HALF-WAY POINT IN HOWTH YACHT CLUB'S AUTUMN LEAGUE IN TESTING CONDITIONS
The Autumn League reached its half-way point yesterday with the third race in the six-race series being sailed in light to moderate, constantly shifting westerlies, with boats in a number of classes further consolidating their positions at the top of their respective fleets in HYC.
A feature of the day was the addition of four Royal Irish YC boats joining the event for the first race in the new WD-40 4-race Cruiser Challenge, with two of them proving particularly competitive. 'Another Adventure' (D.Cafferkey) took the ECHO honours while Paul O'Higgins' 'Rockabill V' was second behind IRC behind race winner 'Crazy Horse' (Chambers/O'Reilly). The results of the race in the context of the overall Autumn League series will be calculated and posted in the next few days.
Without all of her regular crew, 'Kinetic' won Class 2 on both handicaps last week and with the crew returned to its full complement for race three, promptly repeated the exercise, this time even more emphatically. A cracker of a start helped them lead the 21-strong fleet around the course to win by a couple of minutes from 'MiniMumm' (Cobbe/McDonald) who took second on both handicaps. Dave Cullen's 'King One' remains in contention, just two points adrift, with the two boats opening a serious gap over third placed 'Impetuous' (Noonan/Chambers) while those two boats reverse the order on the ECHO overalls.
The 'Alliance' (Vincent Gaffney) dominance of Class 3 was shaken a little on Sunday when Kevin Darmody's 'Gecko' upset the odds, winning not just on the water but also with the calculator, although the latter result yielded a victory of just 3 seconds! That maintains second overall on IRC (albeit sharing that spot with the ever-consistent 'Holly' (Basil MacMahon) and ECHO, where 'K9' (C.O'Dea) headed series leader 'Rossinver' (C.Scott) on the day.
Class 4 witnessed the boldest start of the day, with 'Flashback' (Hogg etc) executing a port tack start at the pin end to perfection, crossing the entire fleet and leading all around the course to win comfortably on ECHO and take a well-earned 2nd place behind 'On the Rox' (C & J Boyle) on IRC. That opens up a mere two point lead for the Boyles over Colm Bermingham's 'Bite the Bullet' which only trails 'Flashback' by half a point overall on ECHO.
A second successive win for the oldest and smallest boat in Class 5 sees 'Demelza' (Stephanie Ennis and Windsor Laudan) jump to the head of the leaderboard on IRC while Joe Carton's ('Voyager') second ECHO win in a row gives her a share of the overall lead with Harry Byrne's 'Alphida'. 'Demelza's' success is all the more significant in that she led the fleet on the water for most of the race and was only a couple of minutes behind much larger boats at the end.
'Kootamundra Wattle' (Dan O'Grady/Paul Reilly) returned to winning ways in the Etchells, with 40 seconds to spare over second-placed Simon Knowles ('Jabberwocky'). Third place for Jay Bourke's 'Northside Dragon' was enough to keep the Royal St.George YC visitor at the top of the table, although Knowles is only a point behind and O'Grady is within striking distance.
It was a case of the same old story in the J24s, with the superior upwind speed of 'Jibberish' (Fergus O'Kelly & Others) more than enough to ensure a comfortable win over 'Scandal' from Malahide, the third time the two boats have finished in that order, while 'Hard on Port' (helmed by Des Fortune) had to be content with a third successive 3rd place.
Having lost out at the death on the previous Sunday, Neil Murphy and the crew of 'Yellow Peril' made no mistake in race 3, although only six seconds separated them from runner-up 'Ibis' (Garret May). Murphy has closed the gap at the top of the leaderboard to just three points behind 'Harlequin' (Clarke/Egan) while on handicap, it was a good day for the Jennings' 'Sanderling'. Second place for 'Ghosty Ned' (D.Harkin) ensures they stay top, four points ahead of 'Ile Molene' (Byrne/Stanley).
After an indifferent start to the series, 'Klipbok' (Emmet Dalton) returned to the familiar position of race winner, almost one and a half minutes ahead of series leader 'Kerfuffle' (Craig/Raune). Emer Harte's (Puffin) third on the water converted to a handicap win but 'Kerfuffle' also heads those standings too, just one point ahead of Phil Merry's 'Shadowfax'.
A second win in three races, this time by almost two minutes from Ian Malcolm's 'Aura', was sufficient for 'Rita' (Lynch/Curley) to take over at the top of the overall standings in the Howth 17 Footers, having previously shared that status with 'Aura'. 'Sheila', helmed by Derek Bothwell, enjoyed handicap success ahead of the Turvey's 'Isobel', a result that lifts the newest Seventeen to second overall behind 'Aura'.
The fourth race in the series – and second in the WD-40 Cruiser Challenge – takes place next Sunday 10th October and the series concludes on Saturday 16th with two back-to-back windward-leeward races.