Antrim Boat Club’s Summer Series is halfway through and enjoying good turnouts in a variety of conditions, with the courses being set using the club marks. Charlie McAllister and Jeff Harrison’s Limbo 6.6 F A 2 lead after four races. One race of the Round the Bay series has also been sailed.
Race 1 brought 10 boats to the start line in light airs. It was FA2 quick off the line continuing their good form from the Winter Series, closely followed by the H323 TicTac (Peter Frazer). It was a tight reach to the Middle mark followed by a long spinnaker run to the Main mark. In the longer legs, Tictac had time to hoist their spinnaker. The dying breeze made it difficult for the slower boats to finish, with four retiring. Tic Tac first followed FA2. Race 2 was cancelled due to the high winds.
Mixed cruiser racing at Antrim Boat Club’s 2023 Summer Series
Race 3 started downwind with Tictac and the Micropup Shoestring first away, but hot on their heels was Jenna Collier’s Beneteau 211 Bandersnatch. It was again a tussle between TicTac and FA2, with TicTac eventually claiming the line honours but FA2 winning on handicap. The battle for third went down to 1 second, with Bandersnatch showing good form to pip Shoestring.
Race 4 saw another good turnout with ten boats, and this time it was Willie McIlvennas’s MG Spring 25 Jamie Jess at the windward end of the line. The starboard windward leg to the mark saw the fleet much compacted and fighting for position, with some boats forgetting the closer to the shore, the less depth there is, and a few boats touched the bottom. FA2 got ahead, but Jamie Jess was hot on their heels. On the downwind legs to the finish, FA2 renewed their lead again, with the Sonata Gemini (Adam O’Boyle) showing a great downwind pace after their spring training to finish second.
Last Saturday, the club hosted its first Round the Bay race. This is a new series of five longer-style races over five months, with a social event after. The breeze all died off for the start, and it was a very slow beat to the main mark with Ivan Miles Hunter F1, JouJou, Wild Rover (Heather Elliot) and Bandersnatch getting good starts, but it was JouJou that got clear ahead with FA2 making a slow recovery to clear the other boats. JouJou and FA2 made good use of the breeze downwind to get across the bay before it died off. On the upwind leg to the finish, JouJou had done enough to secure a convincing win over FA2.
The calendar is full with four more weeks of the Summer Series, the annual Regatta sponsored by PGM Training, on Saturday, 10th June, and the next Round the Bay Race will be Saturday, 24th June.
Antrim Boat Club’s 2023 Summer Series overall results
