The Sutton Cross Pharmacy 2016 Puppeteer National Championships was won by Dave Clarke & Liam Egan and crew on “Harlequin” following two days of intense racing at Howth Yacht Club this weekend. They managed to beat 2014's winning boat - Colin and Kathy Kavanagh's “Blue Velvet” by the narrow margin of one point. The handicap prize went to Ciaran McAuliffe and crew on “Arcturus” who's two point win from second placed “Papagena” (Kieran Barker) earned them the silverware this year.

The six-race championships was always going to reward the most consistent results from the 14-boat fleet. A mix of light and patchy conditions on Saturday produced four different winners from the four starts, with some of the pre-race favourites well out of the reckoning prior to the Sunday starts. Mindful of forecast light conditions on Sunday, National Race Officer Harry Gallagher went for the option of a fourth race on the Saturday afternoon. Sunday’s two races were sailed in light but steady breezes and produced some great tacking duels and very close finishes throughout the fleet. Racing was completed at 14.00 approx. and was followed by prize giving before the tea-time celebrations in the clubhouse.

Winning helm Liam Egan paid tribute to all aboard “Harlequin”, congratulated them for their expertise and said that their contribution 'made all the difference.' He singled out the battle they had had with “Blue Velvet” and thanked them for their sportsmanship on the water. Celebrations continued long into the night……….

Commodore Berchmans Gannon (left) and Puppeteer Class captain Kieran Barker (right) present the trophy to Liam Egan while Dave Clarke shows off his gold medals!

 

The Sutton Cross Pharmacy Puppeteer 22 National Championship 2016 takes place in Howth Yacht Club over the weekend of the 30th. and 31st. July.

This class provides very close midweek racing in HYC, with 20 odd boats out on Tuesdays. Harry Gallagher is Race Officer. Six races are scheduled, three on each day, with first warning signals at 11.00.

With several previous National Champions attending there is no clear favourite as to who will emerge as the 2016 Champion, according to Class Captain Kieran Barker of Howth.

Howth RNLI launched at 1.15pm Thursday 14th July 2016 to reports of Sailing Yacht with 4 adults and 3 children aground just off Ireland Eye.

The casualty vessel was quickly located and towed to safety.

The request to launch came at 1.15pm and the Howth RNLI all-weather lifeboat proceeded outside the harbour and quickly located the yacht aground in Howth sound. The 32ft Sailing yacht had 4 adults and 3 children aboard. All were wearing lifejackets.

Weather was excellent with overcast clouds but good visibility. The sea state was calm with little or no wind present. The tide was quite low with another hour to go to low tide.
Howth RNLI volunteers Fin Goggin and Stephen Mullaney threw a tow line to the casualty vessel which was then secured and Howth RNLI Coxswain Fred Connolly used his driving skills to safely tow the casualty vessel off the rocks with little or no damage. When clear the sailing yacht was able to make its own way back to Howth Harbour.
Howth RNLI Lifeboat Operations Manager Colm Newport says: ‘A quick call was made by the skipper of the yacht as soon as he got into difficulty which showed good seamanship. These things happen and we were delighted to be able to assist.”

Strong winds only added to the enjoymen in this year's Howth Yacht Club Gibney Classic on Saturday writes Brian Turvey. One of the largest cruiser–racer fleets in many years contested this always anticipated annual event, where the race itself is matched by the wonderful hospitality shown by Tony and Barry Gibney in their famous hostelry in Malahide, with a barbecue and drinks reception for the many exhilarated and weather-beaten sailors.

The race was run by Susan Cummins and her team on board the Sea Wych in conditions that might be described as 'fresh' by some and 'challenging' for all. A consistent 20 knot south-westerly prevailed over the racecourse with gusts ready to flatten boats sailed by even the most experienced helms and trimmers. It was a day for fully-crewed keelboats, with lots of weight 'on the rail'.

After an hour's racing, the ever-competitive Class 2 saw the Bourke/McGirr/Ball owned X332 'Xebec' win on IRC and David Sargent and his team on his Elan 33 'Indulgence' win the ECHO prize. Class 3 was evenly competed by boats from Howth and Malahide with Vince Gaffney winning IRC on his 'Alliance II' and Brian McDowell winning ECHO on his J24 'Blue Jay'.

Fifteen boats entered the Non-Spinnaker class which certainly provided the majority of thirsty customers in the beer garden and sports bar after racing. Paddy Gregory and Don Breen's decision to enter their First 34.7 'Flashback' in the class proved a wise one and they took the IRC prize while Michael Fleming's 'Trinculo' took the ECHO honours.

The Howth 17s have made this event an important part of their calendar for the past few years and the strong winds didn't deter their determination to enjoy the day, with four boats sailing up the river into Malahide after racing and returning to Howth later in the evening (into a warm 30-knot southerly). First prize went to Turvey brothers Brian and Conor in their 17 'Isobel'. The handicap spoils were won by Bryan and Harriette Lynch in 'Echo'.

Hats off to MYC's Commodore Deidre Moore-Somers who organised the rescheduling of another event so that the MYC boats could take part. Their annual regatta follows in 2 weeks on the 23rd of July. Special thanks also to Maureen Muir who again did all the organising for the club and with the team at Gibneys.

Following its national championships at Howth Yacht Club in June, the Irish Cruiser Racing Association (ICRA) is seeking feedback on the event via an online questionnaire.

ICRA commodore Simon McGibney says the survey aims to get views on how the event went for attendees but it also seeks the views of non attendees. The survery can be taken here

The next ICRA National Championships take place in at the Royal Cork Yacht Club in 2017

Conor Fogerty's BAM from Howth Yacht Club is lying second overall in class and fourth overall in the inaugural Solo Fastnet race this morning. Fogerty is expected to finish the five day course tomorrow.

The Royal Western Yacht Club of England (RWYC) has certified this ‘Solo Fastnet’ as an official qualifier for the 2017 OSTAR race in May 2017. The category 2 race was designed by solo sailors for solo sailors who want to test their skills and endurance in an offshore race across the unpredictable North Atlantic Ocean, and is open to any IRC rated boat or class boats racing under their class rules.

Conor, who celebrated his 45th birthday during the race, has done more than 300,000 nautical miles of offshore sailing, including 30 Transatlantic and 2 Round the World trips - one as skipper on Cardiff for the Clipper Round the World Race in 2005/06. New to short handed sailing on his Jeanneau Sun Fast 3600 ‘Bam’, he won the 2-handed ISORA series in 2015 and was 6th overall. Many of you will also have read of his offshore racing exploits this year including winning IRC Class 3 in the Caribbean 600, earning him the 'Afloat Sailor of the Month' in February and also finished 3rd in Class 3 in the recent Round Ireland Race.

His practice by taking ‘Bam’ single-handed from St Martin to the Azores earlier this summer is part of his calculated regime to prepare for this event. Conor reported ‘I'm keen to progress in the single handed sailing, and see this event as a great opportunity to race against far more experienced single handed sailors, and perhaps nip at their heels!’ It’s no secret that Conor also has eyes on the 2017 OSTAR Race. The OSTAR (The Original Single-handed Transatlantic Race) founded by Cockleshell hero Blondie Hasler in 1960 and run every four years since and the ‘TWOSTAR’, first held in 1981, will both start from Plymouth heading for Newport, Rhode Island on 29th May 2017.

Saturday’s inaugural SORC Round the Rock Race is a Category 2 (ISAF) race and designed by solo sailors for solo sailors. It’s heralded as being ‘for Corinthian sailors who want to test their skills and endurance in a substantial offshore race - a race that only requires a week's holidays to complete but still offers the excitement and challenge of nights at sea combined with the unpredictable nature of North Atlantic weather’.

The Notice of Race specifies the experience required to participate as: ‘The skipper is required to have substantial offshore short handed sailing experience including solo nights offshore. The race is challenging especially for a solo skipper, requiring well developed navigation skills, practiced boat handling in both strong and light conditions and familiarity with managing the effects of fatigue and limited sleep. If you are in any doubt regarding your experience you are encouraged to contact the RC for guidance.

Rob Craigie, Race Director of the SORC Round the Rock Race, said: “The Round the Rock Race enabled us to establish a long distance UK-based iconic solo race which would be both tactically and strategically demanding for sailors, but could be completed in a week. There is also a strong social element to the event, and we look forward to reaching Plymouth and berthing in the heart of the city in Sutton Harbour before celebrating at the race party.”

Track Conor Fogerty's progress here

#MatchRacing - Howth Yacht Club's Diana Kissane and crew finished 10th in the first round of the Women's International Match Racing Series in Helsinki on Friday (1 July).

Kissane and crew Lizzy McDowell (Malahide YC), Isabella Morehead (Cork), Ellen Cahill (Mayo) won three of their 11 round-robin contests but it wasn't enough to take them through to the quarter-final knockout stage at the NJK Sailing Center, where the Swedish boat skippered by Anna Östling beat France's Pauline Courtois and crew in two straight races in the final.

As previously reported on Afloat.ie, the same venue in the Finnish capital is set to host the Women's Match Racing World Championship in 2017.

The wisdom of the old salts would have it that in a regatta series, a set of steady results towards the front of the fleet with no silly mistakes is much more useful in the final tally than an uneven performance with the occasional utterly fabulous first place writes W M Nixon. And after the three-day Irish Cruiser Racing Association  Nats at Howth, in which the real winners were the race officer teams who managed to complete a reasonably proper programme despite the winds being fickle in the extreme, we can maybe add in a second rule for series success.

Rule 1 of the Old Salts’ Book of Racing Lore is that you put together a good series of steady results. Keep the head down and keep the points down too. And the new Rule 2 of the OSBRL would seem to be something along the lines of not being utterly brilliant in the first afternoon’s two races. For if you do, you’re a marked boat thereafter. Just because you happen to be paranoid in everyday life doesn’t mean that they really are in fact out to get you. For as Annalise Murphy discovered at the 2012 Olympics, if that’s not what’s actually happening, then it’s something which is very like it nevertheless.

So on Friday we saw some stars clearly emerge, which we duly highlighted in Saturday’s morning’s overview. But as you’ll have gathered if you didn’t spend the main part of the weekend in a Trappist monastery, through Saturday the leaderboard was re-shuffled more than somewhat. And though today’s final racing didn’t find a promised breeze, there was still enough slightly mobile air around to provide some further sets of viable results, and they seemed to confirm that those who were Kings of the Castle on Friday evening were in many case consigned to the dungeon, relatively speaking, as the series concluded early this (Sunday) afternoon.

Half of the boats in the 22-strong Division 2 were J/09s.

Joker II (John Maybury) successsfully defended her class one national title

In the impersonal world of racing to the handicaps of the IRC, there’s no getting away from one totally outstanding performance, a performance which fulfilled both rules of the OSBRL. On Friday, John Maybury’s J/109 Joker 2, from the RIYC in Dun Laoghaire with the not inconsiderable talents of Olympian Mark Mansfield of Cork in the crew, put in what we now recognise to have been a very neat holding performance. In the 22 boats of Division 1 – the most numerous class - Joker was sixth and second on the first day. Not at all spectacular, but she was there or thereabouts as other boats headed one of the championship’s most competitive divisions.

Then on Saturday, after recording another sixth in the first race, Joker 2 seemed to find her mojo, that mojo which made her class champion in 2015 at Kinsale. Perhaps they’d simply been keeping it in storage on Friday, knowing they’d need it more on Saturday. Whatever the story, they romped through Saturday with a winning consistency of performance while other boats – to put it mildly – fluctuated more than somewhat.

For that last Saturday race, and Sunday’s single race for Division 1, saw Joker 2 notching two wins. Clearly her crew had got the measure of the waters of Fingal, for it gave her an absurd lead of 14.5 points over the runner-up, which was another J/109, Pat Kelly’s Storm, which in theory was right at home, as they list Rush SC as their club even though they keep the boat in Howth.

Despite racing in her home waters, the Kelly family’s J/109 Storm of Rush SC had to concede first place to Dun Laoghaire invader Joker 2 (John Maybury)

Dave Cullen’s Classic Half Ton World Champion Checkmate XV found form to win her class at the ICRA Nats. This week, the Checkmate crew move aboard the J/109 Storm to race her as Euro Car Parks in the Volvo Round Ireland

With eleven J/109s racing, not surprisingly they dominated Class 1 in which they were half of the fleet, with the Shanahan family’s Ruth (NYC) taking third while Colin Byrne’s XP 33 Bon Exemple (RIYC) was first of the non-Js in fourth, with Rob McConnell’s A 35 Fool’s Gold from Dunmore East fifth.

But you get some idea of the scale of Joker’s achievement when you realize that Storm was only half a point ahead of the next three boats, which were all tied on 31 points and needed a countback to sort the placings.

Division 2 was the next most numerous with 15 boats, and here they managed six races with a discard kicking in. It is of course the class for the classic Half Tonners, so inevitably Howth YC was dominant to an almost embarrassing extent. Early leader The Big Picture (Michael & Richard Evans) had slipped down the rankings as the curtain came down, she finished fourth overall, but after a sneeze in the first race on Day 1, Dave Cullen’s Checkmate XV got her act together and logged a final scoreline of 2,1,3,3,1,2.

Stephen Quinn’s J/97 Lambay Rules took a second in Division 2 in the ICRA Nats, and on Saturday she’ll be one of the smallest boats competing in the Volvo Round Ireland Race.

It’s good to be discarding a third, but an interesting performance was turned in by the runner-up, Stephen Quinn’s J/97 Lambay Rules, as she’d a list of 5,2,1,,2,4,5. While it’s said that Dave Cullen is so delighted with the silver trophy he got for winning the class that he’s going to take it with him as he goes off on Saturday to do the Volvo Round Ireland as skipper of the J/109 Storm which will have transformed to become Euro Car Parks, for Stephen Quinn this second place with his very attractive 32-footer is direct round Ireland encouragement, as he’s racing Lambay Rules out of Wicklow round Ireland on Saturday. And if the J/97 isn’t the smallest boat in the Round Ireland fleet, then she’s something very near it.

Third place in Division 2 went to John Swan’s re-vamped Half Tonner Harmony after a ding-dong with the Big Picture, while fifth went to Ross McDonald’s X332 Equinox.

Well above the rough and tumble of Class 2, the aristocrats of Class 0 made up in quality what they lacked in quantity, but as there were only half a dozen of them, the points margins could never be large, and though Conor Phelan’s now-classic Ker 37 Jump Juice from Crosshaven had three wins in five races, Jay Colville’s First 40 Licks from East Down YC in Strangford Lough was always right there to take second, while third slot went to the Scottish XP38i Roxtsar (Finlay & Anderson, Cyde Cr C).

Tumbling down the size scale, in Division 3 the Quarter Tonners of the Royal Irish YC were out in strength in an extremely closely-fought series in which Royal Cork’s Paul Gibbons’ Farr 79 Quarter Tonner Anchor Challenge managed to snatch third overall with two RIYC boats ahead of her and one immediately astern, the winner being Cartoon (Ken Lawless & Sybil McCormack) with the ever-lovely Quest (Barry Cunningham & Jonathan Skerritt) in second. Half a dozen of the reviving J/24 Class raced in this division, and best of them was Flor O’Driscoll with Hard on Port, who was fifth overall.

Class Three winner Cartoon (Ken Lawless & Sybil McCormack)

The Quarter Tonner Quest, ICRA Champion in 2014, was second in class in 2016.

The reviving J/24 class had six boats racing in the ICRA Championship

Division 4 was once again a problem numbers-wise, and Patrick O’Neill’s E Boat OctopussE of the host club was best of the two competing. As for Division 5 and 6, the non-spinnaker classes, they were re-born as the Corinthian Classes, and in Division A non-spinnaker, IRC saw the three Elan 333s utterly dominant to take the first three places overall, with Colm Bermingham’s Bite the Bullet (HYC) the dominator of the dominants, as she won with a clean sheet, second going to David Sargent’s Indulgence, also HYC, with DMYC’s Paul Tully getting third with White Lotus.

Colm Bermingham’s Elan 333 Bite the Bullet was a winner all the way

Division B had it very close on IRC between Harry Byrne’s Jeanneau Sunrise Alphida and Windsor & Steffi’s Cub Shamrock Demelza, with Alphida taking it this time round, while third slot went to John Roberts’s veteran Doug Peterson-designed Contention 33 Poppy from Whitehaven in Cumberland.

Peadar Murphy, administrator of ICRA’s Progressive ECHO system at the National Championship, and seen below working the magic Denis Kiely system

But while the serious meat of the racing in the ICRA Nationals 2016 was inevitably under IRC, there was a complete parallel universe out there on the race course with ICRA number-cruncher Denis Kiely’s famous Progressive ECHO system being administered at Howth by Denis’s right-hand man Peadar Murphy.

Under Progressive ECHO, a boat’s rating is revised after every race in the series on the basis that all boats finished dead equal in the race just completed. It works best with a series, and you’ll hear the usual complaints of sand-bagging when it is used in other ways. But what it does do is keep up the interest of every crew right to the end of the series, and a more sophisticated take on it has emerged, as top IRC crews now look on Progressive ECHO as a useful tool to tell them how they’re really doing from race to race, when IRC can be a bit of a blunt instrument.

In the limelight. Terry McCoy (left) of Skerries and John Roberts (second right) from Cumbria found themselves rewarded by the Progressive ECHO system, but John’s veteran Contention 33 Poppy also took third on IRC.

The Progressive ECHO results speak for themselves. In the end, there’s an element of “something for everyone in the audience” about it, and it certainly results in some sailors who have seldom found themselves in the limelight being up there in the Winner’s Enclosure to receive their prizes along with people whose names are usually to be found only at the sharper end of the top classes.

In other words, it adds greatly to the sense of community throughout the fleet, and with sailors from all parts of Ireland and from across the Irish Sea mixing it at Howth, there was no doubting the warmth and strength of that sense of community.

The sun did appear at Howth, but usually only after racing was over and the après sailing was in full swing in HYC.

The ICRA Championship is a fascinating stew of the local and the national, and sometimes the international. The selected venue club will try to put on its best show, but inevitably with an event which is only totally engrossing to the participants, you have to spread the net wide through local contacts to get helpful sponsorship support. In Howth, those who stepped up to the plate were lead sponsors McPeake Auctioneers supported by the tourism initiative Dublin – a Breath of Fresh Air, shoemakers Dubarry of Ireland, and WD40.

So despite the lack of wind strength, and despite the fact that the sun only tended to appear late in the day, we now have a whole new raft of National Champions, the ICRA Nationals 2016 are done and dusted, and attention can swing neatly on time to the Volvo Round Ireland Race.

In the circumstances, surely no-one would begrudge Howth Yacht Club the quiet satisfaction of knowing that they ended the series as winners of both team prizes?

Our boats are packed, and we’re ready to go…..Paul Gibbons’ Quarter Tonner Anchor Challenge from Crosshaven (left) and Simon McGibney’s J/24 Gala Racing from Foynes, on the trailers and about to head for home from Howth after another ICRA National Championship.

Google gives Afloat's ICRA National Championships coverage the thumbs up. See links below.

Afloat's WM Nixon has a review of day one's ICRA racing action in his Sailing on Saturday blog here 

Read also:

ICRA Leaderboard Changes on Day Two of Howth Cruiser Nationals (Updated After Five Races)

Dublin Yacht Clubs Boast Biggest Entry At ICRA Nationals, Light Winds Forecast At Howth

Howth Yacht Club Lambay Race Was ICRA Nationals Form Guide

ICRA Nats In Howth Yacht Club Will Attract The Cream Of The Fleets

 Full IRC results are downloadable below

After five races sailed, there are big changes at the top of the leader board in three of the four IRC classes at the Irish Cruiser Racing Association National Championships this evening which means the stage is set for tomorrow's cliff–hanger finale to decide much sought–after cruiser national titles at Howth.

Only Royal Cork's Jump Juice (Conor Phelan) has managed to retain his overnight lead but only just, as East Down YC's, Licks, a First 40, is only one point behind after five races in the six boat class zero fleet. Third is regular Scottish visitor, the XP38i Roxstar from the Clyde.

New arrival Rockabill VI, a JPK 1080 took a fourth in race four

Six of the top ten places in IRC one are held by J109s. Defending champion John Maybury's Joker II from the Royal Irish Yacht Club has not only overtaken club–mate Tim Goodbody for the lead in ICRA's biggest – and hottest – class but also built a large margin to boot. Maybury, who counts Olympic helmsman Mark Mansfield among his crew, has a 15–point cushion after five races going in to tomorrow's final two rounds. Goodbody spoiled a near perfect scoreline this morning when he finished 13th in the 21–boat fleet and drops to sixth overall. Second is former ICRA champion Storm (Pat Kelly) who is racing on home waters. Kelly has good company chasing him as just half a point behind are Liam Shanahan’s Ruth and Colin Byrne’s Bon Exemple together with Fool’s Gold: all three are tied on 31 points apiece. After them there is a nine-point gap to previous overnight leader Goodbody on White Mischief.

Winds strengthened for the second day of competition for the 86–boat fleet and this perhaps gave an opportunity for the much touted JPK 1080 Rockabill VI to improve her score, taking a fourth in this afternoon's fourth race in IRC one. 

Divisions 2, 3 and 4 each sailed four races today to catch up on the overall schedule.

Checkmate leads an almost exclusive Howth based class 2 fleet

In IRC two, where 14 of the 15 entries are from the host club, Dave Cullen's Modified Half Tonner Checkmate has overtaken ovenight leaders and club–mates Mike and Richard Evans sailing the Humphrey's MG 30.

Cullen, on ten points, now has a four point lead over HYC's J97 Lambay Rules (Stephen Quinn). Third is Johnny Swan's Half tonner Harmony on 19.5 points. The Evans Brothers are now fourth on 24–points, the same total as defending champion Ross McDonald's X332 Equinox lying fifth.

In IRC three, the Royal Irish Yacht Club’s Barry Cunningham and Jonathan Skerritt on Quest narrowly lead clubmates Ken Lawless and Sybil McCormack on Cartoon just a point apart.  In turn, Paul Gibbons Anchor Challenge from the Royal Cork YC is just half a point behind in third.  As with the other classes, a discard if applied tomorrow would have a significant bearing on Sunday's outcome. 16 are competing but it is J24s and Quarter ton designs that occupy the top six berths.

OctopusE (right) leads a two boat class four

Full IRC results (after fives races sailed) are downloadable below

Afloat's WM Nixon has a review of day one's ICRA racing action in his Sailing on Saturday blog here 

Read also:

Dublin Yacht Clubs Boast Biggest Entry At ICRA Nationals, Light Winds Forecast At Howth

Howth Yacht Club Lambay Race Was ICRA Nationals Form Guide

ICRA Nats In Howth Yacht Club Will Attract The Cream Of The Fleets

If you’d brought a party of strangers to sailing out in a spectator boat to view yesterday’s first day of the three-day Irish Cruiser Racing Association’s National Championship, they could have been forgiven wondering why it all attracts such interest. There may be 86 boats entered from all over Ireland and across the Irish Sea. And yesterday evening Howth Yacht Club was fairly heaving with a spirited après sail party mood. Yet the actual sailing often moved with glacial slowness in the lightest of breezes, at times complete calm threatened, and though two of the race areas managed to complete their planned two races, the third area could only find enough breeze for one. W M Nixon tries to explain our weird sport’s special appeal.

When you’re trying to get some sort of sailing performance out of a 9-ton accommodation unit comprising three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a fully-equipped kitchen including a built-in Microwave, it does help to have a decent breeze. Yet on a day of mostly flat greyness with only the occasional flicker of sunshine at Howth yesterday, Howard McMullan’s Dufour 40 Splashdance, a handsome sailing cruiser of 2003 vintage which really does come with all mod cons, found herself struggling to find anything like adequate pressure.

Splashdance (above and below) is a Dufour 40 of 2003 vintage, and quite a hefty proposition to be racing in light airs. Photos: W M Nixon

Mossy Shanahan and Howard McMullan. Photo: W M Nixon

Yet helmsman Mossy Shanahan – who recently marked his 60th birthday by taking a celebratory spin in a World War II Spitfire fighter aircraft – got the big girl going to such good effect that his decidedly motley crew of shipmates came ashore well pleased with the day’s result in Division V (Non-spinnaker), which showed a reasonable fifth overall in Race 1, and a very cheering second overall in Race 2.

Admittedly in conditions like this where one boat can be trundling along quite happily in a private little air while another is almost dead in the water only a short distance away, there were astonishing anomalies in performance, and in our class it has to be said that a trio of Elan 333s – slippy craft perhaps, but very much cruisers nevertheless – gave all the bigger boats a very hard time, with Colm Bermingham’s Elan 333 – fresh from winning the Lambay Lady last weekend – living up to her name of Bite the Bullet by taking two wins.

With this hugely varied performance range, those who don’t find what total dinghy sailors are pleased to describe as truck-racing to be an interesting form of our sport will have found the appeal of Day One to be baffling. But it was utterly intriguing aboard Splashdance. While the hottest race boats on the other sailing areas may have leapt like racehorses with any sharpening of the feeble mostly southeast wind, our generally ponderous group took their time about getting up to speed, all manoeuvres had to be planned well in advance, and with quite a brisk tidal stream, racing marks had to be treated with the greatest respect, as all of them seemed to have somehow become magnetic overnight.

Many of the racing marks had somehow become magnetic overnight…

Yet that said, Mossy really is a demon helm, and when he had half a breeze to do what he wanted, he threw Splashdance about the starts and whatnot with stylish abandon, confidently throwing hyper-close shapes of a type I wouldn’t even dream of in a boat half the size.

Except for the rapidly-bonding band of brothers aboard the boat, it would be tedious to recount every tactic and strategy which provided such a good day’s racing in such unlikely circumstances. But as in all good stories, the best bit was at the end, over the final two miles to the finish of the second race.

Even national champions ended up with unusual crew positions to get the right trim in the meagre breeze – George Sisk’s WOW and Conor Phelan’s Jump Juice in close contention

It had started as a beat, but somehow our tactical team of Mossy Shanahan and Roger Cagney sniffed out a backing of the wind and a sharper air to the left. They got us clear to the left of a group of other boats, and though Bite the Bullet was by this time well ahead, having never out a foot wrong at any stage, we were mixing it with the other two Elan 333s, the Sigma 38 Spellbound, and the XC 45 Samaton (Robert Rendell), with the potentially fastest boat in the class, Vincent Farrell’s First 40.7 Tsunami, seemingly untouchable in front.

Did we really do that? Splashdance’s crew look aft in wonder as the First 40.7 Tsunami comes to the finishing line astern of them. Photo W M Nixon

But suddenly, slightly out on the left, Splashdance tasted magic. She found the groove. She just upped and went, dropping the others and then rolling insouciantly over Tsunami as though it was the sort of thing she did every day. Maybe it is. All I know is that it was a bit of sailing which took her neatly to the finish, and left her entire crew on a high which was only further augmented by our demon driver then reversing the big lady into her very tight inner corner berth in the marina through the seemingly impossible gap created by visiting boats rafted up.

In fact, visiting boats are finding berths wherever they can in this busy weekend in Howth, and an abiding memory from yesterday evening is the sight of some of the more legendary craft in the contemporary Irish offshore scene, yachts of the calibre of Jump Juice, WOW and the new Rockabill IV, rafted up in traditional style outside fishing boats in the fish dock, while at the head of the dock the new state-of-the-art fisheries pontoon is properly providing the full facilities for Howth’s growing fleet of small fishing craft, which is just as it should be.

The new JPK 10.80 Rockabill VI (Paul O’Higgins) finds herself an unusual berth in Howth. Photo: W M Nixon

Working life goes on – there may be top offshore racers in port, but at Howth’s new pontoon for small fishing craft, lobster pots still need to be cleaned with a powerhose. Photo: W M Nixon

Certainly when I met up with ICRA Commodore Simon McGibney of Foynes, he’d no complaints, as they’d obligingly provided late crane facilities on Thursday night after his J/24 had been delayed on the way up from the west. But then like everyone else, I suppose he was delighted with the fact that an almost complete programme had been put through, for yesterday’s wind forecasts suggested we might have been plagued by calm all day.

ICRA Commodore Simon McGibney of Foynes YC in Howth yesterday. Photo: W M Nixon

The wind prospects for today and tomorrow are a little better, but there’s definitely no danger of any race being blown out, though there may be a deluge or two. As it is, the race officer teams deserve every credit for pulling a day’s sport out of light airs yesterday, and going into Day 2 the leaders are Jump Juice (Conor Phelan RCYC) in Division 0, White Mischief (T & R Goodbody RIYC in Division 1,) The Big Picture (M & R Evans HYC) in Division 2, Hard on Port (Flor O’Driscoll, RStGYC) in Division 3, OctopussE (Patrick O’Neill HYC) in Division 4, and Bite the Bullet (Colm Bermingham) in Division V.

The story behind the leaderboard is that Tim Goodbody is putting his imprint on the J/109s as surely as he put it on the Sigma 33s and the J/24s and the Dragons before that, another story is that the J/24s are providing one of the most heartening revivals in 2016, as Flor O’Driscoll’s Hard on Port is only one of several J/24s which are having themselves a ball. As for the news that The Big Picture currently leads Division 2, that means she leads the hyper-hot Half Tonners, so whatever Alan Power did to the Evans brothers’ boat in recent months in his shed up the back of Malahide (see SailSat 21st May), it undoubtedly is all to the good.

Some of the eleven J/109s which have entered for the ICRA Nats 2016 in Howth. Photo: W M Nixon

But even for those not hitting the headlines, the ICRA Nationals 2016 are a reminder that in the final analysis, sailing is all about people sharing enthusiasm for a curious vehicle sport which provides great pleasure in sometimes unlikely circumstances. Going down to join Splashdance yesterday morning in virtually lifeless weather, it was difficult not to wonder what it’s all about. Yet somehow it was absorbing entertainment from beginning to end. My thanks to Howard McMullan and Mossy Shanahan and Roger Cagney and the rest of the gang, who were David Will and Paddy McCaughey of Howth, John Ives of Sutton, and Liam MacMahon of Skerries, good shipmates every one of them.

The Big Picture is in clear focus. Michael and Richard Evans’ Half Tonner currently leads both the Classic Half Ton Class and Division 2

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