SAAB CRUISER NATIONALS at HOWTH YACHT CLUB

SAAB CRUISER NATIONALS at HOWTH YACHT CLUB
GREAT START TO 3-DAY IRSH CRUISER NATIONALS

The first day of the Saab Irish Cruiser Nationals was sailed in near ideal conditions at Howth Yacht Club today (Friday 16th May), with the 100+ boats in the four classes racing in a moderate 10-12 knot easterly breeze, sunshine and a reasonably flat sea.

Classes 0 and 1 had two races the round-the-cans course and it was a particularly good start in the big boat division for Anthony O’Leary on ‘Antix Eile’ (the Ker 39 otherwise known as Silk Glove!). The Roayl Cork crew turned in two very impressive performances, taking line and IRC honours in both and leading overall on both IRC and ECHO handicaps.

Much as expected, Class 0 is already being dominated by the Cork visitors, with Dave Dwyer’s Mills 39 ‘Marinerscove.ie’ and Conor Phelan’s Ker 36.7 ‘Jump Juice’ filling the next two places overall. It was not such a good day for UK entry Peter Rutter in his new Corby 36 ‘Quokka’, down the lower half of the 13-strong fleet after two mid-table results. Roy Dickson’s older equivalent, ‘Rosie’, enjoyed a better day and the Howth boat lies fourth overall, within touching distance of the top three.

On ECHO, George Sisk’s Farr 42 ‘WOW’ breaks up the O’Leary-Dwyer axis by finishing the day in 2nd spot.

Whatever about the results, the major talking point in 29-boat Class 1 was the holing of ICRA Commodore Fintan Cairns’ boat ‘Raptor’, a strange occurrence in view of the moderate conditions. ON the racing front, Barry Cunningham’s Corby 33 ‘Contango’ from the Royal Irish and ‘Checkmate XII’, the J109 of Tino Hyland & Nigel Biggs from the RStGYC, are all square at the head of the IRC standings after swapping 1st and 2nd places in the two races.

Another Royal St.George J109, the Power-Smith’s ‘Rollercoaster’ is only one point adrift of the ECHO handicap leader, the Rush Sailing Club entry ‘Storm’ (Pat Kelly).

Over on the windward-leeward course, set off Malahide, three races were completed, although it took some time to get the ball rolling as Class 2 boats had a tendency to break the line. It forced five re-starts, with the OCS penalty hitting a number of boats, including one of the pre-event favourites ‘Kinetic’ (Murphy & Colwell) from Howth..

As it was, ‘Zoom’, Nicola & Stuart Harris’s DB1 from Waterford Harbour, won that first race while ‘Kinetic’ went on to score two bullets in some style. The OCS result however drags them down to 12th overall, with another Corby 25 from Pwllheli, the Williams/Partington ‘Wil2Win’ holding a mere half point advantage over Declan Byrne’s Elan 31 ‘Rum Doodle’ from the host club.
The Welsh visitor is also on top of the ECHO listings with a 6-point gap over ‘Yanks $ Ffrancs’, another Corby 25, belonging to the Cork Vincent O’Shea (not to be confused with the Malahide Vincent O’Shea of Met Eireann fame in ‘Bushwakka’!)

Class 3 was much better behaved, with no premature starts causing problems, and after three races, Vince Gaffney’s Albin Express ‘Alliance’ from Howth is living up to expectations with two firsts and a second to lead overall.

In second place is the J24 ‘Hard on Port’ (Flor O’Driscoll of RStGYC), which twice took line honours, and another J24 ‘Brian McDowell’s ‘Scandal’ from Malahide is in third place. The two Js hold the same places on ECHO, apoint behind series leader ‘Asterix’, the Dun Laoghaire Sonata of the Counihan/Meredith/Caulfield partnership.
Racing continues on Saturday, with the fleets swapping race courses.
Overall Results (after 3 races)
Class 0 (IRC)
1. Antix Eile Anthony O’Leary RCYC
2. Marinerscove.ie David Dwyer RCYC
3. Jump Juice Conor Phelan RCYC
Class 0 (ECHO)
1. Antix Eile Anthony O’Leary RCYC
2. WOW George Sisk RIYC
3. Marinerscove.ie David Dwyer RCYC
Class 1 (IRC)
1. Contango Barry Cunningham RIYC
2. Checkmate XII Hyland/Biggs RStGYC
3. Exaltation David McFarland Carrickfergus
Class 1 (ECHO)
1. Storm Pat Kelly Rush SC
2. Rollercoaster C&P Power-Smith RStGYC
3. Contango Barry Cunningham RIYC
Class 2 (IRC)
1. Wil2Win Williams/Partington Pwllheli SC
2. Rum Doodle Declan Byrne HYC
3. Obsession V1 Barry & David Rose RCYC
Class 2 (ECHO)
1. Wil2Win Williams/Partington Pwllheli SC
2. Yanks $ Ffrancs Vincent O’Shea RCYC
3. Impetuous Noonan/Gowing/Chambers HYC
Class 3 (IRC)
1. Alliance Vince Gaffney HYC
2. Hard on Port Flor O’Driscoll RStGYC
3. Scandal Brian McDowell MYC
Class 3 (ECHO)
1. Asterix Counihan/Meredith/Caulfield DLM
2. Hard on Port Flor O’Driscoll RStGYC
3. Scandal Brian McDowell MYC