Established in 1930, Dublin University Sailing Club boasts a storied tradition and history. From the sixteen Irish Olympians among the ranks of its alumni, to its status as the largest student sailing club in Ireland, to its extensive collection of Intervarsity and Regional medals collected every year, the Club is one that is confident and assured with its position at the forefront of sporting life in Trinity.
In conversation with Emma Gallagher, Club Treasurer, the structure and running of the Club was explained. Those passionate about the sport and the Club typically stay involved for the duration of their time in Trinity, including Captain Marcus Boggan, a final-year Law student who has also volunteered on the Committee for the last two years. Secretary Morgan Lyttle has responsibility for organising and planning Club events, a mammoth task, while Gallagher as Treasurer oversees financial affairs and contributes to Lyttle’s logistical planning. The student committee comprises 11 other Officer positions, from Ents to Alumni, however another standout member is Sailing Captain Finn Walker, a third-year Business and Economics student who is assisted by Sailing Officers Rian Geraghty-McDonnell, Simone Daranyi, and Trevor Bolger.
Training
“Trinity Sailing…is understood to train the most of any student sailing club in Ireland at the moment”
Walker has been instrumental in the Club’s advancement this year, from leading efforts to encourage junior sailors to come to Trinity and join DUSC, to doing an outstanding job executing the Sailing Captain’s duties of organising and running training. Trinity Sailing, largely through these efforts, is understood to train the most of any student sailing club in Ireland at the moment; about four water sessions are run every week out of Royal St. George Yacht Club, while theory sessions are also held.
The logistics of running a student sailing club in Trinity, Gallagher explains, are staggering. The Club self-funds its entire fleet, which would ideally be wholly replaced every 6-7 years, relying predominantly on the generosity and support from its ranks of alumni and the semi-regular recruitment of sponsors. John Sisk & Son, a building and contracting company based in Cork, are currently the largest sponsors of the Club, although support is also received from USIT and Grant Thornton.
Theory sessions can involve video review of past races, strategy meetings, or video analysis of crews they will be competing against in upcoming races. Water sessions are generally based around practising for race day, as the IUSA (Irish Universities Sailing Association) racing format is quite different to what most junior sailors will be exposed to in their pre-college careers. IUSA events are run in a team style, with university crews entering a number of boats, with the ambition being to get the best possible finishing position for as many of your team’s boats as possible. Each boat receives points corresponding to its finish position, e.g. 1 point for 1st place, 2 points for 2nd place and so on; the team with less than 10 points is deemed to win the race. It’s quite different to what may be considered a more ‘standard’ sailing experience, where an approach of ‘every man for themselves’ more so applies. However, Gallagher contends that the reliance on one’s teammates to also execute contributes to the healthy, team-success-oriented atmosphere of training, raceday, and the Club more widely.
Selection for which duos are paired up for racing is ongoing, with no objective golden standard held and rather ongoing consideration as to what combinations gel together is borne in mind – although experience and general talent usually plays a significant role. Race day itself comes around only a couple of times a year, and this was even less so than usual this season after insurance issues plagued the Irish university sailing scene in the first semester, the consequence being that the Club was unable to race IUSA events for the entirety of Michaelmas term.
Racing
However, once the Club finally got to start racing, their months of training were exhibited to spectacular effect. A private team and match racing day was held against UCD in mid-October, before the Club hosted a DUSC Alumni event – both a social gathering and an opportunity for competitive racing against Oxford University Sailing Club, UCD, and DUSC alumni – in early November. In Hilary term, the Club had quite the ‘Super Saturday’ in early February – the memory of which brings a smile to Gallagher’s face. On Saturday February 10th, Trinity Sailing sent three teams to compete – two to the UK, to compete in Oxford University’s Top Gun Invitational and Imperial College London’s Imperial Icicle, while a third traversed to Cork to take part in UCC’s Alumni race. A phenomenally successful weekend by all understandings, Sailing’s ability to plan and execute triple representation across two countries, all in the one day, speaks volumes to both the sheer number of passionate and involved athletes they have, but also to the remarkable level of ground-level commitment demonstrated daily by the Committee members.
IUSA events were finally up and running by late February, and DUSC proved in Dingle that they were more than capable of putting the months of productive training to demonstrated success. Organised by the University of Galway Sailing Club (each Club takes turns organising the IUSA events), the weekend’s racing saw an all-Trinity gold fleet final between TCD 1 and TCD 2, with TCD 1 securing the win. TCD 4 came second in silver fleet, another notable achievement, however TCD 1’s win was certainly the standout moment for the day, being the Club’s first IUSA win in 5 years.
DUSC received recognition as ‘Club of the Year’
One of the biggest days of the year rolled around shortly afterwards, with Varsities (held in Schull, Co. Cork, and organised by UCD Sailing Club) in early March. With three teams racing in gold fleet, the final saw TCD 2 take on UCD 1 in the final. While Trinity did fall short in that race, the weekend was a wider success story for the club – DUSC received recognition as ‘Club of the Year’ at the Varsities Awards, held at the closing banquet. With the forced cancellation of Colours vs UCD in early April, due to subideal weather conditions, Varsities was, unbeknownst to the Club at the time, the last team race of the season.
Moving Forward
Gallagher’s firm belief is that the Club has “never been in a better position”. With remarkable membership retention and huge squad depth, positive atmospheric development over the last few years, and an objectively outgoing and exuberant team dynamic, the Club is in an excellent position moving into the coming seasons. Even taking the tight-knit nature of the wider sailing community into consideration, DUSC surely stands out for the above reasons.
A mixed club, the male and female sailors of College train and compete together, although significant efforts have been made this year in particular to drive forward with the position of its female members. The Club has organised a number of ‘Women at the Helm’ events throughout the year (training days where exclusively female sailors will helm all boats), with the motivation for such sessions being that in the whole sphere of Irish sailing, only 2 boat classes have over 50% female helms. The Club’s recognition as its position within a male-dominated sport, yet its stated aim of running such events to help female sailors “break barriers”, summarises the Club nicely; aware of its privilege, sentient of its status, yet committed to moving forward and advancing every season.
