A very successful Flying Fifteen National Championship with 24 boats concluded on Sunday 3rd September in Belfast Lough with a win for the cousins Niall & Ronan O’Briain (4092) from Flying Fifteens Chonamara, after they affected a 10-point swing in the overnight points table from Saturday night. They won the penultimate race of the regatta on Sunday morning and then proceeded to make sure that Ian Mathews & Keith Poole (4093) did not upset the applecart in the final race by keeping an initial cover of the National Yacht Club pair in the middle of the fleet before finishing with an 8th to Mathews and Poole’s 15th. After discard, this left the westerners with a 9pt advantage and the title of National Champions.
It was/is a hugely popular win, for these two who joined the fleet two years ago and have contested all the class regattas since. In his acceptance speech, Niall referred to the welcome they had received from the fleet and the applause they enjoyed in accepting the trophy yesterday afternoon was indicative of the popularity of the win. Their enthusiasm for Flying Fifteens is also reflected in the hospitality the class has enjoyed in the first visit we made to Connemara last year and the hosting of a championship regatta earlier this year (May).
CAYC Commodore with runners-up, Ian Mathews (L) and Keith Poole, National Yacht Club
A seven-race series was completed under the excellent race management of Sheela Lewis (NRO) with 10-15 knots on Friday, 10 – 12 on Saturday and of the order of 10 knots maximum on Sunday. The tidal push on Friday caused problems for both RO and the fleet alike and when the fleet came ashore, four boats found that they had “jumped the gun” under a black flag start. In some ways it set the tone of the regatta for those four boats, in that it meant that in Race 1 they had already used their discard. For two of those “black-flagged” there was almost immediate redemption when Andy McCleery & Colin Dougan (4037) won Race 2 by a comfortable margin and Hammy Baker & Peter Chamberlain (3756) scored a fourth place. For the other two, the misery continued, in relative terms, with Shane McCarthy & Alan Green scoring a 13th and Tom Galvin & Cormac Bradley scoring a 14th. On Friday night, that left the overall situation as follows; Trevor D’Arcy & Alan McClemon (3782) [6,2], Peter Kennedy & Stephen Kane (3920) [4,5] and Lee Statham & Andy Paul (4070) [1,9] with the last combination winning the Gerry Donleavy Trophy for the first race win. They had led this race from the start to near the finish when the McCarthy/Green combination caught them and went over the finish line first, but the latter’s black flag gave this first race win trophy to the Dunmore East pair. Two points behind the Dunmore East combo covered a further three boats, Mathews & Poole (4093) [3,8], O’Briain & O’Briain (4092) [9,3] and Niall Meagher & Nicki Matthews (3938) [5,7].
CAYC Commodore with 3rd placed Stephen Kane (L) and Peter Kennedy, Strangford Lough Yacht Club and Royal North of Ireland Yacht Club
Due to the onshore wind and the lumpiness of the sea, the fleet came ashore further west of the clubhouse and a recovery operation was initiated to bring boat trailers to the new recovery station and back again to the club site.
Saturday dawned to a no-wind situation and a shoreside raising of the postponement flag meant that running repairs to boats could be concluded. There had been some unusual combinations bumping off each other in port/starboard situations and there was evidence of plasters being applied to bruised boats.
CAYC Commodore with Lee Statham (L) and Andy Paul, Waterford Harbour Sailing Club, Winners of the Gerry Dunleavy Trophy – 1st race winners
The fleet were allowed to launch in accordance with the shoreside postponement and within a modest period of time we were back in start mode. Three races were completed on Saturday under benign conditions of wind and sunshine and Ian Mathews & Keith Poole went to the “top of the class” for the day with a 1,2,1 scoreline. However, the Connemara cousins were a very tight second for the day with a 2,1,2 scoreline meaning that the National Yacht Club pair only had a one-point advantage by the close of business. Behind these two Statham & Paul (11,3,3) and Kennedy & Kane (5,7,5) kept pace with each other and were eight and eleven points behind second place respectively. D’Arcy & McClemon also hung in there with a 4,12,8 haul to stay in 5th. Roger Chamberlain (3962) had a good Saturday, counting two 4th places and Baker & Chamberlain counted a 3 and a 5 from the day. Others to enjoy top ten finishes were Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (4028) [9,6], McCarthy & Green [7,8,6], McCleery & Dougan [8,10,9].
Overall, after Day 2, Mathews & Poole led the way with 7pts, followed by the Connemara cousins (8), Statham & Paul (16), Kennedy & Kane (19), D’Arcy & McClemon (20), Baker & Chamberlain (26), McCleery & Dougan (28), Colin & Casey (34), McCarthy & Green (34) and Roger Chamberlain (36).
CAYC Commodore with Nicki Matthews (L) and Niall Meagher, Silver Fleet winners, National Yacht Club
The fleet and club members then enjoyed a fantastic Saturday night dinner with a superb live band that saw dancing going on until the band stopped playing.
Sunday morning gave us wind and sunshine and saw a prompt launch from shore. However, Race 6 only got away after a U flag and, subsequently, a black flag start. The Connemara duo led this race from start to finish, winning by a large margin at the finish. Conversely, Mathews & Poole were back in the vanguard and could only finish 11th. Between 1st and 11th, were Statham & Paul (2), Chamberlain (3), McCarthy (4), Kennedy (5), Meagher (6), Colin (7), D’Arcy (8), Peter Lawson & Chris Hannon [3893] (9) and David Mulvin & Ronan Beirne [4068] (10).
CAYC Commodore with Bronze Fleet winners Emma Pierce and Ian Smyth, Strangford Lough Yacht Club
The final race saw the Connemara duo keep a loose cover on Mathews & Poole off the start and first half of the race. That left each of them mid-fleet before the westerners departed the scene to finish 8th in contrast to Mathews’ 15th. Kennedy & Kane finished second to McCarthy & Green but ahead of Mulvin & Beirne (3), Meagher & Matthews (4) and Dermot Flaherty & Joe McDonogh (4083), the new owners of Phoenix, also from Connemara (5).
This strategic approach to the last race saw the title go west which, to my limited knowledge of the fleet is a first. The Flying Fifteen Chonamara fleet are enormously enthusiastic and very, very welcoming when the rest of the Fifteen fleet “comes a calling”. Up until two years ago, their fleet would have been deemed to be a Classic Fleet, but they now have 4092 and 4083 in their midst and this weekend’s success can only take them to new heights. Niall and Ronan’s win in Whitehead was warmly acknowledged by the rest of the fleet and Niall spoke warmly of their Flying Fifteen experience of the past two years.
As ever, County Antrim Yacht Club in Whitehead were exceptional hosts! Commodore Peter Darragh was on-site for the full three days and behind him there was an enormous group of volunteers managed, cajoled and pressed ganged by regatta organiser John Lewis (his own words).
On each morning tea, coffee, biscuits and muffins were available to the fleet. At registration on Friday morning, we booked the evening’s dinners – fish supper or chicken supper – and Commodore Peter collected the orders and brought them back to the club with the assistance of a couple of club members that evening. We had an exceptional dinner on the Saturday night with a choice of three main dishes and accompanying rice, potatoes and salads and all three could be sampled on the same plate if required. That was followed by a pavlova dessert. Soup (three choices each day) and rolls were available after each day’s racing.
At the welcome and race briefing on the Friday morning, the Commodore explained that there had been a catastrophic failure of the boilers meaning that there were no hot showers. At the end of a three-day weekend, I certainly didn’t hear a solitary “groan” at the lack of hot showers such was the hospitality of the club over the weekend. On Saturday night after dinner a three-piece live band played and not a single member of the competing fleet in attendance left early.
Boats were launched and recovered by a group of eight to ten members of the club (men and women) meaning that competitors could get into their boats dry before racing and alight from their boats onto terra firma after racing. Marshalled by a firm and characterful beachmaster, this is a feature of racing Flying Fifteens at County Antrim Yacht Club.
Sheela Lewis and her team ran a good regatta with challenging conditions (tide) on the Friday, more manageable conditions on Saturday and a fluctuating wind on Sunday. She made every effort to get the fleet away under “P” or “U”, before having to break out the black. Her reward was the completion of seven competitive races.
Next month (October) sees the first anniversary of the untimely passing of our dear friend Ben Mulligan. Over the weekend many people mentioned to me how much he would have enjoyed being back at Whitehead with the Flying Fifteens and how much he is missed.
The fleet is reminded that the next event on the calendar is the Easterns, being hosted by the National Yacht Club in two weeks’ time, 16th/17th September. Already there are promises of travel from South, West and North and with nearly thirty Flying Fifteens in Dun Laoghaire alone, there is no reason not to have a bumper fleet in attendance!
