As the academic year comes to a close, so too does the college sailing year. DUSC has had a jam-packed calendar all year round. Kicking things off to a spectacular start by organising the first IUSA event back after the pandemic. Completing 107 races across the weekend with 144 sailors taking part, it was a successful return to team racing. With events such as, the 8th Seed TCD3 knocked out 1st seed UCC1. However, they in turn were knocked out by UCD1 in their semi-final, who went on to beat TCD1 in a best of 5 final 3-1.
Yet this did not stamp on spirits as the TCD 1sts took home 3rd place in the Irish Team Racing Nationals down in Royal Cork Yacht Club in November.
We kicked of 2022 with a trip across the pond to Southampton to compete in the Wessex Winter Warmer; A fantastic weekend where our sailors' team racing tactics were put to the test. Narrowly missing out on the qualifiers, our firsts came home having learnt a lot from the high level of racing at the event.
Next up was the long awaited return to Carrick-on-Shannon for the Third IUSA event of the calendar year Hosted by NUIG and Queens University. Our firsts went through the Saturday of racing undefeated to meet a disappointing end, with the wind not filling in on the Sunday to complete the event. The 2nd's and 3rd's also performed very well on the Saturday only conceding a few loses between them.
This rolled quite swiftly over into the Alumni Event; an event usually held in November of each year, and another day in which the wind was not on our side, but this most certainly did not stop the fun. The usual day of Team Racing was replaced by a 5-a-side football tournament, followed by one of our most successful Alumni dinners yet. Hosted by the Royal St. George Yacht Club, it brought members old and new together for a night of Coole Swan, chicken supreme and music. We want to thank all of our Alumni who came back to support the Club for this fantastic evening, in which we raised over 2,000 Euro for the club. This will go towards fixing and maintaining our boats and supporting club members. Finally we want to cordially ask you to save the date of the 5th of November 2022, for the next Alumni Event.
With no time to spare, we were on the long road down to Dingle on the Wednesday after the Alumni Dinner for the IUSA Inter-Varsities hosted by Dingle Sailing Club and Organised by UCC and MTU. Dingle Sailing Club joint with the IUSA Committee, and some fantastic weather allowed us to have an unforgettable few days racing followed by a fantastic Varsities Ball on the Saturday night. Although we didn’t take home the Varsities Trophy, we did come home with Club Captain of the year and we couldn’t have been prouder of our Captain, Kate Lyttle, for all her hard work for the club this year.
The Final event of the year, a family favourite, as we all know is Colours. This year it was hosted by UCD and took place on the Liffey. It was an absolutely spectacular day of racing, right outside the 3 Arena, that came down to the very last race. The final stood with the 3rds and the TCD girls having put points on the board which left the event at a tie, then matched with the 1sts drawn 2-2, and bringing the whole day down to the very last race between UCD and DUSC 1sts. DUSC narrowly lost out in the last leg of the race, a disappointing loss but a great day none the less. This certainly did not take away from the success of our club this year. We welcomed 20 new freshers to the club and came back together better than ever after a full year off the water. It has been an absolute privilege to be a member of the club this year and too see the enthusiasm for the sport coming up through the year groups.
Kate wants to thank her outgoing committee for all their hard work this year and we wish the new committee headed by Helen O’Beirne every success for the forthcoming season.