A 41-boat fleet of Flying Fifteens assembled at Strangford Lough Yacht Club, Whiterock, this past week to contest the British Isles Championships. This event was last held in these waters in 2018 when the regatta was condensed into three short races on the Saturday morning after a "no-show" by the wind on the first two-and-a-half days. A race was started on the Friday afternoon of the 2018 event but was abandoned as being unfair when there was a significant wind change with a popular Dun Laoghaire Fifteener, sadly no longer with us, leading the race.
This year there were no such complications, though we did have some light wind races and changes of wind direction but Race Officer Ruan O'Tiarnaigh (Royal Ulster Yacht Club), very ably assisted by Lawrence Ballham (Donaghadee Sailing Club) manged the conditions superbly to make sure the races stayed fair. At the briefing in advance of the regatta, he advised the fleet that if the Race Team were at fault, he would go to a postponement, but if the fleet was at fault, he would use the "U" flag first and then the black flag in order to get races away. Over the four days he used all three options, but the first dismissal for improper starting, under a black flag, only occurred in Race 3. O'Tiarnaigh was also able to keep the fleet informed by way of his radio transmissions of how he was amending the course in accordance with the conditions. These measures included leap-frogging the spreader mark over the weather mark to keep the beat true, lengthening the course and shortening the course with ample use of the "C" flag, moving the weather marks, again with a prominent "C" flag and tweaking the pin position on the start line when wind shifts defied his line setting. Later in the series there would be OCS declarations challenged in the Protest Room, but in a fleet of 41 very competitive boats, over four days of racing, only three protests were registered – the fleet having listened to the plea of Regatta Organiser, Roger Chamberlain to "keep things clean".
The Irish contingent was made up of 18 boats with visitors from Dunmore East (1), Connemara (2), Dun Laoghaire (7) and the balance coming from clubs on Strangford Lough and Belfast Lough. Visitors from the UK came from the South Coast, Hayling Island and Lyme Regis, the North – Tynemouth, Bassenthwaite, Ullswater and Grafham Water, and other parts of the UK, Chew Valley, Draycote, Nottingham, Northampton and a sole entry sailing with a Spanish sail number.
Prominent sailmakers were represented with Hyde (Ben McGrane), Pinnell & Bax (Ian Pinnell), HD Sails (Shane McCarthy) and Impact Sails (Andy Tunnicliffe) in attendance. There were also a lot of North Sails on spars, but I am not au-fait with North's representative in this fleet. Ovington Boats (Chris Turner & Nathan Batchelor) were also "on-site" with Nathan being very upbeat about orders for new boats. And in terms of the competitor attendance, it was a "Who's Who" of the UK fleet.
Wednesday morning dawned with sunshine and a light breeze and there were some premonitions of a repeat of 2018, but RO O'Tiarnaigh was having none of this pessimism and advised the fleet that they should launch for the scheduled start which was "post 12 noon", especially given the tidal constraints of the day which meant we would have to be ashore before 17:00 or wait until 19:00.
A number of attempts were made at the first start of the day before the fleet got away for Race 1 in light conditions and Race 2 followed on in slightly better winds.
Race wins were shared between Ian Pinnell & Ian Cadwallader (4126), in the newest boat in the fleet and Greg Wells & David Tulloch (4112).
Day 1 Podium places (counting both races).
1st Ian Pinnell & Ian Cadwallader: 2, 1; 3pts
2nd Graham Vials & Chris Turner: (4071): 3, 3; 6pts
3rd Shan McCarthy & Hugh McNally: (4116): 5, 6 11pts.
In order to reduce the duration of the final prize-giving on Saturday afternoon, a daily prize-giving was held before dinner each evening. This was to try and accommodate those who would have ferries to catch on Saturday evening.
Thursday was another warm day but with better winds than the day before and while the day started light, the wind built during the day to get above 10 knots for the latter part of the afternoon. Again, a combination of shifting winds and enthusiasm from the fleet prevented any of the races from getting away at the first time of asking and an Irish boat was the first to transgress the "black-flag" start.
For those who stayed legal, it was a challenging day on the water sailing three races that required a high degree of concentration. Race wins were shared between Vials and Ben McGrane & Jamie Stewart (4002) in a 2:1 ratio in Vials' favour.
Day 2 Podium places (counting three races).
1st Graham Vials & Chris Turner: 2, 1, 1; 4pts
2nd Ian Pinnell & Ian Cadwallader: 3, 10, 2: 15pts
3rd Ben McGrane & Jamie Stewart: 1, 2, 12: 15pts.
Friday saw a change in weather, the blue skies of the previous two days giving way to overcast conditions, but there was better breeze at the start of the day and this stayed with the fleet for the duration of the day. Indeed, late Friday afternoon we had our strongest breezes, getting into the high teens and maybe the low twenties for a short period.
Vials & Turner were "on song" all day winning another two races and adding a fifth to their tally. Pinnell & Cadwallader snatched the last race of the day to have a day score of 10pts (4, 5, 1) while McGrane & Stewart had a more trying day with an OCS, 4 & 3. Andy Tunnicliffe & Ian Hopwood (4124), the second newest boat in the fleet, had a pearl of a day scoring 6, 2,2.
Day 3 Podium places (counting all three races).
1st Graham Vials & Chris Turner: 1, 1, 5; 7pts.
2nd Ian Pinnell & Ian Cadwallader: 4, 5, 1: 10pts.
3rd Andy Tunnicliffe & Ian Hopwood: 6, 2, 2 10pts.
Saturday and there was great relief that we were on schedule. And there was breeze to start proceedings. Vials & turner, put the fifth place of the day before behind them to add another win to their tally which allowed them the comfort of an early departure from the race arena. This reporter, sailing with Tom Galvin (3757) also enjoyed an excellent start to the day, chasing Vials into the second weather mark in second place and eventually finishing third. A high point in the regatta!
Pinnell & Cadwallader's two races on the day would become their discards, a 20th and a DNC so it was left to an Irish entry to step into the podium places for the day. Niall & Roan O Briain from Connemara scored a 5,2 to head the rankings for the day. Wells & Tulloch took the second step of the podium with a 8,4 while McGrane & Stewart finished with the flourish of a last race win and a 12 to occupy the last place of the day's podium.
Day 4 Podium places (counting both races).
1st Niall & Roan O'Briain (4092): 5, 2: 7pts.
2nd Greg Wells & David Tulloch: 8, 4: 12pts
3rd Ben McGrane & Jamie Stewart: 12, 1: 13pts.
As can be seen from the differences in points for each day, racing was tight in place terms though some combinations did have big wins on the water – Pinnell & Cadwallader early in the regatta and Vials & Turner later on. Eighteen podium places were shared between the top three boats overall and a further ten were shared by boats in places 4 to 10 overall. The remaining podium places went to boats who finished 14th and 23rd overall.
Strangford Lough Yacht Club were superb hosts and Roger Chamberlain and his team worked very hard during the regatta to run a tight ship. Dinner at the club was provided every evening of the regatta with a curry night on Wednesday, a BBQ on Thursday and a slightly more formal dinner on Friday night. While results were being heard on the Saturday afternoon, soup and sandwiches were served to the competitors. The whole fleet responded to Roger's appeal to "muck in" with the launching and retrieval of boats and the best record of the week was retrieving 41 boats in 20 minutes.
Flying Fifteen British Isles Championships 2024
Flying Fifteen British Isles Championships 2024 Top Ten
The overall results saw two Irish boats finishing inside the top ten, the best result at this regatta for some time. Niall and Ronan saw much better results on the water after a first day horror show (by their standards) and on the final day a 5,2 hoisted them to just below the podium places. Shane and Hugh had a better first half but dropped down the order as the regatta progressed.
Seven Irish boats finished between 10th and 20th with Peter Kennedy & Stephen Kane (3920) 12th, Andy McCleery & Colin Dougan (4120) 15th, Peter Lawson & Chris Hannon (3893) 16th, Dermot Flaherty & Joe McDonagh (4083) 17th & winners of the Green fleet, Philip Lawton & Neil O'Hagan (3802) 18th, and Trevor D'Arcy & Alan McLernon (3782) 20th and second in the Green Fleet.
While there had been a daily prize-giving on each of the preceding days, Saturday's prize-giving saw fleet prizes, Red, Blue and Green, awarded as well as a number of perpetual trophies. A special trophy was awarded to principal sponsor, John McCabe (Willowbrook Organic Farm) who expressed his joy at being able to sponsor the event, citing the Association's support for his attendance at previous World Championships (in an earlier era) – his philosophy being that he had got a huge amount out of sailing Flying Fifteens and he was only too happy to pay that back in the form of sponsorship.
