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Nigel Biggs & Dave Cullen of Howth & RIYC are "Sailors of the Month" (Regatta) for June

2nd July 2025
Nigel Biggs and David Cullen's First 50 Checkmate XX recorded five wins in the 2025 Sovereign's Cup's largest class.
Nigel Biggs and David Cullen's First 50 Checkmate XX recorded five wins in the 2025 Sovereign's Cup's largest class Credit: Bob Bateman

Dave Cullen and Nigel Biggs campaign their hefty First 50 Checkmate XX with a style that suggests she fulfils the role in Dublin and elsewhere that Denis Doyle's Moonduster did from Cork. Like Moonduster, Checkmate's crew demands are such that there's an element of the sailing training ship in her campaigning. This makes it all the better than she went to the Sovereigns in Kinsale and won the trophy with five clear wins on the big-fleet coastal courses.

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