Great Britain's Ben and Keira McGrane of Netley Sailing Club won the Mirror World Championships at Sligo Yacht Club on Friday, which saw Britain take the top three places overall.

Despite a final-day blowout, Race Office Bill O'Hara and his team managed to fit in an 11-race series over six days.

A 50-boat-strong fleet was put through its paces throughout the week with mixed conditions on Sligo Bay.

The McGranes counted seven race wins, taking the title with an impressive tally of 11 points.

Stuart and Lizzie Hudson, a Great Britain boat, came second with 32 points. Closing out the podium positions were compatriots Will and Isabelle Crocker.

The 50-boat Mirror World Championship fleet launch at Sligo Yacht Club in Rosses Point

From an Irish perspective, the first Irish boat was Thomas Chaix and his son Ben in 12th.

Home club sailors David Evans and Andrew Ryan, fresh off the back of an impressive Irish Nationals where they finished as the first Irish boat, were the next best for the Worlds, finishing in 15th.

Meanwhile, Sligo Yacht Club's Jessica Greer and Myrtle Bamber were the third-highest-finishing Irish boat coming in at 17th.

A total of 52 boats were registered for the event. Australia, South Africa and Great Britain boats journeyed to Sligo for the event.

Results here

Afloat.ie regrets to record the death on Friday (7 July) of Gus Henry of Sligo; a leading Sligo Yacht Club member, veteran race officer and sailing enthusiast.

In particular, Gus was a GP14 sailor of great energy and national status, and was also involved in developing many other interests and projects in his beloved area of the Northwest.

A full Afloat.ie appreciation will appear in due course. Meanwhile, our heartfelt condolences are with his loving family and very many friends.

With the 2023 Mirror Worlds coming to Sligo Yacht Club this July, Mirror Sailing Ireland has issued an appeal for race-ready Mirror dinghies to charter to visiting sailors from abroad.

“With shipping costs still very high, we have a number of sailors who are hoping you may have a Mirror lying unused that you would like to see hit the water again,” the class body says.

If you can be of any assistance in this regard, get in touch with Emmet Duffy at 086 852 3230 or [email protected].

The Irish weather is no respecter of history, and sailing history in particular. Apart from the fact that it regularly appears to break meteorological records with an insouciant disregard for their significance and the patient effort that our ancestors put into noting such things in the first place, the mere fact that a date of unique importance is approaching is no guarantee whatsoever of good sailing conditions. On the contrary, the more trouble a hosting club or class association go to in preparing for a major event, the more certain we can be that the Weather Gods will rain mightily on their parade, with winds of destructive power.

So marked is this tendency – particularly in 2021, when we already don't have to seek our troubles – that there must be sailing club Honorary Sailing Secretaries who have felt tempted to pin an announcement on their public notice board to the effect that: "Absolutely Nothing Is Happening at This Club This Weekend", while secretly going ahead with planning races for all classes.

It might fool the Mysterious Might of Meteorology on one or two occasions, and in an era when every sporting happening afloat and ashore is built on a basis of desperately-sought publicity, it will probably prove a runaway winner in gathering attention.

But such sagacious hindsight is of little use to a national event last weekend which deserved to have perfect sailing conditions and much attention, but ended up with all the three days planned racing crammed into the Friday. That got a result of sorts, but Saturday and Sunday saw gales of such power that the competitors – who had come from many parts of Ireland – were glad enough to get home without their boats and towing vehicles being blown clean off the road.

Where it all started 200 years ago – Lough Gill immediately inland of Sligo town was the scene for the first races for the Ladies Cup.

2021 is the Bicentenary of Sligo Yacht Club, which started its sailing in 1821 with races on the sheltered and microclimate-blessed waters of Lough Gill inland of the seaport town. To encourage their men in this worthy and character-building activity, the womenfolk of Sligo immediately got together to present the Ladies Cup "for the encouragement of fast sailing boats on Lough Gill". That Deed of Gift may well have had a double intention, for apart from encouraging manly sport afloat, the gradual elimination of slow boats would mean there'd be no excuse for some matelots returning home late, smelling of strong drink and the truth not in them. Even so, the hopes of achieving that in all cases were probably just about zero.

The main hazard for the SYC Ladies Cup in its 200 years of existence is that people have tended to look after it too well, with one valuer in 1891 commenting: "The original weight was 69.5 troy ounces, from repeated cleaning it now weighs only 68 ounces, but it is in excellent condition".

Such innovation was part of the developing sailing scene in the northwest, and nearby in Fermanagh - where the myriad waters of Lough Erne are so all-pervasive that having a boat/yacht was often the best way to get about - by 1818 they were racing, and by 1820, and possibly earlier, Lough Erne Yacht Club was established primarily to organise yacht racing, the world's first sailing club with that specific purpose.

But whereas in the greater Lough Erne area they weren't above selling off historic silver yacht racing trophies after a bad harvest, in Sligo there seems to have been a greater reverence for such things, or for the Ladies Cup at least, and it has survived. This makes it the world's oldest continually-competed-for sailing trophy. Age-comparable bits of silverware in the Royal Cork were challenge cups for just one race – the oldest is from 1829 – and they thus remain in the trophy cupboard, while some more ancient trophies in the Royal Thames are likewise one-offs, and anyway the word is they're replicas of lost prizes.

Yet the Ladies' Cup is a true perpetual trophy, it just keeps sailing along, even if it took a few years for them to cop on that its usefulness to the sailing world would be improved by inscribing the names of each year's winner, although the first is believed to have been Owen Wynn (1755-1841) of Hazelwood, the big house of Lough Gill.

Despite the convenience to the leading local land-owner and first citizen of being able to keep his race-winning boat at the bottom of the garden, Lough Gill in high summer could be oppressively hot and heavy, and in time the Club re-focused its activity on the sea at Rosses Point, where the anchorage in the widening mouth of the Garavogue River is briskly tide-rode, but the healthy fresh sea air is served up in king-size portions.

Sligo Yacht Club at Rosses Point, with the distinctive Ben Bulben beyond

Admittedly their continuing use at Rosses Point of the Ladies Cup implies a certain cavalier disregard for its original specification in the Deed of Gift, which was clearcut for racing on Lough Gill. And certainly from time to time - being the northwest of Ireland - the winds are appropriately robust, so much so that on occasion there's an impulse to return from Rosses Point to the comparative peace of Lough Gill.

Such thoughts must have surfaced with added strength last weekend, when they hoped to celebrate the Bicentenary of the SYC Ladies Cup properly by making it the premier trophy for the 2021 J/24 Nationals. For the J/24 is popular in Sligo, and the entry list for these special nationals covered such an extensive range of clubs that they merit listing, the lineup including Royal Cork YC, Sligo YC, Carlingford SC, Mullaghmore SC, National YC, Greystones SC, Foynes YC, Wicklow SC, Lough Erne YC, Howth YC, Western YC, Bray SC, Tralee Bay SC, Mayo SC, and Lough Ree YC.

Sailing at Rosses Point as it can be. Sligo YC is hosting the Mirror Nationals from August 20-22nd.

So not only was the stage set, but the props for the historic drama were right on target, as the original conditions for the award of the Ladies Cup was that it be restricted to boats not more than 26ft and 3ins long. Thanks to the limiting size of the Johnson brothers' parents' garage in which the first J/24 was created in 1976, everything was compliant for making the Bicentenary Award of the Ladies Cup harmonious with history. So all that was needed was a bit of co-operation from the weather, but just to be on the safe side they made it a three-day event, with the 24-strong fleet assembled by Thursday night, and a full day's racing scheduled for Friday, August 6th.

Atlantic horizon for J/24s off Rosses Point on the Friday

We're grateful to Oisin Brennan for this insider's view of an event that may merit Veterans Medals in due course:

Friday 6th of August: 

With a heavy forecast looming, the competition was always under threat but all competing boats made it out to begin racing. Four races were planned with the wind steady around 15 knots and gusting 16 but continually dying off as the day went on. By the time the first race was underway the wind had dropped down to a much more manageable 8-10 knots gusting closer to 12. 

The first race began with the usual chaos at the start line but no recalls. 2019 National Champions Headcase started the defence of their title well with a first with Tadgh O'Loinsigh's Janx Spirit from Tralee Bay Sailing Club in second and JP McCaldin's Il Ricco from Lough Erne Yacht Club finishing in third. The second race introduced the first recalls of the event with Jobs for the Buoys and Jevan being called back. Again Headcase took the race with Il Ricco in second and Stouche claiming third. With the wind dropping again, Stouche were one of a few boats hoping for an increase to climb further up the podium. A general recall split the fleet with some boats benefitting and others missing out on impressive starts. Even with what they considered less favourable conditions, Stouche continued their run of improving results and finished second overall once again behind Headcase. Il Ricco followed up third matching their result from the first race. The final race started with no recalls and promised to be a perfect ending to a great day of racing but huge wind shifts saw the final upwind leg become a tight reach. Headcase were not put off by this shift and finished out with four bullets. Just for the fun of it, Sligo Yacht Club finished with their best result of the competition in second, with Hard on Port from Bray taking a third place finish.

Nervy start, restless sky – the one day of racing had to cover a host of requirements.

Saturday 7th of August:

The day began with a two hour postponement and a general acceptance that it would be followed by a further delay. As expected there were two more official delays eventually culminating in a cancellation for the day. There was clear frustration in the fleet with a number of boats relying on the discard to improve their result. There wasn't long to be disappointed, however, with the much-anticipated dinner later that night - it was a memorable occasion, and a fantastic night was had by all.

Sunday 8th of August:

Cancellation for the day was quickly called on the Sunday with the expected heavy forecast. With no discard, results remained the same from Friday with Headcase winning both the Ladies Cup and the 2021 J24 National Championship. Il Ricco finished second and Jana following up in third.

SYC Commodore Ken Draper (right) with the U25 Champions from Howth YC who were racing Kilcullen, they are (left to right) Philip McDowell, William Lacey, David Johnston, Sam Crawford and Jack McMahon.

Seven under 25 teams were entered in this year's National Championships with six taking part, each funded by the Irish Cruiser Racing Association (ICRA) development programme. Kilcullen, helmed by David Johnston from Howth Yacht Club, are the J24 U25 National Champions, Jasper 2 from Foynes Yacht Club were second and Just a Minute from Greystones Sailing Club in third. Kilcullen also finished top of Silver Fleet.

Darkside, helmed by twenty-year-old Oisín Brennan of Sligo Yacht Club, sailing with a crew of family and friends ranging in age from fifteen to sixty-seven and all new to competitive sailing, finished first in the Bronze Fleet.

First in the Westerly Fleet was Conor Haughton's Jade from Wicklow Sailing Club.

Full results available here

GP 14 NATIONALS AT LOUGH ERNE

Despite a few notable absentees, there are 40 entries for this weekend's GP14 Nationals at Lough Erne

This weekend, the focus in the history-laden northwest has switched to Lough Erne YC and the GP14 Nationals, the combination of another historic class with another historic club. In a cruel twist of fate, the problem might just be a lack of wind, but it's looking quite hopeful for some decent sailing nevertheless.

This year’s Mirror World Championships in Sligo Yacht Club have been postponed due to the ongoing travel restrictions around the pandemic.

“The backdrop of COVID-19 presented so many challenges in terms of the organising and logistics for such a large scale event,” says Mirror Sailing Ireland’s Emmet Duffy.

“With sailors, their families and friends expected from many countries, travel restrictions and uncertainty would have limited participants.

“A Mirror Worlds needs the global Mirror family from both near and afar to make it such.”

Duffy adds: “I know that behind the scenes, Sligo Yacht Club and Irish Sailing have put in a lot of work and planning to date which will still benefit the rescheduled event.

“We now watch for restrictions to ease and for sailing, be it training and events to happen again soon. The plan is to get our own regional events in over the summer and we will have an events calendar out soon.”

County Sligo was a big winner in the Fisheries Local Action Groups awards announced today with Sligo Yacht Club getting €33,465.00 to improve the facilities and Sligo County Council were awarded €32,396.84 for a Temporary Pontoon Project.

On the East coast, Greystones Sailing Club got an 80% grant of €7,920.00 Junior and Adult sail training programme. And in North Dublin, Skerries Rowing Club got an 80% grant of 49,318.40 for Design Team Fees for its Rowing Club Boathouse.

Scroll down for the full allocations below

The Minister for Agriculture Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue T.D., announced the award of further grants worth €1.2 million to 56 local community groups and micro enterprises by the seven Fisheries Local Action Groups established under Ireland’s European Maritime and Fisheries Fund Programme. The grants are co-funded by the Government of Ireland and the European Union.

Announcing the grant awards, Minister McConalogue said: “I am delighted to announce today a further 56 coastal projects to benefit from EMFF funding through the seven Fisheries Local Action Groups established as part of my Department’s EMFF Programme supporting the development of our seafood sector and coastal communities. These latest grant awards mean a total of €2.7 million FLAG funding has been awarded this year alone to 155 coastal projects”.

Minister McConalogue added: “Many of the projects benefitting from EMFF FLAG funding are non-commercial projects benefitting the whole community in their coastal area. Such projects can often secure up to 80% of the project cost, making a real difference to the viability of such projects. This is just one of the ways in which my Department’s EMFF Programme is making a real difference for our coastal communities”.

Details of the individual grant awards are set out below for each of the 7 FLAGs.

 FLAG North

FLAG NorthWest

FLAG NorthEast

FLAG South

FLAG South West

FLAG West

FLAG SouthEast

The International Mirror Sailing Association Ireland (IMCAI) has announced that Sligo Yacht Club will host the Mirror World Championships in 2021.

The Rosses Point club will welcome the world’s top Mirror dinghy talent from 16-22 August 2021, preceded by the Irish Nationals from 13-15 August that year.

Sligo Yacht Club, which will also celebrate its 200th anniversary in 2021, previously hosted the Mirror Worlds in 1987. More recently it was the venue for the Mirror Europeans in 2010, and regularly hosts regional championships.

Further details are expected to emerge over the next few months.

There were weekend tributes to J24 Class supremo Flor O'Driscoll who stood down as Class President to great acclaim and a standing ovation at Saturday evening's dinner not only for his service to the fleet but also his continuing success afloat, that has included national titles as well as Dun Laoghaire Regatta Boat of the Week in 2007. As an appropriate send–off, the weekend National Championship at Sligo Yacht Club fielded one of the big Irish fleets for some time.

Lough Erne Yacht Club's JP McCaldin emerged overall winner after a blustery three-day regatta.

The Northern Ireland victory follows a similar outcome at the J24 Western Championships in May on the Shannon Estuary at Foynes Yacht Club.

Sailing against a 26–strong fleet - a record turnout for recent times - plus a match-race challenge from runner-up Stefan Hyde, McCaldin scored all first and second places for the eight race series.

His principal challenger was almost as consistent with four wins as well but the Royal Cork skipper also had to count a fourth and a third to admit defeat by just three points.

The duelling leaders were followed by a closely bunched pack led by Sligo yachtsman Martin Reilly on Crazy Horse who comfortably secured third place going into the final thanks to a consistent run ofmostly top five results.

Howth Yacht Club Race Officer Derek Bothwell returned to Sligo with the J24's once more and delivered the series in challenging weather, particularly for the first two days that saw strong winds whip big seas that provided thrilling surfing conditions for the fleet.

Tomorrow's All Ireland Junior sailing championships looks like it will get off to a wet and windy start for the 16–nominated junior sailing stars drawn from seven yacht clubs from around the country.

The Under–18 championships is scheduled to race over two days in West Cork's own TR3.6 two handed dinghies but the weather forecast for the Schull venue shows winds topping 40–knots for Saturday and the same again on Sunday.  

XC weather forecaster shows big winds in Schull, West Cork tomorrow

In a show of strength for Dublin's Royal St. George Yacht Club more than a third of the participants are drawn from the Dun Laoghaire club. RStGYC juniors are representing the RS200 (Toby Hudson Fowler), the RS Feva (Henry Start), Laser 4.7 (Peter Fagan), Optimist (Tom Higgins), Topper (Jack Fahy) and Kate Lyttle from the 420 class.

Multi–champion in the Optimist class, Tom Higgins from the Royal St. George, is nominated for this weekend's All Ireland Juniors  in Schull

Royal Cork Yacht Club is the next biggest club on the water in Schull with four sailors involved. 29er skipper Harry Durcan and twin Johnny representing 29er and Laser Radials respectively. Harry Twomey represents the Optimist class and Sophie Crosby sails for the Toppers. 

The National Yacht Club's Clare Gorman represents the Laser 4.7 and will defend the girls title and the NYC's Leah Rickard sails for the Optimists.

Schull's own TR3.6 dinghies ready for the junior all Ireland sailors. Photo: Fastnet Marine

The West coast is represented by three clubs.Topaz sailors Adam Byrne and Dylan Reidy representing Dingle SC and Foynes YC respectively and Sligo Yacht Club sends Mirror ace Sarah White.

The 420 class is represented by Geoff Power of Waterford Harbour Sailing Club. 

Full nominee list below

The Irish RS400 fleet took its first foray into the North West last weekend, dipping their toes, and in many cases their heads, in the strangely mild waters of Sligo Bay. Sligo Yacht Club, under the watchful eye of Mick Spain, welcomed the fleet for the first time, and despite the drizzly conditions, ran a superb event in what must be one of the best race areas in the country. Download results below.
In the absence of Alex Barry, Gareth Flannigan and Dave Fletcher in 1259 from Ballyholme were rather dominant, with only John Downey and Sandy Rimmington in 522 from Monkstown able to properly put them under pressure. Welcome too to Conor Clancy, who was giving it a first rattle in the fleet gypsy, Pinkie, brought up from Belfast for them to use.
Winds started lightish on Saturday, and Race Officer Robin Gray, who now knows the fleet well enough to get the Black Lady out rather quickly, managed to get three good three lap races off, and still got us back ashore to catch the Northern Ireland Wales match – strong work Robin. Matters were largely uneventful for the 18 tubs, with much place changing and congested mark rounding, and most folk seemed happy to save their more eccentric manoeuvres for the windy forecast on Sunday.

Winners Gareth Flannigan and Dave Fletcher from Ballyholme

After a very boisterous Saturday evening, which spilled into Austies pub in the next street, the locals being no doubt delighted to be serenaded by the RS400 choir in full voice, singing such classics as Eric Cantona’s “Will Grigg’s on fire”, a foggy looking fleet dragged themselves into their wet coldsuits, and drifted out onto the river to pay the penalty that they had earned the night before. As the winds topped out at a fruity 18 knots, Red Cards were handed out to Brian Holmes, Trevor Darcy, and in the last race, John Downey, with repair bills, and Liam Donnelly, Robbie O’Sullivan, Michael Ferguson, Dave Cheyne and Owen Laverty, with swimming lessons, generally at the wrong point in the race. In fact with the frequent kite trawling at the top mark (well, we haven’t raced in more than 3 knots of wind all year so far it feels, so a bit out of practice), matters were rather less professional looking than the previous day.
After a few cracks at starting under black, the viz went poor, and Robin Gray wisely declared a generalised drag race back to the slip, with kites popped and a full foam up back to the slip (needless to say all arriving at the same time, doh!) and some wave jumping in the standing waves at the river entrance. 
So Gareth and Dave continue to rise, and it looks like the Nationals will be a hard battle with Alex, and plenty snapping at their heels, with in particular Dave Rose and Ian Hef finally starting to get their act together, and John Downey going ever quicker. Next is off the Inlands at Lough Ree in July.