Busy season at Yacht club
THE recent good weather has helped Sligo Yacht Club off to a very busy start this season.
There have been an influx of new boats in both the J24 and Gp14 fleets, with two new J24s and five new GPs joining the racing at the club this month, and it looks as if the numbers participating at will continue to increase for a second year in a row.
The first GP races this year were sailed on Thursday evening with officer of the day and current Commodore Gerry Brady in charge of proceedings.
There were seven teams taking part, including the very fast John and Jessica Greer in their recently acquired boat. Colm O’Flaherty and Joey Murray lead from the start of the first race right to the end with Gerry Gilligan and Luca Nicelson finishing in second place just ahead of Niall Henry and Ossian Geraghty. The second race of the evening was won by Niall and Ossian with Colm and Joey in second and Gerry and Lucia in third. The final race of the night ended with Colm and Joey showing some good downwind speed for a second win, closely followed by Gerry and Lucia in second and John and Jessica in third.
A full compliment of new sailors have been taking part in the clubs annual Adult Sailing Course this year.
The course members have been trying out the sailing on Sligo Bay in both the Js and GPs assisted by club members for the last two weeks. There will be two further adult sailing courses throughout the Summer, the Woman on the Water course takes place over two weekends in June and a supervised sailing course will happen throughout the months of July and August. Booking and information can be found on the club’s website, sligoyachtclub. ie. Booking for the Junior Sailing Courses running throughout the months of July and August are also currently on sale through the club website.