Three wins in races six, seven and eight mean local pair Robert Espey and Michael Ferguson from Ballyholme Yacht Club are two points off the lead held by Ollie Groves and Esther Parkhurst from Beaver Sailing Club, going into the final day of racing at the Royal North of Ireland RS400 Eurocup UK and Irish National Championship 2025.
The fleet launched into a gentle breeze on Belfast Lough on Thursday with a forecast of stronger winds to come, but nothing too dramatic. The wind had other ideas, and the first of what was to be three races turned out to be pretty exciting with very hard upwind legs and super-fast downwind. The wind moderated a bit for races 2 and 3, but with plenty of strong gusts, lulls and shifts.
They were two laps per race, but the windward mark was much farther than the eye could see until at least halfway up the beat. That led to hard work upwind, but great slalom style long downwind reaches at full pelt.
Results downloadable below.
