Barry Cunningham’s Royal Irish Yacht Club J/109 Chimaera has won IRC 1 at the Welsh IRC National Championship at Pwllheli, completing a notable late-season sequence of victories following her successes at Cork Week and Greystones.
The Dublin Bay yacht emerged on top after nine races in North Wales, winning four races and recording another three second places to finish with 13 points after one discard.
South Caernarvonshire Yacht Club’s Impetuous, sailed by Crompton, Hodges and Miller, finished just two points behind on 15, with clubmate David Lean’s Jackpot third on 23 points.
Chimaera’s championship included victories in races two, six, seven and eight. Her other counting scores were third, second, second and second, while a fourth in the final race was discarded.
Four Wins Give Chimaera Welsh Crown
The result continues an impressive summer for Cunningham and his J/109, which won IRC 1 at Cork Week in July, taking seven victories from eight starts. Chimaera was also awarded the Prince of Wales Cup after producing the best IRC performance across the fleet in the Cork Harbour Race.
That was followed at the end of August by another double success closer to home at the BJ Marine Taste of Greystones Regatta.
As Afloat reported, Chimaera overturned an opening-day third place with a second and a win on the Sunday to claim Class One on tie-break from Frank Whelan’s Ker 43 El Syd. She also won ORC 1, again on tie-break, after beating El Syd by 51 seconds on corrected time in the deciding race.
The Welsh championship therefore gives the Royal Irish campaign another significant result just a week after Greystones and two months after its dominant Cork Week performance.
Eazitiger Wins IRC 2
In IRC 2 at Pwllheli, Liverpool Yacht Club’s Eazitiger, sailed by Adam Douglas and George Kyffin, produced an equally convincing series.
Eazitiger won six of the nine races and discarded a retirement to finish on ten points. Laura Fitzgerald’s Daydream Believer was second on 21 points, one point ahead of Mark Willis’s Katabatic of New Quay Yacht Club.
Both IRC divisions completed nine races with one discard, with eight boats competing in each fleet. The published results remain provisional as of 14:33 on Sunday, 6 September.
IRC 1 top three: Chimaera (Barry Cunningham, Royal Irish YC) 13 pts; Impetuous (Crompton/Hodges/Miller, SCYC) 15; Jackpot (David Lean, SCYC) 23.
IRC 2 top three: Eazitiger (Adam Douglas/George Kyffin, Liverpool YC) 10 pts; Daydream Believer (Laura Fitzgerald, Liverpool YC) 21; Katabatic (Mark Willis, New Quay YC) 22.
