Subaru Ireland Flying Fifteen Pre-World Championship at Dun Laoghaire - Day 1
by Cormac Bradley 3 Sep 05:06 PDT
31 August - 13 September 2019
In a boisterous start to the Subaru Ireland sponsored Pre-Worlds & Championship of Ireland, IRO Jack Roy gave the 55-boat fleet two of the sausage-triangle-sausage courses to stretch their limbs and sinews!
With a declared wind direction of 240 degrees and a flooding tide, the on the water conditions were quite comfortable. At his briefing in the morning the Race Officer declared that a U flag start would be used after an aborted start if he deemed the fleet to be at fault - it didn't take long for the U-flag to be broken out and the black flag got some usage as well.
The Race Officer on coming ashore after the day's proceedings advised that wind strengths in the first race were of the order of 12 knots gusting to nineteen and in the second 13 gusting to the low twenties. It felt more than that! There was some relief in the lulls but they were short-lived.
The overall scoreboard is dominated by the British entries with seven boats in the top ten. They are led by Richard Lovering & Matt Alvarado, GBR 4002 counting a 1,3. Next is Steve Goacher & Tim Harper GBR 4021 with a 4,2 and Mike Hart & Dean McAullay AUS 4063 with a 3,7. Graham Vials & Chris Turner GBR 4071 claimed the second race and added a 10 from Race 1 to close out the top five.
South Africans Campbell Alexander & Dave Herridge RSA 4009 lie ninth with a 11 and 9 and the Martin Brothers, Andy & Rory IRL 3974 close out the top ten with a 18, 12.
Three Irish boats occupy tenth, eleventh and thirteenth overall with Hammy Baker & Peter Chamberlain IRL 3756 sandwiched between the Martins and the leading boat from the host club, David Gorman & Chris Doorly who are counting a 19, 15. Bryan Willis & John McPeake from Whitehead and registered as GBR occupy twelfth.
A briefing is scheduled for 11:00 today where the word is we will be having a three-race programme due to an adverse weather forecast for Wednesday.
Find out more at www.flying15worlds2019.com