Conferences offer timely opportunity to tackle thorny issues

SAILING ROUND-UP:Virtual marks, handicap bands and the staging of two offshore fixtures on the same date are top of the agenda for both the Irish Sea Offshore Racing Association (ISORA) agm on Saturday, November 19th, and the Irish Cruiser Racing Association's (ICRA) annual conference the following Saturday.

TWO NOVEMBER sailing conferences in Dún Laoghaire will celebrate a season of highs on Irish waters but the opportunity to put shape to the 2012 Irish sailing scene should not be overlooked.

Next year the Irish Cruiser National championships, the Round Ireland race and Cork Week will be held at different venues within a five-week period, putting regatta organisers under real pressure for numbers.

The events, plus the annual club regattas, all deserve support but competitors have finite budgets, both in time and money, so working out priorities is not an exact science.

The ISORA and ICRA meetings can only help make a difference if long-festering issues such as the fixtures calendar and handicaps are addressed.

For example, is it equitable for modern designs such as J109s or A35s to be racing with older Sigma 38s or X-332s? A realignment of handicap bands across all fleets could bring about better racing and, as ICRA Commodore Barry Rose concedes, such reform is long overdue.

Handicapping is something ICRA should be empowered to tackle rather than tinker with. “It’s time to flush this out and get it sorted,” Rose said yesterday.

The ICRA conference, open to all sailors, takes place at the Royal Marine in Dún Laoghaire where locals from the country’s biggest racing club, Dublin Bay Sailing Club, will take a particular interest in the handicap proceedings.

The ISORA agm precedes it and host Peter Ryan of the National Yacht Club will roll out the 2012 calendar but the talking point among the 30-boat fleet will be the adoption of “virtual marks” to help in setting courses that are not just long reaching legs.

The ISORA day races, particularly from Dún Laoghaire, could be far more interesting, according to Ryan, who says the use of such marks that rely on GPS and trackers was successfully pioneered by Liverpool YC last season.

ISORA also hosts its prize-giving dinner dance on the same day where a cabinet of impressive silverware will be distributed, the overall Wolf’s Head Trophy staying with Matt Davis’s Raging Bull of Skerries Sailing Club.

The announcement of a new offshore race from Galway, the round Rockall race on June 24th (the same weekend as the biennial Round Ireland race) has left many sailors scratching their heads. It too will be a topic of conversation.

One of Ireland’s seven International Race officers (IRO) has been short-listed for the Olympic regatta next July at Weymouth. The National Yacht Club’s Jack Roy is one of only 25 selected for duty, one of the most prestigious roles in a race official’s career.

2012 KEY EVENTS

April 12th:Dún Laoghaire's Youth Nationals May 25th: Howth's ICRA Nationals June 24 Wicklow's Round Ireland Race

July 5th:Galway's Volvo Ocean Race

July 7th:Crosshaven's Cork Week; Derry's Clipper Round the World Race

July 12th:Dún Laoghaire's ISAF Youth World Championships

August 23rd:Dublin's Tall Ships

September 8th:Kinsale's Dragon Gold Cup

November 2nd:Dún Laoghaire's ISAF World Conference