It started on Friday May 24th in Winter. Nobody would argue with that. But then on Saturday 25th - Lambay Day - Howth’s Wave Regatta barely paused in Spring before leaping straight into sunlit High Summer, with a magic racing breeze.
But then today, Sunday May 26th and concluding day for Wave, we seemed to linger for a while in Autumn before the Peninsula emerged from under calm-inflicting clouds of every hue - from dark grey to deep purple to ultra-black - to find some intermittent sunshine and enough moving air to provide a race for some, leading on to that beloved rallying call of Race Officers everywhere: “We got a result”.
In truth it was much more than that, it was a series. Yet it certainly also was the Four Seasons Regatta. But even longtime peninsula people are left wondering if there’s more to their home place than just being geologically different from the rest of Ireland. For it seems to be a little climatic zone unto itself as well. But don’t begrudge them that. For there are times when Binn Eadair is well battered by storms that scarcely bother the rest of Ireland at all.
BENEFITS OF MINI CLIMATIC ZONE
This time round, however, it was mostly all to the good, even if the start of the prize-giving was signalled by a nearby thunderstorm, which was surely a bit OTT. But that said, when there’s a personal silverware presentation in prospect, it’s astonishing what some folk will endure to get their expensively-manicured hands on the trophy.
The diversity of the Fingal coast is such that a race round Lambay from Howth brings lighthouse-topped Rockabill – home to one of Europe’s largest colonies of roseate terns – into the distant picture. Photo: Annraoi Blaney
And the works of the final points tallying is a wonder to behold. After the uber-close results mentioned last night, it emerged that the white-hot Classic Half Tonners Swuzzlebubble (James Dwyer, Royal Cork YC) and Two Farr (“Clubs Various” as the race card so neatly puts it) in Class 2 had actually tied in the Lambay race.
LINING UP FOR CORK WEEK
Yet the total without discards meant that Swuzzlebubble emerged with 9.5 points while Two Farr had 8.5, thus - after discards - leaving both on 5.5. But somehow Swuzzlebubble takes first on countback, a state of affairs which surely means that Cork Week in July will be Battle Royal for this pair if they don’t find some suitable tournament in the meantime.
Half Tonners and J/97s mixing it in Class 2. Photo: Annraoi Blaney
CHECKMATE, AND THEN SOME
Taking it from the top in Class 0, it now looks as though the description - in one of our previews - of Entry Number 1, Nigel Biggs & Dave Cullen’s First 50 Checkmate XX (HYC), as being the “Good old reliable” had a whiff of the patronizing about it. For Checkmate got herself around the courses to such good effect that she outperformed smaller nippier craft on a regular basis to have one of the clearest overall wins.
Class 1 really was a battlefield, but Pat Kelly’s J/109 Storm from Rush – despite commissioning only days before the off –was sailing like magic, and staved off everything including a last-minute flourish by Michael and Richie Evans with their 2022 ICRA “Boat of the Year”, the J/99 Storm.
The beat southwards back from Lambay on Saturday sharpened up the competition. Photo: Annraoi Blaney
QUARTER TONNERS SET THE PACE
South of the already-covered Class 2, the Wicklow and Wexford Quarter Tonners ended up setting the pace in Class 3, with Snoopy from Courtown (Joanne Hall & Martin Mahon) finishing a point ahead of the Wicklow SC syndicate in Jupiter, with regular performer Insider, Stephen Mullaney’s Sigma 33 (HYC), getting on to the podium by one point ahead of early pace-setter Allig8r, the souped-up First Class 8 from Dun Laoghaire.
Lighter than air machine? Saturday was such a perfect sailing day that the Wave Regatta fleet found themselves sharing the waters off Howth with an intriguing variety of craft. Photo: Annraoi Blaney
In an event of such complexity, it would be nervelessly brave to talk of an overall winner. But there is one intriguing and special silver trophy, the Lambay Lady statuette of a notably fit-looking and evidently iron-pumping mermaid. It goes to some boat adjudicated by the committee to be the overall winner of the Lambay Races. Yet making such a decision is surely akin to reading the runes while studying the entrails of a chicken, but for a while it went to the boat whose win in class had the greatest margin ahead of the second-placed boat, which can be a dodgy proposition.
LAMBAY LADY WINNER
Make of that what you will, but the selection process now has a certain element of mystery about it, and the Lambay Lady winner for 2024 is Checkmate XX. Very popular. That’s a lot of crew to be celebrating. And they will.
OVERALL RESULTS
The totality of results for Wave itself have enough data to become a recognised book of The Bible – enjoy.
