The bi annual Dun Laoghaire to Dingle race took place over the weekend starting on June 7th with 22 entries, four of which were in the two handed division. Howth Boat "Blue Eyes" an Elan 340 owned by Colm Buckley and sailed with Simon Knowles finished 5th overall on IRC and second in the two handed division.
Light north easterly winds for the first half of the race got the yachts to cork and then the whole fleet sat in windless conditions for 9 or 10 hours on Saturday evening/Sunday morning. This gave the advantage to the lower handicap boats.
Sunday saw South easterly light breezes build. At this point Blue Eyes was third overall but after rounding Fastnet the wind built to force six and this brought some backmarkers into contention. This gave the advantage to the lower handicap boats.
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Blue Eyes
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Line honours were won by Anthony O’Leary’s "Antix" with Howth’s Ross McDonald on board. Another Howth member John Murphy sailed on board "Discover Ireland". The fast conditions with spinnakers to Great Skellig and then a blast reach in force six saw the fleet finish quickly afterwards to complete the 270 mile race.
The Winner on corrected IRC was "Amazing Grace" from Tralee Bay Sailing Club. This boat an Oyster 37 was the oldest in the fleet and built at home in the 1980’s by Jim Fegan in Cork.
Each yacht was fitted with Yellowbrick GPS tracking and so the race was monitored by friends and family with all boats able to see their progress and their competitor’s alike. Race sponsor the Dingle Skellig Hotel held a prize giving dinner on Tuesday June 11th.
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Click here to view results
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