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Friday, May 29, 2015

Island Trial - Back with a Bang

The debate over the Island Trial has been resolved in the clearest way possible. People are doing runs around Dalkey Island whether or not the site is up. So the website has recognized the reality that Dalkey Island was there before the website and is taking data again.



Rory Fitz, Neil O'Toolovic and Stephen Oram took on the challenge of Paul Keane's 46 minute time ....and you'll have to read what happened over at the Island Trial website here.

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Thursday, May 28, 2015

Bloomsday Regatta coming up!!

Be aware that Joycean sailing is almost upon us!!



Be there, or be un-literary!!

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Wednesday, May 20, 2015

DL Sailors at the Laser Masters 2015

The report is a few weeks overdue, but there were several DL sailors at the recent Irish Laser Masters in Ballyholme  - so it's worth catching up on.

Keane, Craig and Galavan made the trip north and flew the DL Dinghies flag with style in an event that had both light and strong winds. 



There's drama in both videos - if you watch all the way through!

Keane just missed the podium in the Apprentice Master category, coming 4th. Craig was only slightly further from stepping into a medal spot with his 5th place in the Master category. Galavan won't want to write home about his event, struggling in the light airs on day 1 and then not racing on day 2.  A contrast with his recent regional win in the SB20s!

Full results here

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All evens: Racing 2 - Weather (& Cruise Liners) 2

It's 2-all between the racing and the weather after another cancellation this evening. A pity!

It was also interesting to see the RStGYC Laser Boys out on the harbour after N over A was hoisted, presumably  perfecting their heavy air techniques.

Looked good - racing cancelled
We assume they were using the Permanent Summer Racing Mark laid by the Dun Laoghaire Harbour Company over the weekend.
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Windy Saturday

Saturday saw only keelboats - and one dinghy that apparently missed the consensus - out on the Seapoint course on Saturday. The OK Dinghy sailed out and dealt with the 30+knot gusts very nicely before seeing some Flying Fifteens starting to have difficulty and deciding a return to the harbor was in order.

Full report over on the OK Dinghy site here

The run back was kinda fun, with sustained 22km/h sections through steep chop. And chicken gybes rather than actual gybes seemed sensible in the context.

The video is unedited since Go Pro Studio keeps crashing. So it's long. 

There were lots of dinghies back inside the harbor, but only the OK Dinghy and one Laser 4.7 were seen outside the walls. Were there others?
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Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Laser stalwart Galavan steps back into non-dinghy Lasers

DMYC Frostbite Laser series winner Colin Galavan stepped out of dinghies into keelboats for a weekend and showed that his skills extend even into heavier boats.

Steering on the winning boat for the Saturday races, Galavan was quickly up to speed and got consistent results for the rest of the day.

Full report here.

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Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Solid Saturday Session in Seapoint

While Tuesday night was sadly blown out and then blocked by cruise ship traffic, Saturday last had a good day's sailing for all the weekend warriors in Seapoint.

Prospects were initially not good as the dinghies drifted out into a totally becalmed Dun Laoghaire harbor. Fortune's Finn and one or two IDRA14s got friendly tows, but many Flying Fifteens, Dragons and yours truly got left sitting in the harbor for quite a while.

The wind arrived just in time for sailors to escape and racing to commence, but sadly the sun left as the wind arrived.  All that sunscreen for nothing!

With Mermaids, PY and IDRA14s lining up all one start it was busy on the line but the OK Dinghy got away reasonably clear ahead of the heavier boats. There was lots of  of close tacking up the beats and close mark roundings after the runs, with all enjoying the close action. A Mermaid crossed the line first of all with the OK Dinghy shortly behind and the IDRAs behind that.

Seapoint tacking matches
The SID Vago was notably faster than last year and was well in touch with the racing even after several laps. Great to see.  The benefits of the Frostbites shining through!  Fortune's Finn had retired by the end of Race 1....equipment failure we think.

Race 2 was interesting, with the first attempt abandoned after the fleets went off to sea looking for a non-existent gybe mark. Some Flying Fifteens were well out into the cruiser fleets by the time the committee's RIBs caught up and called the fleets back. The SID Vago was the most alert of the dinghies to the mistake and had cleverly headed for the committee boat well before anyone else.

The second attempt at Race 2 went off well. One Mermaid tried a timed run and - while successfully rolling over the top of the OK Dinghy at the gun - got the timing a little wrong and was immediately called back to restart. The OK Dinghy took the lead of the varied dinghies rounding inside at the leeward mark and held on to take the gun.

There's an OK Dinghy specific report over at their site (link here). The videos are rather long but the race 1 video shows some of the close tacking action up the beats.



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Priorities

If dinghy sailors wanted a glimpse into the future they got it this evening.  Cruise ship passengers get priority over almost anything happening locally and certainly over dinghy sailing. 

Hovering over the East Pier Walls on the high tide a giant cruise liner is anchored off Scotsmans Bay. Small ferries trundle back and forth between the coal harbour and the Ship delivering passengers to Coaches on shore for onward adventures (and back again).

The "offending" cruise ship

A stiff Westerly is blowing and it's too gusty for dinghy sailors to make the trip easily from Harbour to Scotsmans bay.

DBSC could normally switch to harbour racing, as they have done for the last two weeks, but not tonight. DBSC have been told there'll be no racing in the harbour tonight.

If you were wondering when the Cruise Liners would start to impact our sailing, it has begun.

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"Royal Princess (9038666095)" by Barry Skeates - http://www.flickr.com/photos/31059504@N08/9038666095. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Royal_Princess_(9038666095).jpg#/media/File:Royal_Princess_(9038666095).jpg

Monday, May 11, 2015

O'Leary shows some serious style

A certain Marty O'Leary, often seen sailing an RS around Dun Laoghaire harbor with decent results, showed huge ability and style in finishing 2nd overall in the ISAF Nation's Cup 2015 European Final in Howth.

He was 2nd.

This is a top class Match Racing event, with a member of the Dun Laoghaire Dinghy community making his talents abundantly clear.

Results are here.  Photos are here.  Here's a sample.


And congrats too to all the other Irish and visiting boats for making it a great event!

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Thursday, May 7, 2015

Tuesday Night - Lotsa Lasers, PY Present, a few Fireballs, were RS there?


Tuesday night was chilly, slightly on the windy side, but great for a race inside the harbor. Two races for each fleet saw Dan O'Beirne win both races in the Lasers, Tom Murphy win both in PY, and the exciting Fireball "No Name" winning in that class. There's no result for RS.

With lots of new faces and names racing we'll have to get that social scene set up!

See results from the menu in the top toolbar.

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Saturday, May 2, 2015

First Saturday abandoned/cancelled

All dinghy racing was cancelled on Saturday, alongside all cruiser (caravan) and keelboat racing. Only cruisers (caravans) in Class 1 seem to have got a result. 

A pity, all told. 

Racing has successfully taken place in higher winds before, but the combination of occasionally really poor visibility, pretty chilly air, and water temperatures still below 10DegC pushed the committee to abandon/cancel. 

Wind at DL through Saturday
As always, we'd hate to have to make those calls, but this one didn't seem to cause much disagreement at all.

Roll on Tuesday.

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