Barry and Dwyer do the double at 505 championships

by Simon Lake on 17 Jun 2008 In light and difficult conditions, Monkstown's Ewen Barry and Charles Dwyer took the overall 505 Great British Championship by a single point over Matt Hart and Terry Scutcher with Simon and Harry Briddon third. They also won the 2008 Irish 505 National Championships at Monkstown, Cork

Race One, Windward/Leeward: The fleet of 23 boats started on the first attempt in a 5-7 kt SE breeze. First to the top was Matt Hart and Terry Scutcher in 8694 closely followed by Peter Scannell and Paul O'Sullivan in 8514. Most boats opted to gybe and 8694 showed good speed to lead from 8514 at the leeward mark with Ewen Barry and Charlo Dwyer in the their new boat 8961 moving into third. Plenty of gains were to be made in the shifty breeze but 8694 played them well extended their lead to win ahead of 8961 with Brian Goggin and Brendan Dwyer in 8511.

Race Two, Windward/Leeward: The second race got off in a dying breeze with 8694 quickly finding the front and settling into a comfortable lead ahead of Colin Barry and Tim O'Conner in 8269. The wind was patchy and shifty and huge gains and losses were made especially on the second beat. 8269 went hard left and into a hole that stopped them in their tracks. The wind disappeared and then filled in from the right giving 8694 the win followed by Simon and Harry Briddon in 8906 with Jim Berry and Barney third in 8907.

A third race was started but PRO Dave Barry decided the wind was too light and shifty to complete the race and it was abandoned before the fleet reached the first mark.

Race Three, Windward/leeward: Day two began with more light winds. Alex Barry and Andrew Lane in 8408 started well and tacked off to the right side of the beat where they caught a big shift and had a commanding lead over the fleet at the first mark. lots of place changing was going on behind but Ewen and Charlo recovered well and moved into second place by the second beat.

Another large shift to the right meant that 8408 overstayed the second windward mark and their lead was cut in half with 8961 chasing hard. Approaching the leeward mark the gap had reduced to nothing and 8961 rounded just ahead to steal the race from 8408. Matt and Terry in 8694 finished third to maintain their lead overall.

Race Four, Windward/Leeward: A number of attempts were made to start race four all ending with general recalls as most of the fleet charged over the line early. When the fleet did get off cleanly there was about 6kts and 8961 lead to first mark followed by Charles McCarthy and Ed Moloney in 8380. Ewen and Charlo held onto the lead to the finish with Tim Bird and Richard Nurse in 8526 finishing second and 8694 third.

That gave Ewen Barry and Charles Dwyer the overall championship by a single point over Matt and Terry with Simon and Harry Briddon third. The Irish Nationals were combined with this event with Ewen & Charlo first, Brian Goggin and Brendan Dwyer second Irish boat and Alex Barry and Andrew Lane third.

505 - Final overll positions

1 8961 Ewen Barry & Charles Dwyer 2 9 1 1 4 pts
2 8694 Matt Hart & Terry Scutcher 1 1 3 3 5 pts
3 8906 Simon & Harry Briddon 13 2 5 4 11 pts
4 8905 Stuart Turnbull & Jason Lunne 4 10 7 5 16 pts
5 8511 Brian Goggin & Brendan Dwyer 3 7 13 7 17 pts
6 8408 Alex Barry & Andrew Lane 6 11 2 17 19 pts
7 8514 Peter Scannell & Paul O'Sullivan 7 5 8 8 20 pts
8 8362 Matthias Hellstern & Harvey Tucker 10 16 6 10 26 pts
9 888 Colin Barry & Tim O'Connor 5 20 9 13 27 pts
10 8497 Dennis Cartwright & Arthur George 14 8 16 6 28 pts
11 8526 Tim Bird & Richard Nurse 23 24 4 2 29 pts
12 8955 Ben Illfe & Simon Lake 12 6 14 11 29 pts
13 8542 Ronan Kenneally & Shane O'Connell 8 13 12 9 29 pts
14 8429 Michael Ennis & Fenton Parsons 16 12 10 12 34 pts
15 8123 Brian Hassett & Keith McKeown 18 4 17 20 39 pts
16 8679 Conor Byrne & Darrach Dinneen 11 17 15 14 40 pts
17 8907 Jim Berry & Barney 19 3 22 19 41 pts
18 8925 Martin Wedge & Scott Allen 15 15 11 15 41 pts
19 8380 Charles McCarthy & Joe Bruen 9 19 18 18 45 pts
20 8269 James & William O'Brien 20 14 21 22 55 pts
21 8552 Michael O'Brien & John O'Gorman 17 18 20 21 55 pts
22 7852 Brian Jones & Gary Frost 23 24 19 16 58 pts
23 8072 Chris Marwood & Stan Reynolds 24 24 24 23 71 pts

Many thanks to PRO Dave Barry, Tom Browne and John Moynihan who ran a great series in very difficult conditions.

Many thanks also to the 9 visiting boats who travelled from England and Belfast.