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A melee ensued under the nose of the Race Management team and yachts ducked and dived to try and avoid each other. Luckily no one was injured but there was some dented pride and Peter Beamish's new Aztec suffered a large hole in the starboard quarter. Tom Murphy on Midnight Express who has failed to get a mention this year was seen grabbing the tiller and ramming the stern of Free Enterprise in an attempt to bail out. No whiplash injuries have been reported so far.
On the Rox romped home to record a final race win and took the overall prize from Equinnox & Juno who were 2nd & 3rd respectively overall. The legendry team of Aidan McManus & Kiaran Jameson on Changling held off the challange from On The Rox and Pat Kelly's Breeze from Rush Sailing club and won the overall Echo division.
Class 2 saw an equally anticipated finale to the series and it was a battle royal between Terry Giles and his dream team aboard the X302 Xebec and Paddy Gregory's Elan 31 Benola who won IRC last year. Benola and was determined to have a match race encounter with Xebec who had Johnny Swan driving for the last race (Terry had back problems!) and Richard Burrows guesting on the main sheet (and no doubt would have had an input on Tactics). Water Rat has been informed that in the heat of the start, Benola picked the wrong X302 to engage with, taking on Dux which left the avenue open for Xebec who had another race win and clinched the overall title from Benola. Conor Nolan's Aloha took third overall and these three took the same position s on Echo. Aloha also won the IRC Restricted division.
Class 3 was dominated by the HYC Junior Dream Team of Declan McManus, Darragh O'Reilly and Dylan Gannon who borrowed Dave Cullen's Impala 28 Wild Mustard to claim top prize. Hydrogin and Dave Butler's Cracker both from Malahide took 2nd and 3rd overall respectively. Arthur Slye sailed Turnabout to victory in the Echo Division with Sean Colbert's Hydrogin and Goyave taking 2nd and 3rd.
The Etchells Class was also a close run affair with Dan O'Grady sailing Gelert to a final race win and 2nd overall. The consistency of Mike McCann & Des Flood on Dont Dilly Dally kept them in top spot overall with Simon Knowles in Jabbawocky in third.
 Gelert
The Puppeteer 22 class saw Andy & Sandra's Mayfly sail a near faultless series to take the overall title from defending Champ Dave Clarke in Harlequin. The word 'near faultless' relates to Mayfly taking a starboard West mark rounding on the last race with Squibs, Etchells and Pupps leaving it to Port. The gentlemanly sport sailing is saw Harlequin approach some 50 yards behind Mayfly and sees the incorrect act. Whilst hailing Protest, Harlequin forgot to pull up their own jib, take the pole down drop the spinnaker. Once rounded to Port, the jib was still on the deck, and the spinny set inflated aft of the back stay. By the time the Harlequin's crew got sorted, Mayfly had returned, re-rounded the West mark and had regained the 50 yard lead (Water Rat believes Mr Sargent wrote the entire Autumn League Courses!). Alan Pearson & Colin O'Dohohue sailed Trick or Treat into a good third overall. Mojo finished fourth overall but whilst they have featured in previous articles they encountered their most embarrassing incident of the series on Sunday. The dreaded Clew hoist!!!!!
 Mayfly
Eddy O'Reilly sailing Geppetto clinched the overall Echo title in the Pupp Class but yards after finishing the last race he took it upon himself to check out the foredeck. He slipped and found himself burst through the leeward guardrail and barely managed to hang on whilst up to his neck in the water. A lesson to be learned is to check your gas bottle on the inflatable life jacket as his didn't inflate!. Cib & Jacqui Feely in Cloud 9 took 2nd overall and Billy Morgan & John Murray in Nefertari took 3rd on handicap.
In the Squib class, Pot Black sailed by Se O'Leary went into the last race neck & neck with Tim Concannon in Femme Fatale and Emmet Dalton's Scream with any three of these boats capable of lifting the overall trophy. It was however O'Leary with Gillian Guinness crewing who lead from early on up the first beat and consolidated thereafter to retain the title for a second year running. Femme Fatale took second on the day and second overall. Emmet's Scream took third overall.
On the Handicap front it was a close run affair between Emer Harte's Ricochet and Mark Wheeler's Gizmo. Having suffered gear failure shortly after the start, the overall title fell to Ms Harte and Gizmo has to settle for second overall. Michael Cantwell in Whipper Snapper took a well earned third overall.
 Pot Black
 Oona
 Hideaway
The winning Team was Flying Glove (Class 0), Erica (HYC 17) and Dont Dilly Dally (Etchell).
The Heineken Trophy is awarded to the top boat who wins their Class on Scratch or Irc by the biggest margin of points. This year was exceptionally close in all fleets with the award going to Andy & Sandra Sargent's Mayfly who won by a mere 3 points. That shows how close the racing was in all of the other fleets.
That wraps up the 2004 Autumn League and our thanks to all the Competitors for making the event what it is, to the Race Management Teams, Protest Committees, Organising Committees, Rupert Jeffares, General Manager HYC and all Staff and finally to the Sponsors AIB Bank, KMPG, Bank Of Ireland, BJ Marine, UK McWilliam Sails, Teeling Motors and Cork Dry Gin who all contributed to another outstanding event.
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500k worth of class 1 yachts approached the rear of the Free Enterprise facing a stricken crew stuck on the leeward guard rail of 
