The E-Boat National Championships were hosted by Skerries Sailing Club over the weekend of 24 and 25 June, as part of the Club’s Annual Regatta. With the Club also hosting the Fireball Leinster Championships, there was quite a medley of boats on the water over the weekend, in strong and gusty conditions on the Saturday, with a calmer day on Sunday.
Three boats travelled from Clontarf Yacht & Boat Club, with some Clontarf boats prevented from making it due to adverse weather conditions. However, combined with four boats from Skerries, the small size of the fleet certainly didn’t lack any of the usual strong and E-ager competition when Skerries and Clontarf E-boaters met up for their annual championships! With six races scheduled, the heat was on!

In strong and gusty changing winds, Race Officer Liam Dineen with his team of Helen Ryan and Micheline Shiels, set an Olympic course, and the race sequence began, with the E-Boats and Fireballs sharing an outer course and all other boats sharing a separate inner, course. A challenge perhaps to some Race Officers, but not to Liam’s intrepid team!

Race 1 saw some challenging conditions, with Aoife and her team of Sean, Daire and Kathryn dominating from the start. Despite the wind shifting from SSE to east, catching some unsuspecting sailors by surprise, Aoife took advantage of any shifts that came her way coming first in Race 1, with Paul Hick’s Easygo and her crew of Pat, Paula and Berni coming second and Wylie Coyote and her team of skipper Shane and crew of Dave and Suzanne, coming third. With increasing winds, it was all to play for.

1st Place: Team Aoife - Kathryn, Cliff, Daire and Tokyo 49er Olympian Seán Waddilove (skipper) pictured with Commodore Brian McNally and Sailing Secretary Colman Grimes

Race 2 began in a freshening breeze with Eaglet and her team of Bernie Grogan, Steve, Pawel and Greg finding their groove and taking the gun, with Aoife taking second and Easygo taking third.

Nerves were beginning to fray, with some boats a little too eager to start resulting in recalls.

Race 3 saw Eaglet again taking the gun, with Equaliser, sailed by Samuel McConkey and his team of Tom, Noel and Claire, taking second place and the wily Wylie Coyote taking third.

The winds were increasing and shifty, with two E-Boats sighted flying a spinnaker (or, more correctly, attempting to fly a spinnaker) on what was a reach, but was now a beat. Not wishing to be outdone by the other, neither dropped their spinnakers until they eventually became aware of the serious change in wind direction! There is none so blind as those who cannot see!
With the forecast not promising for Sunday, the Race Officer decided – extremely wisely in hindsight – to go for a fourth race on Saturday. With ever-increasing winds, fraught crews and tired bodies, most if not all boats reduced sail to a number two, and the fleet pushed on.

Race 4 saw Aoife taking first, with Eaglet taking second and Wylie Coyote taking third - for the third time! This left Aoife and Eaglet on equal points!

Sunday presented a light breeze and a little drizzle, with racing postponed for over an hour while the race management team cajoled the elements into behaving so that a course could be laid! The elements responded and an excellent Olympic course was again set. With Aoife and Eaglet on equal points, it was all to play for and with the wind finally deciding to go westerly, a new game was on!

However, the light conditions presented many holes and many shifts around the course, with some boats sitting motionless in the water at the same time as others sailed away with their spinnakers nicely set. Aoife again led the race from the beginning in a dying breeze and was safely heading for victory. But hark! Eaglet slowly but surely crept up on them on the last reach which resulted in a nail-biting shortened course finish, with two seconds between the two boats as the final whistle sounded!

2nd Place: Team Eaglet - Greg, Bernie (Skipper,) Steve and Pawel, pictured with Commodore Brian McNally and Sailing Secretary Colman Grimes

3rd Place: Team Wylie Coyote - Suzanne, Shane (Skipper) and Dave, pictured with Commodore Brian McNally and Sailing Secretary Colman Grimes

Next up for the E-Boats is the Skerries SC Cruising Regatta on the weekend of 26 and 27 August.

#E-Boat - Pat O’Neill sailed OctupussE consistently to a deserved victory in the E-Boat National Championships held on the second weekend of June, writes Findlay MacDonald.

The championships were hosted at the Clontarf Yacht and Boat Club following a super weekend of sailing on the River Liffey as part of the Dublin Port Riverfest.

A fleet of nine boats gathered, with one from Howth Yacht Club and three enthusiastically representing the Skerries fleet.

Conditions for the weekend were lively both days. Saturday saw large wind shifts (as much as 30%) making course-setting near impossible for PRO Ian Sargent.

Squalls further delayed racing and boats returned to moorings once postponed was called.

Nevertheless, two races were run in Force 3-4 once the breeze had moderated. 

Windward-returns were set within the confines of Dublin Port inside Bull Island, making for an excellent course with good wind and a slight chop, and close competition throughout the fleet with visitors placed well in the results.

Favourites OctupussE (HYC) scored firsts, with local boat Aoife in close contention. Indeed, only an OCS in race one and and an error with spinnaker drop at leeward mark in race two cost Aoife otherwise attainable firsts.

The Skerries boats — Easygo in particular — showed their worth, battling and placing great results, and ensuring home fleet did not dominate. 

Racing was close, with boats changing positions frequently and finishing within boat-lengths of one another.

Sunday saw more challenging conditions, averaging Force 4.5-5. Only four boats ventured to the start area, with one retiring with gear failure. The remainder stayed ashore as the weather was forecast to freshen.

Though blustery, the wind direction was stable and three races were completed.

Race four saw the recently restored Enchantress, with an adventurous rookie crew, around the weather mark first but unable to hold off Aoife and OctupussE downwind.

Aoife was the only boat to hoist a kite — but a few near-broaches negated any advantage made, allowing Enchantress and OctupussE to slip by at the leeward mark.

Conditions remained lively for races five and six, and racing became closer.

Enchantress did well to compete and challenge the experienced boats sailing on windward legs to often round in second, but unable to make good downwind. Local boat Aoife lost out to OctupussE at the finish line.

Thanks go to all crews, particularly visitors from Skerries, for participating and supporting the class.

The class this year has seen renewed interest in the fleet. New crew are engaging, and several boats this year were restored and brought back into service.

A successful class-training event was also held at the beginning of the season in Skerries.

The class is always keen to hear from people wishing to sail E-Boats. For further enquires please contact class captains at Skerries Sailing Club or Clontarf Yacht and Boat Club.

Howth Yacht Club's Lambay Race is renowned for providing a real mix of conditions to test the skills - and patience - of the hundreds of crews participating.... and the 2011 event was certainly no different!

Light to moderate westerlies which greeted the fleets at their respective starts veered and died, veered some more and gained in strength, faded along the back of the island and eventually veered to the south-east by the finish in a steadily increasing wind!

The effects were reflected in a number of the class results where pre-race favourites became victims of tidal flows and wind fluctuations, although there would be no complaints about shortening both courses after three and a half hours and more on the water.

Class 1 was led home by Crazy Horse (Reilly/Chambers) on the water but it was Makutu (Doyle & Others) who took the IRC honours by three minutes corrected ahead of the fleet leader while Trinculo (M/Fleming) was comfortably the ECHO winner.

MiniMumm (Cobbe/McDonald) got the gun and the IRC award in Class 2 ahead of Impetuous (Noonan/Chambers) and was runner-up to Superhero (Byrne/Banahan) on ECHO by a narrow margin.

Royal Irish YC visitor Supernova (Lawless & Others) were clearly not fazed by the conditions, romping home in Class 3 by a massive 25 minutes on the water, corrected to over 15 minutes on IRC ahead of Holly (B.McMahon). Unsurprisingly, the margin was also good enough to win ECHO too, from Lee na Mara (R.O’Malley).

The White Sail ‘A’ Division saw On the Rox (C&J Boyle) get the better of Bite the Bullet (C.Bermingham) on both IRC and ECHO while Alphida (H.Byrne) topped the ‘B’ Division on IRC and was runner-up to Bandersnatch (K.O’Grady) on ECHO.

Five First 31.7s travelled from Dun Laoghaire to compete with Howth’s C’Est la Vie in a scratch event and it was magic (O’Sullivan/Espey) of the Royal Irish which came home first by just under two minutes. An importation of six Shipman from the southside saw Joslim (Clarke/Maher, RSt.GYC) beat second-placed Just Good Friends (M.Carroll, DMYC) by over three minutes.

The other one-design classes started on the Inshore Course with the Squibs and Howth 17s given a head-start before a 3-class start of Etchells, SB3s and J24s gave chase, followed by E-Boats, Ruffians and Puppeteers.

Fetching (Quinn/O’Flaherty) had just 23 seconds to spare over second-placed Glance (Dix/O’Reilly) in the Etchells, Shockwave (E.Quinlan) had the better of Sin a Bhuifl (G.Guinness) in the SB3 match-race and former All-Ireland Sailing Champion Stefan Hyde (RCYC) on Kilcullen headed home the J24s by a little over a minutes from Hard on Port (F.O’Driscoll).

The regular fleet leader in the Puppeteers, Harlequin (Clarke/Egan), didn’t disappoint and headed the 17-strong fleet home by 15 minutes on scratch from Yellow Peril (N.Murphy), with the result the same on handicap.

Ten Ruffians travelled from Dublin Bay and it was the National Y.C.’s Ruff N Ready (Kirwan & Others) who took the honours from Ruffles (M.Cutliffe, DMYC) while Puffin (E.Harte) topped the Squib rankings by two minutes from Wasabi (C&N Penlerick) on scratch and was runner-up to Pegasus (T&K Smyth) on handicap.

The Howth 17s, almost as old as the Lambay Race itself, were led home after almost 4 hours racing by Aura (I.Malcolm) from Rita (Lynch/Curley) with the latter taking the handicap honours from Leila (R.Cooper).

HOWTH YACHT CLUB.  LAMBAY REGATTA (RACE) 11/06/2011   Class 1  IRC:  1, Makutu Doyle/Others HYC;  2, Crazy Horse Reilly/Chambers HYC;  3, Storm P Kelly HYC;  Class 1  ECHO:  1, Trinculo M Fleming HYC;  2, Makutu Doyle/Others HYC;  3, Gringo T Fox NYC;  Class 2  IRC:  1, MiniMumm Cobbe/McDonald HYC;  2, Impetuous Noonan/Chambers HYC;  3, King One D Cullen HYC;  Class 2  ECHO:  1, Superhero Byrne/Banahan HYC;  2, MiniMumm Cobbe/McDonald HYC;  3, Impetuous Noonan/Chambers HYC;  Class 3  IRC:  1, Supernova Lawless/Others RIYC;  2, Holly B MacMahon HYC;  3, Goyave Camier/Fitzpatrick MYC;  Class 3  ECHO:  1, Supernova Lawless/Others RIYC;  2, Lee na Mara R O'Malley HYC;  3, Taiscealai Richardson/Lindberg RIYC;  First 31.7  SCRATCH:  1, Magic O'Sullivan/Espey RIYC;  2, Bluefin Two M & B Bryson NYC;  3, C'est la Vie Flannelly/Others HYC;  Puppeteer  SCRATCH:  1, Harlequin Clarke/Egan HYC;  2, Yellow Peril N Murphy HYC;  3, Blue Velvet C & K Kavanagh HYC;  Puppeteer  HPH:  1, Harlequin Clarke/Egan HYC;  2, Yellow Peril N Murphy HYC;  3, Blue Velvet C & K Kavanagh HYC;  Squib  SCRATCH: 1, Puffin E Harte HYC;  2, Wasabi C & N Penlerick HYC;  3, Pot Black I & R McMurtry HYC;  Squib  HPH:  1, Pegasus T & K Smyth HYC;  2, Puffin E Harte HYC;  3, Wasabi C & N Penlerick HYC;  17 Footer  SCRATCH:  1, Aura I Malcolm HYC;  2, Rita Lynch/Curley HYC;  3, Leila R Cooper HYC;  17 Footer HPH:  1, Echo B & H Lynch HYC;  2, Leila R Cooper HYC;  3, Pauline O'Doherty/Ryan HYC;  Etchells  SCRATCH:  1, Fetching Quinn/O'Flaherty HYC;  2, Glance Dix/O'Reilly HYC;  3, Northside Dragon D Cagney HYC;  Shipman  SCRATCH: 1, Joslim Clarke/Maher RStGYC;  2, Just Good Friends M Carroll DMYC;  3, Whiterock H Robinson RIYC;  E Boat  SCRATCH:  1, OctupussE P O'Neill CY&BC;  Ruffian 23  SCRATCH:  1, Ruff N Ready Kirwan/Others NYC;  2, Ruffles M Cutliffe DMYC;  3, Ripples F Bradley DMYC;  SB 3  SCRATCH:  1, Shockwave E Quinlan HYC;  2, Sin a Bhuifl Guinness/Costigan HYC;  White Sail A IRC:  1, On the Rox C & J Boyle HYC;  2, Bite the Bullet C Bermingham HYC; 3, Flashback Hogg/Others HYC;  White Sail A  ECHO:  1, On the Rox C & J Boyle HYC;  2, Bite the Bullet C Bermingham HYC;  3, Changeling K Jameson HYC; J 24  SCRATCH:  1, Kilcullen S Hyde RCYC;  2, Hard on Port F O'Driscoll HYC; 3, Jibberish Wormold/Others HYC;  White Sail B  IRC:  1, Alphida H Byrne HYC; 2, Voyager J Carton HYC;  3, Demelza Laudan/Ennis HYC;  White Sail B  ECHO:  1, Bandersnatch K O'Grady HYC;  2, Alphida H Byrne HYC;  3, Demelza Laudan/Ennis HYC;  White Sail B  HPH:  1, Voyager J Carton HYC;  2, Sandpiper A Knowles HYC;  3, Alphida H Byrne HYC;  White Sail A  HPH:  1, On the Rox C & J Boyle HYC;  2, Sojourn Blandford/Lacy HYC;  3, Bite the Bullet C Bermingham HYC