Commodore’s Cup (Best Offshore Performance)

Ian Bowring – challenges encountered and overcome competing in D2D

John White – helm and watch captain on Opal for D2D

Vice Commodore’s Cup (Significant Dinghy Performance) 

RSGYC Laser/ ILCA Master’s team – trip to Spain – excellent results posted and a general joie de vivre (or voile) 

John Sheehy – Melges 15 class – new to club and country and huge enthusiasm for the new fleet

RSGYC Water Wag class – David Williams and Co for building one of the largest classic boat one design fleets in Dublin Bay

Sean Craig – ILCA Sailor 

Ali Robinson – ILCA Sailor

The Water Wags who traveled to Brittany – Richard Mossop, Henry Rooke, Tim and Gillian Pearson, Justin Geoghan, Alison Hackett, David Williams and Jeremy Crean, Mandy and Jamie Chambers.

George Jesters (Formerly UCD Firsts) – First Irish team to win the Oxford Top Gun Invitational and first Irish team in 53 years to win the BUSA Intervarsity Finals. Jack Fahy, Liam Glynn, Tom Higgins, Cian Lynch, Emily Riordan, Kathy Kelly & Triona Hinkson

O’Hanlon Cup (Best Cruise)

Derek Ryan – Homecoming Odyssey of Brizo 

Paul Conway & Crew– Cevantes epic cruising journey

Crawford family and Others – Family flotilla holiday

Tony Linehan – (ICC Rally) Corfu – Madeira – Galicia

D’Arcy Family – Mediterranean Cruise

Enriquetta Cup (Significant Keelboat Performance)

Dragon – Phantom and crew- winner of Volvo DLRegatta 2023 and East Coast Championship

Brian Denham

RSGYC Jeorgettes

Causeway Trophy (For Sportsmanship) 

Elmo Trophy Organising Committee 

St Andrew’s College Team Racing and Inaugural Alumni Event

Brian Denham

WeSail organisers – Maeve Robinson and Duncan Lyster

Sailability Co-ordinator – Maeve O’Brien

Peter Bowring – for his never-failing help and support for the Club

Kate Fogarty – “There isn’t a question we’ve had that Kate can’t answer! She has been a huge factor in us feeling so welcome in the Club”  (New Member)

Youth Trophy (Significant contribution to the Club by a Youth Sailor) 

Russell Bolger and Louis McGovern – All Ireland Junior Helmsmans Champions, 1st place team in Elmo Trophy, ITRA Championships and 1st Youth team in 2023 Volvo DLR SB20’s

Lucia Cullen and Alana Twomey – 29er ISAF representatives and European Womens Champions

Fiachra Geraghty-McDonnell – IS ILCA Academy member and ISAF representative

Emily and Jessica Riordan – National Female 29er Championships and Vice World 29er Championships

Tom Higgins – Match Racing Nationally and Internationally

Waterfront Award (Significant Contributions to the sport of sailing)

Brian Denham -A lifetime of enthusiasm and love for the Club, Dublin Bay racing, Glens and great Sportsmanship.

Robbie Walker

David Williams – Water Wags

Kate Fogarty –  for her positivity and support of every level of sailor, young and old.

Ailbe Millerick – “he has worked beyond belief to keep Team Racing alive in the George and has reinvigorated the Glen Class”

We are very proud of all of our  RSGYC members nominated and ask for your support to vote for them now or to make your own nominations.

Please click on the link below, it will take 30 seconds. Please also pass this on so that we can give all the support available to all of our fantastic RSGYC sailors.

Click here to vote now

The post Sailing Oscars – Nominations so far for 2023 appeared first on Royal St George Yacht Club.

Dear RSGYC parents,

Thank you, one and all, for your patience and continued support during this awkward, and sometimes, awful negotiation back to “normal”.  We may not see a lot of what we’ve considered normal up until now, but we, in the RSGYC, are hugely committed to getting all our kids sailing, as safely as we can, in any vessel we can, and as much as we can, over the next few months.  You, as their parents, can also continue to build the Team George ethos, and bring them out, outside course hours by sailing with them, hiring SUPs or kayaks, supporting them in RIBs while they sail (after June 15^th) – we would love to see this kind of activity and wholeheartedly support you in this. It is all about building our sailing community and supporting our juniors sailors, while keeping them as safe as we can.

I realise you have been told that there will be limited access to what we previously knew as our Summer courses.  This is true, for the moment.  As I’ve said to you in previous emails, we in sailing are lucky, and cursed in equal measure, in that we are one of the few sports to be allowed get back to action in these first phases of the government’s roadmap to recovery.

We will issue the links to our Summer courses/clinics over the next few days. While places will be allocated on a first come first served basis, there will be no capacity to block book courses, so hopefully this will mean that there will be room for everyone at some stage over the Summer – there will be an option to opt into a waiting list for your second, third etc., choice so hopefully that will work and allow access to extra courses should the capacity be there.   

Obviously, the first few weeks/courses will coincide with the next phase of opening up the economy, and should the country continue to fare well, we will be allowed to significantly increase our offering throughout July and August.  Our Commodore, Flag officers, Sailing Manager and all sailing committees, are in constant contact with Irish Sailing in order to make sure we offer what we can, when we can,  while obviously observing and adhering to all rules and guidelines, in order to keep everyone safe (and sailing)!

We will publish the links to courses on all platforms over the next few days and I apologise in advance for the fact that many of you, with active sailors across many fleets,  will be bombarded!!

We look forward to seeing you, and your junior sailor, over the next few weeks and months!

Kind regards,

Kate Fogarty

Junior Organiser

The post Junior Sailing update from the Junior Organiser appeared first on Royal St George Yacht Club.

Saturday February 29th 2020- mark your calenders and remember to keep the date free.  One of the highlights of the RSGYC’s many great events has been confirmed for this date-  The Annual Sailing Awards are a celebration of the Royal St George Yacht Clubs Sailing Achievements of 2019, and of the members of the Royal St George Yacht Club.

All nominations are encouraged and will assist the Sailing Committee in recognizing those RStGYC Sailors & Club members with significant achievements during 2019.

Below are the awards categories.

Commodore’s Cup (Best Offshore Performance)

Vice Commodore’s Cup (Significant Dinghy Performance)

O’Hanlon Cup (Best Cruise)

Enriquetta Cup (Significant Keelboat Performance)

Causeway Trophy (For Sportsmanship) 

Youth Trophy (Significant contribution to be the Club by a Youth Sailor)

Photos from 2019 Awards can be viewed by clicking here:

Last year’s nominees can be viewed by clicking here:

This is a black-tie event. You can book online for the night by clicking here.

Please take a moment to make your nomination(s) for the 2019 Awards by clicking here:

The post Save the Date- RSGYC Annual Sailing Oscar Awards Saturday February 29th 2020 appeared first on Royal St George Yacht Club.

This weekend some members of the RSGYC u25 squad sailed a J80 in the Women at the Helm Regatta hosted by the National Yacht Club.

There was +25 knots on Saturday and two races were sailed. Our training during the week paid off as we managed to win both races allowing us to come away as Class 1 overall winners. It was tough going but we worked well as a team and had some fun with the spinniaker in the big wind! The team was comprised of Niamh Henry helming, Alanna Lyttle on main trim, Ellen Murray on pit, Roberta Bell King on bow and Gillian Ballesty on Kite trim.

Unfortunately Sundays racing was cancelled due to high winds. The RSGYC also won the overall team prize with Helen O’Beirne in the laser radial and Grace O’Beirne in the 420.

We were extremely happy with our performance and want to thank the National Yacht Club for hosting this fabulous regatta! We hope to continue to participate in this event!

The post Irish Sailing Pathfinder Women at the Helm- RSGYC U25’s take the podium appeared first on Royal St George Yacht Club.

0930 – 1630 daily from Tuesday 4th June – Friday 7th June

Our 1720 Keelboat clinic provides a great opportunity for sailors to get familiar with keelboat sailing and racing. Throughout this clinic sailors will see that their sailing skills from dinghies can be transferred to Keelboats while also gaining confidence and skills suitable to a larger boat.

Confidence is the key with these clinics and empowering our youth sailors to have the skills and confidence to easily jump aboard larger boats and to quickly become a valued crew member and in turn helping to encourage sailors stay in the sport as they grow older.

During the Clinics there will be a combination of drills, keelboat dynamics and physics, introduction to spinnakers, seaman ship and some navigation, reefing and anchoring…. And of course some boat on boat racing.

Our first clinic will run from 0930 – 1630 daily from Tuesday 4th June – Friday 7th June at a cost of €156 which includes lunch.

RSGYC Members €156
Guests of RSGYC €179

Click here to register:

The post Keelboat Training Week appeared first on Royal St George Yacht Club.

Here’s a note from the RSGYC Junior Organiser outlining the great initiative of the Under 25 Sailing Squad which is drawing sailors back to the sport and introducing new sailors to the sport… oh yes- and a lot of fun!!

Hi All,

I am writing to spread the fantastic word about this great group of our older youth sailors who have been running with this initiative over the winter.

It all started as most things do, with a post on Facebook!!!  RCYC mentioned that they had started an U25 Academy, sailing 1720s, my U25 sailor asked Ronan why we didn’t have the same, and he, in his wisdom challenged her to start it, and said he’d support her.  Off she went, set up a WhatsApp group, gathered a few friends,  and they were off.  It should be noted that unlike so many other squads the only entry criteria was, you need to be a RSGYC Cadet member, have left school, be U25 and willing to sail – that’s it!  She lobbied Commodore Peter Bowring and Read Commodore Mark Hennessy, both of whom were very enthusiastic and a huge encouragement, a meeting was set up and their stall set out.  Ronan got them going in the club 1720s and they hit the waves running!!  

They have been training 3 times a week since mid February and are well set for the summer ahead.  They are competing in the DBSC summer series, thanks to the fantastic generosity of a club member Martin Byrne of A Stitch In Time Embroidery, who has paid their entry fee.  They are competing in the 1720 East Coast championship – Dun Laoghaire Cup this weekend, and have 2 strong teams entered (thank you again to Martin).  Their sights were always set on the ICRAs at the beginning of June, again they have 2 teams entered.  With the lobbying of Mark Hennessy and the support of the owner/sponsor members of the recently acquired J80s, they have permission to sail them, having proved they are committed and capable of the task.  Thank you also to Prof. of North Sails , Ben Cooke and Brendan Foley, who, amongst others, have given freely of their time to coach and mentor this group of sailors.

Many of you have asked why they need sponsorship?  They need to continue to be able to sail, and the 1720s need considerable maintenance and new sails.  They have done what they can and spent their own money on minor alterations and used their own considerable seamanship skills and very often, engineering skills to fix the wear and tear on the 1720s.  They also need new sails, they have very generously been given sails, on loan, from Ben Cooke, for this weekend, but would ideally like to buy new ones!

They have come together and sourced some spot prizes and raffle prizes, in order to convince you this is a worthy cause.  If any of you have kids who may have lost their way after TY, and fallen away from sailing due to the pressures of study and are reluctant to get back into it, because they fear everyone has moved on without them, then this gang is where they belong. The ability is mixed, the skill set varied but the welcome is ever present!   As long as your sailor wants to come down and pitch in, they are welcome.    They do have ideas for more fundraising plans, race nights and casino events, as they see this as a long term project.  However, time this time was so tight that a meet and greet and raffle, was the only option at the moment.

Please come down, have a drink and a bite to eat, let them introduce themselves and talk to you in person about their plans?  Equally, if you can’t make it and feel you might have a service you could give, or a prize suitable to boost raffle tickets they’d love to hear from you.  They even have organised their own email address!!!!  Contact them on U25@rsgyc.ie.  Equally many of you will have sailors coming out of tombs in the near future as they finish the awfulness of Leaving Cert year, please get them to get in touch, register with the group, stick their name in the WhatsApp group and opt in when they are free?  Like some of the best things in life it really is that simple!  Equally, never let it be said again that big boats can’t go sailing due to lack of crew, they only have 2 boats so there will always be surplus.  Email them, someone will be free and fancy spreading their wings, meeting new friends and learning new things.   The need to tap into your experience as much as you need crew!

Help them regain a valuable place in their club, feel like they belong, bring some vibrancy back to DBSC sailing and keep them sailing!!!

As many of you know I have very many communication groups, some overlap, some are missing vital addresses.  I’d really appreciate if you could spread the word to anyone you think can help our kids and help support them in their quest to keep sailing.

In advance, and as always, thank you for your amazing support!

Best,

Kate

Kate Fogarty

Junior Organiser

ROYAL ST. GEORGE YACHT CLUB
DUN LAOGHAIRE, CO. DUBLIN,

IRELAND

The post Have you heard of the RSGYC Under 25 Sailing Squad? appeared first on Royal St George Yacht Club.

07/06/19-09/06/19
The U25s competed in the ICRA Nationals on the weekend of 7th of June.
We had two J80s participating in the event with 5 sailors on each. There was a great mix of girls and guys on the boats – 2 girls and 3 boys on each! Boat 1- Dan Little (helm), Niamh Henry, Cillian Ballesty, Emily Cullen, Bobby King. Boat 2- Conor O’Beirne (helm), Chloe Eggers, Dan O’Beirne, Elizabeth Fogarty, Richard O’Rahilly. We all represented the club in our new team t-shirts (@a_stitch_in_time_embroiderers ). The wind was close to perfect all weekend despite strong winds forecasted for the Saturday of racing. We sailed all 7 races of the event with one discard in place.
Both U25 J80s we’re particularly strong with their downwind technique. We had good control and sailed very fast planing at every opportunity downwind! Both boats worked well as a team and had trained together prior to the event.
Looking after the boats really helped as it kept order over the weekend!
There was fun before, during and after sailing every day! It was great being part of the new generation of cruising sailing. It was also such great experience racing in such a competitive fleet and we can’t wait for more to come!
U25 boat 1 finished 2nd U25 overall and 14th overall in division 2.
U25 boat 2 finished 15th overall in division 2.
We have also entered a team into Sovereigns to compete in a 1720 next week. Everyone’s really looking forward to it. Keep an eye on Instagram for updates! Team: Doug Elmes, Niamh Henry, Bobby King, Paddy Lee, Isobel O’Grady, Andrew Sykes.
Again we would like to thank everyone who has helped so far with this programme! @a_stitch_in_time_embroiderers

30/05/19
The U25s had two boats entered into the 1720 Easterns. The weekend started well for team 1. After tough, competitive racing on Saturday they were delighted to be lying 4th overall after the first day of racing. Helmed by Adam Hyland the team managed to get a 3rd and two 6ths. The racing was tight which was exciting for the team as they were finally able to see the hard work pay off. Team 2 was helmed by Dan O’Beirne. They were happy with their performance although they have a few minor issues to work on along more training to be up at the top end of the fleet. After a shifty day of racing they lay 11th overall.
On Sunday the teams were faced with strong winds of 20-30 knots. This was a challenge both teams looked forward to. As racing was about to begin unfortunately team 1 lost a batten in their main sail. They raced back to the dock to replace their main sail with the aim of joining the first race. As they rounded the windward playing catch up, they hoisted the kite like everyone else. Half way down the downwind the lower shroud snapped at the mast which caused the mast to snap. The team were then faced with the difficulty of big chop and a broken rig in the water. Luckily everyone was okay and they managed to retrieve the rig. Meanwhile all that drama was going on team 2 managed to get a 10th,7th and 9th in Sunday’s racing. It was good experience for both teams to be out in that wind just a pity that team 1 were knocked out so quickly of the competition. Well done to both teams. Team 2 finished 9th overall out of a fleet of 17.
The U25s would like to thank Martin Byrne and Ben Cooke for lending sails to both teams for the event. Martin also kindly covered the entry fee for this event for both boats too. Without Ben and Martin the event would not have been possible for the U25s. Thank you @a_stitch_in_time_embroiderers

14/05/19
The U25s were out racing in DBSC on Tuesday making steady progress in preparation for 1720 Easterns.
Another first added to the books is a testament to the rising competence of the squad. Adam helm, Doug main, Cillian and Louis Trim and Bobby as bowman. Round the cans provided good training for straight line speed on long unwinds and downwinds as well as bigg picture strategy. A good start saw the team lead the race the whole way round

16/05/19
The U25s were racing in the DBSC on Thursday night in an effort to get as much racing in as possible before some of the group go away for summer and the summer events kick off. Light weather and strong tide made the conditions challenging, however the team managed to lead the way around the course. In particular, the team worked to perfect their hoists and drops on the downwind whilst also demonstrating great upwind boat speed and tactics.

24/04/19

This week we have been trying to train as much as possible. The next few weeks we will have a lot of people starting and finishing exams so we’re just trying to train as much and as often as possible. With the Easterns a couple of weeks away we’ve been doing as much boat work as possible as well as sorting out which sails we will use for the event. We are also hoping to get out racing tomorrow for the DBSC so keep an eye out for us on the course. We’re looking forward to having new faces down training and racing as many people have been tied down studying recently. Remember details will be released regarding our launch night very soon so keep your eyes pealed

25/04/19

We had an exciting day out training last Thursday as it was one of our first heavy wind experience together. We headed out with the intention of competing in the DBSC but unfortunately due to entry issues we weren’t able to compete. We decided to stay out on the water and try and get some heavy weather training in. After some playing around with positions on the boat our session was well on its way. With the wind dropping steadily for the evening we focused mostly on gybing and kite trim. This helped out kite trimmers Louis and Cillian to perfect their gybes working alongside our helms Kate and Adam

30/04/19

Tuesdays DBSC was exciting as we had new faces down racing. Doug was helming, Cormac was on main trim, Peadar was on jib and kite trim alongside Elizabeth. Niamh was bow and Conor pit. Unfortunately after all our hard work getting a bullet we weren’t up on the results as we were delayed getting entered but hopefully you’ll see us up there from now on! We’re really looking forward to the next few weeks! We’ve lots of boat work and planning to do which will keep us busy!

04/04/19

This Saturday we had a great day out on the water. Cillian, Niamh, Bobby, James, Ryan and Kate made up the team that took part in the two DBSC races. We are making great progress in our boat handling and teamwork. We plan on getting as much time on the water as possible this week in preparation for the upcoming 1720 Easterns at the end of May. The evening was capped off with a few drinks in the yacht club of course!

06/04/19

Yesterday we had 13 sailors and two boats out for a training session which Prof kindly agreed to coach. We started the session off with an upwind grind working on boat speed and manoeuvres followed by a long downwind back into the harbour.  In the Harbour we focused on some short windward leewards with quick 3 minute starts. The short course helped us focus on getting manoeuvres right. This week we will be out on the DBSC racecourse and also hopefully getting in a couple of extra training sessions. A big thank you to Prof for spending hours on the water with us. We really appreciate it and we all really enjoyed the session

The post U 25 Squad updates appeared first on Royal St George Yacht Club.