On Friday evening this correspondent reported in “Wimbledon mode” that after three Flying Fifteen races at Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta, it was advantage to the British pairing of Andy Tunnicliffe & Richard Rigg (Bassenthwaite Sailing Club) who held a 7pt advantage over the fleet. At that stage, the chasers were Phil Lawton & Neil O’Hagan (Royal St George Yacht Club) and James Waugh & Oskar Tullberg (County Antrim Yacht Club) who were on ten and seventeen points respectively. Some more fancied combinations found themselves down the pecking order by way of not being able to find the start line in accordance with the time. The fleet had enjoyed good breeze on the north side of Dublin Bay where winds had stayed in the mid-teens. Fifteeners that I met on Friday evening talked about sailing in champagne conditions.
Flying Fifteens start a 'short' final race on the North Course on Sunday for East Coast Championship honours Photo: Michael Chester
Saturday brought about a change in the fortunes of the leading boats from the day before and boats who had blighted their scores with a heavy penalty for being over the line. In particular Niall & Ronan O’Briain (Chonamara FF) stepped up to the plate by scoring a 2,1,2 to undo the damage that had been caused the day before. Likewise, their FF Chonamara colleagues, Dermot Flaherty & Breandan Mac Donnacha, who scored a 4,2,6. Of the top three only Lawton & O’Hagan had a second good day with a 9,3,5 count. Tunnicliffe & Rigg did score another race win but combined with a ten and a 21 they found themselves “a break down”. James Waugh & Oskar Tullberg also scored a race win, which they combined with a fourth and a twenty-second.
Others who had a better day included David Gorman & Chris Doorly (National Yacht Club) who scored 3,8 & 11, Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (Royal St George Yacht Club) who scored 8,5,10 and David Mulvin & Ronan Beirne (National Yacht Club) who scored 6,15 & 4.
So, after a day of lesser wind strength which was fickle and difficult to read, the overall situation, with a discard in place was Andy & Richard (14pts), Niall & Ronan (15pts), Phil & Neil (18pts), James & Oskar (23pts) and Dermot & Breandan (24pts), 40:30 in favour of Andy & Richard.
With 29 boats, the Flying Fifteens were the largest one design keelboat class of Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta 2025 Photo: Michael Chester
Sunday arrived with another day of sunshine and a change of course area for the Fifteens from the West Course to the North Course and a change of Race Officer.
As this correspondent was doing the finish for the dinghy course, I have no insight to how the racing was, but I did hear afterwards (from one individual) that today’s solitary race was considered to be a short one. The breeze on the Salthill course, to the south of the Flying Fifteens, on the Dun Laoghaire side of the Bay got up to 12-13knots from the East.
The race was won by the Dunmore East combination of Lee Statham & Andy Paul (4070) with the O’Briains second, Lawton & O’Hagan third, Flaherty & MacDonnacha fourth and Waugh & Tullberg fifth.
With discard, this sequence of results gave the Eastern Championships title to the O’Briains (from the West Coast), with Lawton & O’Hagan second, Tunnicliffe & Rigg third, tied on points with both Waugh & Tullberg and Flaherty & MacDonnacha. Game, set and Match, O’Briains!
