Article and Photo’s by Bob Bateman.
There were some clean sweeps across the eight classes at Royal Cork Yacht Club‘s recent 2019 Dinghy Fest Championships held in Cork Harbour.
One of the biggest fleets of the weekend was the 19-boat Rankin World Championships fleet. Conor and Robbie English sailing ARC from the host club were runaway winners with wins in each of the five races. Second was Cobh Sailing Club’s Ewan and David O Keeffe with Dan O’Connell John Hales third. The size of the victory in the 19-boat fleet also bestowed overall Dinghyfest Championship Status on the English brothers.
Three firsts and three seconds gave Royal Cork’s Harry Twomey and Harry Durcan a three-point winning margin in the 12-point 29er Southern Championships. Clubmates Lola and Atlee Kohl sailing Illegal Entry were second with Dublin Bay’s Elysia O’Leary crewed by RCYC’s Chris Bateman third.
In a clean sweep for Belfast Lough in the Irish Multihull Championships, Adrian Allen and Barry Swanston of Ballyholme Yacht Club were winners by four points after six races in the ten boat fleet. Clubmates Matthew and James McNicholl were second and Mat McMurtry and Emma Greer were third.
There appears to be no stopping Eoghan Duffy and Cathal Langan in the Mirror class this season and the Mirror Southern Championships raced as part of DinghyFest was no different. The Lough Ree Yacht Club duo lost the opening race of six but won the remaining to win by nine points overall. Second was another Lough Ree Yacht Club pair Luke Johnston and Sarah White with Jessica and Mark Greer from Sligo Yacht Club third.
Ewan Barry, Stanley Browne and Richard Leonard sailing Stormy D are the new National 18 Champions by three points after six races sailed in an 11-boat fleet. The trio won three races to be ahead of the Johnny Durcan skippered Aquaholics. Charles Dwyer’s Shark II sailing with John Coakley and Peter Stokes, the winners of August’s Cock O’ The North trophy, were third.
In the 19-boat RS 200 Southern Championships fleet, Olympic Finn campaigner, Fionn Lyden sailing with Amy Harrington from Baltimore Sailing Club were overall winners with Donal O’Halloran and Nigel Young sailing under the burgee of Royal Cornwall YC were second. Erica Ruigrok and Sally Bell from Rush Sailing Club were third.
In the smaller seven boat RS 400 fleet, thiRSty sailed by Govan Berridge David Coleman of Killaloe Sailing Club won after six races sailed from RCYC’s Cian Jones and Luke McGrath and Third was Playbuoy sailed by Northern Ireland’s Ryan Glynn and William Findlay from Strangford Sailing Club.
Finally, Harry and Simon Pritchard from Monkstown Bay Sailing Club were winners of the RS Feva Southern Championships with six straight wins in the ten boat class. Cork Harbour crews Patrick Bruen and James Murphy were second with David Mcsweeney and George O Keeffe third.
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