The inspiration for the Dinghy Summit came from Owen Laverty's experience with the Tech world's Web Summit where busy attendees were given quick and informative information dense sessions on a number of different topics related to web businesses. Here Laverty reviews the first ever dinghy summit held at the Royal St. George YC

Applying the same principles to sailing didn't require too much of a stretch, just some great speakers. The summit recognises that many senior dinghy sailors are busy and receive little or no training thus keep making the same mistakes. Without the learning they potentially lose interest. It aims to deliver rich, relevant content in a short space of time.

Held in the George last Saturday morning, first up was Graham Elmes with an excellent talk on starting and the first beat. Graham has a very strong history representing Ireland in many classes at international level and coaches at this level also. Graham spoke about general readiness for a race, planning your start and the three categories of wind patterns which may be in effect on the course. He discussed how to recognise them and the best tactics for each. The crowd of 35 senior dinghy sailors were all heard to say that it all seemed very simple!

Next up was Noel butler. Noel started sailing sailing at 25 (and ended up winning a World Championship in the laser II dinghy and eight national titles) with the initial thought that no one trains so early progress with a good training plan will ensure a good level of success. Noel spoke about how a 1% difference could mean a 100 meter lead in the average race.

Discussions focussed how this 1% could be gained in many areas encompassing fitness, hydration, boat speed, gear etc. Something that not many people consider is aligning your aims for the year with those of your crew, partner, work and family!  A very convincing 45 minutes with some great take home tips!

Finally James Espey provided the Laser sailors with some great tips on getting the most out of a Laser. James shared lots of go fast tips involving crew dynamics, wave techniques, fitness and finished off with a very telling exercise showing how to trim a Laser sail for all conditions. I don't think there were many in the audience who knew to start de-powering at 8 knots! The good news for those that missed it is that this is the first talk in the George Sailing Summit series and we expect to run more though the season - consider this the CPD of the Dunlaoghaire dinghy world!

#rsgyc – The Royal St George YC celebrates its annual all classes regatta night in Dun Laoghaire on Saturday.  All types of yachts are entered from wooden Mermaids to Squibs to dinghies to racing SB20s and Flying 15s to cruisers from zero to class four.

This year, the Frank Keane BMW George Yacht Regatta 12, promises to be the best ever regatta and a fabulous fun filled family day out for young and old. From the piers, spectators can watch boats leaving Dun Laoghaire Harbour mouth from 10.30 onwards for racing starting at 11.30 until 3pm in Dublin Bay.

The club celebrates its 174th regatta proudly sponsorsed by Frank Keane BMW of Blackrock. Since the construction of this fine Victorian harbour in 1820, Dun Laoghaire with itswaterfront yacht clubs has been a focal point for yacht racing & sailing in Dublin. The first recorded Kingtown Regatta was in 1828.

All types of boats can enter from wooden mermaids to squibs to dinghies to racing SB3s and flying 15s to cruisers little and large.  Ashore, at the Royal St George YC, family fun begins at 12 midday on the quarterdeck with a bucking Rodeo Bull, Face-painting and bouncy castle? Summer Jazz by Stedfast marks the sailors return ashore and the start of the Pig on the spit BBQ. Prize Giving will be at 6pm by Frank Keane BMW.

Family Day out 2.45pm to 3.15 pm by the Rodeo Bull & Face Painting, The Quarter Deck. PRiZE Giving The QuarterDeck: 6 to 7pm..

The first-ever RStGYC J80 Family Regatta took place on Sunday June 19. The wind and weather Gods smiled on us for a change as a big gathering of families congregated on the new Quarterdeck for Briefing and boat allocation. PHOTOS BELOW.

It was super to see such a great turnout (17 familes) and an extraordinary span of ages from about one year up to the elderberry Kirwan, Captain Paddy. Indeed, the Kirwan team had no less than four generations onboard!

Racing was in two flights in the 8 ISA Sailfleet J80s, with changeover by RIB co-ordinated by our Junior Organiser Adrian Eggers. Younger sailors ashore were kept busy by the inflatable bungee-run whilst the adults and youths nattered, drank coffee and chilled out. After racing, all enjoyed one of those increasingly popular Quarterdeck BBQs.

The first flight set off from the Marina's West Bight and turned left into Seapoint Bay. There was a nice Force 3-4 with flattish water, vital for those on-the-water changeovers! We tucked the course in a bit to leave plenty of room for the Flying Fifteen Nationals taking place further up towards Sandymount and to give the SB3s the rest of the Bay for their afternoon racing. The short course helped keep things interesting.

Each flight had three races and all six had really close racing. The standard was prety hot too, with the fleet hitting the start line pretty much bang-on and up to 6 boats rounding certain marks together. The ISA bosun was with us onboard the Flagship and while he definitely looked away a few times, he was very impressed with the boathandling on display. Indeed the skills shown by some of our young sailors, whether on the helm or crewing for their "old pairs" was really great to watch. Such naturals !!

A few prizes were dished out afterwards but the old cliché was never truer ; everybody who took part was a winner. Many thanks to the RIB crews and staff who helped make things run smoothly both on and off the water, especially Ronan Adams, our Sailing Manager. Let's not forget the 8 generous sponsors of the J80s too ; The Examiner, Smyths Toys, KPMG, McCann Fitzgerald, Smart Telecom, DynoRod, Dun Laoghaire Marina and O'Leary Insurances. The Royal St George YC is proud to be a Sailfleet founder member club. It's also only fair to mention that these boats are kept in fantastic condition, despite four years of heavy use up and down the country. Shame there aren't any big grants left !

The 17 RStGYC families sailing the J80s were (in no particular order) ; MacManus, Lyttle, O'Beirne, O'Connor (John), Hyland, O'Keefe-Pettitt, O'Connor (Gerry), Gilmer, Deladienee, Fogarty, O'Connell, Kirwan, Foley, Cahill, Walsh, Cooke, O'Connor (Richard).

Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta and the Brewin Dolphin Scottish Series are jointly promoting reduced entry fees in a tue up between the two big Irish Sea regattas.  50% discounts off entry fees is available for boats entering both events.

"The way this works is that the Clyde Cruising Club are offering a 25% rebate for boats from the 4 Dun Laoghaire Clubs (DMYC, NYC, RIYC, RStGYC) that enter the Brewin Dolphin Scottish series before the expiration of the early bird discount period which expires on April 22nd explained Dun Laoghaire event secretary, Ciara Dowling.

As a reciprocal arrangement the committee of the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta are offering a discount of 50% from the full entry fee to all boats that enter both regattas. To avail of this, boats must register for the early bird entry fee in the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta prior to 2 May 2011. Note the 50% discount will be applied to the full entry fee rate and not the early bird rate.

To avail of this arrangement for the Scottish Series contact the Brewin Dolphin Scottish Series office for details, [email protected] 0044141 221 2774.

To avail of this arrangement for the Volvo Dun Laoghaire regatta visit the event website at www.dlregatta.org or email [email protected]

The Scottish Series takes place from 27–30 May and the Dun Laoghaire regatta from July 7th–10th 2011.

In a further boost for Dun Laoghaire sailors heading north the feeder race from Bangor to Tarbert has been re-instated.

Troon and Largs Marinas are offering competitors berthing rate discounts around Scottish Series.

Competitors from Scotland coming to Dun Laoghaire are reminded that the entry fee to the regatta includes free berthing for the duration of the event.

The official Notice of Race and Online Entry are now available at www.dlregatta.org