SECOND WEEKEND OF SPRING SERIES - ONE SAILS
11 April, 2011
The second series of races in the Kinsale Yacht Club Spring Series, which was sponsored this week by ONE SAILS, got off to a very slow start in unseasonably good April weather last Sunday. Bright blue skies and sunshine greeted race officals and competitors alike, but alas no wind...which is a prerequisite for yacht racing! The officers of the day, Alan Crosbie and Neil Prendeville, had to postpone the start for a couple of hours, whilst waiting for the breeze to fill in. Finally at 13:30 both groups were rewarded for their patience as the wind appeared, and settled into a southerly breeze of 10 knots.
Classes 3 and 4 were on the windward-leewward course this week, being looked after by Alan Crosbie. The start of race one had to be abandoned with a minute to go, as the wind shifted slightly to the west. The weather mark was shifted towards the Speckled Door pub on the Old Head ,with the leeward mark positioned near the Bulman Buoy. In near perfect conditions Powder Monkey, owned by Liam Lynch, won race one in Class 3 IRC, followed by Eammon Rohan's Anchor Challange, with Shillelagh, John Twomey, in third. The second race of the day saw the wind increase to 12-14 knots. Anchor Challange led this race from the off, until the final beat, where the crew got caught in reduced pressure. The hard chasing Shillelagh managed to avoid this, to close the gap, and win the race. Anchor Challange was second, with Eddie Rice's Impala Impacunious third. The overall standings after four races in IRC, see Shillelagh leading, with Anchor Challange in second and Powder Monkey third. Class 3 Echo sees Impacunious leading overall, followed by Powder Monkey and Stagefright in third.
Class 4 were also on the windward leeward course. Alan Mulcahy's Sundancer continued to show form, leading overall in IRC, with two firsts on the day. Shelly D owned by Mick Murphy, is in second place overall with two seconds this week, followe by La Maraquita belonging to Eddie Higgins and Kevin Morrisson, third in the overall standings. Class 4 ECHO, the results are turned on their head, with La Maraquita, having scored a third and a first last Sunday, leading overall followed by Shelly D, with Sundancer third on the overall leader board.
Neill Prenderville, the OD for Classes 0, 1 and 2, faced the same challanges for setting a course as Alan Crosbie. The course, when it was set, turned into a beautiful round the cans race, with the weather mark at Black Head, South Mark as a gybe mark and the pin end as a leeward mark. Classes 0 and 1 started together in 12-14 knot breeze. Gloves Off, owned by Twomey and O'Mahony, led around the course, revelling in the conditions,to take first in the race in IRC 0. Connor Doyle's Freya managed second, with Tom Roche's Meridian hot on her heels in third place. After the second round of the series, this leaves Gloves Off leading IRC 0, from Freya, with Godkin and O'Donovan's Godot in third place in the league. The same three boats took the top spots in Class 0 ECHO, this week. Meridian in first place, followed by Gloves Off and Freya third. The overalls in Class 0 Echo see Godot leading from Freya and Meridian in third position.
In Class 1 IRC David Scott's Eos had a superb race to defeat Anthony
O' Leary's highly competitive modified 1720 Antix Beag, with Dan
Buckley's J-109 Justus coming in third. This result leaves
Antix Beag with a slender lead in IRC overall, of just one
point. Eos is chasing hard in second place,with Chancer owned by the
Carroll brothers, hanging on to third place overall. In Class 1 ECHO, Eos
won Sunday's race, followed by Justus, with Aidan Heffernan's
Indulgence in third.
The leader board in Class1 ECHO, after two rounds of racing, shows Indulgence on top, with Eos in second place, and Chancer in third.
In Class 0 and 1 Restricted Freya had a first, Eos second and Meridian in
third. The overall results are Freya, leading from Chancer and Godot
bringing up third place.
In Class 2 IRC, the league table is quite congested, with only five points separating the top six boats, making for some very competitive racing. This week, Vinny O'Shea's Yanks and Franks, came up trumps with a first place, followed by a very consistant Seahawk, owned by Clem McElligot in second place, with Brian Goggin's Corby 25, Allure in third. These results mean that Seahawk still leads in the overall standings, followed by Allure, with the Desmond, Ivers, Deasy Sunfast 32, Bad Company in third place. Class 2 Echo sees a consolidation of the lead at the top of the league by Y-Knot. Wicked owned by Mark Mendell won this weeks race, with the Barrett and Conlon owned Y-Knot in second, followed by Sammy Cohen's Gunsmoke II in third. This means the overall results of Y-Knot, Seahawk and Gunsmoke II, in that order, are unchanged from last week.
The White Sail Class, presided over by OD Donal Hayes, got off to a much more leisurly start with a first gun at 13:.25. Staying in the harbour, they had a nice breeze while all the other classes were languishing with no wind out to sea. Charisma, belonging to Des Lyons and Aine Dunne took first place on the day, with Dave Cullinane's Delos in second and Val Criss owned by Murphy, Hennessy, Dann in third. This leaves Val Criss in pole position overall, from Billy Joyce's Windrose, and Dave O'Sullivan's Cimarron VI in third.
Once again a debt of gratitude is owed to the OD's and their
Helpers. Without their patience and tenacity, racing could not take
place, and also to the genorous Day Sponsor ONE SAILS.