#laserfrostbite – Overall Ronan Cull has a safe lead with five firsts at Howth Yacht Club's Laser frostbites series, followed by Dave Quinn and Darragh Kelleher while it's a family affair in the other fleets; Aoife Hopkins leads the radial fleet, with brother Daniel leading the 4.7's.

Yesterday's fourth day of the winter series started in 12 knots of wind from the west, brilliant sunshine with a sharp chill in the air and a strong ebb tide. Twenty-six Lasers competed on Sunday with the welcome return of the handsome Dan O'Connell and the brave but injury plagued Dave Mulligan.

A slight starboard bias at the start of race 1 favoured Darrell Reamsbottom, Dan O'Connell and Ian McSweeney, but it wasn't long before Ronan Cull and Dave Quinn emerged to be likely leaders at mark 1. The fleet split, but those on the middle left, playing the shifts, got out ahead, with Cull, Quinn, Mike Evans, Ian McSweeney, and Darrell Reamsbottom rounding first. While Cull and Quinn were safely away, there was a good fight for the next slots between McSweeney, Evans, Reamsbottom, Darragh Sherdan, and O'Connell. McSweeney was able to defend 3rd until O'Connell took advantage of a left hand shift at the top of the last full beat. McSweeney got back at him by beating toward the finish line, but a poorly timed tack allowed O'Connell to squeeze in at the pin taking 3rd. Darragh Sheridan finished 5th.

Date: 23/11/2014

Wind: SW, 12-14 knots

Races sailed: 7 & 8, Olympic triangle followed by Windward/Leeward,

Race length: 40 min each

Leader, standard: Ronan Cull

Leader, radial: Aoife Hopkins

Leader, 4.7: Daniel Hopkins

Race 1 - Standard fleet:

1. Ronan Cull

2. Dave Quinn

3. Dan O'Connell

4. Ian McSweeney

5. Darragh Sheridan

Approximately 1 second elapsed between the last finisher of race 7, and the warning signal of race 8 – PRO Liam Dineen opting for a windward/leeward course, making for challenging and competitve downwind legs. Dan O'Connell was on the money at the pin with a slight port bias, and at one point it looked like he was going to cross the fleet. He tacked and led the fleet toward the left, in a strengthening ebb. There was plenty of jostling for position off the line, and the majority of the fleet hit the left layline early. Dave Quinn, Darrell Reamsbottom, and Ian McSweeney led around mark 1, having played it more safely up the middle left. The second round saw Cull taking a convincing lead (from 4th around the leeward), not missing a shift, or any extra breeze on offer as the wind abated. Dave Quinn fell back to fourth and to a battle with Stephen Quinn, leaving McSweeney and Reamsbottom to fight for 2nd. McSweeney got ahead on the last full beat, Reamsottom having gone too far left, and a closely fought run ended with Reamsbottom establishing an inside overlap in the zone at the last leeward mark. McSweeney got a lucky jump ahead at the critical moment and was able to sneak around ahead and in 2nd place. Cull was well ahead at this stage and a worthy winner once more. 4th was also hotly contested by the two Quinns. They had split up the final beat and coming to the line Stephen - on starboard coming from the right – forced Dave to duck, and be postally pipped.

Race 2 - Standard fleet

1. Ronan Cull

2. Ian McSweeney

3. Darrell Reamsbottom

4. Stephen Quinn

5. Dave Quinn

#hyc – Howth Yacht Club sailors were treated to a mild day for the third outing races of the Laser dinghy Frosbite series off Ireland's Eye. A 12-15kt easterly made for an interesting change for sailors with a swell rolling down the channel. The 37 entries are enjoying ideal conditions for this 14–race series.

The race committee set a windward leeward course for the first race. With a low tide at 12:10, the big decision for race one was when the tide was going to turn. With the Ebb still running, those who went left on the first beat towards the Island gained the advantage. Ronan Cull and Darrell Ramsbottom came out best leading at the first mark. Ronan gave an exhibition in downwind laser sailing to extend away from the fleet. The rest were left to manage the waves and angles in his wake. Racing was tight with many place changes. Darragh Kelleher moved into second spot on the first run, a position he held to the finish. Darrell Reamsbottom, Mike Evans, Stephen Quinn and Dave Quinn were in close proximity all the way to the finish with Stephen Quinn pipping Dave Quinn on the finish line to get third

1st Ronan Cull

2nd Darragh Kelleher

3rd Stephen Quinn

4th Dave Quinn

5th Mike Evans

Race 2

By the start of the second race the tide had clearly turned. The second race saw a change of course to triangles. A committee boat bias and desire for the fleet to get right made for a busy committee boat start. Ronan Cull and Dave Quinn got off the line reasonably well and tacked right, as did most of the leaders. Ronan Cull, furthest right of the leaders, showed good speed to lead again at the first mark. A fast reach towards the Island mark spread the fleet out somewhat with Ronan Cull extending his lead by the leeward mark, followed by Dave Quinn and Darragh Kelleher. These positions didn't change for the sausage and final triangle. Daragh Sheridan recovered from a disappointing first race to finish 4th.

1st Ronan Cull

2nd Dave Quinn

3rd Darragh Kelleher

4th Daragh Sheridan

5th Darrell Reamsbottom.

Overall Darragh Kelleher leads on countback from Dave Quinn with Ronan Cull in third. Ronan is carrying a 13th so is very much in contention with all still to play for half way through the series. The Radial Class is also close with Aoife Hopkins just a point ahead of E McMahon.

#lasersailing – Thirty seasoned Laser sailors were greeted with a Westerly at 8knots at Howth Yacht Club for the second race of the 40th Laser winter series, slightly calmer conditions than last week! The Race Committee had their work cut out for them as both the wind and fleet were making things difficult.

After a General Recall, the fluctuating wind delayed the restart and eventually stabilized from a SW direction. Taking no prisoners, the RC went with a Black flag and needless to say managed to catch one over the line early! Half of the fleet went left and the other right. Things started to get tricky at the top mark with the boats from the right just edging out those from the left. A bunch that included Daragh Kelleher, Ian McSweeney, Oliver Keenan, Ronan Cull, Dave Quinn and Mike Evans all rounded in quick succession. Those who stayed to the left of the run or up tide managed to make some good gains and round the LW mark in good position. Sailors jockeyed for position throughout the race as picking up the little puffs and shifts on the beat made for tight tactical racing.

Ronan Cull was the one and only sailor falling foul of the Black Flag, leaving Dave Quinn to take the bullet ahead of Oliver Keenan.

Race 2 got underway in lighter conditions after the wind veered back to the West. A clean start this time, and a last minute right hand shift biased the committee boat for the start. Some boats headed left, but the leaders came in from the mid-right once again! Dave Quinn and Troy Hopkins took the lead around the WW mark with the fleet in hot pursuit. Darrell Reamsbottom showed some great pace on the light air reaches to pull up to third by the Leeward mark, and eventually climbed to first early on into the second beat.

Heart Rates began to rise as the Race Committee shortened the course and sailors could see the finish line at the WW mark. The three boats left of centre were looking pretty good until Darragh Sheridan put in a "Brilliant Performance" (best of luck Daragh with the new book) on the last beat to throw the cat amongst the pigeons leading a bunch of boats in from the right in slightly better breeze. The wind died in the final third of the beat, and Ronan Cull showed good speed in the home straight to take the win. Closely followed by Oliver, Daragh, Darrell and Dave, who were only separated by a mere boatlength on the finish line.

Race 1 - Standard fleet:

1. Dave Quinn

2. Oliver Keenan

3. Ian McSweeney

4. Darrell Reamsbottom

5. Darragh Kelleher

Race 2 - Standard fleet

1. Ronan Cull

2. Oliver Keenan

3. Daragh Sheridan

4. Darrell Reamsbottom

5. Dave Quinn

#lasersailing – Fifteen knots of wind and bright sunshine welcomed 31 Laser dinghies on the first day of the 40th Laser Frostbites at Howth Yacht Club on Sunday morning. It was a baptism of fire for some, conservative downwind sailing for most, and plenty of off-wind planning and gybe mark capizes. Shifty breeze under the west pier made the upwind legs tricky at times, but our equally effective and efficient race committee (Liam Dinneen, Richard Kissane, John Doran and veteran of the first series David Jones) ran two 38 minute races with practiced presicion.

For the standard fleet, Race 1 kicked off promptly at 10:50, with reformed golfer Dave Quinn leading the fleet from the slightly biased pin followed closely by Daragh Kelleher, Daragh Sheridan and Ian McSweeney. Quinn held the lead around mark 1 and until second beat, Kelleher grabbing it then, with Ronan Cull taking advantage of the left and rounding the second windward mark in 3rd. Cull got inside Quinn downwind and rounded in 2nd - and this is how it would finish.

Further back there was more shifting of places: Daragh Sheridan, Stephen Quinn, Darrell Reamsbottom and Mike Evans battling for the next slots. Sheridan came out on top of the group finding his usual top 5 form after some first-day jitters and a capsize at the first leeward mark.

Wind: SW, 14-22 knots

Races sailed: 1 & 2, Olympic triangles

Race length: 38 min each

Leader, standard: Daragh Kelleher

Leader, radial: E McMahon

Leader, 4.7: N Staunton

First capsize of the season: Carla Fagan

Race 1 - Standard fleet:

1. Daragh Kelleher

2. Ronan Cull

3. Dave Quinn

4. Daragh Sheridan

5. Stephen Quinn

True to his pre-race briefing, no time was wasted by race officer Richard Kissane and only 50 seconds elapsed between the last finisher of race 1 and the start of race 2. The breeze was freshening, and those nearer the pin gained from a left-hand shift within the last minute. The first four around mark 1 were Kelleher, Dave Quinn, Evans and McSweeney all having gone left upwind, and this was the order of finishing, with Sheridan catching up to 5th. Ronan Cull was conspicuous by his absence having broken his boom immediately after the start. Again there was plenty of close sailing throughout the fleet - a good omen for some close racing over the next few months.

Race 2 - Standard fleet

1. Daragh Kelleher

2. Dave Quinn

3. Mike Evans

4. Ian McSweeney

5. Daragh Sheridan

#MiddleSeaRace - As previously reported on Afloat.ie, Irish-crewed boats made the podium in the 2014 Rolex Middle Sea Race that came to a close last week. But they didn't mark the only Irish involvement in the gruelling offshore challenge.

Howth Yacht Club was represented twice among the fleet, with one team chartering Lucy Reynolds' Beneteau First 40, Southern Child, and HYC sailor Laura Dillon setting out on the S&S 41, Winsome.

The latter was forced to retire from the race after the extreme weather conditions that hammered the Mediterranean midweek, with Dillon describing the situation as "frightening" – though both boat and crew were able to shelter at the Italian island of Pantelleria, relatively unscathed.

Meanwhile, the crew of Southern Child elected to push on to the finish, helped by their more remote location out of the full impact of the Force 10 gales that rammed the fleet.

Despite that fortune, the return leg was heavy going in confused seas and waves as high as 10 metres, and it was only on crossing the finish line that the crew discovered they'd placed sixth in Class 4, which saw 75% of entered boats retire.

"Sustained wind strengths of 44 knots for a period of 24 hours really tested the spirit of the crew, and the relentless conditions were some of the most difficult that I've seen," said HYC's Kieran Jameson, who crewed Southern Child with Darren Wright, Colm Bermingham, Frank Dillon, Rick De Nieve, David Wright, Paul Walsh, Jonny White, Will Murray and Lucy Reynolds.

The final day of the MSL Park Motors Mercedes-Benz Autumn League was a fitting culmination of a hugely successful 6-weeks keelboat racing for this 35th year of Howth Yacht Club's annual autumnal regatta. The 15-25 knot southerly wind, accompanied by clear blue skies and very warm sunshine, afforded the two race management teams the opportunity to set superb courses north and west of Ireland's Eye.

While rights on some of the silverware had already been secured in the previous week, the boats within the 9 participating classes engaged in a fiercely competitive finish to this series which saw Scorie Walls and Declan Browne's Puppeteer Gold Dust win the Heineken Trophy for the overall prize and the 3-boat team of Rita (Howth 17), Harmony (Class 2) and Gold Dust win the Olympus Trophy team prize.

The forecasted strong wind with gale gusts led some teams to stay ashore on Saturday morning, but those that went to sea were treated with superb racing conditions for the 90-120 minute courses. The one-design fleet was led by the J80 Sailfleet class and a race win for the Phelan/ Sheridan/ Knowles partnership secured them the title from the Flynn/ Buckley boat. In the Puppeteer class, the aforementioned Gold Dust won their final race and the result meant that their margin of 6 points over second-placed Trick or Treat (Alan Pearson) was enough to win the overall regatta prize. In the handicap division, Cyprian Feeley's Cloud 9 took the honours from Susan Sheridan's Ibis which finished level on points but Cloud 9's two race wins early in the series ensured their winning separation from Ibis.The Squibs travelled to the inland regatta at Lough Derg, so their standings from last week's race remained as final. (Fergus O'Kelly's Selik winning on scratch and Ronan McDonnell's Fantome won the handicap prize). Having to do penalty turns early in the Howth 17's race ensured that Brian & Conor Turvey's Isobel put itself out of contention with event winners Rita (Marcus Lynch and John Curley) - the 116 year old did enough to take the scratch prize. Mary Faherty's Sheila won the handicap prize, despite finishing the last race with a DNF (did not finish).

Sailing due east of the one-design courses, the cruiser classes raced in stronger winds and bigger seas and Pat Kelly with his team on Storm revelled in the conditions, securing their 5th win in Class 1 IRC while ICRA Commodore Norbert Reilly and Alan Chambers' Crazy Horse won the ECHO prize. Their 3rd win in Class 2 IRC placed Anthony Gore Grimes and his crew on Dux firmly on the winner's podium. Findlater Viking (Kevin Darmody and Mark Patterson) won the ECHO trophy.

An excellent race win by the HYC Under 25 Keelboat team on Kilcullen was not enough to steal the Class 3 IRC prize despite finishing on the same points as Vince Gaffney's Alliance II as the latter team's 2 race wins in the series afforded them the trophy. Lionel McMurtry's Hellyhunter won the ECHO prize by just half a point from Jonathan Wormald and Sean Walsh's Stagefright.

A 4th place finish in the last race by Colm Bermingham's Bite the Bullet helped Tiger (Frank Hughes and Stephen Harris) win Class 4 IRC, but the Tiger team also did it in style by winning the final race. David Sargent's Indulgence had won the ECHO trophy after 5 races and they were happy to take a 2nd place in the last race to compete a very successful series.

Class 5 IRC was won by Emmet Dalton's Jebus and the Denis Wickham Trophy for Class 5 ECHO was collected by Gordon Knaggs and his team on Jokers Wild. The Mini Series prizes were won by Storm (Class 1IRC), Patrick Cruise O'Brien's Dear Prudence (Class 1 ECHO), Kilcullen (Class 3 IRC), Cri Cri (Paul Colton) in Class 3 ECHO, Tiger (Class 4 IRC) and Indulgence (Class 4 ECHO).

Afterwards, MSL Park Motors Group Managing Director Brendan Grace thanked Feargal Kinsella and his event team as well as all the competitors for taking part in the very successful event and looked forward to growing their relationship with Howth Yacht Club with this event in the coming 2 years. Commodore Brian thanked the sponsors and said that they had added real value to the event and had integrated seamlessly with the club. MSL Park Motors Mercedes-Benz also ran a prize draw in aid of the RNLI - to which they donated €1500 in respect of all the entries to the draw. A further competition and draw for 2 GoPro cameras in aid of St Francis Hospice raised €1785 including a substantial donation by the sponsors.

Howth 17s Cronin Trophy presented by MSL Park Motors Mercedes Benz Brand Manager Dean Fullston with crew of 'Rita' - Jim Potter, Cordula Hansen and John Curley

Howth 17's Alphida Cup winner 'Sheila' - Mary Faherty with MSL Park Motors Mercedes Benz Brand Manager Dean Fullston

Joanne Kavanagh presents the Duropal Trophy to Puppeteer Scratch winners 'Gold Dust' - Josh Kelly, Conor McGowan, Scorie Walls, Declan Browne, Nigel Harrison

Joanne Kavanagh presents the Puppeteer handicap 'Snowgoose Trophy' to Jacqueline Feeley (Cloud 9)

Rachel Grace presents the Impala Regatta Trophy (Class 5 IRC) to Conor Howard and Emmet Dalton from 'Jebus'

'Jokers Wild' team: Fergal Corkery, Len Gallagher and Gordon Knaggs with MSL Park Motors' Rachel Grace

Stephen Harris and Chris Howard receive the Sleator Salver from Ronal McCaul

Ronan McCaul presents Michael Fleming with the Class 4 ECHO trophy

Vince Gaffney collects the Habu Trophy from Ronan McCaul

Gordon Stirling, Cian Manly and Harry Cronin collect the PAB Travel Trophy from MSL Park Motors Group Managing Director Brendan Grace

Dean Fullston presents the Cuffe Smith Trophy to 'Dux' - Evan Dolan, Anthony Gore Grimes, Andy Mollard and Ken O'Neill

Kevin Darmody collects the Class 2 ECHO prize from Dean Fullston

Pat Kelly (Storm) with the Evora Trophy and Dean Fullston

Ian McCormack (Crazy Horse) is presented the Joliba Trophy by Dean Fullston

Overall winners of the Autumn League's 'Heineken Trophy' - Gold Dust with Brendan Grace from MSL Park Motors

The MSL Park Motors Mercedes Benz Marketing team - Joanne Kavanagh and Andrea Byrne

The celebrations continued into the small hours....

#hyc – The by now familiar blue skies for this year's Howth Yacht Club's Autumn League were accompanied by slightly cooler weather this Saturday, along with a brisk 13-20 knots of wind from the west. Other alterations from the previous 3 weeks of keelboat racing included the start of the Mini-Series and a welcome to some new entrants - Philip Smith's Bavaria Match 35 'Just Jasmin' and Paul Colton's Quarter Tonner 'Cri Cri' both from the Royal Irish Yacht Club, as well as Declan Murphy's Hanse 37 'Zuri' from Carlingford.
Following this weekend's races and with the exception of Class 3 in the main series, all other classes in the main series now apply a discard having sailed 4 races. In Class 1 Pat Kelly's J109 'Storm' continues to dominate IRC and ECHO with 'perfect scores' – now discarding first places in each division means that the competition looks to be left to compete for the minor places. The very competitive Class 2 divisions are a much closer affair, where Anthony Gore Grimes' 'Dux' is 4 points clear on ECHO, but only one point ahead of Richard & Michael Evans' 'The Big Picture' and a further 3 points back is the Swan-Freyne partnership on the other half-tonner 'Harmony'.
A win by Vince Gaffney's 'Alliance II' from the HYC Under 25 team in 'Kilcullen' means that they remain in those respective positions at the top of the Class 3 IRC division, while the 'Kilcullen' team top the ECHO division from Lionel McMurtry's 'Hellyhunter' following Lionel's race win this week. In Class 4 White Sails IRC, David Sargent's 'Indulgence' looks set to challenge the Hughes-Harris' Beneteau 40.7 'Tiger', as they are now positioned 2 points behind 'Tiger' following victory in race 4. 'Indulgence' leads the other 16 competitors in the ECHO division and Michael Fleming's second-placed 'Trinculo' by 6 points.
In Class 5 White Sails IRC, a win by Harry Byrne and his team on 'Alphida' closes the gap to one point between their Sunrise 34 and Emmet Dalton's 'Jebus'.
The large Puppeteer class on the 'inshore fleet' of one-design keelboats pushed a bit too hard on their start line and were given a general recall by PRO David Lovegrove, who then set a Black Flag and discipline was restored for the restart of their race and the busy start line. A race win for the Murphy-Costello 'Yellow Peril' and a second place for Colin and Kathy Kavanagh's 'Blue Velvet' did little to alter the leaderboard, but the top placed Gold Dust will need to be consistent to for the final 2 races after applying their discard this week. Cyprian Feeley's Cloud 9 leads the handicap division by 2 points.
Being short a crew member for this week's race didn't help the Flynn-Buckley team on the ISA Sailfleet J80s, as they watched Joe Phelan and his team win this week and take the overall lead from them by one point. The gradually improving results by Alistair Kissane's team (2nd for this race) puts their boat into contention also.
The closest racing of the day was reserved for the two Squibs Fantome (Ronan McDonnell) and Selik (Fergus O'Kelly) with the former crossing the line a single second in front! Most of the Howth 17s had to be content with contending for 3rd place after Peter Courtney's Oona and Marcus Lynch and John Curley's Rita held on to their early lead and finished 1st and 2nd respectively. Rita consolidated her lead in the scratch division while the handicap spoils look likely to be contended by Mary Faherty's Sheila and Tom Houlihan's Zaida.
The MSL Park Motors Mercedes-Benz sponsored Autumn League continues next Saturday afternoon.

(Photo: the Class 2 half-tonner 'Harmony' powers upwind)

#hyc – September's relentless warm sunshine lit Howth Yacht Club's Autumn League race course again last Saturday, providing competitors with what must prove to be a final opportunity for 't-shirt and shorts' sailing as the inevitable October weather looms.

The start line for one-design fleet was laid facing the Portmarnock shoreline and the 4 classes (J80s, Puppeteers, Squib and Howth 17s) started on-time into a gradually-backing gentle breeze of 5-10 knots. While the early legs afforded the fleet tricky upwind and downwind legs in the increasing ebb tide, the eventual settling of wind direction from the south meant that many of the classes had to save their tactical battles for the final beat into Howth Sound.

The offshore fleet starts were postponed by their race management team, as their start line was positioned in an area that appeared to be caught between converging winds. However their patience was rewarded as Race Officer and HYC Rear Commodore Richard Kissane set his course to the newly settled southerly wind direction, giving great racing to the cruiser classes - all getting 2 hours on the racecourse. The pattern of a gradually-building wind has been a feature of the first three weeks of the MSL Park Motors Mercedes-Benz sponsored Autumn League, with almost no wind up to midday.

Once racing is completed next week, boats will be discarding their worst scores in the series and the resulting re-positioning of places in the leaderboards will focus the minds of all contenders for the 17 titles and overall title winners. The Team Prize is being competed for by five teams and is led by the Harmony (Class 2) - Rita (Howth 17) - Gold Dust (Puppeteer) team. This despite Harmony's crew attending a wedding this week and carrying a resulting maximum points for this week's race. 

#HYC – Several forecasts suggesting that the current spell of exceptionally good weather could last until mid-October have helped to inspire the revival of a Mini-Series between Howth and Dun Laoghaire boats during the last three races of the Howth Autumn League, which concludes on Saturday October 18th writes WM Nixon.

Dublin Bay Sailing Club's programme of summer Saturday racing for keelboats concludes this weekend (Saturday 27th September). ICRA Commodore Nobby Reilly, who races out of Howth in the Mills 36 Crazy Horse, feels that there's still enough life in the last of the summer to encourage the Dun Laoghaire boats across the bay for three more Saturdays of racing, and to facilitate this he is organising a three race challenge series within the second half of the six race Howth Autumn League format.

Dun Laoghaire crews will be encouraged by the user-friendly times. The races at Howth on Saturday October 4th and 11th will see the first gun at 2.30pm, while the concluding regatta on Saturday 18th October will get under way at 1130, thereby allowing plenty of time for the prize-giving and for the Dun Laoghaire boats to return to their home base.

Racing is available in IRC 1, 2 & 3, and in White Sails 4 & 5. Entries will be accepted up to the day of the first race (details from http://hyc.ie/autumn-league-homepage), but please call the HYC Marina Office on 01-8392777 few days beforehand to arrange your spcial-deal marina berth a few days beforehand.

#hyc – Howth Yacht Club sailors were involved in August's US Grand Slam series which consists of four ISAF grade 2 match race regatta's held across the Mid West and East Coast of the United States during the month of August. The series included the Chicago Grand Slam sailed in TOM 28's , The Detroit Cup sailed in Ultimate 20's, The Knickerbocker Cup and the Oakcliff International meanwhile were sailed in the stunning "mini- America's Cup boats" the Swedish Match 40's on the waters of Long Island Sound, New York.

Based on a cumulative points system, the series annually attracts the world's leading match race teams – this year was no different with the reigning World Match Race Tour Champion Taylor Canfield and his US One team competing along with numerous other top ranked teams.

The series began in Chicago where both Shane Diviney and Scott Flanigan worked for the summer in the Chicago Match Race Centre and Chicago Yacht club respectively. Shane competed with former Optimist World Champion Chris Steele and his 36 Below team from New Zealand who are ranked 16th in the world.

Scott meanwhile called tactics and trimmed mainsail for the Californian based, Long Beach Match Racing (LBMR) team skippered by multiple Congressional Cup helm Dustin Durant. Sam O'Byrne joined the LBMR team for the finale as a very proficient trimmer at the Oakcliff International in Oyster Bay, New York.

Shane experienced the greatest success of the HYC contingent when the 36 Below team finished second overall in the Grand Slam series after a strong final regatta at the Oakcliff International losing out to series winner Pierre-Antoine Morvan of France in the final. Sam and Scott meanwhile also had some personal highs with LBMR beating Morvan's team along with top name Dave Perry in the Round Robin.

All four events were brilliantly organised and it was great to have Howth so well represented in the U.S this summer. Undoubtedly the experiences shared by this trio will provided the exuberance needed to reinvigorate the Irish match race circuit again, which could not have a better home than in Howth with the J80's.