#hyc – Another afternoon of fresh winds provided 118 boats with testing racing conditions for Howth Yacht Club's second weekend of Autumn League racing. A consistent south-easterly wind afforded the race management teams the opportunity of setting long race courses for all 10 classes. Scroll down for more photos by Gareth Craig.
On the 'inshore course', the Etchells were first away and Mike Evans's 'Valkyrie' wasted no time by taking first place and leading the fleet overall after the two races of this series. After a hard-fought race, Mossy Shanahan and his crew on "Crazy Horse' finished ahead of the J24 'Hard on Port' (Flor O'Driscoll) to trail them by one point on overall standings.
Following a disappointing result in their first week on the Puppeteer 'Harlequin', Dave Clarke and Liam Egan took line honours this week but have some work to do to catch 'Gold Dust' and 'Yellow Peril' at the top of the leaderboard. 'Mayfly' leads the Handicap scoreboard by 3 points.
By keeping within one and a half minutes of race winner 'Kerfuffle', Ronan McDonnell in his Squib "Fantome' remains on top in that class in both scratch and handicap.
Peter Courtney's 'Oona' led the Howth Seventeen class all the way around the course, but Brian and Conor Turvey's 'Isobel' still leads the class after last week's win, albeit on equal points with 'Pauline'. The 'two Kevins' (O'Byrne and Finucane) in 'Eileen' took handicap honours this week.
Pat Kelly's 'Storm' was a decisive victor in both IRC and ECHO divisions of Class 1 on the offshore course and Ross McDonald's 'Equinox' will be pushing 'Crazy Horse' all the way for the next place.
While 'Maximus' with Paddy Kyne and crew continue to dominate Class 2 with victories again in both IRC and ECHO divisions, Vince Gaffney's 'Alliance II' looks like the boat that all Class 3 IRC competitors will be seeking to beat - 'Starlet and 'Goyave' share top spot on ECHO.
In White Sails Class 4, 'Tiger' and 'Orna' will continue to share the spoils - 'Orna' won the IRC race and 'Tiger' took the prize for ECHO. In Class 5, Harry Byrne's 'Alphida' won the IRC race while Andy Knowles's 'Sandpiper' was uncatchable in the ECHO division race, winning by a margin of over 4 minutes.
In a division that will demand consistent results throughout the series, team prize leaders 'Orna', 'Valkyrie' and 'King One' lead by 36 points.