Four Howth SB3's spent the weekend in Dun Laoghaire for the Royal Alfred Yacht Clubs annual 'Baily Bowl' competition. 'Lia', 'Sonic Zoom', 'Shockwave' and 'Sharkbait' made the journey around the Baily on Friday night before the competition, whilst 'Dinghy Supplies' & 'Quantative Easing' planned to sail around on Saturday morning. However, with gusts of up to 40 knots on Saturday all racing was cancelled (as well as the trip around Howth Head!) and competitors were resigned to the bar at the National YC with a revised start time on Sunday for the 28 entrants.
Sunday dawned with slightly less breeze and PRO Harry Gallagher got race 1 underway in a lumpy Easterly swell and a 20 knot breeze from the South-East. 'Shockwave' had a great start at the committee boat end just to leeward of 'Sharkbait', with the rest of the Howthies spread along the line to leeward.
First to the top mark was Gareth Flannigan helming 'McCready Sailboats' from the RNIYC, pursued closely by 'Sharkbait'. With a small jump on the rest of the fleet, these two teams spent the next three legs locked into a match race, before 'Sharkbait' soaked inside 'McCready' on the final run to make it to the bottom gate first, holding the lead to the finish. 'McCready' followed in second, with another Northerner Gordon Patterson's 'Splash Gordon' rounding out the top three.
With a combination of a lumpy sea and the wind rising to over 25 knots, there were a few green faces on the committee boat. Gear breakages on another course took priority for the rescue boat crews, and racing was cancelled after just the one start, giving HYC's 'Sharkbait' crew of Ben Duncan, Ric Morris & Brian Moran the SB3 Royal Alfred Baily Bowl title for 2009!
| 1st | Sharkbait |
| 2nd | McCready Sailboats |
| 3rd | Splash Gordon |
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| 8th | Lia |
| 10th | Shockwave |
| 16th | Sonic Zoom |
Full results and report at www.rayc.ie/
See the Sharkbait team website at mad.matchracing.ie/ for more updates and an onboard video of the race!
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