Six Glens lined up to start at a very busy Dun Laoghaire harbour entrance and took off in sunshine and a 10 knot westerly running down to Dalkey Island on Dublin Bay with the ebb tide beneath. All were vying for the Bobolink Trophy.
Yellow boats Glenshesk and Glendun were first up with Spinnakers inside in the pack with Glencoe, Glendun, Pterodactyl and Glenroan; Glenluce hoisted further outside. The inside group on the back of the East Pier got the jump initially with Glenshesk emerging in the lead. Glencoe eased out into clearer air and Glenluce's outside passage in the breeze started to pay off giving her a slim advantage.
Across Scotsman's Bay, Glenshesk sailing inside to the Forty Foot pulled further ahead of the fleet abeam of Glenluce. The wind headed and Glenshesk looked strong in the Bullock race 10 boat lengths ahead but alas was to get hung up in the doldrums behind the Bullock Rock. Glencoe in clearer air pulled ahead of her. Pterodactyl and Gleanroan avoiding the Bullock lee were tracking Glencoe. Outside Glenluce pulled ahead getting the advantage from the puffs off the land. At the Maiden Rock, Glenluce hauled sheets and dropped the kite to enter the sound opting for the two-knot tide to carry her through the fickle wind there. Glencoe was by now just 10 boat lengths astern.
Glenshesk (Mike Reid, Liz Faulkner, Niamh Strathern) were third in the Dalkey Island Race
Pterodactyl and Glenroan opted to leave the Maiden Rock and the Island to starboard. The fleet compressed in the sound and Glenluce broke free hoisting her spinnaker again to round the east end of the Island meeting Pterodactyl and Glenroan head-on at the halfway point, the opposing boats dousing their spinnakers simultaneously for the beat home against a slackening tide. Second around from the inside passage was Glencoe leading Glenshesk and Glendun. Pterodactyl & Glenroan faced a fickle Dalkey sound with a foul tide home and hadn't past Glenmillers (Conor O'Hanlon's) house as the rest of the fleet fetched past north of the Maiden Rock.
Glenluce's escape assured her of free passage home as the lifting breeze made it a fetch to Dun Laoghaire piers with no way back for the pursuing fleet.
Round the Dalkey Island Race for the Bobolink Trophy Results
- Glenluce - Ailbe & Aidan Millerick Dermot Bremner
- Glencoe-Rose Marie Craig (First Bobolink Lady helm) Pat Sheehan et al.
- Glenshesk Mike Reid, Liz Faulkner, Niamh Strathern.
