The old salt who looked out at the weather this morning (Saturday) in Howth and remarked that in the west of Ireland this would be called “a high stool day” was echoing the feelings of most participants. But the J24 European Championship fleet went out racing nevertheless, even if the east to south-east breeze with its sometimes heavy rain was in a weird and weaving sort of mood which produced some very peculiar performances by overnight leaders.
Yet as far as the oldest and the youngest skippers were concerned, it was a lovely sunny day with perfect sailing conditions. The most senior skipper racing, 83-year-old Rear Admiral USN (Retd) Denny Vaughan of Seattle, finished the ten-race series as he’d begun, with a win for Easy Street which shifted him back up to ninth overall in the results at a provisional level, as protests are pending but they don’t directly affect Easy Street.
Meanwhile, the youngest skipper racing, former Optimist and Laser star Micheal O’Suilleabhain of Kinsale with his youth crew in Kinsailor, was right there with the Admiral in second. But while the Admiral admits the brisker breezes at mid-week were challenging, the young toughs on Kinsailor had revelled in it all, and took full advantage of a world-class learning experience to turn in a telling scoreline of 21,2,6,6,(27),5,11,3,12,4,2 which rocketed them into the overall lead in the Youth Division at the finish of the series, and even more importantly gave them the Bronze in the Open Division.
This final race produced some off-the-wall placings for top boats. Jmania from Athens provisionally retains the title after a count-back against Cacoon (David Hale) from Poole with both on 65, with Jamania having been held back to 25th in the final contest while her closest challenger Headcase was 24th.
But Headcase had to carry that 24th into her total which leaves her at 5th overall, whereas Jmania dumped the 25th to keep her Gold by a whisker. And as for Kinsailor, she finished in style, just one point off the two front runners.
Results below (Protests Pending)
