Liam Glynn from Ballyholme YC is leading the Topper World Championships in Loctudy, Brittany, France. In a fleet of 102 boats, he has already registered 3 firsts, 1 second and a third.

He has already won the Irish Nationals this summer at Donaghadee where conditions were similar with little breeze and lots of tide. Hopefully there is a little bit more wind forecast today although tomorrow is looking light without a sea or land breeze kicking in during the afternoon. Today is the first of the races where the gold and silver fleets have been separated and the racing starts properly. Ben Martin (BYC), Tom Purdon (BYC and SLYC), Peter Gilmore (SLYC), Lucy Mearns (SLYC) and Emily Hill (CAYC) should also make the Gold fleet.

Ryan Seaton and Matt McGovern have won Gold at the Sail for Gold Regatta in Weymouth, home of the London 2012 sailing Olympics. It is a breakthrough performance for the duo who, in the process of securing their first international medal, beat numerous World and European medallists.

Local sailors, Robert Espey and Michael Gunning, got the 2013 RS Season off to a successful start, securing a win at the 2013 RS Irish Eastern Championships, held at the Royal St George Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire, Dublin.

Finishing first on 7 points, a cool 2 points clear of last year’s event winners, the Ryan brothers, the Ballyholme duo have certainly made a lasting impression for the season ahead. Despite the difficult conditions on Saturday, which saw dying and shifting breeze, the boys managed to return to the club as overnight leaders eagerly awaiting Sunday's forecast of heavy breeze.

James Espey from Ballyholme Yacht Club currently leads the last leg of the ISAF World Cup at Hyères having won the first race against the best on the world including Olympic champion Robert Scheidt from Brazil.

James has just started with a new coach in his bid to qualify for his second Olympics at Rio in 2016 (he also sailed the Laser at London 2012), and all the new hard work already seems to be paying off.

Ballyholme YC will be hosting the WPFG Sailing Championship this August in Laser dinghies.

We already have enquiries from the USA and Australia and entries are in double figures. Charter boats are available via McCready Sailboats. The information sheet, event poster and Notice of Race are now available at www.ballyholme.com/events.

Bangor town is steeped in maritime history and we hope this ‘invasion’ of kayaks will add a bit of colour to the annual festivities.The entry fee is only £25 per kayak and includes a T-Shirt and the BBQ after the race.

Robbie Gilmore from Strangford Lough has reigned supreme at the 2013 ISA (Irish Sailing Association) Youth National Championships on Lough Derg in Tipperary. Gilmore sailed masterfully throughout the four day, 11 race regatta to beat last year's champion Finn Lynch to the gold in the 44 boat Laser Radial fleet. Never relinquishing the top spot on the podium he has deservedly earned the title of Ireland's best youth Laser sailor.

The Plans for the rebuild of Carrickfergus Sailing Club are now well advanced and at a meeting of the Club members on 21st January the go ahead was given to proceed with designs prepared by Knox Clayton, Architects.This new building will not only be much more environmentally friendly but will also have full disabled access.

The reinstatement of the Clubhouse will see Carrickfergus being well placed to attract major sailing championships and events to our town with all the tourist opportunities that this should bring. Commodore, Roger Woodward commented after the meeting, “This is a great opportunity for the Club and its Members to move on after the tragic fire that destroyed so much, it will mean a Clubhouse and Sailing venue we can all be proud of”.

After 3 weeks of near tropical conditions the "icebreaker" started in earnest last Sunday. The breeze arrived in earnest and the forecast gave 28 knots in the gusts. Thankfully this did not happen, but the early part of the race got the heartbeats racing quickly as a full hiking breeze was up. This moderated a bit as the race went on but it was classic racing conditions, even if it was a little chilly!

It is hard to believe that it is 21st Oct and we are still getting better weather than we did during the summer. Granted, it would nice to have 5-10 knots more breeze but you can’t complain about the balmy temperature. It was the 3rd week in a row where, in the morning, it did not look like any sailing would take place. We are clearly lucky: Jimmy and the girls in the battery arrange for the wind to fill in just before we turn up to allow racing to go ahead. - Fair play!

The Ballyholme Yacht Club Icebreaker series for dinghies started on Sunday and it looked as if it was going to be a lovely day for washing the car, cutting the grass or cycling.......anything other than sailing. However just as the guys were getting the boats rigged a breeze started to fill in and the flags started to move. By the time the race got underway, breeze had filled in nicely and gave all boats a good race. It was maybe a blessing that conditions were gentle for the first race, letting everyone blow the cob webs away and get back in the zone for racing.

By the time the fleet of six boats reaches Galway at the start of July, they will have travelled 39,000 nautical miles, the equivalent of travelling from Northern Ireland to Melbourne four times, yet it looks like the race could be decided on a 60 minute inshore race just meters from the shore. And the man responsible for making sure the race runs smoothly is Ballyholme local and former Olympian Bill O’Hara.

Latest to join the fleet for Royal Ulster’s anniversary race on Friday evening is Dickie Brown from Portaferry. He will skipper Ed Wheeler’s Contessa 35 Witchcraft of Howth and among the crew are Ed himself, Dermot Macauley(son of Marie and the late Dan) and Karen, Dickie’s daughter. His entry brings the fleet to 25.

Saturday 23rd June sees the 2012 Ballyholme Regatta supported by Mackey Opticians.

For those taking part the evening entertainment programme includes music from our very own David Wilson, a Hog Roast and free cocktail, and dancing to late with the Regatta Disco. And all for only £10.00.

Our Olympian James Espey will hopefully be there as well as our current Miss Northern Ireland Tiffany Brien, who is hoping that some of you might help her fulfil her current sponsorship campaign for Belfast Lough Sailability.

Ballyholme Yacht Club invites all GP14 Sailors to Ballyholme for the 2012 CraftInsure GP14 Championship of Ireland. Richard Street - Irish Association President, and Nigel Sloan - Ulster rep for Irish Association, joined David Fletcher - Event Organiser- from Ballyholme Yacht Club for the launch.

The launch for the event was held in Belfast on Sunday 10th June beside the Lagan. The local GP14’s held a short event on the river to commemorate Alastair Duffin for 50 years of building wooden boats (mainly GP14’s) in East Belfast. Alistair Duffin’s superb dinghies are sailed across the world - many a GP14 world championship campaign was funded by taking a beautifully finished Duffin boat abroad and selling it for profit at the event. In the days of fibre glass boats, a wooden Duffin hull currently holds the World title.