National 18′s Wednesday Night 16/5/12 Report

Best fleet to date with 11 boats getting on the water on Wednesday night and a good illustration of how competitive this gang are. A light sometimes fluky South Easterly breeze prevailed for the evening which saw a great shuffle in the placings. OD Keith McKeown provided 2 league counting windward leeward races and a crews race with a finish at Curraghbinny Pier. Race 1 saw Ewan Barrys Good Bad & Ugly 362, who had travelled from Monkstown put in a very convincing bullet on his season’s debut (Kieran, why did you sell her?), followed by Peter O’Donovan Muchadoo 351 who impressively climbed from the back of the fleet and third Colin Chapman Aquaholics 370. Race 2 saw Colin Barry Happy Days 358 pip Tom Crosbie Sellulite 351 closely followed by Bryan Hassett Clea 342. And so to the important race of the night which saw most helms take a back seat, (some might even argue they should stay there!). With the breeze fading we had 10 boats start, sail 1 round, weather mark to starboard and finish, Oystercatcher 354 driven by Kieran Dwyer, came from the back having hit and re rounded the weather mark, to clinch the podium spot from Sandy Remington in Clea 342, Sellulite 351 driven by Barry O’Meara followed in third.

A great evenings racing, hope everyone can make it on Friday evening FG 18:25.

Results to date:

The wind, forecast to be light for the event, instead provided a cocktail of conditons, gusting at times and then dropping away completely mid races. On the opening day a north easterly breeze made launching quite difficult, but the men of Antrim coped admirably, with four to five men chest deep in the water, they ably assisted the smooth launching of the three laser fleets.

During the course of a difficult day, the race officer managed to run off the regulation three races.

Sunday saw the three fleets back on the water and after some time, the race officer got all three fleets away for the first race. In the radial fleet, there was very little distance between the top sailors and with the wind dropping on the last lap it was going to be a race to the finish that would be a test of their skill and patience. Cian Byrne passed that test with flying colours and hung on with remarkable perseverance to cross the finish line in first place, leaving the next four sailors in a fight for what was a second place photo finish.

Then came the waiting and the prospect of getting two more races became more and more doubtful as the wind shifted and then dropped, rose, shifted and then dropped again. Finally, the race officer got the standard fleet away and the radial fleet queued up on the start line but unfortunately, a general recall was the last action they were to see, as conditions prevented any further racing. The race officer called a halt to proceedings in mid afternoon.

Seafra Guilfoyle in 4th place overall and Dermot Lyden in 20th completed a solid performance by the Royal Cork team. A strong performance was also put in by our Kinsale neighbours with Daragh O’Sullivan 8th, Daragh O’Shea 10th and Conor Murphy 11th.

Erica Ruigrok of Rush Sailing Club was a very impressive winner of the 4.7 Championship. The standard fleet was won by Chris Penney, East Antrim BC followed closely in second place by that well known coaching figure, Thomas Chaix of Kinsale Yacht Club.

The Titanic Trophy will be awarded to the “all in” winner under ECHO handicap.

Usual prizes for IRC/ECHO classes will also be presented. Prizegiving will be held in The Quays, Cobh.

All Welcome.

1720 Nationals to be hosted by Royal Cork Yacht Club on 8th, 9th and10th June,2012. Pic Robert Bateman

The Royal Cork Yacht Club will host the 1720 Nationals on Friday 8th Saturday 9th and Sunday June 10th.

Notice of Race here

Entry Form here