Many people probably do not realise that the 1998 season has already been well underway for some cat sailors from North and South and I'm not just referring to the "Ice Breaker" series in Ballyholme.

Eight members of the IMA competed in the ISAF World Sailing Championships in Dubai earlier this month, sailing one of the most alien cats to us all - The Hobie 16. Nonetheless in the interests of getting some early season competition in, measuring up against the worlds best in Hobie sailing, four Hobie 16 teams decided to enter their names with the ISA for the 1998 ISAF World Sailing Championships in Dubai.

Three teams entered in the Open Championships Johnny Mullan & Ian Wilson from Ballyholme sailing club Tommy Smith (GBSC) and John Murphy (Bl.SC) Con Murphy (Bl.SC) & Kevin O'Byrne (GBSC) who filled in for Paddy McCarthy at the last minute. One team was entered in the Women's Open Multihull, Cathy MacAleavey (Bl.SC) & Julie McGuire (Bl.SC)

Paul Crowley from GBSC also joined in with the party in Dubai, coming along as a member of the Press, which enabled him to roam the sailing area, whizz around on Press helicopters and boats, however he quickly became our defacto coach in Dubai for which we are all very grateful.

One of the beauties of the event is that brand new boats were provided for a small charter fee for entrants into all disciplines and accommodation was also provided free of charge - that is if you do not mind sharing you lodgings with 1200 other sailors - none of whom have smelly feet, snore or go to bed late at night!!

The tent could loosely be described as one large military style billet with a canvas roof which tended to make a hell of a lot of noise when it was windy at night. The tent was partitioned out into "rooms" containing 20 bunk beds - we shared with some Kiwis.

The format of the event was as follows:

1 days practice followed by 10 days racing, 2 races per day, with racing times being posted on the official notice board before and upto 10pm each night.

The Open fleet comprising 61 boats was split into two groups before each days sailing and one group sailed early in the day and the others later, taking over the boats from the first group back on shore.

The winds were generally light Force 2/3 most days, however they were much higher on other days.

Waves were quite a problem some days as there was quite an irregular swell and chop on several days and with the high amount of salt in the water you knew when you had been hit by a wave.

The Open fleet was split into a Gold and Silver fleet after the first seven days of racing, with the Irish boats being allocated into the silver fleet. Johnny Mullan and Ian Wilson notched up our best result of the championships obtaining a 5th place on the second last day of racing.

Cathy MacAleavey and Julie McGuire also managed to achieve some good mid fleet results, ending with an overall 17th place out of 23 boats, not bad considering neither had sailed together or had sailed a Hobie 16 before!

With results like this, one wonders what results could be achieved if we entered other non-Irish Regattas on boats that we actually sail on a regular basis.

Cathy MacAleavey & Julie McGuire - Final Place: 17 out 23

John Mullan & Ian Wilson - Silverfleet - Final Place: 14 out of 30

Con Murphy & Kevin O'Byrne - Silverfleet - Final Place: 20 out of 30

Tommy Smyth & John Murphy - Silverfleet - Final Place: 29 out of 30

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