From an entry list of 30 sailing boats, 19 boats came to the line in Holyhead for the 3rd ISORA race – 75 miles to Dun Laoghaire. The fleet, that was missing many of their “regulars” had four newcomers to ISORA - “Mojito”, Peter Dunlop, “Poppy of St. Helier”, John Roberts (another John Roberts), “Intuiition” and “One Life”, both of Sailing West Sailing School.
There were two significant predicted factors affecting the race – the extremely strong Spring Tides and a wind shift from northwest to southwest during the race. As forecast the wind was 12knots northwest at the start and immediately the fleet split into two halves. The main fleet headed south plugging the north going tide while a small bunch headed north using the strong tide.
The wind followed its forecast and backed south-west although the north part of the fleet were lifted onto Rockabill, the wind was stronger for the south fleet who arrived under spinnaker.
Despite this the entire fleet, closely bunched met again at Rockabill. “Tsunami”, Vincent Farrell, who was part of the north fleet, round first, followed closely by “Raging Bull” Matt Davis and “Intuition”, Sailing West Sailing School, both of whom were part of the south fleet. The strong tide had just turned to go north as the fleet rounded and made their way to Kish.
The wind, that had been very fickle at Rockabill increased to 20 knots shortly after the leaders rounded Rockabill and it was a beat to Kish. The wind had not finished its gyrations and the fleet experienced a huge wind shift off Lambay. This shift enabled those who had gone towards the coast to crack off and reach to Kish while those who stayed out fetched to the mark.
Despite this the leader order of rounding the Kish was the same as rounding of Rockabill. The new wind direction produced a beat from Kish to the finish with the wind reducing to 7 knots at the finish. The first boat to cross the finish line was “Tsunami”, who only managed to take 2nd in Class 1. It was followed closely by Matt Davis’s “Raging Bull” who won Class 1. “Intuition”,
Sailing West Sailing School, crossed the line 3rd to take 3rd in Class 1. Class 2 was won by “Poppy” followed by “Mojito” and “Just Enough”, Stephen Tudor.
Class 2 boats dominated the overall results with the same boats winning the overall positions.
As newcomers to ISORA, “Poppy” and “Mojito” have really made a huge impact in their inaugural race and ISORA's hope is their presence can be repeated on the ISORA start line in the future. The next race is next weekend 5th June from Pwllheli to Wicklow. It is another 75- mile race.
