With winds blowing up to 30 knots to close out its Spring Series the Kinsale Yacht Club season on Saturday, the south coast club's season is off to a great start with both the Sovereign's Cup in June and the Half–Ton Worlds in August in prospect reports Bob Bateman
Busy pro–sailor Maurice O'Connell steered the JPK10.80 Rockabill to victory in DBSC's first Thursday night (with Mark Pettit on tactics) on Dublin Bay before joining Jump Juice (Ker 37) on mainsheet for the final race in Kinsale on Saturday. See Afloat.ie's photo gallery here.
Jump skippered by Conor Phelan had to come from behind as she missed first two races so had to win. 'We got the old girl up to 17.9 knots with our new S3 kite up, O'Connell told Afloat.ie
Rival Freya (X442) Conor Doyle was going well at the windward mark at Black Head but then lost her boom in the blustery conditions. Boomless Freya still managed to finish and did enough to win class one on ECHO handicap and to be second on IRC.
The White Sail division had two races starting inside the Harbour such were the blustery conditions.
One of the smallest boats in Class 3, White Magic (Alan Mulcahy) clocked 14.3 knots on a downwind leg. James Matthew was showing real ability in flyng a kite on the downwind (see our photo gallery here), also achieving some great speeds on the new–to–Kinsale quarter–tonner, Diamond.
Early indications indicate a buoyant entry for June's Sovereign's Cup with up to ten J 109's planning on doing the three day event, Up to 15 1720s and up ten half tonners who will be gearing up for their worlds in August also in Kinsale. The biennial event may also benefit from the timing of the Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race which allows Dublin race partcipants to stop off and do the Sovereigns Cup on the way north.
Full results on the KYC website here
