Winter league begins

THERE was no doubt it was November as Jack Frost appeared for the first race of the CH Marine winter league at RCYC.

However, despite clear skies, lack of wind almost forced Race Officer Tom MacSweeney (Seascapes II) to abandon racing. But after a brief postponement a slight breeze of around 4 knots filled in from the southwest and course 70 was the choice for the day.

A broad reach over to Corkbeg was followed by a beat back to Cage then a run across with the tide to No 7 and a dead run to No 13 at Cuskinny. Even with the last of the flood tide progress was slow and the race was shortened at No 9.

In the orange fleet, consisting of Class 1, 2 and 1720s, Frank Doyle’s Endgame took IRC and Echo ahead of Ria Lyden’s Ellida with Aidan Heffernan’s Indulgence third.

It was a similar story in Class 2 with Kieran and Liz O’Brien on Magnet faring best, taking both IRC and Echo ahead of Pat Vaughan on Aramis with Mark Mendell’s Wicked in third. The 1720 class went to Anthony O’Leary on Antix ahead of the Desmond/Ivers/Horgan Bad Company with Denis Murphy’s Aquatack in third.

In Class 3, Diarmuid Foley’s Anchor Challenge took first ahead of Kieran O’Connell’s newly-acquired Bandit in both divisions, with Jimmy Nyhan and Marita Buwalda’s Outrigger third in IRC and Paul Murray’s Prometheus third in Echo.

In the Whitesail class, Donal McCarthy’s VSOP finished first but was chased hard by Alan Mulcahy’s Sundancer.

In IRC Sundancer took first on handicap with John Rice’s Eagle second and Peter Webster’s Thistle third but with positions reversed in Echo.