Sailing championships.
OVER the past two weekends boats from the Northwest region have been competing for honours in the Malinwaters Northwest Offshore Racing Assoc. 2018 Championship.
The event is held over two venues and a coastal pursuit race to get competitors from Rosses Point to Mullaghmore.
The action started at Sligo Yacht Club on Friday 20th July. Under the supervision of Principal Race Officer, Declan Sheridan, the fleet completed a series of five inshore races.
The first three races of the Sligo Bay inshore series saw three different winners.
Two local boats, Brian Raftery’s Gossip and Owen Carton’s Printfix.ie, both claimed a race each on the Friday evening and John Buckley’s Jota from Mullaghmore claimed victory in Saturday’s first race.
However, it was consistency of form that paid the biggest dividends in the IRC fleet, with Adam Sutor and Ken Draper’s Jevan finishing the inshore series just one point behind Gossip, with the rest of the pack trailing a further 3 points behind. Under ECHO, Jota and Jevan were tied in first and Gerry Brady’s Luder Too just behind them
As the fleet headed for the starting line on the morning of Sunday the 21st of July, there were beautiful blue skies but hardly any breeze.
After a twenty minute postponement, the fleet began to race. In very light winds, the boats crossed tacks as they made their way past Ardbolin island. Jevan faired badly in the first hours of the race, falling behind the main group.
However, when the wind died away and the leaders were becalmed off Ballyconnell, Jevan managed to sail further offshore right out to Inishmurray Island and slipped past the entire fleet.
Arriving first in Mullaghmore, they claimed a double point victory and pulled three points ahead at the top of the IRC leader board.
The Mullaghmore inshore series began on Friday 27th July, in rain and light wind conditions.
The closely packed fleet inched their way around the racecourse with Brian Raftery’s Gossip finishing just ahead of Jevan to reduce their lead to two points.
Saturday morning could not have been more different with winds of over 20 knots creating a big swell off Mullaghmore. Regardless of the bracing conditions the sailors took to the water and the battle be- tween Gossip and Jevan continued, with Gossip claiming line honours over Jevan in two more races, the leaders were tied going into the final day of the competition.
On ECHO, Gerry Brady’s team on Luder Too started to show their form and claimed victory on Friday evening, only to be forced to retire after a racing incident on Saturday.
Sunday morning saw perfect racing conditions, with sunshine and 12 knots of wind,
Principal Race Officer, Matt Cody gave the fleet a great race course and the sailors battled it out in the final two races of the twelve race series.
ECHO racing was given a masterclass, with Luder Too finishing the series with two bullets to claim the 2018 ECHO Title. Under IRC, the Jevan team of Draper, Sutor, Broaders, Collins & Mulcahy pushed hard but in the end it was Gossip with Raftery, Henry, Skinner, Brogan, Henderson and OHaras on board that managed to clinch the Malinwaters NORA 2018 Championship IRC title in the final race.
Full Results Below
IRC Handicap
1st Gossip – Brian Raftery
2nd Jevan – Adam Sutor/Ken Draper 3rd Jota – John Buckley/Michael Staines
ECHO
1st Luder Too – Gerard Brady
2nd Jobs for the Boys – Mervyn Boles/ Joe Carr
3rd The Italian Job – Peter Forte