Two Final Day 29er Wins Cements RYA NI Nationals Victory for Rickards

30th September 2018

Leah and Luke Rickard in the lead in the 29er RYA NI National Championships on Belfast Lough

The RYA Northern Ireland 29er Youth Nationals were raced in mixed conditions September 29-30, 2018 on Belfast Lough hosted by the Royal North of Ireland Yacht Club. This event also represented the third and final leg of the 29er Irish Triple Crown. The 29er is one of the fastest growing fleets in Ireland.

The windy conditions resulted in a display of high speed capsizes and tight battles with four different race winners over the five races. In the end, Leah Rickard and Luke Rickard with two bullets on the final day emerged as the 29er RYA NI National Champions.

LeahAndLukeRickard29erPrizeGiving Leah (left) and Luke Rickard (centre) with Jackie Patton of RYA NI at the 29er prizegiving

The top four were:

1. Leah Rickard & Luke Rickard - National Yacht Club
2. Erin McIlwaine & Luke McIlwaine - Newcastle Yacht Club
3. Dawson Kohl & Jeff McGovern - Royal Cork Yacht Club
4. Rian Geraghty McDonnell & Nathan Van Steenberge - National Yacht Club

Published in 29er

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29er

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About the 29er Skiff Dinghy

The 29er is a one-design double-handed, single trapeze skiff for youth sailors.

There is an active class in Ireland, just one of the 38-countries from across all continents now racing the high-performance skiff.

The 29er is one of the latest dinghy classes to arrive in Ireland and has a 50/50 split between boys and girls.

The class like to describe the boat as "The most popular skiff for sailors who want to go fast!".

Derived from the Olympic class 49er class and designed by Julian Bethwaite the 29er was first produced in 1998.

Two sailors sail the 29er, one on trapeze.

The 6.25-metre high rig features a fractional asymmetrical spinnaker; a self-tacking jib decreases the workload of the crew, making manoeuvres more efficient and freeing the crew to take the mainsheet upwind and on two-sail reaches.

The 15.00 m2 spinnaker rigging set-up challenges crews to be fit and coordinated, and manoeuvres in the boat require athleticism due to its lack of inherent stability and the high speed with which the fully battened mainsail and jib power up.

The 74kg weight hull is constructed of fibreglass-reinforced polyester in a foam sandwich layout.

The fully battened mainsail and jib are made from a transparent Mylar laminate with orange or red Dacron trimming, while the spinnaker is manufactured from ripstop Nylon.

The mast is in three parts - an aluminium bottom and middle section, with a polyester-fibreglass composite tip to increase mast bend and decrease both overall weights, and the capsizing moment a heavy mast tip can generate. Foils are aluminium or fibreglass.