Only a couple of classes got to sample the newly introduced Slalom Course, so a definitive decision on whether it is a successful formula or not cannot be made yet! It was particularly disappointing for visitors from other clubs, some of whom travelled considerable distances each Sunday just to be frustrateded, as well as the race officers and their teams!
Even with only two races, there were several familiar names to the fore in their respective classes. Roy Dickson’s ‘Rosie’ won the Class 0 IRC title again while ‘Tiger’ (Hughes & Harris) won on ECHO, Harry Byrne’s ‘Alphida’ won Class 5 and ‘Kinetic’ (Murphy & Colwell) had the biggest winning margin on IRC of any class when winning Class 2 (although visitor Conor Ronan’s ‘Ruthless’ had a bigger lead on ECHO in the same class). ‘King One’ (Bourke & Cullen) won the Class 2 IRC Restricted Division.
In the one-design classes, it was no surprise to find Emmet Dalton, Des Faherty, the O’Grady/Beshoff/Reilly combination and the Cronin/Jones partnership head up the Squib, SB3, Etchells and Howth 17 fleets respectively. Handicap winners in the Squib and 17s were ‘Astrix’ (Melanie McCaughey) and ‘Eileen’ (O’Byrne/Finucane).
Class 1 honours went out of Howth, with Paul O’Higgins’ ‘Rockabill V’ from National YC holding a narrow lead on IRC and ‘Mumbo’, Dermot Cronin’s J35 from Malahide heading the ECHO standings. It was another Malahide entry - ‘Shenanigans’ (Douglas/Keane) – which took top spot in Class 3 on ECHO while on IRC it was Antrim visitor Albert Mayrs on ‘Quickflash’ who went home with the silverware.
Class 4 saw Colm Bermingham’s ‘Bite the Bullet’ win on both IRC and ECHO while it was tight at the top of the Puppeteers, ‘Harlequin’ (Dave Clarke) getting the nod on scratch, with ‘Ghosty Ned’ (Donal Harkin) the handicap winner.
The Olympus Team Trophy was won by the ‘If Only’ Team comprising ‘Rosie’, ‘Kinetic’, and ‘No Money No Honey’, all individual winners of their own classes.
