Royal North of Ireland RS400 Winter Series 2022 and Christmas Race

RS400 at RNIYC © Bradley Quinn

The "Rockshore /Bosun Bobs RS400 Winter series is back!" This year represents the fifteenth year of this much loved Belfast Lough sailing event. It will will kick off on Sunday the 8th November for 7 consecutive weeks up to 18th December. With a regular 18 boats on the start line and a bonanza of boats turning up for the last day, GP14's are joining the RS400's for the last day, known as the Christmas race. A further twelve GP's expected for that.

Last year we had a record 20 RS400's entered for the whole series. It would be fantastic to get close to that again this year. This Series draws boats and very talented sailors from all over the country with one boat travelling all the way from Dublin.

Last year's winners Peter Kennedy and Stephen Kane won a hard fought battle mostly coming down to the last day, with relentless pressure from Andrew Vaughan and Veteran of the fleet Liam Donnelly. This year will see additional pressure from other contenders, Jane Kearney, or Tom Purdon perhaps. One of the Sponsors Robert Hastings is also in the running for a podium position this year. However this Event manages to produce a new winner every year, such is the competition.

The PRO Gerry Reid said "A typical Sunday race will consist of three quick fire races of about 20 minutes each. We bear in mind that it gets cold for the competitors and the event team, so we don't hang about. This all came about back in 2007 when a few 400' guys approached the Club and asked about a few races around Halloween, this developed into its present guise of three races per day over 7 /8 weekends the numbers just built. We are delighted to keep this event going despite an interruption from Covid."

Racing can be watched from the shore at Cultra, starting at 1.30 Sunday 8th November.