#gp14 – Strong winds and rough seas led to the cancellation of the second day's racing of this weekend's GP 14 Leinster Championship at Skerries Sailing Club writes Gerry Byrne. But a win and two seconds in Saturday's three races were sufficient to yield Gold to John McGuinness and his brother Donal from Moville Boat Club, Donegal sailing in a fleet of 21.
Conditions ranged from Force 3 gusting to Force 7 making for big shifts, tricky conditions and many capsizes including that of local combination Stan Shepherd and Andrew Sexton who were leading the fleet in Race 1 when they got ducked. Spinnaker work was sporadic with many boats selecting white sails only in some of the windier legs. Hugh and Dan Gill (Sutton, third overall) were not alone in sometimes electing for chicken gybes.
Apart from the overall champions, race winners were Swords couple Dan and Mairin O'Connell (second overall) and, from the Royal St George Yacht Club, Graham Elmes and Gina O'Reilly (15th overall). Silver fleet winners (4th overall) were Simon Cully and Libby Tierney from Blessington. Second silver went to Shepherd and Sexton (10th overall) and third to Ray and Brian Morrison from Lough Erne YC. Colman Grimes and Ian Fitzpatrick (Skerries SC, 13th overall) won the Bronze.