Royal St. George Yacht Club trio Neil Hegarty, David Williams and Conor Byrne in Phantom (IRL225) are the Zurich Dragon East Coast Championships after six testing races sailed off Kinsale, Co. Cork.
Consistency paid for the Dublin Bay boat with five results in the top four, emerging with a one-point margin over locals James Matthews, David Good and Fergal O'Hanlon sailing 'TBD' (IRL 219) to take the title in the 11-boat fleet.
Zurich Dragon East Coast Champions - Neil Hegarty, David Williams and Conor Byrne in Phantom (IRL225) Photo: Bob Bateman
Second at the Zurich Dragon East Coast Champions - James Matthews, David Good and Fergal O'Hanlon sailing 'TBD' (IRL 219) Photo: Bob Bateman
Third was the overnight leader after Saturday's four races, the Jaguar Sailing Team of Martin Byrne, Adam Winkelman and John Simms, who lost out with a 5 and 8 scored in Sunday's final two races.
Third at the Zurich Dragon East Coast Champions - the Jaguar Sailing Team of Martin Byrne, Adam Winkelman and John Simms sailing 'TBD' (IRL 219) Photo: Bob Bateman
Southwesterly winds up to 20 knots got the regatta off to a great start. Very shifty northerly winds on Saturday added plenty of drama before the fleet sailed the concluding races in a 15 knot breeze from 220 degrees out near the old head of Kinsale on Sunday morning.
Race Officer Con Murphy completed the full programme by deploying robotic race marks for the windward-leeward courses for the first time off Kinsale.
Robotic marks on station at the Dragon East Coast Championships Photo: Bob Bateman
"The robotic marks worked very well in the conditions, with just one incident of losing control of one of the gate marks on Friday’s race one", Murphy told Afloat.
The moving gate mark resulted in Jaguar being given redress for the average points of races 2, 3, and 4 ( 3.5 points) for race 1.
