On Wednesday the 22nd of July the annual Clontarf Yacht and Boat Club Junior Regatta was held in extremely mixed weather conditions. Nine Oppie sailors together with instructor Simon Rattigan traveled from Howth to compete. Success was to be theirs ! with Howth sailors taking the top four positions in the Optimist Fleet.
The day started well with sunshine and a light south westerly breeze but unfortunately the wind dropped and racing was delayed leaving the 26 strong Optimist fleet bobbing about.
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Race one eventually got underway but the course had to be shortened due to the light airs and the strong tide making it too difficult for the sailors to get around the course. Howth Sailor Aoife Hopkins achieved a first in this race followed by Fergus Flood (2nd), Richard Hogan (3rd) and Nicholas Delamer (4th).
Race two was delayed but this time for the opposite reason that the wind had been building strongly and was now approaching 22 kts making for challenging conditions. Once the race got underway again Howth Sailors proved themselves extremely capable but the first position went to Sutton Dinghy Club's Callum Maher followed by HYC Sailors Richard Hogan (2nd) Nicholas Delamer (3rd) Aoife Hopkins (4th).
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Aoife Hopkins
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Due to a difference between HYC's results system and Clontarfs the sailors were left in suspense until the end as to who had won the regatta.
The prize eventually went to Aoife Hopkins (who also achieved a 3rd position in the silver fleet in the Connaughts earlier in the week).
In second place was Richard Hogan, 3rd went to Fergus Flood and Fourth to Nicholas Delamer as Howth scooped all the prizes in the Optimist Fleet.
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Richard Hogan
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Howth Sailors (anticlockwise) Fergus Flood,Conor Howard, Erica Markey,
Isabelle Cahill, Robbie Dix, Aoife Hopkins with Coach Simon Rattigan |
The Howth Sailors who competed were Fergus Flood, Aoife Hopkins, Nicholas Delamer, Richard Hogan, Ben Jennings, Conor Howard, Isabelle Cahill, Erica Markey and Robbie Dix and were ably assisted by Coach Simon Rattigan.
Full results can be viewed on www.junior.cybc.ie/
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