Rope Dock Atara triumphant again at 1720 European Championships!

After the disappointment of having all racing on Day 3 of the Simply Blue Sovereign’s Cup cancelled yesterday, sailors were anxious to get back on the water today and an amendment to the sailing instructions brought the first gun of the day forward by 30 minutes with Race Officer Ciarán McSweeney and his team set to run off three races to conclude the 1720 European Championships.

The sunshine of the first two days was nowhere to be seen, but the conditions had moderated significantly from those of Friday and the fleet headed out to the race area with full jibs and masthead kites.  The records will show that Ross, Robbie and Co on Rope Dock Atara retained their European 1720 crown with five bullets out of nine races sailed – and after a shaky start this morning, they capped off their championship with two wins in the last races.  For the Root 1 team from Dunmore East, they can only rue their missed opportunity – a 14^th place in the second last race that they couldn’t discard effectively sinking their challenge, despite two fine second place finishes in today’s other two races.  Rope Dock Atara won with a total score of 22 points to the 31 of Root 1; had Julian Hughes’ crew on Root 1 been able to score a second, third or fourth place in Race 8 they would be European 1720 champions, but it wasn’t to be… Tight margins at the top!  As if to underline that point, Root 1 had only a single point to spare over Fionn Lyden on Spiced Beef.  The Baltimore Sailing Club team had two third place finishes today to lock in the overall third place they had claimed after the first two days of racing.  Interestingly, the finishing order of the final race of the series was Rope Dock Atara first, Root 1 second and Spiced Beef third – fittingly matching the overall outcome of the series.

A big shout out to Robert O’Leary and crew on Dutch Courage who came home a very creditable fourth overall with just a single top-three finish in Race 8, but a string of finishes comfortably in the top ten.  Anthony and Nin on Antix got pinged for an OCS in Race 7 that dropped them out of the top five placings overall.  The team who claimed the last top five berth overall was Dave Kenefick’s Full Irish who started the final day with a bullet and a third place, but slipped to a tenth for the final race.  Spare a thought though for the After Headcase team of Dickson, Mulloy, Ryan, Glynn and O’Byrne.  They finished even on points with Full Irish, but lost out on the top five slot on countback.

The forecasted build in the wind in the afternoon never materialised and the race management team had crews heading back to base with a very pleasant breeze not long after 13:30.  Boats were being hauled out from both Kinsale boatyard and the main pier in the town not long after.  Thanks to all the volunteers who give of their time and effort, including our industrious Class Captain Dave Love, to deliver outstanding and enjoyable events such as we had this week for the 1720 class.  See you all out on the race course in the not too distant future – whether it’s at the Baltimore Cup on August Bank Holiday weekend or at the Irish 1720 Nationals hosted by Waterford Harbour Sailing Club in Dunmore East on 21^st-23^rd September.