Author: Gareth Craig

Glass-like conditions outside Dublin Bay made for a testing coastal course on the second day of racing for the Volvo Dún Laoghaire Regatta.

As the second half of the Volvo Dún LAoghaire Regatta awaits its start later this morning, organisers opted to postpone the start of racing by one hour, apparently due to the calm wind forecast.

Peter Nash’s Kamikaze and Paddy Kyne’s Maximus under spinnaker | Picture: David Branigan / Oceansport

The scene at the port formerly known as Kingstown yesterday afternoon could easily have been an early etching of the first sailing regatta at the 200-year old harbour: traditional classic and modern boats racing side by side with the iconic East Pier lighthouse as the backdrop.

Although light airs appeared set to ruin the opening day of the Volvo Dún Laoghaire Regatta yesterday, a growing breeze allowed a full racing programme to be sailed with a mixture of sunshine and rain at times.

It was business as usual for John Maybury’s Jocker II in yesterday’s opening races of the 2017 Volvo Dún Laoghaire Regatta.

THIS is the largest Regatta in Ireland and on the Western sea board of the British Isles,” Tim Goodbody, Chairman of the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta 2017, tells Gazette- Sport, confirming it is all hands-on deck for this biennial event.

Two sailing regattas this week, on opposite coasts, have succeeded in mustering a large proportion of Ireland’s boating community. And both, in turn have their own spectacles on offer although for different reasons. On Dublin Bay, the biennial Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta begins this afternoon with an official turnout of 475 boats although this is widely predicted to top 490 entries when latecomers are facilitated. And at Cill Ronan in the Aran Islands, the annual West of Ireland Offshore Racing Association week got underway yesterday where 45 boats have made the journey to the outskirts of Galway Bay.