The steady approach of last weekend's Sunday storm provided a sailing weekend of two halves in Howth. The third stage of the six Saturday Autumn League fixtures was sailed in an interesting mainly southwest breeze which increasingly heralded the approaching gales, yet had the fleets finished at the ideal time for proper après sailing.
But Sunday morning's second series of the dinghies' Claremont League was power-hosed off the calendar by a no-nonsense and very wet easterly gale, a full gale-plus whose waves regularly over-topped the East Pier, but did no damage to the "atomic bomb shelter" roof which has been put over the Long Shed where the Howth 17s over-winter.
Nearby at the lighthouse, the much-loved window-boxes have been taken sensibly indoors, while the new and now proven storm-proof roof on the Long Shed replaces the one flattened in Storm Emma in March 2018, with five Seventeens flattened under it to various degrees, today remains very intact. Happily, all now race again in a fleet which continues to grow despite (or maybe because of) its historic origins in 1897-98.
As for the rain, believe this or not as you wish, but rain was very welcome. For thanks to some meteorological anomaly, the Howth peninsula was approaching drought stage by mid-September, when a summer-long lack of sun, warmth and rain was providing gardeners with a very gloomy review of the season.
ONE DESIGNS SET THE PACE
The One Designs continue to set much of the pace numbers-wise, with the Puppeteer 22s continuing to increase fleet and competition in their 40th Anniversary in Howth. Alan Pearson and Alan Blay in Trick or Treat repeated their win of a week earlier to emerge leading overall, with 2024 National Champions Paul & Laura McMahon in the prototype from 1978, Shiggy Shiggy, in second with Declan Browne in Gold Dust ("the Scorie Walls boat" third and HYC Commodore Neil Murphy with Con Costello fourth in Yellow Peril. After three races, Trick or Treat leads by one point overall from Shiggy Shiggy.
HOWTH 17s
The Howth 17s saw Davie Nixon with Erica (National Champion 2024, and built at Howth Castle in 1988, while he was built nearby in Howth Evora Park in 1978) on form. They got on the right side of every shift going to win by 3 minutes and 41 seconds from Rima Macken's Eileen, with the Gallagher/Fitzgibbon team in former National Champion Orla third, and Brian and Conor Turvey with Isobel (the other Howth castle-built boat) fourth. Erica leads overall by four points from Orla, with Deilginis (Massey, Toomey, Kenny) third.
SQUIBS
The Squibs may have been able to muster exactly a hundred boats on the line when the 1996 combined British & Irish Championship was staged at Howth, but the Celtic Tiger years in Howth saw other boat types of meretricious attraction seriously depleting the class. However, now it is a-building again. Tom McMahon in Tears in Heaven took the win from foil-sailing enthusiast Emmet Dalton in Kerfuffle, with Stephen Kay third. Tears in Heaven now leads at the halfway stage by two points from Kerfuffle.
CRUISER-RACERS
It may well be that the best cruiser-racing in the Howth Autumn League is being found among the Legion of the Rearguard, the old and very old salts racing in Class 4 NS under the HPH rather than the fixed IRC system. For he be boats of many shapes sizes and shapes racing without spinnakers to an adjusted handicap against crews and boats they have known and competed with since Noah's Ark was in the fleet. As or last Saturday, Graham Burrows & Linda Skeffington's Spellbound leads overall from Kieran Jameson's Sgigma38 Changeling, with John Beckett & Andy George's Dufour 40 Splashdance third and Colm Bermingham's Elan 333 Bite the Bullet fourth.
CLASS 1
The Grand Prix class has suffered numbers depletion from boats attending the IRC Euros and the ISORA Finals across in Dun Laoghaire, but a way for compensating for that has been devised. so despite absence on Saturday, Simon Knowles' J/109 Indian continues to lead, while Mike & Richie Evans' J/99 Snapshot (in the frame at the Euros but at Howth last Saturday) is second, while Stephen Quinn's J/97 Lambay Rules is third.
CLASS 2
Class 2 is like floating boat show (or a floating museum if you prefer) with the Noonan/Chambers Corby-designed Impetutious currently first overall, the veteran X Biat Dux (Caroline & Nico Gore-Grimes second, Paddy Kyne's Maximus third, and Pat O'Neill's J/80 Maximus fourth.
CLASS 3
Stephen Mullaney's hot Sigma 33 Insider continues to build a good score to offset her absence at the IRC Euros, but Vincent Gaffney's Laser 28 Alliance II (a boat as rare as the original Laser is universal) holds the lead at mid-series by one point, with Kevin Darmody's Gecko third.