Dillon's Big Deal Comes From Astern In Atlantic Challenge to Take Top Place in Foynes Race

29th August 2024

Out-of-Office passing Tarbert, with the First 44.7 in the lead on the water in the Foynes-Fenit Race

The unsettled weather saw the three-leg Atlantic Cup Challenge Stage 1, from Foynes in the Shannon Estuary to Fenit on Tralee Bay, go off as planned on Saturday (August 24th). But the next stage of the triangle will be completed from Fenit to Kilrush rather than Galway Bay this Saturday, with fairly gentle spinnaker work likely.

Going back into the Shannon Estuary this coming Saturday (August 31st) rather than heading on for the Aran Islands, is a scaling back of the original plan. But the Atlantic has been lively for much of August, and the shorter version was the popular choice.

Weight is power. It takes ten on the rail for a First 44.7 to give of her best in a stiff breeze

PLENTY OF BREEZE

There was initially plenty of westerly wind last Saturday, but it veered and eased in sunshine to make things easier as they raced into the open Atlantic. It was, reports skipper Joe McKiernan on his First 44.7 Out of Office, a mixture of sunshine with a generous supply of wind with plenty of Atlantic spray in their faces, but the salt was rinsed at the finish off with a heavy downpour as they secured in Fenit marina.

Offshore sunshine off Kerry Head, crew settling down well

Getting down the estuary was a matter of long windward legs and bursts of hard work as they tacked, with Joe McKiernan's First 44.7 Out of Office leading the fleet down the Shannon towards the open Atlantic. But the lower-rated Grand Soleil 37 Big Deal (Derek Dillon) was close on OOO's heels followed by Elantic and Tommiray.

Vision of the west on a clear day, making knots with the Brandon Mountains in sight on the Dingle Peninsula

WIND VEERS RIGHT ON CUE

As they passed Carrigaholt, the wind veered right enough for all boats to lay Kerry Head. Gusts of 29 knots for a short while and then the wind eased to a very comfortable 17-20 knots as they bore away at Kerry Head and reached the final 10 miles towards Samphire Island to finish off Fenit pier.

The Foynes YC offshore squad back on their home patch

While Out Of Office took line honours, Big Deal was giving nothing away away to win on both on IRC and ECHO. The Next race - from Fenit to Kilrush - is this Saturday, starting 11:00 hrs

Race Winners - Derek Dillon and key crewmembers from the successful Grand SoLeil 37 Big Deal

Race Results

You may need to scroll vertically and horizontally within the box to view the full results

Published in Shannon Estuary, WIORA

Published in Shannon Estuary

Tagged under

About The Author

Afloat.ie Team

Email The Author

Afloat.ie is Ireland's dedicated marine journalism team.

Have you got a story for our reporters? Email us here.

We've got a favour to ask

More people are reading Afloat.ie than ever thanks to the power of the internet but we're in stormy seas because advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news sites, we haven't put up a paywall because we want to keep our marine journalism open.

Afloat.ie is Ireland's only full-time marine journalism team and it takes time, money and hard work to produce our content.

So you can see why we need to ask for your help.

If everyone chipped in, we can enhance our coverage and our future would be more secure. You can help us through a small donation. Thank you.