Newcomer Mariner's Cove sounds early warning

TWO new boats made their debut in race two of the Frank Godsell March League at Kinsale YC and one of them, Dave Dwyer’s racing machine Mariner's Cove, a Corby 41 sent out plenty of shock waves.

Not only did she win but she did so by over six minutes on corrected time and she also covered the course more than 20 minutes faster than any other boat.

Racing was held at the mouth of Kinsale harbour in a light southerly breeze of six knots and flat, calm

conditions.

OOD Gary O’Driscoll sent the 13-boat fleet on a windward-leeward course with Centre Point as the windward mark. A strong ebb tide on the start pushed a number of boats over the line for an individual recall.

Mariners Cove scorched away and claimed line honours and victory.

Second across the line was Aidan Heffernan’s Indulgence but on handicap, second place went to Murphy and O’Riordan on X-Dream, with Indulgence third.

The White Sail fleet raced to Black Head and back for a harbour finish, while the all in cruisers had two rounds of their course in a race which lasted over two hours for all except the winner in the slack winds.

The White Fleet race was won by Dave Akerlind’s Benetteau 47 Paragon, his second bullet in a row.

The Dolan family from the Royal Cork YC had plenty to celebrate after the final race of the Matthews Chandlery Frostbite Leagues for Lasers and Mixed Dinghies.

Eighteen-year-old Katy Dolan cruised in at the top of the leaderboard in the Laser 4.7 fleet, with just 13.5 points in total for the series, second-placed Hannah Fisher of Kinsale somewhat adrift.

Her brother Alex, just two years her junior, triumphed in the Laser radials, taking the overall by an 18.5 point margin from Andrew Murphy of Kinsale. Calm conditions greeted the sailors when they arrived and racing looked very unlikely.

However, enterprising OOD Neil J Prenderville scouted the outer harbour in the committee boat and radioed back the signal that racing would be possible.

He got in all four races in gentle southerly zephyrs, which made for intriguing, although not physically demanding, racing.

Maria Colman was again present because of the involvement of the Youth Squad trials and she was treated to an abundance of start sequences as there were a number of general recalls during the day.

Proving that practice makes perfect, the last Laser race had a spectacular start with over 20 crossing the line as the gun went off.

Morgan Sheehy of Kinsale wrapped up his campaign in the Laser Standards with three wins and overall he had almost 20 points to spare over Paul Swanton of Monkstown at the end of the day.

In the mixed Dinghy fleet, the 420 pair of Kevin Stallard and crew Peter Duggan of Kinsale took the overall honours with an emphatic 30 point margin over club-mates Bill Thuillier and Peader Murphy in a laser Stratos.

At the prize-giving, Morgan Sheehy was recognised as the best home club sailor in the league Tributes were paid to OODs Neil J Prenderville, Clem McElligott and Bruce Matthews, the latter in his 27th year of organising the league.