Nat 18’s News

First to pass Currabinny Pier !!!


Sailors, Congratulations to Shocks and crew who managed to safely navigate the hazards of Crosshaven river last Sat to become the first National 18 to pass Currabinny pier and break out into the lower harbour in 2008. It sounds like the heroic voyagers had a great time throwing shapes at the rest of the mixed dinghy fleet. With the April league safely in the bag it was rumored the Virtual Reality Team now plan an exhaustive training programme this week ahead of the Start of the Mackey Trophy May league this Sat 3^rd. Yes the May league kicks off THIS SAT 3^rd with a race to East Ferry from Cobh. Start time is to be confirmed but it is traditionally 2pm so plan for that unless you hear otherwise. Long range forecast is reasonable at present so here’s hoping that we have a nice warm sunny dash down the harbour availing of a few scoops and a tow home later that afternoon. There will be plenty of boats out with the 5o5’s and mixed dinghies also in attendance so please get the craft out of the garage this week, rig and get out for the start of the season. The Mackey Trophy deserves a strong attendance from the fleet.  One point to note is that May is a long month. (5 Sats & 4 Wed’s) With the Heineken cup final on the Sat 24^th May and the June BH starting on Sat 31^st May we are conscious that for many in the fleet who will be traveling to Cardiff then planning the June w/e for family activities you may be put off competing in May as you will potentially miss more races than there will be discards. To make this a little less painful we will end the Mackey slightly early. 4 Sats and 4 Weds allows us to finish on Wed 28^th. (2 races per day = 16 races = 4 discards !!!!!!) There will of course be racing on Sat 31^st but we will count this as June League. Hopefully this will provide those with other activities planned on those dates to have as good a chance as possible for a top Mackey finish and encourage a bigger attendance from the start of May. Looking forward to seeing you all on Sat. Cheers, Colin.