The Irish Speedsailing National Championships took place last weekend in conjunction with www.gps-speedsurfing.com and the ISWC, it was in Dungarvan and it was a great competition with excellent conditions and sailing to match.
The event started on the Saturday with light winds, which gave everyone a chance to get out on some big kit and have a look at the course. There was a period of wind where a few of the sailors made it down the course and in some very marginal conditions Steve Flanagan got the best speed of the day, peaking at just under 30kts.
Saturday night was a lively affair as we did some research on post sailing venues for the upcoming World Championships with a great feed in Quealy's Restaurant who are providing catering for the Worlds and that food is something to look forward to.
Sunday started off with a nice solid breeze as we all waited for the tide to drop and expose the sandbar at 12.30pm. When the sandbar was exposed the wind was gusting up to 35kts and everyone was busy deciding what kit to use.
First onto the water was Noelle Doran, testing the course on her wave gear. Closely behind her was John Kenny on twice the sail area of Noelle, this proved a bit too much even for JK as the wind picked up a bit. This led everyone to choose their smallest sails and the competition got underway after a briefing about safety.
The wind was dead square to the course and very strong, this isn't usually considered fast but all sailors gave it their best and many banged out some very impressive speeds for the unfavourable wind angle.
Among the early sailors to start leading the pack were John Kenny, Martin Waldron and Oisin van Gelderen. However snapping at their heels was Jonathon Woods on 10 year old slalom kit, you don't need brand new gear to compete, he came 5th overall.
The competition heated up as Steven Flanagan and Keith Gorman joined in getting some very impressive speeds. Alastair Nichol got on the water after some encouragement from JK! And he broke all of his personal bests, so well done on that.
As bodies started getting fatigued and it became apparent that the result would be very close, the top few sailors started pushing themselves to the limit resulting in some spectacular crashes. Oisin smashed a boom in two in one high speed crash, Martin crashed at over 40kts taking a spin cycle and JK untypically had a few high speed crashes as well (noticing a broken toe the following day), all testaments to how hard everyone was sailing.
After a long session, Oisin gave his GPS to Noelle Doran and gave her a go on his speed kit. She was flying and set a very high bar for any other female speedsailors looking to take the national title in the future.
Barry Whitelaw smashed his previous personal best and a special mention must go to Keith Gorman & Stephen Griffin - Both sailed their hearts out and broke many of their personal bests but their GPS's malfunctioned and they lost their data, big commiserations for that guys. Ollie Ryan, Ross Gsamelov, Carlos Magnosoares and Marcio Oliveira all sailed the challenging conditions but lack of spare GPS meant we can't report on their speeds, next event we'll have spares, funded from this event.
There were many more sailors with results over 30kts and that was really what the event was about, getting as many people on the water speedsailing. We even had a visit from the first Irish record holder Colman Phelan who was back with new kit and eager to try out speedsailing again, unfortunately the kit was very different to the boards he was used to and he reckons it'll take a bit of practise to realise his full potential again, great to see him on the water again though.
There was plenty of support from the locals who assisted in whatever way they could. Local windsurfer Oliver Clancy arranged rescue boats and a photographer; we send a huge thank you to him, the boat drivers John Quealy & Lawrence Boland and the photographer David Clinch who was on the sandbar in a gale to get some shots of us.
All in all, the first Speedsailing National Championships in over 10 years was a great success and we will most definitely be back for more next year, with some additional events throughout the year. A big reminder to everyone about the Production World Speedsailing Championships which are taking place in the first week in December in Dungarvan, it is shaping up to be a great event for both sailors and non sailors, full details and registration can be found on www.speedworldcup.com . When the wind swings broad on this course there'll be huge speeds posted.
The competition was run in conjunction with www.gps-speedsurfing.com (who added the event for no charge and to who we owe big thanks) who bases rankings on the average of a sailors fastest five 10 second runs.
The final results were extremely close but the final ranking for the Irish Speedsailing National Championships as confirmed by the ISWC and www.gps-speedsurfing are:
Mens:
John Kenny (Overall Speedsailing National Champion) 38.379kts
Martin Waldron 38.377kts
Oisin van Gelderen 36.009kts
Ladies:
Noelle Doran (Ladies Speedsailing National Champion) 30.019kts
As the overall winner JK gets a Loft Blade 5.6m2 donated by Monty Spindler of Loft Sails and a matching mast donated by Alan Harris of Surfdock.
A big thank you to everyone who turned up and made the event the success including the shore crew.
Congratulations to JK and Noelle on gaining their national titles.
