Royal St. George Yacht Club's Michael O'Connor sailing with Davy Taylor of the SB20 class has won the All-Ireland Sailing Championship 2019. 

As north-west winds blew to over 20-knots the championship was decided over short sharp races inside Dun Laoghaire Harbour this afternoon under Race Officer Jack Roy, the Irish Sailing President. 

The championships were raced in the Flying Fifteen keelboat and drew a fleet of 16 invited champion sailors from across the Irish yacht racing scene as Afloat reported here.

It is the second year in a row that the All Ireland Sailing title has been won by the SB20 nominee. 

Second overall was Northern Ireland RS400 ace Robert Espey. Third was Greystones Sailing Club's Shane MacCarthy representing the GP14 class. Full results below.

After a qualification round on Saturday, the final day’s racing was moved from Dublin Bay to the more sheltered Dun Laoghaire Harbour due to strong and gusting winds.

The four-race final round was a close-fought affair over two hours which eventually saw O’Connor pitted against Robert Espey, the RS400 class nominee from Ballyholme. However, the Dun Laoghaire sailor received a jury penalty turn and finished sixth while the Bangor helm had gear damage and was awarded average points for that race depending on the rest of the series.

Michael O'Connor (right) of the Royal St. George Yacht Club emerged as overall winner of the coveted 'champion of champion' titles for 2019 with crew Davy Taylor Photo: Irish Sailing/David Branigan

The whole championship hinged on the final race with just under three points separating first and second places. O’Connor had recovered form after the opening final round race to deliver two race wins with Espey close behind.

Just under three points separated the pair going into the final race. O’Connor started poorly while Espey was heading for a second place; the standings looked set to be up-ended. But O’Connor fought his way back up the fleet in the 20-minute race and took third place and the overall title with one point to spare.

While Espey and his Olympic veteran crew Stephen Milne were first runner-up, Shane McCarthy with Stephen Boyle of the GP14 class were in close contention in third place.

The Flying 15 class hosted the event with boats loaned by their owners and the class national champion David Gorman with Chris Doorly featured in the final series to place seventh overall.

Racing was held in the confines of Dun Laoghaire Harbour Photo: Afloat

Final All Ireland Results 2019