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| Regatta Report |
| by Brian Turvey |
Scorching hot sunshine, light winds and a huge entry made HYC's 2011 Dinghy Regatta the most successful in recent years. The regatta was made up of 3 'fleets' :- 'Racing' for the more experienced dinghy sailors, 'Regatta' for the beginners and a 'Fun' fleet for those 7 and 8 year olds that are doing HYC's 'Taste of Sailing' courses.
Local sailors were joined by entrants from Sutton Dinghy Club, Malahide Yacht Club, Clontarf YBC, Skerries Sailing Club, Wicklow Sailing Club, the Royal St George YC, National YC, Royal Cork YC and Tralee Bay SC, bringing the total number of competitors to over 100.
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Richard Kissane and Fergus O'Kelly giving their pre race briefing to the competitors
(Photo by Brian Turvey)
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The Racing Fleet was expertly managed by PRO and Honorary Treasurer Richard Kissane who's team set 3 races and the Optimist Gold Fleet was won by Adam Hyland from the Royal St George YC, with Ronan Cournane of Royal Cork YC in second place followed by Howth's Richard Hogan then Harry Craig of the Royal St George YC, Fergus Flood of HYC, Megan Parker and Alix Buckley from Skerries SC.
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Optimists Launching (Photo by Emmet Dalton)
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The Optimist Silver Fleet was won by Howth's Issy Delamer, second was HYC's Gus O'Kelly followed by Loghlen Rickard (NYC) and Tim Farrelly (HYC).
In the Lasers, Malahide sailors Sean Anglim won the 4.7 rig prize and Thomas Natin won the Radial rig prize. Fellow 'Malahider' Lizzy McDowell and crew won the 420 prize.
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Regatta Fleet heading towards Ireland's Eye (Photo by Jonathan Wormald)
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View collection of photos by Jonathan Wormald >>
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The Optimist Regatta Fleet was skilfully managed by Fergus O'Kelly and his team on the Sea Wych. Podium places went to HYC's Jamie McMahon (1st, winning the McBride Cup which had also been won by Beshoff Motors own Jeremy Beshoff back in 2001!), NYC's Luke Rickard was 2nd, Megan Cahill from Howth was 3rd followed closely behind by Malahide's Kate Natin, NYC's Leah Rickard and Howth's Jonathan Sargent.
The 'Fun Race' in the harbour allowed Howth's newest and youngest 25 junior members from the HYC 'Taste of Sailing' courses enjoy supervised sailing on the seven HYC Picos, taking turns to participate in the Treasure Hunt ashore.
The success of this year's Dinghy Regatta was no doubt assisted by beautiful weather as well as the tremendous vibrancy and success of this year's HYC junior sailing courses. Since the courses commenced at the end of June, 10 separate courses have been run for the ISA's 'Start Sailing' course alone, and we had 90 participants for all levels each week during the month of July!
We hope to see many of the Optimist sailors back competing in Howth for their National Championships on the 16th of August.
The Junior Sailing Team would like to remind the 'ladies' that Friday September the 16th is the date set for our Ladies Lunch, which is to help fundraise Junior Sailing in the club and help provide us with the necessary equipment to build a successful and strong junior squad.
Many thanks to our sponsor Beshoff Motors, all the competitors, Dinghy Supplies, the organising team and the many others that helped make it such a great day.
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