It was a touching family moment at Christmas time at the Royal Cork Yacht Club this afternoon as a perpetual trophy named after a former Admiral was presented to his grandson for the overall win of the club's Winter League. The Archie O’Leary Irish Mist Memorial Trophy was awarded to Peter O'Leary and Stephen O'Sullivan for their runaway victory in the IRC White Sails Division of Royal Cork's O'Leary Insurance Winter League 2023.
With the cancellation of today's final race, Star keelboat pairing O'Leary and O'Sullivan celebrated their runaway victory in the clubhouse at Crosshaven.
As Afloat reported previously, five wins from five races gave the pair an easy overall victory despite losing a forestay in one race, as revealed at yesterday's prizegiving.
O'Leary's parents, Anthony and Sally O'Leary – as event sponsors – presented the prize to the Olympic helmsman and his crew in the presence of both RCYC Admiral Kieran O'Connell and Rear Admiral (Keelboats) Paul Tingle.
As regular Afloat readers know, the Memorial Trophy was donated in 2016 by Anthony O’Leary in memory of his father, the late Archie O’Leary, which this Sunday was won by his grandson, Peter, in the Star keelboat named Archie in what is a further tribute to the late RCYC Admiral who served from 1977-1980.
Fiona Young's Albin Express North Star finished second on nine points.
Alan Mucahy's Abin Express Apache crew from Kinsale rounded out a strong season with third overall on 16 points in the 17-boat fleet.
In the ECHO division, Andy Jenkins S&S 34 Morning After won from Ronan Twomey's First 40.7, Rosmarina.
Full results below