THRILLING FLYING FIFTEEN WORLDS WILL BE NYC HIGHLIGHT OF 2019
Containers are starting to arrive this week from Hong Kong and Australia with the first participating boats for the 2019 Flying Fifteen World Championships which we will host from September 1- 13th.
It is a great honour of the National Yacht Club to host this World’s and is only possible thanks to the generous support and sponsorship of Subaru Cars and others.
The Club hosted the World’s in 1992 and 2003 both of which boosted interest in the class and the National’s preeminent position as having one of the biggest and best F15 fleets in the world.
In 2003 Subaru Cars also sponsored the event so next Month’s World’s is the continuation of a long and successful association.
It is an onerous task to organize a World Championships and it is only possible because of the many Club members who give up freely of their time and energy to make it happen. Niall Meagher has chaired the Organizing Committee superbly and all the elements are in place for an event that reflects well on the Club and Country.
Irish Sailing President, our own Jack Roy, a past master in the Flying 15 himself, says that putting fun back into sailing is a top priority for him during his term – and we hope that each and every member of the Club will participate and enjoy the shore elements of the event.
Every Club member is warmly invited to the Opening Ceremony on Thursday 5th at 5pm where Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Caothaoirleach Shay Brennan will start proceedings. There will be a great atmosphere with music and entertainments to get the show on the road before the serious racing starts with Races 1 and 2 of the Worlds proper, the following day.
The Council are keen to have the Clubs use the majestic harbour and Bay to promote the Borough for Tourism purposes – for the betterment of county and country.
The Organising Committee have tried hard to minimise disruption to members and while we are at the mercy of the weather, we hope the National spirit will allow us cope with whatever evolves during the event. The platform is needed because the competitors may need to take their boats out of the water each evening and we apologise to members for the inconvenience of having to remove their boats. We hope the fun around the event will go some way to make up for it.
To look at the event in detail.
Effectively, three regattas will be sailed in the period of 31st August to 13th September with a Pre-Worlds sailed in tandem with the Championship of Ireland preceding the Worlds which start on Friday 6th September. At this stage the entry list for the regattas is standing in the high seventies with the cut-off number for entries set at 85 boats for the Worlds. While most of the participants will come from the UK, there will be a good representation of Irish boats, including some of our own National Yacht Club members. Other countries that will be contesting the events are Australia, Canada, France, Hong Kong, South Africa and Spain. Thus, we can look forward to a “smorgasbord” of accents and cultures around the premises for the two weeks of the regatta.
Pre-regatta activities such as measuring will also require volunteers and while many of these will come from the fleet, we would be most grateful for other offers of help to get through the process as quickly and seamlessly as possible.
The event website www.flying15worlds2019.com has a form by which volunteers can register their availability to help. The “leaders” for these key onshore activities have already been appointed but on the premise that “more hands make work lighter”, any further offers of help would be gratefully accepted.
Socially, the club will be a hive of activity over the two weeks and the F15 Class would be delighted to see club members add to that atmosphere.
For the record, we have not yet had an Irish World Champion in the Flying Fifteen Class – but we would like one, soon!
By way of interest, the following are some of the Flying 15 NYC Past masters who took part in the 1992 or 2003 Worlds or were NYC F15 Class Captains:
Sean Nolan
Kevin Blake
Jim Gorman
Ted McCourt
Michael Horgan
Ray Duggan
Peter O’Shea
Cathy MacAleavey
David O’Brien
Eric Cooney
Ken Dumpleton
Alan Dooley
Ian Mathews
Niall Coleman
Alan Green
Keith Poole
Tom Murphy
Peter Sherry
Mal Nowlan
Jack Roy
David Gorman
