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Displaying items by tag: Brendan Lyden

Hosted by the Royal St George Yacht Club, Dun Laoghaire, the RS Feva Nationals took place over the weekend of the 27th to the 29th August. An unprecedented total of 58 boats, from both Ireland and the UK, competed at this three day event. Amongst the competitors were the reigning World Champions, Owen Bowerman and Charlie Darling.

Conditions were varied over the weekend. Friday was a mixture of moderate and light airs but Saturday brought fresh north-westerly winds which tested the fleet and organisers. Sunday's sailing had ultimately to be abandoned. However, by that time a championship series had been completed and competitors enjoyed a sun-drenched forecourt where dancing and swimming replaced racing for the day.

The winners of the National Championships and Open Competition were Brendan Lyden and Marc Cudmore from RCYC followed by Vikki Cudmore and Amy Harrington also from Cork. Two of the UK visitors , Robert and Emma Loveridge from Draycote Water SC and Morgan Peach and Herbie Harford from Royal Torbay YC took third and fourth respectively . Two more RCYC boats, Richard Roberts and Eoin Lyden , and Dermot Lyden and Peter Stokes finished fifth and sixth.

The reigning World Champions, Owen Bowerman and Charlie Darling finished tenth, while the top finishing host club boat, Amelia O'Keeffe and Annabel Elliott, from RSGYC, came twelfth.

Seventeen Irish boats, which all also competed in the 140-boat Feva Worlds in France in July, were present at the Nationals this weekend. They were joined by other fleets from around the country; the RCYC, Greystones, Cove, Howth, NYC, RIYC, Lough Ree and Rush.

Thank you to all volunteers and staff of the Royal St George Yacht Club who worked tirelessly over the three days, especially Jack Roy, the most experienced of the International Race Officers based in Dun Laoghaire, who ensured racing - when weather permitted - went without a hitch.

RS_Feva_Class_Irish_and_Open_National_Championships

 

Published in RS Sailing

William M Nixon has been writing about sailing in Ireland and internationally for many years, with his work appearing in leading sailing publications on both sides of the Atlantic. He has been a regular sailing columnist for four decades with national newspapers in Dublin, and has had several sailing books published in Ireland, the UK, and the US. An active sailor, he has owned a number of boats ranging from a Mirror dinghy to a Contessa 35 cruiser-racer, and has been directly involved in building and campaigning two offshore racers. His cruising experience ranges from Iceland to Spain as well as the Caribbean and the Mediterranean, and he has raced three times in both the Fastnet and Round Ireland Races, in addition to sailing on two round Ireland records. A member for ten years of the Council of the Irish Yachting Association (now the Irish Sailing Association), he has been writing for, and at times editing, Ireland's national sailing magazine since its earliest version more than forty years ago