Olympians sail into club's history

SAILING:By commemorating two Olympians tonight Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) ensures both Dr Alf Delany and Harry Maguire sail into club history.

Delany and Maguire, who both died this year, were multiple champions who - in different classes - shared the same passion.

The new trophies that bear their names not only serve as a fitting tribute, but more importantly for the club, will be an inspiration to keep the sport of small boat sailing alive.

Delany represented Ireland in the first Irish yachting team in the 1948 Olympics in Torquay and four years later in Helsinki. Maguire sailed in the Dragon in Tokyo in 1964.

But a lifelong passion such as theirs is not easily found today and there is much regret in the club that this section of the sport has suffered as the country has prospered. The threat to the bay's dinghy fleets, however, comes not from other sports but from within sailing itself.

DBSC's commodore Tim Costello will make this point at the club's agm later this month when he refers to the efforts made to keep small boat sailing going in the bay. It is well documented that dinghies and cruisers don't happily co-exist.

Cruiser sailing, Costello concludes, is a "counter attraction" to the dinghy divisions.

But despite the popularity of cruisers in the bay - now amounting to over 260 and the focus of the majority of the 1,600 members - interest in small boat is far from being killed off.

The numbers of small boats remain at 105 thanks to a number of initiatives by a committed team.

This year's success story is in fact the arrival of an entirely new class. The SB3's popularity, though it has admittedly left others in a state of flux, could well be a shot in the arm for the club.

The success of the new arrival looks set to continue with the news this week that the international class association has confirmed it will hold its world championship here next September.

Tonight's salute of 80 trophy winners from the club's Dublin Port-sponsored 2007 season is as big a celebration you can get in Irish sailing, and it is one which Delany and Maguire would no doubt approve of. The prize giving is being held at the Royal St George YC at 8pm.

The inaugural winner of the Dr Alf Delany Memorial Cup will be made to Frank Hamilton, helmsman of an IDRA 14 dinghy Dun Moanin (a clinker design that Alf loved so much) for the most successful boat racing in DBSC dinghy classes.

The Harry Maguire Memorial Cup will be lifted by Roddy and David McCaffrey for their performance in the Glen Pterodactyl.

Mike Irwin of the Royal Ocean Racing Club Rating office will hear the concerns of the the Irish Cruiser Racer Association (ICRA) when it meets for its annual conference on Saturday, November 24th, in Cork. Organisers can expect a grilling on existing class divisions that some say are hindering development.

Another topic to be raised is the role of professional sailors in ICRA sailing.

The conference is chaired by Fintan Cairns at the Clarion hotel from 10.30am to 2.30pm.