#vdlr2013 – Competitors from Dublin's Northside got some wry satisfaction in yesterday's racing in the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta when several classes were brought north round the Baily to avail of the superior racing waters between Ireland's Eye and Lambay writes WM Nixon.There, well out of Dublin Bay's flukey breezes and nine clear miles north of the Dun Laoghaire pierheads, they found perfect sailing conditions with southeast breezes building to 15 knots as the day made on.
So in this happy fleet, how could you tell the top Northside boats from the Southside visitors? Easy, really. They T-bone each other, just when the going is at its best. It's as simple as that.
In the second race, beating out past the Stack on the northeast corner of Ireland's Eye with a fine beat in prospect with the ebb all the way back to Dun Laoghaire, ICRA Commodore Nobby Reilly on the Mills 36 Crazy Horse (co-owned with Alan Chambers), was powering along on starboard, revelling in his own home waters off Howth. Things were looking good, the racing was great, condition were perfect, and Crazy Horse was contending for overall leader in Class 0 with a first in Thursday's race in Dublin Bay, and a fourth in Friday morning's race off the Fingal coast.
When things seem to good to be true, they usually are. Another Northside star - Pat Kelly's top J/109 Storm from Rush - came sweeping in on port, and was too late in taking avoiding action. She T-boned Crazy Horse on the port side, taking out the stanchions and guardrails, and inflicting enough hull damage to mark the end of the Horse's regatta.
Thankfully, no-one was injured, though it was too close for comfort for Crazy Horses's cockpit crew. But the shock for all involved will take some recovery. Our commiserations to everyone caught up in this crash.
