RS200 Irish National Championship at Skerries Sailing Club

The RS200s & 400s take part in the RS Fat Face Eurocup © Ian Jubb / www.sailboatdeliveries.com

It the past five years the RS Irish Nationals have been held at Greystones SC in mid October; often with some heavy rain and autumn strong winds. This year the Irish Nationals made a very successful move up the east coast of Eire to Skerries SC 10 miles north of Dublin for three days of some mighty fine racing on Oct 13-15th. A smaller than usual group of boats travelled from Britain, boy did they find great sailing conditions and a very friendly club.

Friday saw three races in a good force 4-5 from the south in mild weather and very small sea. Saturday and four races were held in almost totally blue sky and a more patchy force 4 coming slightly off the land giving a very flat sea; you had to keep on reminding yourself this was October and not July. Then Sunday lulled us all into a false sense of security; it dawned very grey and misty and as the RS200 and RS400 fleets rigged in the lee of the harbour the overnight leader was expressing the view there was only 10 knots of wind. The wind had gone Southeast and slowly built all morning to force 4 bringing with it a proper sea; the sort of long waves that will be talked about for a long time; believe the stories. So we had two races where downwind made you go yahoo the whole time and boats kept on disappearing in troughs.

The event was totally dominated by Ian Pickard/Loopy Lucy Matthews from Bristol Corinthian YC who had awesome downwind speed throughout the event. Even when Lucy lived up to her nickname and drank herself under the table on Irish cider they still won; that is cheating! Pippa Williams from Emsworth was short of a helm for her boat on Monday so rang Sean Craig who organised his cousin Roger Craig to helm. Roger is the prospective Irish Laser helm at the next Olympics and quickly demonstrated he could sail to windward leading at many windward marks but loosing out to the Bristol boys downwind. The longer the event went on the quicker he got the hang of downwind and an emphatic display on Sunday sealed second overall and the Irish Nationals. Pete Vincent/Eluned Jones from Bristol Corinthian YC were always in the fight but in the end had to settle for a long way clear in third overall. Sean Craig/Heather King, Paul Lewis/Felicity Pearson and Frank O’Rouke/Sarah Byrne were competitive and had good races but could not consistently challenge the leading three.

A very tired but very happy group of sailors made their way home. Skerries had been excellent hosts, particularly with providing quick food after sailing often included the entry fee.

Overall Results: