When one of the most hectic and important weekends of major championships in the Irish sailing calendar occurs precisely in the first two days of October, it’s easy to forget that September 2016 didn’t actually end until midnight on Friday. And the adjudicators in the Afloat.ie “Sailor of the Month” awards don’t like rushing to conclusions as we’ve learned – ever since introducing this contest twenty years ago – that people take it very seriously indeed.
In fact, such was the profusion of success that we feel September deserves two categories – inshore and offshore – and we start with the Inshore Award going to Johnny Durcan of Cork for his keenly-fought win in the ISA All Ireland Junior Championship at Schull ten days ago.
Normally youth sailor Durcan is one of the leading helms in the Laser Radial. So it’s always fascinating to see how these lone stars shape up when they have to campaign a two-person boat, particularly when it’s a two-person boat such as the Dave Harte-inspired TR 3.6 dinghies at Schull, which are very different from a Laser in just about every way in rig and hull.
But young Durcan of Royal Cork, crewed by Flor Lyden, managed to put it away, though it was close enough as they’d 8 points to the 9 of runner-up Geoff Power and James McCann of Dumore East and Crosshaven. However, a result is a result, and Johnny Durcan is clearly SoM (Inshore) for September 2016.
