Racing Report for Sunday 16th November. A Day at the seaside….
It was back to warm winter sunshine for Race 3 of the Matthews Winter League at the Royal Cork with a light westerly/north-westerly breeze of around 8 – 10 knots. This caused a problem for race management as most of the westerly courses involved either rounding No 20. up at Cobh or EF4 and with low tide forecast for just before 2pm this would have caused complications for some of the deeper keeled boats.
So it was then that Race Officer Mark Ring opted to send the Orange Fleet ( Classes 1 & 2 ) on a trip to the seaside by way of Corkbeg and No.8 Their course included both Harp (Trabolgan) and Ringabella… a course of around 10 miles. By contrast Class 3 and Whitesail had a run over to Corkbeg and then triangular course 101 up to No 8 accross to No 7 and back to cage via Corkbeg. Peter Webster’s Thistle got a great start crossing the start line with only seconds to spare before being overtaken by most of the rest of the competitors. After rounding No.8 the wind died for a period leaving the lead boat drifting towards No .7 and Golden Oddessy, Coleplay and Thistle found themselves having to deal with the problem of an incoming freighter who was determined to take a line closer to No 7 rather than mid channel. In the end it was Noel Coleman’s Coleplay who had to alter course most, as the freighter slowed before anchoring up by the Spit. There was drama too in the orange fleet as Kieran Twomey’s Gloves Off got too close to Tralbolgan beach for comfort and opted to retire after touching bottom.
In Class 1 IRC Ria Lyden’s Ellida took first ahead of Anthony O’Leary’s Antix Dubh by just 47 seconds while in ECHO Sean O’Riordan and John Murphy’s Y-Dream took first ahead of Ellida. In class 2 it was a win in both divisions for Neill McPhilips and Martin Fitzgerald’s Magic Formula taking first ahead of the Desmond/Deasy/ Ivers Bad Company in IRC and Liam Drennan’s Merlin of Crosshabven in ECHO. In Class 3 IRC Jimmy Nyham and Maritta Buwalda’s Outrigger has a comfortable win with Graham Marron’s Flashpoint taking second while in ECHO the order was reversed with Flashpoint notching up two back to back wins. Whitesail saw just as many boats out as in Class 1 with eight of the twelve entrants competing. It was Richard Leonard’s Mardi Gras who held off the challenges of Alan Mulcahy’s Sundancer in IRC and Thistle in ECHO to take first in both divisions.
At the midway point of the series clear leaders are beginning to emerge in IRC however in ECHO things are much tighter especially in Whitesail with only a few points separating the first 5 boats. Hopefully the weather will hold for the next few weeks allowing a comfortable end to the year.
Note: a A reminder that the SCORA AGM and prize-giving will take place in Kinsale Yacht Club next Friday 28th November @ 8pm
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