The first ever Liffey Skiffy 49er event launched on Friday afternoon (27th August) to the spectacular backdrop of Dublin city centre providing colour, excitement and a view of high performance racing to the punters of our capitol city. A four race series of thrills and spills was completed with Rory Fitzpatrick and Ross Mc Donald taking the overall victory from Ryan Seaton and Matt McGovern in the final medal race of the series.
Crashes and capsizes were on order for spectators from the first start with Ed Butler and Dermot Mc Murrough suffering a mainsail tear from the first start. Nin O’Leary also made the most of a capsize by back flipping from the boats wing once semi turtle! Many photos were made available from the event with the most notable making the front page of Saturdays Irish Times newspaper!
Many thanks go to the event sponsors OnBoard Surf Snow Sail, PR Reilley Car accessories as well as Dublin Port Company, Dublin Docklands Authority, The National YC, St. Patricks Rowing Club and the International 49er Class Association.
Youtube footage of the weekend courtesy of Scott Flanigan. Some big breeze manouvres and wipeouts
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wrl9yxbuvxs
49er Nationals in Dublin Bay
The Nationals followed on Saturday and Sunday (28th & 29th August) in Dublin Bay with the Olympic Campaigners Ryan Seaton and Matt McGovern from Belfast taking the honours with perfect scores. With fresh breeze well above 20 knots 3 races were completed.
Followed on a tie break Rory Fitz and Ross McDonald took 2nd place from Alistair Kissane and Ben Scallan in 3rd. With final lap chaos with the breeze pushing 30 knots any of the 3 could have taken the race win. As it was Ryan and Matt got the bullet with Alister and Ben finishing under jib alone and Rory and Ross having to retire with the spinnaker in knots around the bow.
Sunday was blown out with reports from the yachts of over 30 knots the 49ers never left the shore.
These events follow from the a strong performance in Sail for Gold by Ryan and Matt who qualified well in the Gold Fleet but dropped some places in the final races. Rory and Ross and Alistair and Ben just returned from the UK nationals last week in Pwllheli, Wales where they finished 6th and 9th respecctively.
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