For some classes in the IRC Euros 2024, seriously unfortunate outcomes on the water (to put it as euphemistically as possible) may have indicated that Friday 13th had come a day early. But in the big boy's games, a grown-up approach was needed to face reality.
According to one dictionary definition, "Beau Geste" means "a fine or noble gesture, often futile or only for effect". Quite. Jaw-dropped observers of the start of the four-day IRC Euros on a crisper-then-crisp Dublin Bay today (Thursday) can only have concluded that Karl Kwok's championship-garlanded TP 52 from Hong Kong was only halfway there in fulfilling the obligations of her well-matched name. For her two straight and very clear wins in Class 0 were indeed a noble gesture worthy of the highest orders of knightly chivalry. But they were done in such a very solid way that the last ideas to spring to mind would have been "futile or only for effect".
Pete Smyth's Ker 46 Searcher from the host club competing in the first races of the Maple Group IRC European Championships at the Royal Irish Yacht Club Photo: Afloat
That said, the effect of a half hour clear lead on the water on the tail-ender at the conclusion of a race that had taken BG only one hour and four minutes to complete was pretty well total in its effect. But as she's burdened with an IRC Rating of 1.418 while the next up is Pete Smyth's Ker 46 Searcher on 1.278, she needs every minute - indeed every second - of each line honours victory to keep her in the prime slot under handicap.
BIG BOAT DAY
As you'd expect with a hyper-confident yet self-willed wind sweeping coldly but sometimes erratically out of an increasingly blue sky, it was generally a big boat day. But much and all as the hefty First 50 Checkmate XX (Nigel Biggs & Dave Cullen, Howth YC) was revelling in it, she had to be content with the bridesmaid role in both contests.
Nigel Biggs on the helm of the First 50 Checkmate from Howth with Jonny Sargent keeping an eye on the fleet to windward and Paddy Evans on mainsheet Photo: Afloat
That said, in doing so she kept some impressive heavy metal astern on the day's scoresheet, and in the final reckoning it was who was third which provided the the most sport, with that slot bouncing around between Johnny Treanor's J/112e ValenTina, David Maguire's Cape 31 Valkyrie, and the Jones family's J/122 Jellybaby.
David Maguire's Cape 31 Valkyrie had an array of Olympic skiff talent onboard that proved handy in top speed mode on a gusty Dublin Bay Photo: Afloat
Nicole Hemeryck returns from match racing duty in Denmark to steer Johnny Treanors' J112e Valentina in the first races of the the Maple Group IRC Europeans at the Royal Irish Yacht Club Photo: Afloat
The next contests are plumb in the midst of Friday 13th. But doubtless a place like the Royal Fragrant Harbour Yacht Club sees this as another potentially significant factor which can be kept well under control through invoking the ancestral spirits.
