| SB3 Northern Championships - Carrickfergus Sailing Club - 2nd & 3rd May |
| Photos Courtesy of Carrickfergus Sailing Club |
 The winning HYC Sharkbait Team, from left: Ben Duncan, Ric Morris & Brian Moran |
| A small contingent of HYC's SB3 fleet travelled to Belfast Lough to compete in the SB3 Northern Championships, which was sailed out of Carrickfergus Sailing Club on 2nd & 3rd May. |
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Sonic Zoom (Emmet Ryan, John White & James Ryan), Quantative Easing (Paul McMahon, Davie Carr & Ian McSweeney), and Sharkbait (Ben Duncan, Brian Moran & Ric Morris) took on 18 competitive boats from all over Ireland, sailing 6 races in a range of conditions from 3 knots, to gusts of over 30 knots at times, with shifts of 30 degrees also testing the mettle of the crews.
The Sharkbait team showed their intentions for the regatta early on, giving the fleet the slip at the leeward gate in the first race and building a big lead that never looked under threat. Quantative Easing started with a solid mid fleet finish, 2 places ahead of Sonic Zoom in 11th. The second race of the first day was sailed in similar sub-5kt conditions, with Sonic Zoom finishing strongly in 6th behind Sharkbait in 2nd place, giving the Sharkbait team the overnight lead in the event. |
 Full concentration on Sharkbait on the way to winning race 1 |
 One of the 30kt squalls, typical of Day 2! |
| Day two started with squalls tearing across the Lough, and tested both the competitors and the race committees nerves, but eventually 4 more races were completed. |
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Competitors started the first race into a 25-30kt buster, but the boats made it around safely and Sharkbait took their second bullet for the series, with Sonic Zoom and Quantative Easing finding the conditions tougher going than day one.
The rest of the races were sailed in very shifty and gusty conditions as squalls continued to roll off the hills to windward of the course, with Quantative Easing improving strongly as the day went on, and with Sonic Zoom posting consistent top 10 finishes. The Sharkbait crew had a few anxious moments playing dodge'em boats during the start of the last race, but had already sealed the championship with a race to spare, bringing the SB3 Northern Championship Trophy to Howth for the first time! |
 Sonic Zoom Emmet Ryan, John White, James Ryan |
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The top 3 overall for the event were:
1st: Sharkbait HYC (Duncan/Moran/Morris) 11 points 2nd: McCready Sailboats RUYC (Flannigan/Spence/Tomalin) 16 points 3rd: Modus Operandi RCYC (Collins/Collins/Creaden) 16 points Other HYC results: 10th: Sonic Zoom HYC (Ryan/White/Ryan) 42 points 16th: Quantative Easing HYC (McMahon/Carr/McSweeney) 66 points Full results can be found at: app.carrickfergussc.org/Racing/2009/LaserSB3Northerns/results.html |