In a uniquely Irish solution Thursday “midweek” racing in the OneSails McWilliam series at RCYC commenced on Friday alongside the Masts & Rigging Friday Night series.
Ultimately this meant that several White sail boats had to declare which event they were competing in as the handicapping systems are different. The OneSails McWilliam series uses ECHO based handicapping data while the Friday series, being an open series, uses RCYC’s own version now referred to as the IHS (Internal Handicap System).
32 boats lined up for the start of racing in a brisk westerly breeze of 12 -14kt. Race Officer John Crotty and his team started fleets over at Corkbeg and Class 1 and 2 were duly despatched on Course 98 up the harbour to EF4, No 20, and back over to Aghada before returning down the east side of the harbour to Corkbeg and finishing at Cage. Navigation around EF4 was challenging for Class 1 boats with only a little over 3m depth on the rising tide. Kieran Twomey’s Gloves Off led the way chased hard by her competitors while in Class 2 it was up to Vinny O’Shea’s Yanks and Franks to do the same. In IRC 1 first place went to Gloves Off ahead of Frank Doyle’s Endgame and Ria Lyden’s Ellida. In ECHO roles were reversed with Endgame taking honours on corrected time ahead of Ellida and Gloves Off but with only 43 seconds between them in over an hour and a half of racing. Class 2 was just as tight with Yanks and Franks taking first ahead of Ted Crosbie’s No Excuse with Frank Desmond’s Bad Company in third in both IRC and ECHO.
Class 3 was represented by Jimmy Nyhan and Marita Buwalda’s Outrigger which showed her form keeping pace with many of the larger boats in the White sail fleet. Course 101 was the option here offering a good mixture of beats, runs, and reaches that suited the White sail fleet to a tee. In the OneSails McWilliam series it was Kevin Lane’s Aisha which took first ahead of Seamus and Maeve Gilroy’s Spilt Point with Derry Good’s Exhale in third. These results are provisional pending notification of current ECHO handicaps following a recent handicapping review. In the Masts and Rigging Friday series a somewhat reduced fleet raced the same course a few minutes later. Using the IHS system first place on corrected time went to Colin Morehead’s Tranquilizer with Tom & Donal O’Mahony’s Rapparee in second and Roy Hannon’s Plumbat in third.
The OneSails McWilliam series reverts back to its Thursday night slot from tonight May 7th (FG 18:50) with two races being held on Saturday May 9th (FG 11:55). The Masts & Rigging series will take place as usual tomorrow (Friday 8th) with white sail fleets recombining. While the decision to run the two series on the same night may have led to a great atmosphere in the bar (its primary aim) there were difficulties in producing race results that seems to have led to some speculation that White sail was being split. This is definitely not the case. White sail racing has developed strong support, especially for Fridays, and the continued participation of all boats is encouraged.
P.Webster 3/5/09
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