Beautiful sunny weather and light winds greeted the eight teams competing in the Optimist Vice President's Team Racing at HYC.
Royal Cork YC sailors Cian Byrne, Harry Whitaker and Daire Cournane succeeded in bringing the Vice President's Trophy back to Cork for the second time in a row. In a thrilling final with Skerries SC, who held a winning combination up to the final leg, RCYC sailors managed to outmaneuver their opponents in a very light breeze to take the overall event.
8 teams competed in this an invitation only event. The teams were Royal Cork YC, Skerries SC, Royal St George YC, National Yacht Club, Galway Bay SC, Howth YC, Kinsale YC and a combined team.
PRO, Neil Murphy, split the teams in to 2 round robins before going into a semi-final and a final. The round robins were held in a fabulous breeze for team racing with 7-10 knots from the North West direction. RCYC and HYC both won their 3 races in the rounds, with SSC and NYC winning 2 races each. In the semi-finals RCYC beat NYC and SSC beat HYC in a breeze that had dwindled to 1-3 knots and swung to the east. RCYC beat SSC in the final in very light conditions.
We were honored to have Helen-Mary Wilkes present her trophy and prizes to the successful sailors.
Special thanks to Neil Murphy who had to deal with the very tricky conditions; to Bernie Condy, John Doran and Sinead Dickson on the committee boat; to Alistair Kissane and Conor Murphy who acted as umpires and to Niamh Hoplins on registration.
Overall results:
| 1st | Royal Cork YC |
| 2nd | Skerries SC |
| 3rd | Howth YC |
| 4th | National YC |
| joint 5th | Kinsale YC & Royal St George YC |
| joint 6th | Galway Bay SC & Combined |
A Brief History
The Vice President's Trophy event was established in Howth Yacht Club by Helen-Mary and Robert Wilkes, both of whom have been heavily involved in the Optimist class for over 30 years. Indeed, Helen-Mary became Vice-President of IODA in 1985, President from 1989-1998, Vice-President of Honour from 1998-2005 and President of Honour in 2005. Robert was the Secretary of IODA from 1996 to 2008.
The Vice-President's Trophy was first raced in 1986 and won by Sutton Dinghy Club. It is an invitation only, inter-club, team racing event run by HYC. Up until recently, 2008, the winning team won a sponsored trip to Lake Ledro, Italy to compete in the Grand Optical team racing championship. In 2009 the event was transformed into the IODA European Team Racing championship where countries now have to qualify through their participation in the IODA European Championships. However, the tradition of holding the Vice-President's Trophy in Howth Yacht Club will continue and is an aspect of sailing that sailors really enjoy and we are proud to promote.
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