#bloomsday – Twenty sailing classes and 118 entries took to Dublin Bay to race for the Royal Alfred's (RAYC) historic trophies for this year's Bloomsday regatta writes Ailbe Millerick. The weather forecast was mixed and yielded 10-15 knots of breeze during the first race on the windward leeward courses laid ably by Hal Bleakley, Gordon Davies and Commodore Barry MacNeaney and their teams.
The wind strengthened considerably in the rains squalls that traversed the race courses and the second race witnessed a number of broaches down the runs as the breeze piped up to over twenty gusting twenty eight knots. Most class winners didn't quite go to form with notable exceptions.
The regatta was both challenging for the competitors and rewarding for those that survived the demanding weather conditions. Wind Guru was forecasting 14 to 16 knot westerlies gusting 18 knots at times. Met Eireann was predicting force 5 to 7 with the stronger winds in the afternoon - and boy, were they right! Hal Bleakley, PRO on Course A for Cruisers 0, 1, 2 and White Sails set windward leeward courses that called for different skills than those that the Helms are used to when racing around the Dublin Bay Marks.
The frequent rain squalls reduced visibility to less than 100 metres at times.
For the second race Hal increased the number of rounds and in a yachtmans' gale boats and crew were tested. Certainly the stories in the bar afterwards were not the usual exaggerations, but accurate retelling of the conditions endured.
Barry MacNeaney, PRO on Course B for Dragons, Shipmans, Cruiser 3, Benateau 21 and Glens set a long course for the first race that saw some classes barely finishing within the time limit, as despite the 20 knot plus wind a very strong ebb tide made the beat back to the finish an uphill struggle. With the wind increasing he shortened the course for the second race. There were some exciting downwind broaches with "Quest" practically putting her mast in the water on the downwind leg of the first round. Obviously not learning from her experience the spinnaker was again hauled up on the downwind leg of the second round, resulting in an even more spectacular broach that followed an hypnotic rolling that started as a slight swing of the mast but increased till the yacht was going through 60 degrees side to side and the inevitable happened. It is to the crew's credit that within a matter of seconds the boat was back on course and racing hard again.
Brian O'Hare won the Squibs and Denis Bergin upset Edinburgh Cup holder Martin Byrne in the Dragons. Great celebrations were had on veteran Liam Shanahan's Emir Herr beating Philip Dilworth's Orna steered by Brian Mathews who took the IRC handicap.
The ladies were to the fore with Anne Kirwan winning the Ruffians and Christine Heath's well reefed Shipman winning the tie break with Viking while her sisters Mary and Angela were runners up in the Squib Class. Overall it was a good days yachting after an awful week of rain and gales.
All Classes finished comfortably within the time limits and were no doubt glad to head for the shelter of the Harbour.
Gordon Davies was the PRO for the dingy classes and he set some excellent courses that gave the competitors ample opportunity to display their heavy weather skills. A comment of thanks from Ronan Beirne of the Flying Fifteen class said it was one of the best day's sailing they had enjoyed this year year and was of Championship standard.
The Alfred would like to thank all the volunteers who made Bloomsday a success, the Dun Laoghaire waterfront clubs and Dublin Bay SC.
Results:
CR0 IRC & Echo
Loose Change Pete Redden & Morris Mitton 5718 RIYC 1.00 2.00 1 3.00
Lively Lady Derek Martin 1644 RIYC 4.00 1.00 2 5.00
Tsunami Vincent Farrell 4007 NYC 3.00 3.00 3 6.00
White Sails Echo
Emir Herr Liam Shanahan 1118 NYC 1.00 1.00 1 2.00
Orna Philip Dilworth 532 NYC 2.00 2.00 2 4.00
Aurora Ray Conway 7380 NYC 4.00 3.00 3 7.00
White Sails IRC
Orna Philip Dilworth 532 NYC 1.00 1.00 1 2.00
Act Two T. Roche et al 4250 RIYC 3.00 2.00 2 5.00
Calypso Howard Knott 5643 RStGYC 4.00 3.00 3 7.00
CR1 Echo
Adrenalin Joe McDonald et al 1348 NYC 1.00 1.00 1 2.00
Powder Monkey Byrne Moore et al 28898 NYC 3.00 2.00 2 5.00
Gringo Tony Fox 7778 NYC 4.00 4.00 3 8.00
CR1 IRC
Gringo Tony Fox 7778 NYC 2.00 1.00 1 3.00
Adrenalin Joe McDonald 1348 NYC 1.00 4.00 2 5.00
Xtravagance Colin Byrne 10034 RIYC 3.00 3.00 3 6.00
Cr2 Echo
Bendemeer L Casey & D Power 521 RStGYC 1.00 1.00 1 2.00
Smile O'Connell/Healy/O'Sullivan 25007 NYC 2.00 3.00 2 5.00
Kamikaze P.Nash 8223 RStGYC 6.00 2.00 3 8.00
Cr2 IRC
Smile O'Connell/Healy/O'Sullivan 25007 NYC 1.00 2.00 1 3.00
Bendemeer L Casey & D Power 521 RStGYC 3.00 1.00 2 4.00
Diane ll Andrew Claffey 7 RStGYC ( 3.00) 1.00 3.00 1.00 1 8.00 3.00 5.00
Sigma 33
White Mischief Timothy Goodbody 4633 RIYC 1.00 1.00 1 2.00
Gwili Two D.Clarke/P.Maguire 4534 RStGYC 2.00 2.00 2 4.00
Moonshine R.Moloney 4999 RStGYC 3.00 3.00 3 6.00
31.7
Magic D.O'Sullivan/D.Espey 2004 RIYC 1.00 3.00 1 4.00
Prospect Chris Johnston 1565 NYC 3.00 2.00 2 5.00
After U Michael Blaney 1310 RStGYC 2.00 4.00 3 6.00
Beneteau 21
Chinook Andrew Bradley 2121 RIYC 1.00 1.00 1 2.00
Syzrgy Rowan Fogarty 2111 RSGYC 2.00 3.00 2 5.00
CR3 Echo
Gung Ho G & S O'Shea 216 RIYC 2.00 1.00 1 3.00
Supernova Shannon, Lawless, McCormack 7500 RIYC 3.00 3.00 2 6.00
Quest Jonathan Skerritt 508 RIYC 1.00 6.00 3 7.00
CR3 IRC Supernova
Supernova Shannon, Lawless, McCormack 7500 RIYC 2.00 1.00 1 3.00
Quest Jonathan Skerritt 508 RIYC 1.00 4.00 2 5.00
Gung Ho G & S O'Shea 216 RIYC 3.00 2.00 3 5.00
Ruffians
Ruff N Ready Ann Kirwan et al 6014 NYC 2.00 2.00 1.00 ( 2.00) 2 7.00 2.00 5.00
Carrageen 8511 1.00 3.00 ( 6.00) 3.00 3 13.00 6.00 7.00
Peridot Jim McCann et al 5507 RIYC 4.00 4.00 3 8.00
Portsmouth Yardstick
Arthur Mehigan 1136 RSGYC
Hugh Sheehy 2015 RSGYC
R Tate 386 RSGYC
Glen
Pterodactyl R & D McCaffrey 12 RStGYC 1.00 1.00 1 2.00
Glendun Brian Denham et al 9 RStGYC 2.00 2.00 2 4.00
Glenshesk Liz Faulkner et al 1 RStGYC 3.00 5.00 3 8.00
Flying 15
The Big Bow Wow 3708 3.00 1.00 1 4.00
Deranged 3665 1.00 5.00 2 6.00
Kooigjug 3897 2.00 4.00 3 6.00
Dragons
Sir Ossis of the River Denis Bergin 161 RIYC 2.00 1.00 1 3.00
Jaguar Martin Byrne 201 RStGYC 1.00 2.00 2 3.00
Hy Brasil P O'Reilly 197 RSGYC 3.00 5.00 3 8.00
Shipman
Gusto Christine Heath 724 RStGYC 2.00 1.00 1 3.00
Viking Mason et al 409 RStGYC 1.00 2.00 2 3.00
Whiterock Henry Robinson 740 RIYC 3.00 3.00 3 6.00
Squibs
Nimble Brian O'Hare 38 1.00 1.00 1 2.00
Chillax A & M Heath 664 2.00 2.00 2 4.00
Perfection Jill Flemming 44 3.00 3.00 3 6.00
