Please select your home edition
Edition
Maritimo 2023 S-Series LEADERBOARD

Irish 12 Foot Dinghy Championship at the Royal St George Yacht Club

by Vincent Delany 2 Sep 2021 10:32 UTC 28-29 August 2021

Over the weekend of 28-29 August the Royal St George Yacht Club was filled with 12 foot dinghies of four different types for a weekend of celebration of the smaller dinghy.

Eighteen Uffa Fox designed National Firefly dinghies took part in the annual Elmo Trophy event for youthful team racers with teams from across the country. One hundred and thirty- seven races were held over two days in eighteen dinghies. Despite these dinghies being designed in 1946, 75 years ago, they remain to be the best dinghy for team racing with teams of three boats. This event took place over two days at the eastern end of Dun Laoghaire harbour.

Meanwhile at the western end of the harbour, The Irish 12 Foot Dinghy Championship (designed 1913) took place with the deserved winner being Margaret Delany's 100 year old 'Cora' which was built by Camper and Nicholson in Gosport or Southampton for Lieut. Colonel the Hon. Claud Maitland Patrick Brabazon son of the 12th Earl of Meath in 1921. Although she now carries sail number '8' from the Seapoint Sailing Club (near Dublin), she originally carried 'K29' and sailed at the Royal Victoria Yacht Club on the Isle of Wight under the name 'Gadget'. The racing in Dun Laoghaire consisted of four races one over a triangular course with about 6 knots of breeze from the north-east.

A similar design to the International 12 foot dinghy is the Dublin Bay Sailing Club 12 Foot dinghy which shares the same hull design but carries a gunter rig designed in 1969, with an 80 sq. ft. mainsail, a small jib and a foredeck to keep the boat dryer when sailing in the Dublin Bay chop. This championship was won by 'Albany' which was built in 1936 and sailed by Gavin Johnston and Gail Varian from Dalkey.

Finally, the Bray Droleen class sailed their first ever Irish Championship despite the boats being designed in 1896 by William Ogilvy. Droleens had not sailed in Dun Laoghaire since the town and Harbour changed their names from Kingstown in 1920. 'Galway Girl' from Connemara arrived in style, when a 20 ton truck with its own crane stopped outside the club, blocking the traffic while she was transferred from the low loader to a launching trolley. The Droleen is described as being a cat-boat being of six foot beam despite their short length. After four races, Mark Delany in 'Windyridge' which was built by the late Paddy Sheridan in County Cavan, was declared the winner.

It was a remarkable day of racing, competition, sociability and friendship and everybody went home thinking over what the had learned over the weekend.

Related Articles

12 Foot Dinghy Irish Championship 2024
Held at Bray Sailing Club on Saturday For the first time in its recent history, the Irish 12 Foot Dinghy Championship moved 12 kilometres away from Dun Laoghaire to Bray Sailing Club on Saturday 24th August. Posted on 26 Aug
The price of heritage
A tale of a city, three towns but one theme, from dinghy historian Dougal Henshall The meeting in question took place down at the National Maritime Museum at Falmouth and saw the 1968 Flying Dutchman Gold Medal winning trio of Rodney Pattisson, Iain MacDonald-Smith and their boat Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious brought back together. Posted on 19 Apr
Irish 12 Foot Dinghy Class Championship
Racing held for these classics in Dun Laoghaire Harbour The 12 Foot Dinghy Class is not well known in Ireland today in the era of GRP boats. However, before 1947 the 12 Foot Dinghies were the preferred class of many premier dinghy sailors in Ireland in Dublin and Cork. Posted on 28 Aug 2023
County Dublin 12 Foot Dinghy Championship
Women at the helm winning at the the Royal St George YC In 1931, 'The County Dublin 12 Foot International Dinghy Association' was formed to co-ordinate sailing activities among the various clubs of the Dublin region. That modest organisation evolved into the Irish Dinghy Racing Association in 1945. Posted on 31 Aug 2022
Bosham Classic Boat Revival cancelled
Significant numbers of attendees are not able to make it Sadly, Bosham SC have reluctantly taken the very difficult decision to cancel the event planned for the weekend of 3rd & 4th September due in part to the feedback that significant numbers of regular attendees would not be able to make the event this year. Posted on 21 Aug 2022
Irish 12 Foot Dinghy Championship
Lough Ree sees visitors from Europe The first day's activity consisted of 'Sailing Round Ireland on the Inside' with six competitors from Holland, England and Ireland cruising the two miles from Lough Ree Yacht Club in Leinster to Hodson's Bay Hotel in Connacht for lunch. Posted on 9 Jun 2022
Researching International 12 Foot Dinghies
One of the earliest one-design classes of dinghy in Britain I am carrying out research on the above Class which was designed by George Cockshott of South Lancs Yacht Club and was the winner of a dinghy design competition. Posted on 9 Oct 2020
International 12 Foot Class Irish Championship
10th anniversary of the revived event The Royal St George Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire hosted the 2020 Irish 12 Foot Dinghy Championships on 13th September with two alternative rigs permissible Posted on 14 Sep 2020
10th anniversary International 12 Championship
Taking place in Dun Laoghaire on 13th September The B.R.A. 12 Foot Dinghy Class was adopted by the International Yacht Racing Union on 1st January 1920, and thus it became the International 12 Foot Class, the only dinghy class to compete at the 1920 Antwerp (Belgium) Olympic Games, at Oostende. Posted on 8 Sep 2020
The Greed for Speed
Has it taken away the fun of sailing? With dinghy racing being a competitive sport, there has always been a demand for more power and speed as getting to the finish line faster than the rest is what it is all about, so that in some ways, the 'Greed for Speed' is nothing new. Posted on 24 Apr 2020
Savvy Navvy 2024Maritimo 2023 S600 FOOTER