The meteorological gambling chips haven't quite been falling Howth's way in this Autumn of 2024. For in fast-moving weather, where one sailing area can experience markedly different conditions from those occurring at other not-so-distant places, the less favourable deal has gone the Peninsula's way.
Thus ten days ago, the large spike of extreme strength in the weekend's westerly gales went straight through Howth in the small hours of Sunday. But this meant that both the Saturday afternoon programme for the Autumn League, and the Sunday morning for the Claremont dinghy league, were being staged at times that were much too far up the slopes at each side of the spike, and both were blown out.
SATURDAY HOPES
Then this past weekend, Saturday 12th October was a case of hoping the clearance and easing after Friday night's gale would have arrived, yet there was also hope that the expected post gale ridge wouldn't bring calm on Sunday morning.
Both hopes were a bit off target. For although they did get racing in Saturday afternoon, it was something of of a Demolition Derby with a mighty mid-race black squall, and one mast gone. That said, other significant rigging breakages were competently managed, and some folk emerged from the depths of the squall with the first real if admittedly brief gale force wind experience added to their sailing CV.
Some crews logged their first experience, albeit briefly, of gale force winds. Senior Howth 17 skipper Peter Courtney, a veteran of several Fastnet and other comparable races, brings Oona round the lee mark. Photo: Tom Ryan
OFFSHORE FLEETS
CLASS 1
The win in Class I developed into a match race between Mike & Richie Evans J/99 Snapshot, and Simon Knowles' J/109 Indian, with the J/99 on flying form to bring her up to level points with Indian on the overall leaderboard.
CLASS 2
Former J/80 world champion Pat O'Neill continued to show that Mojo is very appropriately named, as they took full advantage of the high wind pressures to skate around the course to a clear 3 minute win on IRC from Paddy Kyne's X boat Maximus, with another veteran X, the Gore-Grimes family's Dux, taking third in a close-fought race in which only Mojo had clarity of victory.
It was the sort of afternoon where anything might happen, and many things did. Howth 17s Sheilagh and Orla in sunshine splash with cruiser. Photo: Tom Ryan
CLASS 3
Stephen Mullaney's multiple trophies-winning Sigma 33 Insider and her tough crew were so in the groove that they won by a whopping seven minutes on IRC ahead of Vincent Gaffney's Laser 28 Alliance 2, with Kevin Darmody's Gecko third
CLASS 4 (non-spin)
The much-admired Dufuour 40 Splashdance (John Beckett & Andy George) had a performance to match her style, as on IRC she'd Dermot Skehan's frequent winner, the MG34 Toughnut, more than five minutes astern in second, with Terry McCoy & partners' handsome vintage First 38 Out & About third. Overall in IRC, Splashdance and Colm Bermingham's Elan 33 Bite the Bullet are tied in points with one race to go.
CLASS 5
The "cruising" Sigma 33 Leeuwin (E Burke & J Murray) took the bullet with regular front-runner, the classic and very historically-significant Club Shamrock Demelza (Steffi & Windsor) knocked out by a Close Encounter of the First Kind on the start line. It wasn't a day for Close Encounters of any rank, but whatever, Leeuwin now leads overall on both IRC and HPH.
INSHORE FLEETS
Our photos of the One-Design Inshore Fleets (many thanks Aideen Sargent and Tom Ryan) might suggest that at Howth, "inshore" is a very relative term and words acquire fresh meaning out on the Peninsula and the waters thereof.
Once again this was the hottest racing of all, with the Puppeteer 22s and the Howth 17s rising to new heights in numbers and competition, while the Squibs were absent at the big fleet Freshwater Regatta on Lough Derg at Dromineer.
PUPPETEER 22s
The Puppeteers had an incident-filled action-packed afternoon, with Sarah Robertson nee Lovegrove losing the mast on Snowgoose, which has been in the Lovegrove family since 1982, while Commodore Neil Murphy may have pushed Yellow Peril with considerable elan, as seen in our header photo, but the day took it's toll on him by breaking his forestay, though they did get the boat and rig back to Puppeteer Plaza in Howth Marina otherwise intact.
At the finish, 2024 Puppeteer 22 National Champions Alan Pearson & Alan Blay did manage to hold the lead with Trick or Treat, but by just one second (you read that right) from "newby" Nigel Biggs with Nimon. He has down-sized big time for his Autumn sailing sport – by my reckoning, Nimon is 56% smaller than his summer mount, the successful First 50 Checkmate XX, which is IRC European Corinthian Champion 2024.
With one of the newest Puppeteer 22 owner-skippers second, it was one of the most senior, Dave Clarke with Harlequin, who took third on this blustery day.
"Guys, we won't win anything with a broken mast". Erica is eased through the peak of the squall, but soon resumed racing to win by 46 seconds. Photo: Tom Ryan
HOWTH 17s
The traditional Howth 17 thinking on such a day used to be that "what she can't carry, she'll drag". But with new sailcloth materials putting on extra pressure loads that didn't exist before, getting through a squall like that biggie on Saturday afternoon was a matter of emerging on the other side with your increasingly expensive mast still intact.
Thus although Davie Nixon had such a good lead on the water with the 1988-built Erica that he was able to sit out the worst of the wind bomb with the boat in a "stand easy" set-up, further down the fleet the Turvey brothers with Isobel were having none of this, and gave a master class in getting a Howth 17 to windward in a near-gale.
"Heave to? I will in me ****!" Conor Turvey brings Isobel zapping out of the squall while Orla and Oona do the best they can. Photo: Tom Ryan
But the uber-wind lasted for such a relatively short time that Erica was soon able to resume racing towards a 46 seconds win, ahead of arch-rivals Deilginis (Massey, Toomey, Kenny), while Isobel's gutsy determination was rewarded with third.
WEEKEND FINALE
Howth is now on the countdown to this coming weekend's Autumn League finale. But if the perverse weather decides to knock it out of the ballpark, with four races already in the can the Honourable Society of Regular Race Officers will still be able to sing their timeless refrain: "We Still Gotta Result"
"Were we really in that?" A post-squall rainbow world, and two Puppeteers debating whether or not to reset the spinnakers. Photo: Tom Ryan
PHIL LYNOTT & THIN LIZZY & HOWTH
Trouble is, it hasn't yet been set to music. And they missed the chance when the late great Phil Lynott was living in Howth, having bought the house which was formerly the home of Howth 17 legend Norman Wilkinson.
The man who managed to make so much of a roaring success of the rock version of "Whiskey In The Jar" (Phil that is, not Norman), to become Number 1 in the charts and still the booming anthem of Cork Week 1992, he would surely have had no trouble making something memorable out of "We Still Gotta Result".
CLAREMONT DINGHIES CANCELLED
Things are a bit more fraught in the Howth dinghies in the weekly Claremont Series, with their gloriously blossoming new class of Melges 15s. They'd no wind at all on Sunday morning, thereby losing a second weekend. Even Phil Lynott would be stymied by "All We Have Is A Sort Of Set Of Results"
