Four Howth Squibs travelled over to Dun Laoghaire, one by road the others via the bailey for the Squib East Coast Championship, hosted by RIYC.
The racing was interesting and a few visitors from RNIYC in Cultra travelled down for the event, which helped to spice things up a bit.
Femme Fatale of the DMYC, helmed by Vincent Delaney and crewed by Joe O'Byrne, came out on top after the final race. They narrowly beat South Coast Champs Frank Whelan and Brian O'Hare from RStGYC on their newly acquired Lola.
Third place went to Peter Wallace and Kerry Bomer on Toys for the Boys who were the first winners of the "Travellers Trophy" presented to the class by Emmet Dalton.
Jonathon Craig and Hazel Ruane in Kerfuffel came 5th overall with very consistent results - they popped in a 4th in the final race to be top Howth boat!
Ronan MacDonell and Gordon Hudson sailing Fantome ended 7th overall and came 3rd in race 2, preferring the windier conditions on Saturday. Also Gordon Barry's Artic Fox made a welcomed reappearance back to racing after a number of months of hibernation!
The Uk Nationals will be held in Dun Laoghaire in June 2010, when a huge Fleet is expected for the weeks racing. Who can forget Howth 1995 and 2005? There were zillions of squibs on the start line (picture of a 100 boat start in the bar) and who can remember that Irish night?
The Irish Nationals will be held at RNIYC, Southerns in Kinsale and Easterns in HYC next year - dates to be confirmed.
If you are thinking of competing there are lots of good value squibs for sale at the minute and a new suit of sails can be bought at a reasonable price. Note that often sales of Squib sails take place for about 2 weeks in December.
Looking forward to seeing a few new sailors or perhaps a few experienced squib sailors back racing in the near future!
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