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Ballyholme Yacht Club Regatta - A roaring success

by Heather Chipperfield on 27 Aug 2013
The RS200s get away for their race Alex McKinnon Photography http://www.alexmckinnonphotography.com
At the 2013 Ballyholme Yacht Club Regatta, despite the absence of wind forecast, and despite Charlie Horder not showing up, the weekend turned out to be a roaring success, with ever reliable Robin Gray as PRO slotting the perfect duration races into the various wind slots that existed, giving the three fleets great racing.

It was exciting to see some new faces in the RS Fevas, since McCready Sailboats took over dealership, and have been promoting and lending out boats. All six of the boats, in the fleet that normally travels from Dublin or Greystones, were from the North. This must augur well for the future, with several parents present realising they could have actually have been sailing in the 400s instead of acting as shore crew.

In the RS200s, Clive Coffey from Newcastle, was dominant in the generally two to three conditions, taking first overall from Greystones regulars Frank O’Rourke in second, and Sarah Byrne in fourth, with East Down’s Trevor Fisher splitting them in third.

The main event though was in the RS400s, where a super strong line up including current Irish Olympic 49er sailors, and winners of this year’s Weymouth Sail for Gold World Cup Series’ Championship, Ryan Seaton and Matty McGovern headlined a strong line up of past National and European Championship winners from a multitude of classes. Racing was tight, with the front six or seven generally working through, but with anyone capable of making a podium slot. Overnight it looked to be all about Bob Espey vs Emmet Ryan, but Sunday saw things get a lot tighter, with Gareth Flannigan and Dave Cheyne staying consistent, and nearly turning things around in race two, when Flannigan’s lead was slashed on the final run of race two, in what would prove a decisive moment, allowing the Olympic duo a little breathing space as the third, fourth and fifth boats rolled the leading pair on the final approach, Espey grabbing an essential win. Race five saw Emmet and brother James struggle and take a discard, so it was advantage Espey/ Gunning again.

Race five was held in sparkling Ballyholme sea breeze and sunshine, with Dave Cheyne and Stevie Kane from RNIYC breaking clear of the pack, chasing the Ryan brothers. As the two teams extended, it looked like the goose was cooked for Espey, but a last attack on the right corner gybe allowed the fat old boys from Royal North to roll Ryan, and take the win. This instantly threw the result back to Espey and Gunning, who were suddenly back level on points, but with a pair of bullets, to the Ryans only one now, the title went to Espey in dramatic fashion, and past Irish Champions Emmet and James left to lick their wounds. Awesome racing as ever, with some new faces feeling the heat, as those new in last season starting to move up the leader board after a year of hard racing under their belts.

Lots of new boats arriving by the week, with several more expected in Ballyholme in time for the Autumn Grange Wine Merchants Series at Bangor on Sundays from the eighth September, before the fleets head to Crosshaven on September 21/22nd. The hope is the four or five potential new 400 owners in Monks town SC in Cobh will have boat boats in time, to compliment the new arrival of Aidan Macsweeney, and also Dave Doherty who currently have boats in the area.

Sailed: 5, Discards: 1, To count: 4, Entries: 6, Scoring system: Appendix A

Rank

Fleet

Boat

SailNo

Club

HelmName

CrewName

R1

R2

R3

R4

R5

Total

Nett

1st

Feva

 

3565

Donaghadee SC

Lucy Burrows

Katie Kane

(5.0)

2.0

2.0

1.0

1.0

11.0

6.0

2nd

Feva

 

2753

CAYC

Becky Coburn

Andrew Mitchell

2.0

(3.0)

1.0

2.0

3.0

11.0

8.0

3rd

Feva

 

5239

EABC

Nikki Eames

Molly Fekkes

3.0

1.0

3.0

(4.0)

2.0

13.0

9.0

4th

Feva

 

4266

EDYC

Rory Fekkes

Angus Harley

1.0

(6.0)

4.0

3.0

4.0

18.0

12.0

5th

Feva

 

4273

EDYC

Sally Bell

Jenny Fekkes

4.0

(5.0)

5.0

5.0

5.0

24.0

19.0

6th

Feva

 

4277

EDYC

Jackson Smyth

Rob Salters

6.0

4.0

6.0

(7.0 DNF)

7.0 DNC

30.0

23.0

 

Sailed: 5, Discards: 1, To count: 4, Entries: 8, Scoring system: Appendix A

Rank

Fleet

Boat

SailNo

Club

HelmName

CrewName

R1

R2

R3

R4

R5

Total

Nett

1st

RS200

Braalyriggit

1352

Newcastle YC

Clive Coffety

Helen Cassidy

2.0

1.0

1.0

1.0

(3.0)

8.0

5.0

2nd

RS200

 

1315

Greystones YC

Frank O'Rourke

Kevin O'Rourke

1.0

(5.0)

3.0

3.0

1.0

13.0

8.0

3rd

RS200

Bijou Tram

727

EDYC

Trevor Fisher

Emily Watt

3.0

4.0

2.0

(5.0)

2.0

16.0

11.0

4th

RS200

Banshee

1478

Greystones SC

Sarah Byrne

Molly Byrne

(4.0)

3.0

4.0

2.0

4.0

17.0

13.0

5th

RS200

Comfortably Numb

778

BYC

Rob Milligan

Paul Blamphin

(5.0)

2.0

5.0

4.0

5.0

21.0

16.0

6th

RS200

 

495

SLYC

Emily Smyth

Landra McColvin

(6.0)

6.0

6.0

6.0

6.0

30.0

24.0

7th

RS200

 

1480

Royal St George

Rosanna Cassidy

Maeve Rafferty

(9.0 DNC)

9.0 DNC

9.0 DNC

9.0 DNC

9.0 DNC

45.0

36.0

7th

RS200

 

808

Greystones YC

Conor Clery

Aaron Jones

(9.0 DNC)

9.0 DNC

9.0 DNC

9.0 DNC

9.0 DNC

45.0

36.0




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