After a season or three playing bridesmaid to the McMahon's restored 1978-vintage Puppeteer 22 Number 1 Shiggi-Shiggi, the hard chaws of Alan Blay and Alan Pearson and their team on the enthusiastically campaigned Trick-or-Treat finally came good at the weekend to lift the Puppeteer 22 Nationals title for the first time, despite many years in which they've been the best on the season-long scoreboard.
Trick or Treat sailed a remarkably consistent regatta, six races and never finishing outside the top two, with three firsts. Defending champions on Shiggi-Shiggi could not match that level of consistency and finished runner-up (also counting three firsts). The Murphy-Costello partnership on the ever-present Yellow Peril was rounding out the top three.
Third overall went to the Howth YC Commodore Neil Murphy and Conor Costello partnership in Yellow Peril
The HPH handicap fleet was won by Nefertari, Dylan & John Murray; second was Garret May on Honeybadger, and third was Tim Chillingworth on Gannet. Interestingly, Tim brought Gannet to Howth 40 years ago, and she was one of the three founding boats of the Howth fleet back in 1983.
It says everything about how well the Chris Boyd-designed Puppeteer 22s have fitted in with the Howth scene, that the class can count founder members still racing after forty years. But with a sensible eye to the future, for the first time, the class presented a prize to the top under-25 team, and this was claimed by Matthew Knowles on Interceptor.
An event like this can’t run without a lot of work behind the scenes; we are very lucky to have the support of Sutton Cross Pharmacy, access to a top-class race management team led by Harry Gallagher, a great rescue team and the support of Howth Yacht Club.
The re-born Shiggi-Shiggi finally relinquished the title for the first time since her restoration
Report by Paul McMahon
