The Howth Peninsula was buzzing with sailing sport at the weekend, with the top level of competition on its southwest side at the national Champions’ Cup raced in GP 14s at Sutton Dinghy Club, while there was competition at every level you’ve ever heard of (and probably a few levels you can barely imagine) in the Beshoff Motors Autumn League, a truly all-sorts nine classes Saturday series until October 22nd which – on this its fourth day – managed to pack in two more races in idyllically sunny conditions to have six races in the can, and two weekends still to play for.
Admittedly the pressure to build up the figures on the leaderboard did see a certain amount of localized over-lapping between some different race areas in the first contest. But by Race 2, everything went as smooth as a bird, and a lot of very happy budgies came ashore firmly of the opinion that they already have the stuffing knocked out of the coming winter……..
It was that kind of day – blue skies, blue sea, and a moderate though easing and slowly backing westerly which managed to hang in, despite the spring ebb tide’s best efforts to take away its eminently usable pressure.
CLASS 1
Stephen Quinn’s J/97 Lambay Rules may have been showing the way in the early stages of the series, but Mike & Richie Evans’ J/99 Snapshot – already a star of the Irish national scene inshore and offshore in 2021 and 2022 - banged in a solid first and second on this outing to take the overall lead by two points from Lambay Rules, with Pat Kelly’s J/109 Storm from Rush lying third overall, but well back on 20. Saturday’s second race saw a new name in first – Nobby Reilly’s Classic Half-Tonner Ghost Raider.
Back in the saddle – the Evans’ brother’s multiply successful J/99 Snapshot heading for her second win on Saturday
CLASS 2
The big breeze of a week earlier may have favoured the various X Boats, but Fergal Noonan & Robert Chambers’ vintage Corby Impetuous found things to he liking to take a couple of wins, putting her one point ahead overall of Paddy Kyne’s Maximus with another X, Clan Gore-Grimes’ Dux, now third OA.
CLASS 3
Stephen Mullaney’s Irish Champion Sigma 33 Insider seems to find almost all conditions to her liking, she has now registered the colander condition of five bullets in Class 3, though admittedly, she managed to dodge one in Saturday’s second race with a second when Vincent Gaffney’s Laser 28 Alliance II snatched the lead, with third going to Conor Fogerty’s 1976-vintage Silver Shamrock, which now lies second overall on points.
In Class 1, Pat Kelly’s J/109 Storm (Rush SC) leading from Nobby Reilly’s Classic Half Tonner Ghoster Raider (winner of Race 2) and the J/97 Jeneral Lee (Colin & Kathy Kavanagh)
CLASS 4
Colm Bermingham’s Elan 333 Bite the Bullet and Stephen Harris’s First 40.7 Tiger shared the firsts and seconds on Saturday in this white sail division, but over the series to date Tiger is still ahead of BTB, with Malahide’s White Pearl (David Greene) in third.
CLASS 5
Notwithstanding the close proximity of a notable birthday with a zero and a five in it for one of the owners, Windsor and Steffi’s veteran Club Shamrock Demelza continued ahead with two wins in the other White-Sail Class, with the Real McCoy and the Genuine Cregan second every which way in their attractive vintage First 38 Out & About.
Another look at that classic change-in-the-weather sky, with Howth 17s Erica (David Nixon, 18), Hera (Mjchael & Jane Duffy, 9) and Deilginis (Toomey/Massey/Kenny, 11).
HOWTH 17s
The Magic Circle in the 1907s-built Deilginis emerged from Saturday’s mega-tussles still in the overall lead, but now only by half a point from Davy Nixon in the 1988-vintage Erica of the Whippy Mast. In fact Erica - having seen off overall leaders Deilginis and Orla (Marc FitzGibbbon & Darragh Gallagher) by taking second in the first race when Ian Malcolm with Aura was first - found her lead in Race 2 being most closely challenged by the helmsman’s brother-in-law Davy Jones steering the 2022 National Champion Rosemary (David Jones, David Potter & George Curley). Erica emerged just ahead to move up to half a point behind Deilginis overall.
Family affair. Davy Nixon with Erica (18) makes away with the Howth 17 win in the second race ahead of brother-in-law Davy Jones in Rosemary (12). Photo: Judith Malcolm
The Puppeteer 22s are having a great series - photo shows Flycatcher (187, Michael McKeon), Mr Punch (187, NiBhraonain Wilson), Blue Velvet (5526, Gerard Kennedy) and Yellow Peril (Murphy/Costello) beyond. It’s a class rule to race with the marina berth-accessing outboards in place like this, for as they say themselves, when you’re at the helm you don’t see the intrusive outboard at all unless you’re looking astern to see how big a lead you’ve got, and that’s okay.
Puppeteer 22 Papageno (K & B Barker) as seen from sister-ship Yellow Peril. One of the spin-offs from a popular Autumn League is that, as seen here, boats are kept in prime order right to the end of the season
PUPPETEER 22
Overall leader Trick or Treat (Alan Pearson & Alan Blay) remained consistent with two seconds, but the racing was excellent with fresh names in the top three, with Paul and Laura McMahon’s Shiggi Shiggi, the beautifully-restored prototype Puppeteer 22 of 1978 vintage, taking a third and first, while Garrett May’s HoneyBadger took a first and third. Overall, David Clarke’s Harlequin is second on 15 points on a tie break with Shiggi Shiggi and Yellow Peril (Murphy/Costello) in some of the best racing across all classes.
The club Squib Tiger Roll (80) demonstrating the class’s sit-in comfort potential - remarkable for a 19ft racing keelboat – with overall leader Slipstream from Killyleagh (102) beyond. The class’s national focus this coming weekend is on the Freshwater Keelboat Regatta at Dromineer on Lough Derg
SQUIBS
With the Irish Squib Class’s “National Energiser” Robert Marshall from Killyleagh on Strangford Lough beavering away to build up the entries from home and abroad for this coming weekend’s Keelboat Freshwater Regatta at Dromineer on Lough Derg, we can expect a slim Squib presence at Howth on Saturday, October 15th. But meanwhile, last Saturday in the Beshoff Motors Autumn League, he retained his overall points lead with a third (discarded) and a second, the wins being taken by Jeff Kay’s Chatterbox and the HYC boat Tiger Roll, with Thomas O’Reilly’s Cool Beans also in the frame.
TOP TITS IN TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
The well-meant Team Championship with three boats from three different classes is a good idea in theory, and will certainly be repeated. But when you get some really shrewd mutual boat recruiting going on pre-series, it makes a bit of a nonsense out of it all. Heaven only knows when and in what Masonic Hall the T. I. T team was put together, but when you have Tiger, Insider and Trick-or-Treat racing in support of each other, after six races the rest are nowhere.
This is Autumn 2022 – the al fresco après sailing Brains’ Trust at Howth Yacht Club
All Photos Courtesy Howth YC unless otherwise credited.
Detailed Results below
