Moved to Skerries

The first RS200 Irish National Championships from Skerries SC took place over the weekend

It the past five years the RS Irish Nationals have been held at Greystones SC in mid October; often with some heavy rain and autumn strong winds. This year the Irish Nationals made a very successful move up the east coast of Eire to Skerries SC ten miles north of Dublin for three days of some mighty fine racing on Oct 13-15th. A smaller than usual group of boats travelled from Britain but boy did they find great sailing conditions and a very friendly club.

Friday saw three races in a good force four to five from the south in mild weather and very small sea. Saturday and four races were held in almost totally blue sky and a more patchy force four coming slightly off the land giving a very flat sea; you had to keep on reminding yourself this was October and not July. Then Sunday lulled us all into a false sense of security; it dawned very grey and misty and as the RS200 and RS400 fleets rigged in the lee of the harbour the overnight leader was expressing the view there was only ten knots of wind. The wind had gone Southeast and slowly built all morning to force four bringing with it a proper sea; the sort of long waves that will be talked about for a long time; believe the stories. So we had two races where downwind made you go yahoo the whole time and boats kept on disappearing in troughs.

The event was totally dominated by Ian Pickard and Lucy Matthews from Bristol Corinthian YC who had awesome downwind speed throughout the event. Even when Lucy lived up to her nickname and drank herself under the table on Irish cider they still won; that is cheating!

Pippa Williams from Emsworth was short of a helm for her boat on Monday so rang Sean Craig who organised his cousin Roger Craig to helm. Roger is the prospective Irish Laser helm at the next Olympics and quickly demonstrated he could sail to windward leading at many windward marks but loosing out to the Bristol boys downwind. The longer the event went on the quicker he got the hang of downwind and an emphatic display on Sunday sealed second overall and the Irish Nationals.

Pete Vincent and Eluned Jones from Bristol Corinthian YC were always in the fight but in the end had to settle for a long way clear in third overall. Sean Craig and Heather King, Paul Lewis and Felicity Pearson and Frank O’Rouke and Sarah Byrne were competitive and had good races but could not consistently challenge the leading three.

A very tired but very happy group of sailors made their way home. Skerries had been excellent hosts, particularly with providing quick food after sailing often included the entry fee.

Results:

Pos	Helm	Crew	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8	R9	R10	Tot
1	Ian Pickard	Loopie Lucy	1	1	1	1	1	2	2	1	1	6	10
2	Roger Craig	Pipa Williams	2	5	2	3	2	1	1	3	2	1	15
3	Pete Vincent	Eluned Jones	3	2	4	2	3	3	6	2	3	3	22
4	Sean Craig	Heather King	4	4	3	4	7	6	4	5	5	2	33
5	Paul Lewis	Felicity Pearson	5	3	17	5	6	5	5	4	4	4	36
6	Frank O'Rourke	Sarah Byrne	6	6	6	9	8	4	3	6	17	5	47
7	Graeme Noonan	Nicola Smyth	7	9	8	7	5	7	7	7	10	17	60
8	John Todd	Ben Moag	8	10	5	11	9	12	8	8	6	17	69
9	Roy Van Maanen	Glen Reid	9	8	7	6	4	17	17	17	11	17	87
10	Marty O' Leary	Rachel Smyth	10	13	10	10	13	8	17	9	7	17	87
11	Gabrielle Igoe	Celine Mc Guire	11	14	12	12	14	11	10	12	9	7	87
12	Brian Flahive	Erica Smyth	12	7	11	17	12	9	11	10	17	17	94
13	Ross Kearney	Catherine Vaughan	13	11	9	8	17	17	17	17	8	17	104
14	Michael Wright	Lindsay Mc Carty	14	17	17	17	11	10	9	11	17	17	109
15	Steven Tyner	Emma Hett	15	17	17	17	10	17	17	17	12	17	124
16	Lloyd Hamilton Felton	Mark Felton	16	12	17	17	17	17	17	17	17	17	131