Howth Yacht Club

Anglo Irish Bank Autumn League
Day 6 - Final Day

Saturday, 21st October

Report by Graham Smith

The 2006 Anglo Irish Bank Autumn League came to a close in ideal sailing conditions - sunshine and Force 4 southerly/south-easterly winds - with the final race in the six-race series.

While three classes were already decided before the sixth race even got started, there was plenty to race for in the others ... and the overall results in several classes were as close as they get, with discards or number of wins needed to separate some of the top contenders.

Class 0 - Rosie - R & V Dickson - HYC

Class 0 saw the only perfect score in the entire Autumn League with Roy Dickson's 'Rosie' recording yet another bullet to make it six-out-of-six on IRC, and line honours as well to add an extra bit of satisfaction for the crew. They also won again on ECHO to take that title too, with 'Tiger' (Hughes & Harris) and 'Independent Bear' (Matt Davis) having to be content with 2nd and 3rd respectively on both handicap systems.

Class 1 - Same Old Story - D Cronin - MYC

In Class 1 'Flashback' (Don Breen et al) got back to winning ways in race 6, taking the gun by a mere 9 seconds from 'Aquelina' (with Mossy Shanahan helming) and beating 'Equinox' (Emma McDonald) on corrected time. It wasn't enough to upset the general order of things with Dermot Cronin's J35 'Same Old Story' from Malahide already the clear overall winner ahead of 'Equinox' and 'Aquelina'.

Michael Fleming's 'Trinculo' took the ECHO honours in race 6 but it was Cronin on the double, winning the series on both handicaps, this time with 'Baily' (Fitzpatrick & Glennon) taking the runners-up spot.

Class 2 - Kinetic - Colwell & Murphy - HYC

Class 2 was as close as it gets. Terry Giles' 'Xebec' got another win with 'Sunburn' (Ian Byrne) second but 3rd for 'Crewsaver Harmony' (Biggs & Hyland) and 5th for 'Kinetic' (Colwell & Murphy) remarkably turned up a tie for first between the visitors from Budworth SC and the Howth-based Corby, with identical gross scores and an identical discard! Using the number of wins as the next tie-breaker, Kinetic's three firsts to their rivals' one means that the Class 2 IRC trophy stays at home!

'Mac Magic' (Peter & Declan McCabe) beat 'Relax Freebird' (Richard Dalton from DMYC) on ECHO but third place was enough for 'Sunsari' (Soffe & Salter) to beat both of them for the ECHO overall honours by just one point, having lead the series for some time. In the IRC Restricted Division, 'The Big Picture' (Evans/Heffernan/Freyne) narrowly beat main rival 'Toughnut' (Dermot Skehan) and it was enough to keep them at bay in the final outcome.

Class 3 - Goyave - Camier & FitzPatrick - MYC

Class 3 was always going to be a close run affair, with any one of four boats capable of taking the IRC title. 'Hydrogin' (Colbert/Davis) from Malahide got the gun but their ever-improving clubmates 'Goyave' (Russell Camier & Colm FitzPatrick) were right on their heels and won on corrected time to take the overall prize by a margin of three points.

Vince Gaffney's third in 'Alliance' and Basil MacMahon's fourth in 'Holly' meant a three-way tie for 2nd. Using most wins to decide, the finishing order was 'Alliance', 'Holly' and 'Hydrogin'. 'Goyave' were not that far away from a double success, but another ECHO win for Frank Magann's 'Drumbeat' was enough to win overall and put the Malahide boat back into 2nd.

White Sail Cruiser - Bite The Bullet - C Bermingham - HYC

'Rebellion' (John Hughes & Sean O'Mahony) had their best result in the White Sail Cruiser class with a win in the final race and 'Bite the Bullet' (Colm Bermingham) might have had one of his worst (11th) but it wasn't bad enough to upset the overall apple-cart. However, there was little to choose between him and 'Changeling' (Kieran Jameson/Aidan MacManus) in the end.

Etchells - Mandeline Reign - Beshoff & O'Grady - HYC

The closeness of racing in one-design classes was perfectly illustrated in the Etchells when the first nine finishers crossed the line in a 2-minute spell, headed by William Lacy's 'Defiance'. The most critical result, however, was 2nd place for Irish Champions Beshoff/O'Grady/Reilly in 'Mandeline Reign' when their nearest rival, Olympic helm David Burrows, could do no better than 6th. It was a four-point gap that transferred to an identical gap in the overall standings, before they head for the Worlds in Perth, Australia.

Puppeteer - Mayfly - A & S Sargent - HYC

The husband-and-wife team of Andy and Sandra Sargent have very quietly been getting better and better as the Puppeteer series has progressed and Saturday's final race was another win clinched the overall title by four points from class champion David Clarke's 'Harlequin'. Early leader Garrett May's 'Ibis' was third in the last race and had to be content with fourth overall behind Jonny Swan's 'Chancer'.

'Haemoglobin' (M&C Patton) won the final race on ECHO but nothing could prevent Tim Chillingworth ('Gannet') from winning overall, finishing with a very impressive 14.5 points margin over 'Mojo' (Callan & Stanley).

Squib - Kookaburra - Guinness & O'Leary - HYC

Cronin, Massey & Kenny 'Fantomme' (Ronan MacDonnell) may have won the Squibs' last race from 'Whipper Snapper' (Michael Cantwell) but the overall result was already well known before the starting sequence. Fourth may have been Gillian Guinness & Se O'Leary's worst result but they still won the event with a massive nine point margin over Richard McMurtry's 'Pot Black', with the latter gaining some consolation by winning on handicap from James O'Flynn's 'Roxanne'.

17 Footer - Erica - Cronin, Massey & Kenny - HYC

For once, the Seventeens' fleet was not headed by the usual suspects. Instead, victory in race 6 went to 'Isobel' (Turvey/O'Doherty) with Roddy Cooper's 'Leila' just 8 seconds adrift and it gave 'Isobel' the handicap win too. In the end, though, it made little difference to the overall standings with 'Erica' (Cronin, Massey, Kennedy) taking the top prize from the other Cronin (& Jones) in 'Gladys' and 'Oona' (Peter Courtney) back in third. On Handicap, Houlihan & Hassell in 'Zaida' maintained their long-time lead to win overall by a healthy 10 points.

Olympus Team Trophy
When a team has two series winners and a third place finisher, it's a fairly safe bet that it has won the team event! So it is that the Spunky Monkeys - 'Rosie' from Class 0, 'King One' from Class 2 and 'Madeline Reign' from the Etchells - emerged as the emphatic winners of the Olympus Team Trophy.

Heineken Trophy - Event Overall Winner
The Heineken Trophy, which is perpetual, is awarded to the boat that wins its class by the greatest margin of points over the second placed boat. (The full definition is in para 10.3 of the Notice of Race.)

This year the trophy was won by the Squib, 'Kookaburra' Gillian Guinness & Se O'Leary.