The final day of the Saab Cruiser Nationals hosted by HYC on behalf of the Irish Cruiser Racing Association was sailed in glorious conditions with the wind filling in reasonably early, after a less than promising start to the day. As it was, both fleets were able to race the trapezoid and round-the-cans races scheduled for Sunday to complete the full seven race series.
While Cork boats emerged successful in two of the four divisions and the hot favourite to win Division Zero did precisely that, pride of place at a local level goes to the crew of 'Relativity', who added two bullets on the last day to the two on Saturday to come from behind to take the National Division 3 title by four points.
And Howth success was not limited to Relativity. In Division Zero, Alan Chamber's Infinity did enough in the last two races to hold the lead in the ECHO standings from two other Howth boats and the Tom Fitzpatrick-helmed Cracklin Rosie (Dickson/Nixon) won both the Sunday races to get within two points of the eventual IRC Champion Voodoo Chile (Eamonn Crosbie, NYC).
It was a real Cork benefit in Division 1 where Antix (Anthony O'Leary) topped the charts ahead of clubmates Obsession V (Barry Rose) and Checkmate (MacCarthy Brothers) to win the series on IRC. Paul O'Higgins' Rockabill IV (NYC) sailed consistently over the three days to win the ECHO title.
Munster was again to the fore in Division 2 where Tom Brennan's Respect from Kinsale only had one result outside the top five and was a convincing winner of Division 2 IRC ahead of half a dozen HYC boats lead by Rum Doodle (Declan Byrne) and Benola (Pat Gregory). Rum Doodle went one better in the ECHO standings to wiin that national title ahead of clubmates Tigger (Cassidy/Markey) and Jim Molohan's Dochas.
When you are discarding a fifth, you know that a crew has assembled a remarkable string of results and four wins in a row was enough for Relativity (Richard Colwell/Suzy Wallace) to gain a four point margin after discards over Cracker (Arthurs/Butler) from Malahide and Yami-Yami (Tom Kirby) from Schull to become Irish Division 3 Champions.
John Faller's Checkmate kept HYC in the frame on ECHO, finishing runner-up to DMYC entry Asterix.
The general consensus of opinion among competitors was that it was a superb event, well run in every respect and particularly on the water where the two Race Officers, David Lovegrove and Derek Bothwell and their teams were the recipients of considerable praise.
HYC was delighted to have received sponsorship support from Saab and the company was more than pleased with the exposure it received before and during the event, with branding much in evidence around the club premises since last week.
Graham Smith
Day 3 - Overall placings after 7 races
Division 0 (IRC)
1. Voodoo Chile - E Crosbie NYC (11.00)
2. Cracklin'Rosie - Dickson/Nixon HYC (12.00)
3. Dark Angel - E Conneely GBSC (24.00)
