Displaying items by tag: Howth Yacht Club
Legendary Arctic Voyager John Gore-Grimes To Get Choral Celebration in Howth Yacht Club
It may seem odd to mention an event which is already a sell-out. But it’s now 44 years since John Gore-Grimes of Howth was first awarded the Blue Water Medal of the Cruising Club of America for his remarkable Arctic voyages in the Nicholson 31 Shardana. And these days - like several ultra-senior sailors - he is a participating member of the Forget-Me-Knots Choir of kindred spirits.
This remarkable group radiates outwards from the former Viking port of Baldoyle, taking in most of south Fingal, and Howth in all its glorious eccentricities. They’ve decided to hold a celebratory night for the skipper of Shardana with a choral performance in Howth Yacht Club on the evening of Thursday, June 20th - doors open at 7.30pm, and the show starts at 8.0pm.
The word is that it’s already a sell-out “unless you have an inside track to the organisers”. But either way, we thought we’d spread this welcome news about a man who is truly a giant in Irish sailing and voyaging history.
Owner-skippers like Colm Bermingham with his Elan 333 Bite the Bullet are the backbone of Irish sailing. Over the years, he has defined his area of interest in racing, and then campaigns it to the uttermost, crewed by friends who fit neatly together as a team afloat and ashore.
Each year, Bite the Bullet is regularly in the frame, and his overall victory last weekend in the Howth Wave 24 is in the best Bermingham style.
This weekend, the GP14 Leinster Championship fleet comes to Howth Yacht Club. This is the third event of the season and the first on the sea, with both the Munsters and the O'Tiarnaigh Challenge held on Lough Derg and Owel, respectively.
With the Worlds across the water in Pwhelli in August and 30 Irish boats amongst the 80+ entries, this is an important event for the Irish fleet in its build-up to Plas Heli.
At this stage, it looks like we will have 34 boats come to the line on Saturday. Score Walls, the PRO, has said that conditions permitting, she will try to facilitate some gate starts, enabling some preparation for the Worlds.
Top GP14 Ireland pairing and current Leinster Champions Ger Owens and Mel Morris will not make the event. The pair took the title when held as part of the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta in 2023. While the pair will not defend their title, the fleet lacks some excellent crews. Ross Kearney & Daniel Nelson (Royal North of Ireland YC), Sean Craig & Stephen Boyle (R St George & Sutton) and Colman Grimes & Ross Gingles (Skerries), who all shone at various stages last season, will be joined by some new but no less experienced faces.
Howth Yacht Club's Ewan McMahon jumps from his Olympics Laser to join his dad in their first GP14 event of the season. It is great to see Diane Kisaane and Graham Curran, also from Howth Yacht Club, back in the fleet, with former Junior Helmsman Champion Chris Bateman from Monkstown Bay and Royal Cork Yacht Club starting to become a regular.
The peninsula is well represented, with Alan Blay and Hugh McNally, Conor Twohig and Matthew Cotter, Katie Dwyer and Michelle Rowley, David Johnston and Oscar Langan, and Hugh Gill and Richard Street not having too far to travel! It was also great to see Ruan and Charlotte O'Tiarnaigh, runners-up in the Championship of Ireland last season, representing Sutton Dinghy Club this season.
Howth has also laid on facilities to welcome crews from as far as Sligo, Malahide, Cullaun, Skerries, Lough Erne, Rush, Lough Foyle, Moville, Donaghdee, Newtownards, Blessington, Mullingar, Greystones and East Antrim.
The GP14 Class continues to encourage and attract good young sailors. Its yearly coaching week in Plas Heli, under the watchful eye of Neil Marsden and Sam Watson, is certainly starting to reap its rewards, with young crews prominent at the top of big races in the last few seasons.
This season has been a whirlwind for young David Evans and William Draper from Sligo. Having just turned 17, David and William took second behind Ger and Mel at the Munsters in Killaloe in April and then took the top podium spot two weeks ago at the O’Tiarnaigh Challenge in Mullingar.
Light weather events both, but the pair are ones to watch along with Sam Street & Josh Lloyd from Blessington, who sprang into life last season with multiple race wins.
It should make for a great few days with six races over the two days and the weather gods looking like they might play ball.
It’s not widely known that when the Danes of Howth were being pressurised to become Christians, being Vikings they had a side deal to the effect that, forever afterwards, when the Annual Fete in late Spring at the new church they were signing up to was staged, said Fete would always be blessed with good weather.
As to other distractions in regatta event staging at Howth, it’s only 120 years ago that the first recorded Howth YC Lambay Race was being sailed. But over its relatively few years since first being staged in 1904, the organisers have learned that it goes best when high water is around lunchtime, thereby enabling a mid-morning start to carry the fleet north on the last of the flood and bring them home again southwards on the ebb.
So ideally the best day for the race round Lambay is firstly, when the Fete is being held, and secondly, when the tides are right. Obviously it can be quite a job to get all your ducks in a row when organising this ideal Lambay setup. So when it all additionally has to be fitted into the new-fangled three day Howth Wave Regatta, you’d think it was wellnigh impossible.
PERFECT IN EVERY WAY
Yet today’s (Saturday May 25th) Lambay Race was perfect in every way, despite being preceded by yesterday’s grimly Arctic conditions, and with further Unknown Unknowns in the meteorological pipeline for the final Wave day tomorrow (Sunday May 26th).
The innocent and idealistic might well think that such a perfect conjunction of requirements, with the piety of the annual Church Fete and a fine southeasterly racing breeze as the double creams on the cake, might have resulted in a bit of relaxation afloat, an element of give and take.
DOG EAT DOG
Not a bit of it. It was dog eat dog out there on the sunny blue waters of Fingal, with the ferocious pace being set by the Classic Half Tonners. The recently acquired Two Farr of the unlikely but all-powerful Rush-Crosshaven-Howth-Baltimore syndicate squeaked in ahead of near sister Swuzzlebubble (James Dwyer, Royal Cork YC) by just three seconds on IRC, after three hours of racing.
RUSH SC MAKING HAY
In fact, Rush Sailing Club were making hay (it’s the next item on the agricultural schedule anyway), as Pat Kelly’s J/109 Storm (RSC) nipped in by ten seconds ahead of current Irish J/109 champion Chimaera (Barry Cunningham, Royal Irish YC) in Class 1, with John Minnis’s A35 Final Call II from Belfast Lough just one second (repeat: one second) behind the Cunningham boat, while John and Suzie Murphy put in a shout for the Hills of the Naul with their J/109 Outrajeous barely a minute after Final Call II, but with Mike & Richard Evans J/99 Snapshot (HYC) only another seven seconds behind them.
FIBRILLATOR FINISH
As you might well say if you were in a morbid frame of mind, it was a Fibrillator Finish for the IRC classes. And on beyond the Half Tonners in Class 2, things continued close, although it was a strike for the home club when Stephen Mullaney’s immaculate Sigma 33 Insider in Class 3 managed to get home 36 seconds ahead of Wicklow Sailing Club’s Haughton-Flood-Heather-Kinnane team on Jupiter, with Courtown SC further down the East Coast taking third with the Quarter Tonner Snoopy (Joanne Hall & Martin Mahon.
MORE GENTEEL IN CLASS 0
Meanwhile at the other end of the size scale, the timings were more genteel in Class 0, with the First 50 Checkmate XX (Nigel Biggs & Dave Cullen, HYC) having another good day to finish on IRC CT more than five minutes ahead of Johnny Treanor’s J/112 ValenTina (NYC) with another J, Nobby Reilly’s Ghost Raider, in third ahead of Cork’s Jelly Baby campaigned by the Jones family.
NON SPIN
The first of the non-spinnaker divisions, Class 4, relies totally on ECHO handicap, and there’ll be dancing in the streets of Skerries, as Terry McCoy of that town took it convincingly with his handsome vintage First 38 Out & About. Howver, super-chef McCoy keeps O&A in Howth, so those points go to HYC, while the score for second goes across the harbour to John Beckett and Andy George’s Splashdance of Howth Sailing & Boating Club, with third slot being filled by overall defending champion Dermot Skehan with the MG34 Toughnut (HYC).
ONE DESIGNS
It is intriguing to look at the “artificial” closeness of the handicap classes’ finishes, and then set them against the more rough and ready reality of One Design Racing, where such close finishes are wellnigh impossible, as one-for-one boats get in each other’s way.
Thus with the Puppeteer 22s we see that Ian Dickson’s Weyhey won by more than two minutes from 2023 form boat Trick or Treat (Alan Pearson & Alan Blay), with Dave Clarke’s Harlequin third by another clear minute and three seconds.
As for the Howth 17s, former HYC Commodore Brian Turvey’s continuing successful efforts in keeping Wave top of the agenda were suitably rewarded, as Isobel which he co-owns with brother Conor took the bullet by one and a half minutes from the white-hot Massey-Toomey-Kenny syndicate’s Deilginis, with third generation Howth 17 sailor Peter Courtney (his family have been involved with the class since 1907) getting third.
SQUIBS QUANDARY
The Squibs are in a real quandary this weekend, as ambitious boats will have wished to do the performance-defining Northerns at Cultra with the RNIYC on Belfast Lough, but nevertheless three of them stayed behind to do the Lambay trot, and Emmet Dalton seems to have won on scratch, but Simon Sheahan was out of sight on HPH.
SUN SHONE ON INTO EVENNG
Following that devilish deal of the ancient Vikings of Howth, the sun is still shining in Howth as evening draws in on this excellent Lambay Day, when we were meant to get rain and much cloud by early afternoon. The Wave Regatta Financial Returns are looking good, but as for profits on the Church Fete, we will of course have to wait until after the Sabbath for news of trading realities on holy ground.
Results below
Howth's three-day Wave Regatta 2024, the biennial seafest with Porsche as lead sponsors, rolls into action this morning (Friday, May 24th) with a total of 104 entries, ranging from the veterans of the 1898-founded Howth 17 class to many of the most keenly campaigned cruiser racers in Ireland. Boats from all Irish coastlines and across from Wales and England are ready to race on various courses, including the time-honoured circuit of Lambay tomorrow (Saturday).
Particular interest will focus on the J/109s, where several current and former Irish champions are in the mix, while the classic Half Tonners, such as Swuzzlebubble and the recently-acquired Two Farr, will be seeing
a high-quality input of special sailing talent. That said, it's an event for everyone, and the defending overall champion from 2022 is Dermot Skehan's veteran Humphreys-designed MG34 Toughnut from the host club.
Ashore, the Howth Peninsula is en fete with a traditional music festival headed by Sharon Shannon, but Wave participants need to go no further than the Howth YC compound for a high-powered mix of entertainment and the much enjoyed "de-briefings" about the racing, which looks set to enjoy a variety of conditions, with Saturday, in particular, looking good.
Howth’s Wave Power Just Keeps Rolling Along
In electricity-generating circles, wave power may be seen as a potential though often challenging way of generating energy. But in Howth, energy and Wave power seem to have got together to have everything in mutually beneficial co-ordination for the biennial Wave Regatta, starting this Friday (May 24th) and concluding Sunday.
The latest high-powered entries to push the total towards the hundred mark are both from the Royal Irish YC’s own private power-house in the form of the Goodbody family’s silver-bedecked J/109 White Mischief, and the Burke syndicate’s First 40 Prima Forte, a breeze-loving boat.
But as to whether or not Prima Forte will get her favoured conditions remains to be seen. For although the forecasts suggest the racing will begin with ridge-induced northerlies and conclude with a brisk southerly, the fact is that most forecasts for Howth have been off-target or just plain wrong for at least six weeks now, however accurate (or not) they may have been for other places. Folk on the peninsula have expecting the right type of rain to help new lawns along, but a good rainfall of any kind has yet to occur, whatever might be happening in nearby Ireland or across channel in Wales.
WEATHER PREDICTIONS FOR HOWTH HAVE TO BE UNPREDICTABLE
So whether a really good weather pattern will develop remains to be seen, for as far as the Howth Peninsula is concerned, any recent predictions pointed to it ultimately being unpredictable.
Meanwhile, another theme which has recently been rising on the agenda is local pride. And we mean really local, not regional. Thus our recent piece about the remarkable performances that have been put in by North Fingal cruiser-racers such as Storm and King One from Rogerstown, Rush and Skerries, with an intriguing direct but almost-hidden link to West Cork, havr drawn a blast from on high, and we really mean on high.
For it seems that the skipper we think of as the Admiral of the Royal Hills of the Naul Yacht Squadron thinks his local place should get a fair shout, as he can see all from his resident Naul eyrie, and it helps in crew-recruiting to encourage ultra-local pride. And after all, when he and his team came down from the Fingal Alps aka the Naul Hills last year, they won the ICRA Nationals at Howth, and they’ll be back again on Friday with the J/109 Outrajeous.
RURAL ENTHUSIASM CAN BE CHANNELED
This idea of very rural communities having some sailing focus seems odd until we consider the Chipping Norton Yacht Club. It’s in the heart of the Cotswolds in the midst of England and more than a hundred miles from the nearest sea. Yet as each weekend approaches, sea sailing enthusiasts stream southwards from CN, mostly with the RORC programme in mind, and return exhausted but happily salt-stained and wind-battered late on Sunday night.
Yet by Tuesday they’ve started to think slightly enviously of their coast-dwelling fellow sailors gathering in their clubs to talk endlessly about sailing. So the Chipping Norton Yacht Club came into being to inflict a sailing-clothing-wearing boat-talking group on the local pub every Tuesday evening
Maybe it’s time to start thinking of getting a sailing photo or two hung on the walls of Killian’s in The Naul. For now, the good news is that Wave 2024 from Friday onwards is starting to look very interesting indeed. Watch this space.
Those who are unaware of some of the more offbeat aspects of Irish maritime history can be forgiven for wondering how it is that Rogerstown, Rush and Skerries – all in the heart of heavily horticultural North Fingal - between them produce so many formidable sailors.
“How on earth” they demand, “can growing so many admittedly excellent potatoes, cabbages and strawberries make you a genius in a sailing boat?”
The intriguing sailing-talent-producing Rogerstown Estuary is almost boat-free in winter, but the well-filled Rush SC winter boat park speaks volumes about the local sailing interest.
LEGALLY ABSENT
The question is asked after a quick glance at the crème de la crème entry list for Howth’s three day Wave Regatta with Porsche as lead sponsors, where racing starts on this coming Friday (May 24th). Overall, it reveals an intriguing absence of lawyers, and a remarkable presence of established and rising talent from Rush SC and Skerries SC.
We were given a word to the wise on the legal scarcities.
“It would be a very unwise career move for a prominent figure in the law courts to be so conspicuously absent from the Law Library when the courts are sitting in a traditionally very busy period, and no Bank Holiday is being availed of.”
POTATO POTENTATES
Quite so. You can always easily get publicity when you least need it. But as to the sailing power of the Potato Potentates from the hidden acres of Fingal, that’s much more easily explained. Up there, fast sailing is in the blood. The emphasis on vegetables is only a recent innovation. But the sailing prowess long-outlasted the Vikings.
In the late 18th and early 19th Centuries, the tiny port of Rush and the nearby tide-riven estuary of Rogerstown produced Ireland’s two greatest sea captains in privateering and smuggling. The late 1700s saw the career peaks for privateering legend Luke Ryan, while the early 1800s witnessed the achievements of James Mathews, a highly-organised smuggler at a time when smuggling was a perfectly reasonable response to the actions of rabidly exploitative governments.
If there is a key component in both maritime legends, it is surely the ability to sail fast offshore, while also being well able, when necessary, for both navigation and intricate inshore pilotage. In other words, exactly the skills set for success with a competitive cruiser-racer.
STORM OF RUSH
For some time now, Pat Kelly and his Fingal team from Rush with Storm have been among the top performers in the J/109 class. Well, Storm will be there at Wave, taking on local talent such as Simon Knowles’ Indian, and visiting talent such as Barry Cunningham’s current champion J/109 Chimaera from the Royal Irish YC.
The mixing of Howth and Rush might be assumed to be neighbourliness, but that would be a mistake. The fact that Rush and Howth can keep an eye on each other along a northwest-southeast sightline across the Malahide Estuary Approaches only serves to emphasise how different they are, and that’s the way they want to keep it.
VIKINGS RE-TAKE HOWTH CASTLE
Thus the word is that the North Fingal contingent are establishing an encampment at Howth Castle, and admission will either be by invitation, or a password known to few, and spoken in ancient Norse, as in everyday use around Lusk.
But the Rush tentacles spread further, and in 2022 the linkup between North Fingal and West Cork was revealed in high profile when sometime Baltimore SC Commodore and “temporary permanent” BSC Honorary Sailing Secretary Rob O’Leary was on the Rush SC team that won the Half Ton Classic Worlds in the Solent on Paul Elvstrom’s former boat King One.
FINGAL WEST CORK LINKUP
That linkup has gone a stage further in order to compete directly with the world’s most-loved Half Tonner, the 1976 Farr-designed Swuzzlebubble. The thinking had been that surely more boats were built to this wonderful way-out design, particularly as Swuzzlebubble has in recent years been based at Crosshaven in the successful ownership of James Dwyer, and currently the ICRA “Boat of the Year”.
And it seems the sleuth-hounds of the Rush & O’Leary teams have come up with just such a boat, originally built in Australia but more recently racing under German designation. She’s called Two Farr, she’s unmistakable bright red, and with Rob O’Leary now in owning partnership with Fingal’s crème de la crème, so many all-Ireland club affiliations are listed that we are reminded of the extraordinarily all-Ireland personality of the J/24 Hard Case.
LAST MINUTE LOCALS
Entries for Wave don’t close until tonight (Tuesday 21st May) at midnight, but organiser Brian Turvey reckons the heavy metal from elsewhere have been long in, it’s only the last minute locals who will finally access that useful circular device, a round tuit, approaching the witching hour.
Meanwhile, with a general lineup including such formidable talent as John Minnis’s A35 Final Call II from Belfast Lough, the entry list makes for intriguing reading:
Wave Regatta Entries 2024
1 | Biggs/Cullen | Howth Yacht Club | IRL66 | Checkmate XX | First 50 | Class 0 | |
2 | Brian & Conor Turvey | Howth Yacht Club | 19 | Isobel | Howth 17 | ||
3 | Simon Knowles | Howth Yacht Club | IRL1543 | Indian | J109 | Class 1 | |
4 | Thomas O’Reilly | Howth Yacht Club | 770 | Cool Beans | Squib | ||
5 | Emmet Dalton | Howth Yacht Club | 37 | Kerfuffle | Squib | ||
6 | Ian Bowring | Royal St. George Yacht Club | IRL 4464 | Springer | Sigma 33 | One Design | |
7 | Stephen Mullaney | Howth Yacht Club | IRL4444 | Insider | Sigma 33 | One Design | |
8 | Caroline and Nico Gore-Grimes | Howth Yacht Club | Irl988 | Dux | X302 | Class 3 | |
9 | Tom mc mahon | Howth Yacht Club | 869 | Tears in Heaven | Squib | ||
10 | DENIS HEWITT % ORS. | Royal Irish Yacht Club | IRL811 | RAPTOR | MILLS 30CR | Class 1 | |
11 | Vincent Gaffney | Howth Yacht Club | IRL8188 | Alliance II | Laser 28 | Class 3 | |
12 | Barry O'Connor | Royal Irish Yacht Club | 31310 | Katanca | Elan31 | ||
13 | Wright/De Neve | Howth Yacht Club | 2794 | Mata | Half tonne | Class 2 | |
14 | Wormald Walsh O'Neill | Howth Yacht Club | IRL 1972 | No Excuse | X302 | Class 3 | |
15 | Colin & Kathy Kavanagh | Howth Yacht Club | IRL 6697 | Jeneral Lee | J97 | Class 2 | |
16 | Susan Sheridan | Howth Yacht Club | 385 | Ibis | Puppeteer | ||
17 | Norbert Reillly | Howth Yacht Club | IRL 985 | Ghost Raider | J111 | Class 0 | |
18 | Jones Family | Royal Cork Yacht Club | IRL9753 | Jellybaby | J122 | Class 0 | |
19 | Lee Douglas / Aidan Keane | Malahide Yacht Club | 791 | Shenanigans | Feeling | ||
20 | Michael & Richard | Howth Yacht Club | 1699 | Snapshot | j99 | Class 1 | |
21 | Alan Pearson Alan Blay | Howth Yacht Club | IRL15 | Trick or Treat | Puppeteer | ||
22 | JOHN MINNIS | Club not listed | ROYAL ULSTER YACHT CLUB & RNIYC | IRL1003 | FINAL CALL II | ARCHAMBAULT A35 | Class 1 |
23 | Brian Skehan | Howth Yacht Club | IRL 17793 | Chinook | First 300 Spirit | ||
24 | John Beckett and Andy George | Howth Sailing and Boating Club | IRL4073 | Splashdance | Dufour 40 | Non Spinny 33ft+ | |
25 | Colm Bermingham | Howth Yacht Club | 3335C | Bite the Bullet | Elan 333 | ||
26 | Stephen Quinn | Howth Yacht Club | Irl9970 | Lambay Rules | J97 | Class 2 | |
27 | Kevin Darmody | Howth Yacht Club | IRL7115 | Gecko | Quarter Ton | Class 3 | |
28 | Davie Nixon | Howth Yacht Club | 18 | Erica | H17 | ||
29 | Terence Prendiville | Club not listed | no club (Dun Laoghaire Marina) | 139 (Non ISA) | Maggie Bee | Anderson 22 | |
30 | Brian McDowell | Howth Yacht Club | IRL4212 | Scandal | J24 | ||
31 | Simon Sheahan | Howth Yacht Club | 123 | O'Leary | Squib | ||
32 | Ian malcolm | Howth Yacht Club | 7 | Aura | 17 | ||
33 | Massey, Toomey, Kenny | Howth Yacht Club | 11 | Deilginis | H17 | ||
34 | Tim Chillingworth | Howth Yacht Club | IR386 | Gannet | Puppeteer | ||
35 | Windsor & Steffi | Howth Yacht Club | IR 100 | Demelza | Club Shamrock | ||
36 | Charlie McAllister | Club not listed | Antrim Boat Club | HKG2133 | SKB | Fauroux quarter tonner | Class 3 |
37 | Eamonn Burke & Jay Murray | Howth Yacht Club | IRL 971 | Leeuwin | Sigma 33 | ||
38 | Terry Mc Coy | Howth Yacht Club | 2070 | Out & About | Beneteau 38 | Non Spinny 33ft+ | |
39 | kyran o grady | Howth Yacht Club | wicklow sailing club | ir 2848 | bandersnatch of howth | swan 37 | |
40 | PJ Moran | Dun Laoghaire Marina | 1685C | Rajah | Sigma 33 OOD | One Design | |
41 | John & Suzie Murphy | Howth Yacht Club | IRL 19109 | Outrajeous | J109 | Class 1 | |
42 | Gerard Loughran/Ross Hattaway | Howth Yacht Club | 493 | 3point9 | Squib | ||
43 | bourke mc girr ball | Howth Yacht Club | IRL 3002 | XEBEC | X 302 | Class 2 | |
44 | Roslyn Byrne | Howth Yacht Club | 50 | Odyssey | Puppeteer | ||
45 | Dermot Skehan | Howth Yacht Club | 1411 | Toughnut | - | Non Spinny 33ft+ | |
46 | Stephen Harris / Frank Hughes | Howth Yacht Club | IRL 4077 | Tiger | Beneteau First 40.7 | Non Spinny 33ft+ | |
47 | Howth Yacht Club K25 Team | Howth Yacht Club | IRL 680 | Killcullen | - | Class 3 | |
48 | OReilly/McDyer | Howth Yacht Club | 219 | Geppetto | Puppeteer | ||
49 | E Ferris &I Byrne | Howth Yacht Club | 14 | Gladys | Howth 17 | ||
50 | Gallagher and Fitzgibbon | Howth Yacht Club | 21 | Orla | Howth 17 | ||
51 | K&B Barker | Howth Yacht Club | 318 | Papagena | Puppeteer 22 | ||
52 | Jane & Michael Duffy | Howth Yacht Club | HYC | 9 | HERA | Howth 17 | |
53 | Peter & Declan McCabe | Howth Yacht Club | IRL 1343 | Arcturus | Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 37 | ||
54 | Ian Dickson | Howth Yacht Club | HYC | 22 | Weyhey | Puppeteer | |
55 | Gerard Kennedy | Howth Yacht Club | 5526 | Blue Velvet | Puppeteer | ||
56 | Fergal McNamara | Clontarf Yacht & Boat Club | 297 | Equaliser | EBoat | ||
57 | Shane Russell and Dave Carolan | Clontarf Yacht & Boat Club | 152 | Wile E Coyote | E-boat | ||
58 | Cormac Farrelly | Howth Yacht Club | IRL4123 | Pepperbox | First 32s5 | ||
59 | Sean Hawkshaw | Club not listed | Mullaghmore Sailing Club | IRL 7360 | Wardance | Sigma 38 | Class 2 |
60 | Patrick Higginbotham Neil HIgginbotham | Malahide Yacht Club | 158 | Lazy Bones | Beneteau First Class 8 | Class 3 | |
61 | Matthew Knowles | Howth Yacht Club | 34 | Intersceptre | Puppeteer 22 | ||
62 | Micheal Carroll | Howth Yacht Club | 1950 | Flexit | - | ||
63 | Craig O’Neill | Royal Cork Yacht Club | IRL4064 | Legal Alien | J/24 | One Design | |
64 | Peter Levins, Brendan Foley, Colm O'Buachalla, Mark Hennessey, Patrick Ryan, Conor Twoney | Royal St. George Yacht Club | FR111 | ALLIG8R | First Class 8 | Class 3 | |
65 | Neil Murphy / Conor Costello | Howth Yacht Club | 6413 | Yellow Peril | Puppeteer 22 | ||
66 | Conor Haughton, Jonny Flood, Charles Heather, Garrett Kinnane | Wicklow Sailing Club | 5270 | Jupiter | J24 | Class 3 | |
67 | Nicola & Stuart Harris | Waterford Harbour Sailing Club | 3370 | Moxy | X332 sport | Class 1 | |
68 | pat kelly | Rush Sailing Club | rsc hyc | irl1141 | storm | j 109 | Class 1 |
69 | kelly boardman oleary | Club not listed | rsc bsc hyc rcyc | irl 2269 | two farr | half tonner | Class 2 |
70 | Joanne Hall / Martin Mahon | Club not listed | Courtown Sailing Club | IRL90210 | SNOOPY | Quarter Tonner | Class 3 |
71 | Flood/Greene | Howth Yacht Club | IRL8151 | Jokers Wild | Beneteau 32S5 | ||
72 | Roger Conan | Royal St. George Yacht Club | 1041 | Avalon | 31.7 | ||
73 | Mark Chambers & Alan Switzer | Club not listed | Courtown sailing club | IRL1707 | Artemis | Sigma 33c | |
74 | Peter Courtney | Howth Yacht Club | 17 | Oona | Howth 17 | ||
75 | Miller, Crompton & Hodges | Club not listed | South Caenarvonshire Yacht Club | GBR7737R | Impetuous | Corby 37 | Class 0 |
76 | Barry Cunningham | Royal Irish Yacht Club | IRL 2160 | Chimaera | J109 | Class 1 | |
77 | Rima Macken | Howth Yacht Club | 16 | Eileen | Howth 17 | ||
78 | paul conway | Royal St. George Yacht Club | IRL 932 | CERVANTES | Contessa 32 | ||
79 | Cliff Waddilove | Skerries Sailing Club | 279 | Aoife | E-Boat | ||
80 | Dave Clarke | Howth Yacht Club | 2021c | Harlequin | Puppeteer | ||
81 | Kieran Jameson | Howth Yacht Club | IRL 8331 | Changeling | Sigma 38 | ||
82 | Donal Harkin | Howth Yacht Club | 1048 | Ghosty Ned | Puppeteer | ||
83 | Paddy Kyne | Howth Yacht Club | 7495 | Maximus | X 302 | Class 3 | |
84 | James Dwyer | Royal Cork Yacht Club | KZ3494 | Swuzzlebubble | Farr halftonner | Class 2 | |
85 | Johnny Treanor | National Yacht Club | IRL 3721 | ValenTina | J112e | Class 0 | |
86 | Declan Gray | Howth Yacht Club | Irl3230 | Sapphire | Oceanis 323 Clipper | ||
87 | Ger Smith / Niall Sabongi | Skerries Sailing Club | IRL4443 | An Oifig | Sigma 33 | ||
88 | Carty Finucane O'Byrne | Howth Yacht Club | IRL 1430 | Mary Ellen | . | ||
89 | Roddy cooper | Howth Yacht Club | 3 | LEILA | 17 footer | ||
90 | William Lacy | Howth Yacht Club | IRL 8322 | Sojourn | Arcona 400 |
Two US-based sailors will add an international flavour to the fourth Irish RS Aero National Championships on the 15th & 16th of June at Howth Yacht Club.
Paul McMahon of the host club is the defending champion and will be hoping for a repeat on home waters. The sailors will also be hoping for a repeat of the classic Howth Easterly conditions of last October’s event.
The Principal Race Officer for the event is top sailor Nigel Biggs.
The Nationals will once again be supported by KODC Advisory who also sponsored the Easterns in Howth last year.
A key feature of many RS Aero events, which has proved very popular, is top-class coaching before the event and Thomas Chaix has agreed to provide a session on Friday afternoon.
Entry can be made here. There may be opportunities to charter an Aero for the event. Please contact Daragh Sheridan at [email protected] for further information.
Lynch, Craig and Gilmore are Crowned at 2024 ILCA Masters National Championships at Howth Yacht Club
The ILCA Masters National Championships proved that the ILCA is a boat for all ages. The masters travelled to Howth Yacht Club to race in the sunshine and a steady south-easterly breeze ranging from 8 to 14 knots. Under the watchful eye of Race Officer Neil Murphy and his team, six races took place over two days in the ILCA 6 and ILCA 7 fleets.
Masters sailors are split into five categories: Apprentices aged 30 to 45, Masters aged 45 to 54, Grand Masters 55 – 64, Great Grand Masters 65 – 74, and Legends 75+. Within each fleet, multiple contests take place, and prizes are awarded in each category and for overall winners.
In the 24-boat ILCA 7 fleet, Dan O’Connell and Rory Lynch, both regular Howth winter sailors, battled hard for the top spot, while Conor Byrne, last year's winner, was not far behind. After two wins in race 4 and 6, Rory Lynch topped the fleet and Apprentice category. Dan O’Connell, was second overall and first Master. while Conor Byrne last year 39s Masters Champion had to settle for third overall and second Apprentice. The top Grand Master was Nick Walshe, starting and finishing strong with a third in race one and a second in race six.
In the ILCA 6 fleet, Conor Clancy and Sean Craig were well-matched rivals, both finishing all races in the top four. Sean Craig showed his experience with three race wins, discarding a fourth to take first overall and top Grand Master. Conor Clancy was just three points behind and finished second overall and top Apprentice. Conor Barry sailed a very consistent series, winning race six to take third place and top Master.
In the ILCA 6 Women's category Shirley Gilmore, Judy O’Byrne, Mary Chambers, Alison Pigot and Carla Fagan were racing hard. Shirley Gilmore inched ahead after day one and, with a fourth in race six, did enough to retain her Women’s Masters title, with Judy O’Beirne finishing second and Mary Chambers third overall. Alison Pigot was second in the Grand Master category, while Carla Fagan was the top Apprentice.
As always, Howth Yacht Club ran a top-class event. Jill Sommerville and Conor Murphy did an exceptional job organising it.
ILCA Ireland’s next event is the Ulster Championships which takes place in County Antrim Yacht Club on the 22 and 23 of June.
Full results below
Howth's Northern Lights Were Something Special
The weekend's almost freakish display of the Northern Lights were better seen in some places than others. Howth on its peninsula avoided the later thundery rain which affected other parts of the country, some with flooding. The HYC Photography Fellowship were busy, with the Talented Turveys' Conor Turvey - best known for ace helming on the Howth 17 Isobel - managing to get a quartet of images of such quality that the stars themselves are seen clearly as part of what are some very big pictures - in every sense.