For most folk sailing in Ireland, Lough Ree is absolutely the plumb centre of it all. Thus it’s stretching it a bit to have it as the venue for the SB20 Northerns 2023, even if the popular mid-Ireland club sees it all as part of the countdown to staging the SB20 Nats 2023 in September.
But if you sail out of Crosshaven, everything and anything beyond the River Lee is regarded as northern and somewhat mysterious, with the rumours of countryside and sailing places even further away, beyond Mallow and Mitchelstown, being filed under Terra Incognita. So as far as Aidan MacSweeney of Royal Cork was concerned, it was definitely a matter of heading Arctic-wards as he and Mel Collins took his SB20 to Lough Ree for the SB20 Northerns at the weekend. But it was definitely worth the effort, for after a full programme of nine races with a 13-boat fleet, he and his seasoned crew completed by Lough Ree-based exile Donie Hegarty took the title.
Blowing the cobwebs away after a long winter – the SB20 Northerns eventually were to finish in light weather with sunshine in the making
Race Officer Alan Algeo, with a support team headed by Eileen Brown (they’re both former LRYC Commodores), had interesting conditions to deal with, beginning with a breezy day enabling six races to be completed, and gentler going to fit in another three.
SPRINT COURSES HIT THE SPOT
The class is experimenting with the new-style Sprint courses of a couple of upwind legs with offset mark, gate and reaching finishes. It seemed to be a setup which had the SB20s in mind, as the finishes were more like high drama events rather than the usual upwind game of coldly-calculated chess.
Even when conditions eased, Royal Cork’s Gold Digger was right on the money – that’s her making the perfect pin start
A couple of new teams joined the national fleet in the form of Joe Conway of Royal Irish YC in Dun Laoghaire with son Alex and David Fitzpatrick doing the real work, while Lough Ree duo Emmet Sheridan and John Malone have been through a successful fission process to produce two fully crewed boats, Emmet with his sons Evan (14) and Ultan (11), and Maloner with son Aodhan (14).
Yet despite all the fresh talent, it was the hardened veterans under the Royal Cork and other burgees who did something of a horizon job on the pins table, as Crosshaven’s Gold Digger was on 15 at the finish to the 31 of Royal Irish’s Colin Galavan, with the National Yacht Club’s Phiip Doran, on 35 and the Ken Hudson, Anna Leech and David Dickson trio best of the locals at fifth.
Runaway winners – Gold Digger’s crew were (left to right) Mel Collins, Donie Hegarty, and owner Aidan MacSweeney of Royal Cork Yacht Club.
Even after blowing “surplus” class funds at the Championship Dinner the night before, there was still enough in the kitty for Event Co-ordinator Kevin Fenton to present a bottle of vintage “thank-you” wine to Race Officer Alan Algeo (left) and his team at the prize-giving.
Coming as it did early in the season and right on the heels of Storm Noa, it’s understandable that some of the class’s stars failed to bestir themselves sufficiently to get to Lough Ree. That was a strategic error. After the hugely successful SB20 Worlds on Dublin Bay last September, it had been decided that the surplus funds resulting therefrom would be used to pay for the dinner at the first regional event of 2023 as a convivial rocket-boost to the new season. Consequently, all that lovely Dublin Bay lolly is now irretrievably invested in the economy of Westmeath.
Results below
