UCD Sailing Club recently made the short trip down to their home club in Dun Laoighaire to take part in the Student Yachting Nationals organised by the Irish University Sailing Association and the Royal Irish Yacht club. The event was sailed in 8 identical J80 yachts provided by the Irish Sailing Association.

 The event was used as a qualification event for the Student Yachting Worlds (SYWOC) which are held every year in France.

On Saturday morning, the 8 College teams taking part were greeted by beautiful sunshine and a light to moderate breeze that provided for idyllic racing conditions. UCD opened their weekends racing with a 4th in the first race. The 2nd race showed a marked improvement and after a strong start they managed to lead the race around the course to finish a comfortable 1st. In the 3rd race the team lead for most of the way around but got pipped at the last mark and had to settle for a 2nd place, still a great result in the conditions. In the 4th race, after a false start, the team only managed to claw back one place and finished a disappointing 7th. These 4 results were good enough to leave UCD lying 2nd overall after the 1st day with 4 more races to come on the Sunday. In first was a wildcard entry from Cork who were ineligible to qualify for SYWOC, UCD therefore were in poll position in the race for qualification.On Sunday morning, the teams launched to a strong south easterly breeze and a short, sharp chop. In the first race, UCD struggled to find their rhythm upwind, however their breathtaking speed downwind ensured that the still managed to finish in 4th overall, missing out on 3rd place by inches. In the 2nd race, UCD again finished 4th. It meant that they would need a strong performance in the 3rd race to put them back into contention. It didn’t start very well as they were deemed to have false started once again and had to return back across the line, putting them in last position at a crucial point in the championships. With steely determination however they fought back, bit by bit, and eventually by the end of the race they managed to cross the line in 1st place. A remarkable comeback. At this point it was 2.50, and according to the event rules, no race could be started after 3 o clock, but the organisers were determined to run the full schedule of races and so they quickly fired off the warning signal for the 4th and final race on Sunday. The start line was crowded and competitive and with a lot of boats eager to impress, 6 out of 8 boats were over the line at the gun and so all boats were recalled to restart. However since 3 o clock had now come and gone, the race could not be held and the event was deemed over.

With frantic calculations of scores and results going on on every boat, it wasn’t until they were ashore that UCD realised that they had finished 2nd in the Student Yachting Nationals. However the winner of the event was the wildcard entry and was thus ineligible to qualify for the student yachting worlds. UCD therefore secured the qualification spot and will represent Ireland at the Student yachting worlds in France in September. This is a huge achievement for the Sailing club and it will be the first time in 10 years that UCD are represented at the event. The club would like to thank our Senior Treasurer Dominic O’Keefe and former Commodore Andrew O’Donoghue for getting us to invest in our own J80 which in its first year has already showed its value. The club would like to thank Rob O’Leary and Cian Gallagher for organising a great event and to Mark McGibney of the RIYC for allowing the event use the fantastic facilities in the yacht club.

UCD team- Cathal Leigh Doyle, Theo Murphy, Simon Doran, Alyson Rumball and Dave Fitzgerald