Sailing in Dublin.

af_thefragile

Hey, i wanna get to some sailing over this summer in Dublin and i wasn't sure where exactly to go and which is a good/best place to sail in Dublin.

I have sailed before in my college club. We used to use the Royal Irish Yacht Club space which was pretty cool. But now that its summer (and my college sailing club is quite inefficient) i'm looking for a good club to join in Dublin to continue on sailing.

I'm probably looking for a place where you can rent out or borrow one of the club's dinghy and get in the water ya know instead of being too involved in team sailing and crewing big yachts. Although i wouldn't mind that either as long as i could get to rent/borrow the boat and go out on my own too...

So wondering if you guys know a good sailing club in Dublin to join?
Probably one where you can just rent our/borrow a boat to go on the water and maybe also get some experience/develop skill of working on bigger boats. Kinda fun and good craic...

Hope i'm not asking for too much...!

Cheers!

Tabnabs

www.sailingindublin.ie not quite what you're after, but a start. TBH, you're unlikely to get a boat to use/borrow/rent.

af_thefragile

Yup, i checked out that place but they only seem to offer sailing as a part of a crew... So like i was wondering if there would be a place i could sail by just renting out a boat like you can rent out surfboards/windsails etc. though they're a lot different from a dinghy.

Though you say you doubt any club would offer that...

miss no stars

try sutton dinghy club - www.sdc.ie

af_thefragile

^They look pretty good, i might check them out... Thanks!

Anyone know any other clubs like that? Which may let you out on a boat by yourself or maybe a 2 person boat rather than being a part of a crew on a big yacht...

miss no stars

edited

sorry, I just reread your initial post and now mine makes no sense :P Apart from maybe trying sutton dinghy club, you could put an ad up on the howth yacht club website saying what you're looking for and any experience you have and try get a spot on a bigger boat. www.hyc.ie

keelboat/one design boats race tuesday and saturday at the moment, cruisers 1 and 2 sail wednesday evenings. During the summer there'll also be open events that people will be desperate for crew during, then there will be the autumn league and brass monkeys. There's always crewing available in howth, just need to get a shoe in

You'll learn a lot more about sailing in bigger boats than you will in dinghies! Dinghies are far more forgiving if you mess up a start or get broken on a beat up. Sailing something bigger for a while will improve your racing if/when you go back to smaller stuff.

Talent

miss no stars wrote "You'll learn a lot more about sailing in bigger boats than you will in dinghies!"

I totally disagree. You learn far more about tactics, tides, wind shifts, etc, sailing dinghies than crewing on a large boat. An example, hitched a sail on a 35 footer for a race in Cork last year. Anytime anyone made a suggestion or asked a question, the "tactician" on the afterdeck yelled at them to be quiet. Of course there are wonderful exceptions but the average newcomer is just rail fodder on many boats. Took a guy sailing last year who hitherto sailed on only a larger keelboat. Handed him the dinghy helm and discovered he thought all boats had to be sailed at a 45 degree angle of heel because that's all he ever did. Sail a dinghy and you can sail (almost) anything. If you crew on a dinghy, there's just one other person and you can't help but learn more.

Anyway, Skerries Sailing Club has three dinghies for the use of members, especially new ones, who do not have access to a boat. There are two Topaz singlehanders and a larger Omega 2/3 person dinghy which is quite responsive. They do a half price basic membership for your first year of membership in the club. See www.skerriessailingclub.com

af_thefragile

^Cheers, that looks pretty cool too. Though skerries is a little far away, i might still check it out.
Its like once i kinda get sailing frequently and get myself involved in some sort of a sailing scene, i would like to get my own dinghy but for the mean time to get out there on the water i'ld need one a club could rent/lend out if i join it or something. The skerries one looks like they do that so i'll check it out... though i'ld like it somewhere closer to the city. But i'm not gonna ask for a lot!

Arithon

Yup, i checked out that place but they only seem to offer sailing as a part of a crew...

I'm not quite sure what you mean, so I'll clarify some things, just in case.

The only dinghies that Sailing in Dublin have are two-handed designs, so crew is required - but it's always required for that kind of boat. Are you thinking of a one-person boat like the Laser One?

I don't think boats would be loaned out separately. There might be issues with insurance cover for this (just a guess). And it wouldn't fit in with the aims of the club. Of course, you can consider this an orthogonal question - there are people who have their own dinghy and sail with the club anyway, just to have other people to sail with.

And having rescue boat cover is useful.

miss no stars

Talent wrote: »

miss no stars wrote "You'll learn a lot more about sailing in bigger boats than you will in dinghies!"

I totally disagree. You learn far more about tactics, tides, wind shifts, etc, sailing dinghies than crewing on a large boat. An example, hitched a sail on a 35 footer for a race in Cork last year. Anytime anyone made a suggestion or asked a question, the "tactician" on the afterdeck yelled at them to be quiet. Of course there are wonderful exceptions but the average newcomer is just rail fodder on many boats. Took a guy sailing last year who hitherto sailed on only a larger keelboat. Handed him the dinghy helm and discovered he thought all boats had to be sailed at a 45 degree angle of heel because that's all he ever did. Sail a dinghy and you can sail (almost) anything. If you crew on a dinghy, there's just one other person and you can't help but learn more.

Like I said, once you know the basics up to level 2, you'll learn more on a bigger boat. Tide matters a heck of a lot more because when you pick your tack on the upwind leg, you pick your tack and that's that, you have to have the minimal adverse tide effect. And just because you had ONE bad experience on a 35 footer doesn't mean everyone does.
What dinghy has sail changes on every leg? It's a lot harder to recover from a bad start or wrong tack upwind in a bigger boat than it is a smaller boat. I'd know, having been racing yachts for the last 4-5 years or so. That's twice a week, every week, by the way. Not once in Cork.
Oh and you can't sail anything if you sail a dinghy. If you sail a dinghy and then really learn to sail - like where you decide how much air you want to spill from the top of the genoa by moving the cars and barberhaulers on the sheets, as well as adjusting the tweaker at the bottom and the halliard at the top, or you dump power not by letting out the mainsheet, but by releasing the traveller to leeward or perhaps where it takes a full 4 people just to get the spinnaker flying - THEN you can sail lots. Never assume that you can sail anything, just because you can sail one type of boat :rolleyes:

As for the bit about wind shifts.. dinghies are FAR more foregiving than racing yachts when there's a windshift, much much more foregiving. But you're going to disagree when I say that a 5 degree windshift once caused us to go by the lee and broach just as we got the spinnaker flying but hadn't yet taken downt the genoa and the halliards had yet to be coiled neatly just as we were hit broadside by a large wave aren't you?
Maybe you just didn't sense the windshifts when you were on a bigger boat, because a good helm will adjust immediately.

Sure you might not get on the helm when you start out, but climb the ladder and learn lots. Learn the sail changes by heart and what halliard gets let off an inch and when by starting at the masthead, progress to the bow, get onto the main sail, fly the spinnaker. Then you really know how boats sail.