Irish RS400, RS200 and RS Feva National Championships at Howth YC

by Ryan Emmet on 23 Aug 2012 The RS400, RS200 and RS Feva National Championships took place this year at Howth Yacht Club with a fleet of 54 boats amongst the three classes. The Irish version of the 'RS games' proved a big hit with all competitors.

The race management team headed by pro’ PRO David Lovegrove did a fantastic job to get ten races in for all three classes in spite of some shifty conditions. This was all the more impressive as each course change required the moving of up to ten marks. No mean feat, but the HYC team took it in their stride.

In the RS400 class bothers Emmet and James Ryan from the Royal St George took top spot. They didn’t make things easy by using up a discard on the first race of the event and only snatched the win on the last run of the last race having rounded the final weather mark in fourth place.

Greystones class stalwarts Simon Herriott and Tom Moran took second place. In third place and top youth RS400 team was a very impressive display by Andy Verso and Oisin Baugh also from Greystones.

In the RS200 class it was another family affair and another Royal St George win with father and son, Sean and Stephen Craig taking first place. It was extremely tight at the top of the 200 fleet with only three points separating the top four boats in the end. Teams from Greystones filled the next two podium places with Frank and Kevin O’Rourke taking second and last year’s champions Roy Van Maanen and Glen Reid taking third place.

In the Feva class GB sailors filled the top three slots with Elliott Wells and Jake Todd taking the title on count back from fellow Hayling Island sailors Tom Darling and Will Dolin. Chay and Stirling Taylor took third place. In the battle for local/Irish bragging rights, Eoin Lyden and Brian Stokes from Cork got one over the Dublin rivals to claim top Irish Feva Howth YC website