12 RS 200 dinghies gathered at the newly opened Greystones Sailing Club for the Southern Championships last weekend, with boats from Dun Laoghaire, Antrim, Killaloe and Cullaun travelling for the event. There was also a great junior turnout, which made for some great racing through out the fleet.
Day one the fleet was met with 12–18 knots from the north west, and a fierce North going tide. In the challenging and unpredictable conditions, it was local legends Frank and son Kevin O'Rourke who took the overnight lead by a point over Marty O'Leary and Rachel Williamson.
Rs 200 Southern Champions Frank and Kevin O'Rourke
Day two brought lighter breeze with the fleet launching in pretty much 2 knots. Fortunately the breeze filled in from the south as forecast, and the race committee sucessfully manged to get 3 races away, to complete the 6 race series. The newest addition to the RS 200 fleet, also in the newest 200 in Ireland #1566, Jocelyn Hill and Katie Kane from CAYC were the pace setters for the day, but experience prevailed with Frank and Kevin holding on to win on countback from O'Leary and Williamson, (who suffered a small bung related incident), with Joecelyn and Katie taking Bronze.
Some other notable individual race results were Richard Frank and Rose Paget from RstGYC competing in their first RS regional, managing to secure a 2nd in race 5.
The junior division was won by Cullaun SC sailors Mike O'Dea and Sean Hynes, who sailed a great regatta, and coming out tops of the 6 junior boats.
A big thanks to the Race Management Team, lead by PRO Monica, and her able assistant Miriam, who had the unenviable task of running both the RS Southerns, and the club racing on both days. Thanks also to the safety boat crews, who's services Marty and Rachel were very grateful for on Sunday morning!
The next event is the Inland Waterways Ireland Western Championships on the 23rd and 24th of July in Lough Ree Yacht Club.
