Sailing In Dublin: News

Sailing In Dublin - News

2010/2011 Winter Sailing

The winds may have picked up and temperatures dropped but that hasn't put a stop to the hardy Sailing in Dublin Club (SID) members - they continue sailing over the autumn and winter. Obsession, the Club's Sigma 33 continues to sail on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. It means that, under suitable weather conditions, members can continue to build up their sailing experience and sailing miles and enjoy the best of outdoor activity in the short daylight hours. The dinghy sailors are also active; SID has entered 5 club dinghies in the PY class in the DMYC frostbite series. Here's hoping for good results and further development of racing skills for DBSC dinghy and Ruffian races in 2011.

Obsession visits West Cork

Obsession cruised to and from Cork to take part in Calves week last week. The trip included a stop off in Arklow, Kilmore Quay, Crosshaven and Kinsale before arriving in Baltimore for the Bank holiday weekend. Obsession was met there by a number of other SID club members who were instructing and attending courses in the Glenans Sailing School Baltimore base. Over 20 members had a great week of sailing and, as can been seen here, socialising.

New Clubhouse!

Our new clubhouse has finally arrived! Many thanks to everyone involved.

SID and ISORA

SID is competing in the ISORA series of offshore races for the first time this year, in Obsession. Here is David's account of out first outing in the series and some handy tips for future races.

The NYC have corrected the results from the Arklow Offshore Race, using our correct handicap. We finished 18/20! Not bad for our first ever offshore race, against many boats with experienced racing crews and some with very fancy sails. Well done to Damien, Jo, Marco, Tom and Pat!!!

It was a long race (8hrs:18:50 - 3:15 to get to North Arklow, and about 5 hours to return) but a really good experience, in strong conditions (20-25 knots all day - despite all forecasts predicting a reduction from F6 to F5 to F4). We started with 1 reef and #2 genoa, shook out the reef and changed up to #1 genoa on the downwind section, then reefed and changed down to #2.5 genoa for the beat back.

We kept the other boats in view on the leg to North Arklow, with speeds over 8kn from Obsession but the faster boats really took off upwind back to DL. Two boats were in view in the distance on the way back and when we crossed them on tacks we were pretty close, we were amazingly close to them at the finish, 1 just ahead, 1 just behind - showing how important it is to concentrate on ever detail for the whole race!

It was not a very tactical race as the tide was directly with us on the way down and with us on the way back, and with strong winds there seemed to be no advantage in choosing a different route to the mark - all boats seemed to point directly for the mark on the way down.

All of our preparations for the race paid dividends: The tightened guard rails, new jackstays and non-slip tape made foredeck work a lot safer when changing headsails in the strong conditions, while the leecloths allowed crew to rest on the high side of the boat. All of the other work ensured that we complied with the race regulations and were in a safe environment.

The main lessons for future races are:

Good helming is absolutely vital, you need to be 100% focused on not losing ground when sailing upwind due to a lack of concentration, as that will lose you a lot of ground over the day and consequently a few places at the finish.
CONSTANT sail trimming is essential, rather than just setting them once and then falling into cruising mode, otherwise you lose a lot of ground and places. Sailing just 0.25kn slower adds up to 2.5M or 1/2 hour if sailing at 5kn over 10 hours!!
We need to learn a lot more about sail trim, as increased knowledge in this area would really move us up a few places. Start reading those sail trim books!

SID in the Media - July 09

Jessica arranged for Tom MacSweeney, Marine Correspondent of RTE to do a feature on SID. The RTE crew film people arriving at the container, preparing to sail and then sailing, both from the Coal Harbour and the marina. Several members of the club were also interviewed.

The idea was to capture the atmosphere of the club, sailing opportunities without having to own a boat, how people can sail after work, the sociability, volunteerism of the club and so on.

The session resulted in an item on RTE News and on the Seascapes radio programme.

Thanks to Jessica for arranging this fantastic opportunity to promote the club.

Dun Laoghaire Volvo Regatta - July 09

The regatta took place over four days from the 9th to the 12th of July. Ruff Diamond took part in the racing, with crew members having the run of the sailing clubs over the weekend and finding out how the other half live.

It's probably best to draw a veil over our results, but the racing was not without its points of interest. Thursday was a blustery day, but Ruff Diamond was doing well until Marco's not inconsiderable weight detached the boom from the mast on the downwind leg. Marco redeemed himself by helping David to make emergency repairs while we sailed on under spinnaker alone, and actually managed to finish the race.

I seem to remember something like this happening to Green Dragon in the early stages of the Volvo Ocean Race, so we were in good company.

Friday's race was distinguished by a "spinnaker overboard" incident, which allowed us to practise our man overboard technique, but sadly put us out of the running in the actual race.

On Sunday, Green Dragon visited Dublin after her travels round the world. Several SIDers visited, eager to get their pictures taken...

She is now in her new home at the Galway Atlantaquaria and can be visited until the end of August.

Racing - June 09

Our dinghies continue to compete in the DBSC dinghy racing series, on Tuesday evenings and Saturday afternoons. We have currently have one boat in fifth place and the other two in joint sixth, out of a total entry of 22 (to put the most positive spin on the results ...)

Regular dinghy sailing also takes place during the week. Thanks to Jo, no fewer than six new dinghy session captains have now been trained; David, Jane, Pat, Tony, Bill, and Chiara.

Ruff Diamond races on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays , also in the DBSC series and is currently in nineteenth place in a field of 23.

A mid-series assessment from Damien:

It hard to believe that DBSC summer series started over 104 days ago. Since the start Ruff Diamond has been taking part in the series. The boat is certainly speedier than Ruffin'it but there is lots of room for improvement! Race crew on other Ruffians are generally the same consistent crew; however with 28 SIDers currently signed up the crews are always changing. For this reason it is even more important that everyone taking part in a session works as a team and understands all the various roles.

If you want to do better then;

Know what is expected in the different crew positions and learn the rules. "The Rules in Practice" and "The Racing Rules Companion", both by Bryan Willis are excellent references. It's also worth looking at "Sailboat Racing" by Adam Court.

Take a racing course course with Glenans or other sailing school.

Practice - the Ruffian is only racing 3 days a week. Generate interest amongst your crew and go out to practice your maneuvers on other days!

There are still plenty of crew places available for the remaining races (especially on Saturdays), so sign up now.

Son of Ruffin' It - March 09

Ruffin' It has sailed off into the sunset (actually away from the sunset) to a new life in Wales.

Damien reminisces...

Ruffin' It was the first yacht purchased by Sailing In Dublin and was with the club for about 10 years. It was the most used Ruffian in Dun Laoghaire, with many glorious sails as far north as Carlingford and as far south as Arklow, and many of our current and past members learnt their sailing on it.

.... but now we have a new boat !

Peter reports on behalf of the Ruffian working group:

The boat concerned is "Ruff Diamond" and our working group consider this to be a suitable boat for the club and good value for money. "Ruff Diamond" is one of the top ruffians in the Dublin fleet, is a fit for purpose racing boat with a good racing pedigree and meticulously maintained by its owner. Well done to the working group of Donal, Damien, Bryan, Pat, Tom, and Peter.

News Archive

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