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| HYC Sailors 2nd, 3rd and 4th at Windy Optimist Ulster Championships |
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| Author: Des Flood |
Posted on: 28/6/10 |
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Nine HYC sailors travelled to the Ulster championships held at Ballyholme Yacht Club on 26th & 27th June. Glorious sunshine and southerly winds ranging from 10 to 25 knots lent to fantastic sailing conditions, although it did rain on Sunday. This was the first windy event of the season which most of the sailors relished.
In the 50 strong Junior Gold fleet, Daire Cournane continued to dominate proceedings with six wins. Although challenged at times by our HYC sailors he won through comfortably. The real fight was for the runners up spot between club mates Fergus Flood (2nd) and Robert Dickson (3rd) with each scoring a 2nd or a 3rd place in each race. Indeed the outcome had to be decided in the final race. Aoife Hopkins (4th) also sailed consistently well though could not find a way past the boys.
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(L->R) Robert Dickson, Anna Potterton, Aoife Hopkins and Fergus Flood
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Indeed at times there was such tight racing between Fergus, Robert and Aoife that very diplomatic remarks and considerable restraint was the order of the day on Ian Dickson's rib as the three parents looked on. Based on the potential outcome of a race one parent was asked to step off the boat!
Still in the Junior fleet Anna Potterton (16th) also sailed an excellent series and was rewarded with 5th Junior Silver. Anna was closely followed by Isabel Delamer (18th) and 7th Silver who also sailed a magnificently in the tough conditions and registered a 7th place in Race 3. Ewan McMahon also performed well in his second championship and clocked up a notable 16th in one of the windier races.
The Senior fleet was won by Patrick Crosbie (RCYC) from his club mate John Durcan. Sean Donnelly from NYC was third. HYC's only representative was Erica Ruigrok (16th) who finished strongly with a 6th in the last race.
In the Regatta fleet, Katie Malcolm and Katie White coached the 14 sailors over the two windy days. The Regatta fleet is a combination of coaching and some racing and everyone was impressed with the skills shown by the young sailors. In the racing held our Max Kavanagh finished 2nd and was the 1st Under 9 sailor.
Ballyholme Yacht Club did a fantastic job and were most welcoming. The evening BBQ on Saturday was a great success and sailors and parents were able to enjoy the warm evening and hospitality before (some) returning to their tents.
It is fantastic to see our sailors now consistently fighting it out at the top of the Junior fleet. Indeed HYC has 3 sailors in the top 10 pre-nationals Junior ranking with Richard Hogan at 13th. This is credit to the sailors for all their days of training and hours on the water. It will also be of huge benefit to our up and coming sailors in the class.
Full results can be seen on
www.iodai.com
Full rankings at www.iodai.com/live/ranking/
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