Class Captain Kevin Byrne racing the Formula 28 Starlet, took overall honours from Myles Kelly's DMYC-based Senator, Maranda. Third was the September winner of the Cruisers III Championships held on the Bay; the Ken Lawless skippered Quarter Tonner, Cartoon from the RIYC.
DBSC One Designs
The Green fleet raced over 16 Saturdays with SB20s, Flying Fifteens, Sportsboats, Dragons, Ruffians, B211s, Mermaids and Squibs.
The Green fleet, run from committee boat Freebird, had a total of 180 Saturday races, the majority run by Race Officer Barry O'Neill.
Justin Burke, Chris Helme and Alan Claffey from the National Yacht Club sailing So Blue were DBSC Saturday winners in the SB20 class. They took the overall prize ahead of Ger Dempsey's Venuesworld crew of the RIYC, who were runners up in this month's SB20 Nationals on Lough Ree. Colin Galavan and Richard Hayes from the RStGYC were third in Carpe Diem.
The Flying Fifteens were won by Ignis Caput II sailed by David Mulvin and Ronan Beirne of the National Yacht Club. The second was Ben Mulligan's Enfant de Marie with this year's Facet Trophy prize winner Niall Coleman sailing Flyer in third place.
On a trial basis, Sports Boats were also recorded using the VPRS handicap system. The winners were Vincent Latimore/Martin Ryan in the J70 with Ram Jam second and Mervyn Dyke and Basil in Jawesome III third. The results were the same in one design.
Dragon class victory went to ZinZan (Tim Carpenter, Adrian Masterson), who beat the Irish national champions Peter Bowring, Neil Hegarty and David Williams sailing Phantom. Third were Declan Hayes, Joey Mason and Chris Fleming in D-cision.
The Ruffian 23 Saturday top prize went to Michael Cutliffe's DMYC-moored Ruffles. Irish champion Bandit skippered by Ann Kirwan was second with Cutliffe's clubmate Frank Bradley in Ripples third.
The B211 One Design Saturday title went to Jacqueline McStay/Hugh Kelly's Small Wonder. Second was James Conboy-Fischer skippered B211 Billy Whizz, and third was Royal Irish Commodore Pat Shannon in Beeswing.
Richard O'Connor, Lucy Grant and Marcus Pearson in Glenluce won out against David Houlton's Glendun in Saturday Glen racing. Third was David and Roderick McCaffrey in Pterodactyl.
DBSC Dinghies
The Dinghies had 16 Saturday race days with three starts in each and enjoyed two races most days, with three on one sunny Saturday in Scotsman's Bay. Race Officers Suzanne McGarry and Barbara Conway ran most of the 84 Saturday races for the dinghies.
Royal St. George's Brendan Foley took the overall win in an RS Aero while Finn sailor Richard Tate was second and Stephen Oram third.
Pierre Long's Dart won the IDRA 14s. Frank Hamilton's Dunmoanin was second, with John Fitzgerald/Jennifer Byrne sailing Doody in third. All three sail out of the DMYC.
As the Fireball fleet prepares to host the world championships on Lough Derg next year, the DMYC's Owen Sinnott sailing Probably produced a win over Paul ter Horst in second and Louise McKenna Royal St George's Pink Fire in third.
Royal St. George's Gavan Murphy was Saturday Laser Standard winner ahead of Conor Roche. Theo Lyttle was third. In the Radial: Sean Craig won from David Cahill with Shirley Gilmore in third.
DBSC Saturday's Series Winners (Results Provisional & Subject to Protest)
Cruiser 0 IRC: 1. Prima Forte, 2. Wow, 3. Tsunami
Cruiser 0 Echo: 1. Prima Forte, 2. Wow, 3. Lively Lady
Cruiser 1 IRC: 1. Bon Exemple, 2. White Mischief, 3. Jalapeno
Cruiser 1 Echo: 1. Gringo, 2. Raptor, 3. Bon Exemple
Cruiser 1 J109: 1. White Mischief, 2. Jalapeno, 3. Something Else
31.7 One Design: 1. Prospect, 2. Attitude, 3. Levante
31.7 Echo: 1. Bluefin Two, 2. Attitude, 3. Kernach
Cruiser 2 IRC: 1. Windjammer, 2. Peridot, 3. Rupert
Cruiser 2 Echo: 1. Leeuwin, 2. Peridot, 3. Springer
Cruiser 2 Sigma 33: 1. Rupert, 2. Gwili II, 3. Leeuwin
Cruiser 3 IRC: 1. Starlet, 2. Maranda, 3. Cartoon
Cruiser 3 Echo: 1. Maranda, 2. Wynward, 3. Starlet
Cruiser 4 NS-IRC: 1. Boomerang, 2. RunAway, 3. Karukera
Cruiser 4 Echo: 1. Boomerang, 2. RunAway, 3. Karukera
Cruiser 5 NS-IRC: 1. Playtime, 2. Persistence, 3. Gung Ho
Cruiser 5 Echo: 1. Just Jasmin, 2. Playtime, 3. Gung Ho
SB20: 1. So Blue, 2. venuesworld.com, 3. Carpe Diem
Flying 15: 1. Ignis Caput II, 2. Enfant de Marie, 3. Flyer
Sportsboat VPRS: 1. Jambiya, 2. Ram Jam, 3. Jawesome III
Sportsboat: 1. Jambiya, 2. Ram Jam, 3. Jawesome III
Dragon: 1. ZinZan, 2. Phantom, 3. D-cision
Ruffian 23: 1. Ruffles, 2. Bandit, 3. Ripples
Shipman 28: 1. Invader, 2. Jo Slim 5, 3. Poppy
B211 One Design: 1. Small Wonder, 2. Billy Whizz, 3. Beeswing
B211 Echo: 1. Ventuno, 2. Small Wonder, 3. Beeswing
Glen: 1. Glenluce, 2. Glendun, 3. Pterodactyl
Squib/Mermaid PY: 1. Periquin, 2. Allsorts, 3. Aideen
PY Class: 1. Brendan Foley, 2. Richard Tate, 3. Stephen Oram
IDRA 14: 1. Dart, 2. Dunmoanin, 3. Doody
Fireball: 1. Owen Sinnott, 2. Paul ter Horst, 3. Louise McKenna
Laser Standard: 1. Gavan Murphy, 2. Conor Roche, 3. Theo Lyttle
Laser Radial: 1. Sean Craig, 2. David Cahill, 3. Shirley Gilmore