ONE hundred-year-old Erica, the oldest-known boat in the class, will lead the Water Wags off the starting line for tomorrow's special regatta organised to mark her 100th year. Founded in 1887, the class lays claim to being the oldest One-Design dinghy fleet in the world.
A turnout of 25 boats is expected for the six-race weekend series, with racing taking place both inside the harbour and in Scotsman's Bay under the burgee of the Royal St George Yacht Club.
Erica, the only surviving Double-Ender, was built in 1896 by Hollwey & Sons and raced, unchanged in any way, until last year when the Sarratt family, her current owners, treated her to a well-earned restoration by renowned clinker boat builder Jimmy Furey of Roscommon.
The earliest boats were constructed with a canoe or scotch stern, the Double-Ended as it is known, and rigged with a single standing lug and spinnaker. In 1900 a design modification was adopted, with a transom stern and jib reducing building costs from around £45 to £14.10s for a boat and £2.16s for sails.
The Water Wags, including Erica, also plan to travel to the Classic Boat Regatta at Glandore, West Cork, which takes place in early July.
Despite the pace of modern dinghy design and the diminution of the Wags' traditional sailing area inside the harbour because of commercial ferry movements, the class continues to thrive, and it is ironic that whilst Dublin Bay SC can muster only a handful of dinghies for its own racing and continually struggles with its dinghy format, the Wags can produce regular double-figure turnouts and run their own racing. Is there a 100-year-old message here for dinghy enthusiasts?
On the other side of Dublin Bay, the sportboats' class makes its debut at this weekend's 200-boat Carlsberg Howth Keelboat Weekend. The event, the first of this summer's Dublin regattas, has a double importance, with scores counting towards overall points for the Carlsberg Royal Alfred YC Superleague.
Making a special impact this weekend, is the one-design Squib class, with over 50 entries. Preparation for the class championships in two weeks' time are intensifying and performances this weekend will be an important gauge for the class championship which has close to 100 entries.
The annual Lambay race on Saturday begins at mid-day for the 16 classes with a combination of committee boat and pier starts. Round-the-cans racing on Sunday starts at 11.09 am and the intention is to provide racing of a similar format to Howth's autumn league.
Cork Dry Gin has teamed up with Irish Lifeboats to raise funds with a novel competition to estimate the time the first boat will take to cross the finish line in this month's Round Ireland Race.
The competition began this week. Entrants will be asked to donate 50 pence per estimate and place the money in a special yellow Lifeboat Collection Box.
The competition will run in 300 clubs and pubs around Ireland, with a prize of a bottle of Gin for the person closest to the correct time in each outlet. The previous fastest-elapsed time, in 1994, was Virgin City Jet, which took three days, 16 hours, 30 minutes and 33 seconds. All funds raised go directly to the local lifeboat station. This year's race now has 59 entries and four maxi contenders.
The maxis will have the biggest chance of smashing the new monhull record for the circuit which was set by the Rothmans maxi in 1990, and stands at three days, 12 hours, 56 mins and six secs.
One entry, Bridgestone, entered by Des Collins, is claiming a potential speed of 20 knots given the right conditions, and is making an all-out attempt to break the record. She will be crewed by sailors from Howth headed up by Tom EarIs.
They are joined by Peter Wilson and Brian Matthews, skipper and navigator, respectively, from the 1994 winning entry.
Billed as a festival of sail and song for seafarers, the P&O Carrickfergus Classic Sail began yesterday with 150 vessels making it the largest classic sail gathering on the east coast. The event, which attracted 50,000 people to Carrickfergus in 1995, continues until Sunday.
