With distinctly brisker weather forecast for this coming weekend, it may well be that Saturday’s second contest of the six weekend Beshoff Motors Autumn League at Howth was the Last of the Summer Wine, with just enough power in the pleasant easterly sea breeze to hold up against a gradient tendency for a westerly. Some new names appeared to the fore, but in Class I Nigel Biggs' Classic Half Tonner Checkmate XVIII held out against the usual showroom selection of various J/Boats, with the Evans brothers’ new J/99 Snapshot finding it was her turn to be second.
In Class 2 the Noonan/Chambers partnership in Impetuous likewise managed another win, but it was the turn of the Sigma 33 Insider (current Irish Class Champion) to get the win for the Mullaney team in Class 3, and another new name came to the fore with the Harris/Hughes family challenge with the First 40.7 Tiger winning out in White Sails.
But although Emmet Dalton managed another win in the Squibs with Kerfuffle, in the big-fleet Puppeteer 22s, the previous weekend’s winner Shiggi Shiggi was pushed back to sixth, with Scorie Walls in Gold Dust taking the bullet, while the Howth 17s likewise saw an adjustment but not nearly so extreme - Ian Malcolm’s Aura - double winner of a week ago - was second, the winner being the Turvey brothers’ Isobel, making it quite a weekend for Clan Turvey as young Des was away in Larne winning the Optimist Ulster Championship at East Antrim Boat Club.
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