Connemara Flying Fifteens Hold Last League Race of Summer 2020

29th September 2020

Good upwind sailing on Casla Bay for the Connemara Flying Fifteens

With a nice southerly breeze, 19 Flying Fifteens hoisted their sails early morning for the last race of the Connemara league.

As Afloat reported previously, a rejuvenated fleet in County Galway is boasting one of the largest fleets in the country with up to 27 actively club racing.

The course laid meant plenty of tacking down the bay rounding the cannon rock buoy and head for the finish line in the next neighbouring bay Cuan an fhir Mmhór where the finish line was in front of Caladh Thaidhg pier.

With good upwind sailing out of Casla Bay came a split in the fleet with the western side of the bay paying off. Leading at the Mark was Ronán O Briain (Ffingers crossed IRL 3588) closely followed by his cousin Niall O'Brien (Mind over Matter IRL 275) in third was Martin Griffin (Havoc IRL 3145). Next came the leader of the eastern boats, Christopher Griffin (Fraoch Geal IRL 3383) a couple of boat lengths behind.

With the wind freshening and spinnakers flying the reach to Caladh Thaidhg was swift. There was no change at the top of the leaderboard as they crossed the line in front of several spectators gathered along the shore.

Race 1 results top 6

Ronán O'Briain (Fingers crossed IRL 3588)
Niall O'Brien (Mind over matter IRL3275)
Martin Griffin (Havoc IRL 3145)
Christopher Griffin (Fraoch Geal IRL 3383)
Cian&liam O'Conghaile (user-friendly IRL 3397)
Micheál O'Conghaile (Stork GBR 3403)

The boats gathered again, and the second race was ready for the off for the return journey home. Niall o Brien got off to a great start and was leading at the mouth of the bay, followed closely by Martin Griffen, Ronan o Briain and Clíona ní Bhriain (Simply red IRL 3203) once past the turning mark at cannon rock the spinnakers started to go up, and the standings changed.

Race 2 results top 6

Ronán O'Brien (Fingers crossed IRL3588)
Niall O'Brien (Mind over matter IRL 3275)
Micheál O'Conghaile (Stork GBR 3403)
Martin Griffin ( Havoc IRL 3145)
Cian & Liam O Conghaile (User-friendly IRL 3397)
Cliona O'Brien (Simply Red IRL 3203)

The league results and prizes were given on the pier afterwards.

With the 2020 league top six finishers as follows:

Overall winner 2020

Niall o Brien (Mind over matter IRL 3275)
Cian & Liam o Conghaile (User-friendly IRL 3397)
Martin Flaherty (The Real thing IRL 3108)
Martin Griffin. (Havoc IRL 3145)
Ronán o Brien (Fingers crossed IRL 3588)
Cliona o Brien (Simply Red IRL 3203 )

Published in Flying Fifteen

Tagged under

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.