On Friday evening (November 8th), the National Maritime Museum in Dun Laoghaire, in the impressively re-purposed Mariners' Church, hosted the Annual Prize-Giving of an internationally significant sailing club which, despite being all of 140 years old, is only ranked fifth in terms of seniority among the yacht and sailing clubs that call Dun Laoghaire home. For the Royal Irish Yacht Club (1831), the Royal St George Yacht Club (1838) and the Royal Alfred and National Yacht Club s (both of 1870) were already well there – three with their Royal Warrants firmly in place - before Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) set up its cheeky stall in 1884 to provide proper racing in the Bay for "boats too small to be considered seriously by the established clubs". A pivotal time in sailing development in the mid 1960s, when Dublin Bay Sailing Club had to deal with new materials and highly-innovative boat-building series production methods, while keeping classic boats and traditionally-minded members on side.
The future is stylishly announced by the Springtime launching in Dun Laoghaire of John Sisk Senr's new GRP Italian-built Sparkman & Stephens-designed Alpha 36 Sarnia, while beyond (dark blue) is the bow of Paul Campbell's 37ft Arthur Robb-designed yawl, classically built in timber by Tyrrell's of Arklow to celebrate their centenary in 1964. Both boats still sail from Dun Laoghaire. Meanwhile, on the left, we see evidence that while a dreamy be-spectacled young man may drive a very sensible.
