Having experienced a shortened season in 2020 because of the immediate impact of Covid, the 2020 Flying Fifteen Class Captain in Dun Laoghaire offered to serve a second term and on Saturday past, Neil Colin, Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club and Ffuzzy, 4028, held his Captain's Prize for the 2021 season.
In an early declaration, Neil advised that both races on Saturday would count and in the event of a tie-break the result from the second race would determine the tie.
This correspondent was not on the water, but attended the prize-giving afterwards, held on the balcony of the National Yacht Club. The general consensus was that conditions on Saturday afternoon had been tricky, but a clear result was determined without the need to resort to a tie-break.
Ian Matthews and Keith Poole didn't allow the trickiness to put them off the challenge as they took the overall win with two first places in their new boat, "Mike Wazowski", 4093. They were followed home by Shane McCarthy & Chris Doorly, sailing "Shane McCarthy", 4085, counting two second places while third place went to David Mulvin and Ronan Beirne, sailing Ignus Caput Duo, counting an 8th and a 3rd.
In the Silver Fleet, the "gong" was taken by Joe Coughlan and Andrew, sailing "Ash" 3913, while in the Bronze Fleet the honours went to Adrian Cooper in Gulfstream, 3198.
Prizes were in the form of gift vouchers from Viking Marine.
In terms of the overall Saturday Series, David Mulvin and Ronan Beirne (4068) continue to lead in overall terms with an 83points score, followed by Ken Dumpleton and Joe Hickey (3955) on 96pts, Ben Mulligan and Cormac Bradley on 97.5pts, with Niall and Susan Coleman a further 0.5pts behind them.
FF East Coasts
Next weekend, 18th & 19th, sees the East Coast Championships being hosted by the National Yacht Club. All the regatta documentation is on the NYC website I understand. With such a strong presence in Dun Laoghaire, the objective must surely be to have a big fleet in attendance. Potential competitors are encouraged to get their entries in early so that the numbers are known to the organisers.