Consistent McDonald Crew Take 1720 National Title by 8.5 points at Baltimore Sailing Club

16th June 2024

Afloat.ie Team

A tightly packed 1720 National Championship fleet round a weather mark in Baltimore Harbour Credit: Deirdre Horgan

The 1720 National Championships podium ended as it started at Baltimore Sailing Club, with Ross McDonald's Atara at the top of the leaderboard. After three days of tough windward-leeward racing, the only difference was the size of the consistent Howth Yacht Club crew's winning margin, which had extended to 8.5 points after nine races sailed.

According to the official results board, the reigning European Champion counted five race wins in his tally to dominate the championship (see results below).

Second was Royal Cork's Mia Murphy's Probably Legal on 23 points with a formidable crew line-up of Mia Murphy, Nicholas O Leary, Kelvin Harrap, Rory Harrap and David Kelly.

Local helmsman Fionn Lyden was third on 37 in the 22-boat fleet with a crew that included 2024 49er campaigner Seafra Guilfoyle.

1st - The 2024 1720 National Champions, the Ross McDonald skippered Rope Dock/Atara crew from Howth Yacht Club and Royal Cork. Pictured left to right are: Killian Collins, Aoife English, (baby Kim), Graham Curran, Ross McDonald, Robbie English and Peter O'Flynn, of host club Baltimore Sailing Club

2nd at the 1720 National Championships - The Probably Legal crew skippered by Mia Murphy from Royal Cork Yacht Club. Pictured From left is Peter O'Flynn, of host club Baltimore Sailing Club, with Mia Murphy, Nicholas O Leary, Kelvin Harrap, Rory Harrap and David Kelly

3rd at the 1720 National Championships- The Spiced Beef crew, skippered by Fionn Lyden from Baltimore Sailing Club. Pictured left to right are Amy Harrington, Brian Leonard, Peter O'Flynn, of host club Baltimore Sailing Club, Fionn Lyden, Séafra Guilfoyle, Darragh McCormack and Florence Lyden

The championships ran a full programme of nine races despite blustery conditions on Friday and Saturday in West Cork, with westerly winds gusting up to 30 knots. Two races were sailed in Baltimore Harbour for protection from the works of the gales, resulting in a new race area dividend each day of the championship.

The winning skipper told Afloat: "Glorious conditions throughout the weekend. It was fantastic to be planing for almost two whole days of racing. Great battles in a stacked fleet"

"BSC did a fantastic job to get us racing on three different racecourses on three different days, which was very interesting", McDonald added.

Race Results

You may need to scroll vertically and horizontally within the box to view the full results

Published in 1720, West Cork

Published in 1720

Tagged under

1720

About The Author

Afloat.ie Team

Email The Author

Afloat.ie is Ireland's dedicated marine journalism team.

Have you got a story for our reporters? Email us here.

We've got a favour to ask

More people are reading Afloat.ie than ever thanks to the power of the internet but we're in stormy seas because advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news sites, we haven't put up a paywall because we want to keep our marine journalism open.

Afloat.ie is Ireland's only full-time marine journalism team and it takes time, money and hard work to produce our content.

So you can see why we need to ask for your help.

If everyone chipped in, we can enhance our coverage and our future would be more secure. You can help us through a small donation. Thank you.