Clubhouse winner is French skipper Laurent Charmy in the SSE Renewables Round Ireland Race
by Wicklow Sailing Club 24 Jun 2022 09:39 AEST
23 June 2022
With just under half the fleet still at sea in the SSE Renewables Round Ireland Race, SL ENERGIES Groupe Fastwave skippered by Laurent Charmy has been provisionally listed as the clubhouse winner of the 705 nautical-mile event.
As the seventh finisher out of 44 starters in the race, Charmy's team had to wait a further eight hours to watch their nearest rivals complete the course.
Mike and Ritchie Evans' Snapshot narrowly missed displacing the leader by just five minutes on corrected handicap time.
After days of light winds on the Irish Sea, a stark contrast to the big waves and headwinds of the west coast, the Irish crew was amongst a group of contenders that reached fresher conditions south of Dublin Bay on Thursday afternoon but just too late to make up lost time.
Franco Niggeler's Kuka3 crossed the finishing-line at Wicklow Harbour on Wednesday evening after convincingly leading the on the water race for four solid days.
A sixth boat has retired from the event on the north coast. Kieron Blamey's Mojo experienced engine problems that prevented battery charging for navigational equipment and could not continue.
A steady stream of finishers is now expected at Wicklow Sailing Club as winds improve on the Irish Sea though too late to significantly affect the overall standings ahead of Friday evening's prize-giving ceremony.
More details and race tracker available here.