Newsletter – June 08

 

Regattas

Summer is definitely here. The four local club one-day regattas are starting from next weekend. There are really enjoyable races and there always a great buzz in the waterfront....not to be missed. First race is next Saturday DMYC.

 

May

DMYC Regatta

May 31

June

NYC Regatta

June 14

June

RIYC Regatta

June 28

July

RStGYC Regatta

July 5

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If you are interested in racing on Ruffian please contact Morgan.

For Dinghy sailing ask Jo for details.

 

Tall Ships

If you are staying in Dublin for the weekend, the tall ships will be on the Liffey for the Dublin Docklands Maritime Festival during the June Bank Holiday weekend.

 

Honeymoon Sailing (from Damien Byrne)

Minorca Sailing based in Menorca, Spain is a fantastic location with a great bay, nice weather, a warm sea and a great choice of boats ready rigged and lots of instructors, great accommodation, just perfect for a honeymoon!.

I was one of 11 who went on a dinghy course with www.minorcasailing.com recently. In the group were 6 SID’ers Sheenagh, Brenda, Nicola, Jo, Wyn, and myself Damien (All instructors!); 3 from Glenans, Clare, Bill and Guido (All instructors!), John (on honeymoon with Sheenagh) and Grace (a beginner).

Accommodation consisted of a private villa with its own pool minutes walk from the sailing, shop, local restaurant and pub. On our arrival we were shown to our own villa and then adjourned to the local pub/restaurant. After a few large bottles of Magners (this place was looking good!) we joined the other 70 or so trainees for a 4 course meal with wine (costing e15!).  

At 10am every day we had an introductory talk and were told the plan for the day. Then we spilt into various groups each with an instructor. All the SID’ers sailed in the intermediate Asymmetric group. Daily lessons were from 10am to 12:30pm and 2:15pm to 4:30pm. At 4:30 and 5:30 there was the option of free sailing or going out on a 1-to-1 with an instructor.  The lessons consisted of a talk on the beach before each sailing session, a choice of boats which were rigged and brought into the water for you, on the water instruction which included one half day of video footage and playback and a couple of races thrown in for good measure! 

There was a huge range of boats all in excellent condition. During the week we tried the RS-Vaero (single handed, hiking boat with gennaker), the RS400 with wing-wangs, the RS500, the RS800 (double handed with crew and helm on trapeze on outriggers) , 29er, various windsurfers and of course Laser Vago and Laser 1.

Outside of  sailing sessions we had breakfast and lunch by the pool in our villa and evening meals mostly in the local restaurants, and as we were all instructors (did I mention that before?) there was a lot of the talk about sailing with the odd distractions of table football, air hockey and killer pool! 

The town of Fornells was a 20 minute walk away and was still very quite at the start of May but with our large group we were able to make our own craic and even the beginners got in on the sailing jargon!  A fantastic week which brought back the joys of performance dinghies and I learned loads, but hey I was the only one not a dinghy instructor!!!  ;-) 

Congratulations again to Sheenagh and John and thanks for the great honeymoon. 

Check out our holiday snaps here.

Anyone planning on getting married for next year's trip?

 

Atlantic Sailing

Martina is currently sailing from Antigua to Kinsale (about 3250 nautical miles) on board a 20 metre yacht “Celtic Spirit”. Last reports she was less then 700 miles from Kinsale and expects to make landfall next Friday. You can check out Tina’s progress here.

 

Obsession Update

Obsession has been sailing regularly since the start of May. There are now sessions on

Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursday evenings and on Sunday afternoons.

Please see the schedule below if you would like to sail.

Michael McEntee will be skipper for our first long distance trip in the last week of June. The plan is to cruise the north-east coast to Carlingford or Ardglass. Please contact Michael if you are interested.

 

Training Officer (from Damien Byrne)

Cearbhall has kindly elevated me to the newly created role of Training Officer.  Some of the tasks of the role include “Promote appropriate training for Members” and “Advise members of external training opportunities”.  Various statistics on member's qualifications are currently available on the SID website. (login required)

Having just come back from a week long course in Spain (see article “Honeymoon Sailing”) one thing that has struck me is that it appears the clubs’ more experienced sailors are taking most of the training courses and doing more sailing!  In Menorca there were six instructors on a training course and all would go back again on another course.  Back last November, eleven members expressed an interest in taking the powerboat level-2 course, but it appears only one has actually done the course! However four captains have taken the Powerboat Safety course over the winter months. 

The Club is actively promoting attendance at training courses with an e50 reduction on next year's membership if you take a qualifying course (see website for details). Taking a week long training course will cover lots of the skills you require in a structured manner and will give days of experience on the water too (a lot more than you will get on the odd SID session). Everyone in the club has something to learn by attending training courses, and the more proficient members are, the more enjoyable sailing is for everyone involved in club sessions. So what is stopping you?

Comments and queries gratefully accepted!

 

Powerboat course

Maher Kemmoona recently attended the powerboat course in the Royal St.George Yacht Club.  Maher says “I enjoyed the course and had great time at it. It was very practically orientated. There was some theory as well, small groups, so everyone got good exposure to it. Last but not least, we had great weather that weekend to be out.”

 

ISA Membership

Membership of the ISA is included as part of your SID membership.

2008 ISA membership cards are available in Container and in Obsession's chart table. Please take one. These entitle you to Discounts in Western Marine, Stenna Line etc or in booking any ISA assessments.

 

Membership Promotion

There are flyers in container and in Obsession's chart table. Please take some and display in your workplace or local shop etc if possible. Currently our membership is sixty, but we do need to increase this to meet our increased running costs. Why not bring your friends along for a sail some evening?

 

DBSC Racing

There is now dinghy racing on Tuesday evenings and Saturday afternoons, and Ruffian racing on Tuesdays (White sails fleet) and Thursdays (Ruffian class). 

The Ruffian and three dinghies are entered.

You can check out our results here.

 

If you would like to take part...

-          Dinghy racing: contact Wyn

-          For Ruffian contact Damien

-           

World Wide SID

Taiwan, Lava, Heavy Water, Kuala Lumper, Kuwait...

Doesn't your T-Shirt deserve a holiday?
http://sailingindublin.ie/tshirts.shtml


2008 AGM
The minutes of the 2008 AGM are available here http://sailingindublin.ie/masterdocs/AGM08/AGM2008.html.

 

Sailing Sessions

Dinghy Sailing
Monday 18:00                Catherine Pierse

Wednesday 18:00          Jane Holland

Weekends:                    Contact Jo for Details

 

Dinghy Racing
Tuesday 18:00               Wyn Hughes
 
Keelboat Sailing
Monday 18:00:00           Tom Irving

Wednesday 18:00          Rob Disney

Thursday 18:00             Bronagh O'Leary

Weekends:                    Contact Morgan
 
Keelboat Racing
Tuesday 17:30               Damien Byrne
Thursday 17:30              Cearbhall Daly

 

Cearbhall Daly

Chairperson

Sailing in Dublin Club

http://sailingindublin.ie