Skerries Sailing Club Produces 'Fantastic' GP14 Leinster Champs

12th July 2018

GP14s negotiate a gybe mark at Skerries during the Leinster Championships

After many weeks of amazing summer weather, the GP14 Leinster Championships did not disappoint with Skerries producing a fantastic weekend sailing. With light winds forecasted all weekend the OD and his team had planned ahead to allow for 4 races to be sailed on the Saturday in preparation of very little wind on the Sunday. In the end, it proved to be the right call.

Download overall results below

Much to the appreciation of the fleet, gate starts were proposed for all races, as the Mounts Bay bound Irish contingent prepared for the 2018 World Championships. With only a handful of very late, barging boats, the gate starts worked very well. With many boats benefitting from the great coaching sessions organised by the class earlier in the year, these gate starts have become a lot less intimidating for sailors not as accustomed to them.

The racing was very tight as the results from day 1 would tell you, with 4 different race winners the championship was still well open going into Sunday. Shane Mac Carthy & Damien Bracken took 1st honours in race one followed closely by Ger Owens and Melanie Morris in 2nd and a great performance by youth helm Peter Boyle crewed by father Stephen taking 3rd. Ger & Mel took 1st in race 2, Niall Henry & Oisin Geraghty taking 1st in race 3, and Alan Blay & David Johnston winning the last race of the day.

With only 2 points separating 2nd and 4th place, and then a further 3 to 1st, the championship was wide open. Despite matching Ger & Mel with a 2nd and 1st on the final day (with time to spare for Alan to answer the call from nature up the final beat), Alan & David had to settle for 3rd overall as Shane & Damien had done enough with a 3 and 5 to earn them top spot and another Leinster Championship. Ger & Mel narrowly missing out by 1 point.

The youth fleet was very competitive with Gareth & Richard Gallagher taking it overall with Josh Porter & Sara Gowdy 2nd youth followed by Peter & Stephen Boyle in 3rd. All 3 within 7 points of each other.

Josh & Sara won Silver, Peter & Stephen Boyle in 2nd with Cathal Sheridan & David Cooke 3rd.

Bronze fleet winners were Stuart McCormick & Bernie, 2nd Noel Clarke & Chris, 3rd Michael Collender & Brian Walker

Downloads

Leinsters_2018_Results.xlsx (301 Downloads)

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