Howth Yacht Club Winter Series Reach Half Way Stage
by Neil Murphy 1 Dec 2025 09:04 PST
Howth Yacht Club Dinghy Frostbites © Neil Murphy
The Brass Monkeys and Dinghy Frostbite events both passed their half-way stages in idyllic sunshine on Sunday with 50 boats afloat, evenly divided between keelboats and dinghies. The Tadg Riordan Motors sponsored Brass Monkeys saw 25 keelboats boats racing north of Ireland's Eye, spread over a Spinnaker and two Whitesail classes.
The hour-long race in a light westerly breeze, ranging from 5 - 10 knots, presented the fleet with plenty of challenges as they navigated the shifts and tidal bends. In Class 1, Bandersnatch of Howth (Kyran O'Grady) added another race win to its first and third place finishes to open a five-point lead over Paul Harrison's Helm's Deep.
In Class 3, Shenanigans (Lee Douglas and Aidan Keane) won the first two races of the series but Mistoffelees (Enda Mulvihill) put an end to their winning streak on Sunday and reduced Shenanigan's overall lead to just 2 points.
Class 2 is home to the spinnaker carrying boats - ranging in size from a J109 to a Puppeteer 22 with strong Sportsboat representation including J80s, J70s and a 1720. Sunday's conditions particularly suited the Sportsboats and Jeremy Beshoffs J70, Team Beshoff Motors, took the win from Pat O'Neill's J80, Mojo. However, it is Jus De Vin, a J80 being raced in the event by the multi-talented combo of Murphy, Beggan, Byrne, Cullen that leads overall by just a single point from Team Beshoff Motors.
The Dinghy Frostbites fleet enjoyed two Windward Leeward races on Howth Sound. The timing ensured the races neatly spanned the turn of the tide, leaving the sailors to focus on windshifts without the usual complication of tidal effects.
The 12 boats that started in the PY fleet saw overall leader, Daragh Sheridan, having to settle for a fourth place in the first race before recovering to win the second one in his RS Aero. The PY fleet includes a variety of boats, both single and double handed and spanning from the venerable but still very competitive IDRA 14s, with five boats entered in the series, through to the Melges 15s, the latest design to join the Irish dinghy scene. The IDRAs claimed bragging rights on the day with Ryan Cairns, current IDRA National Champion, winning and Alan Carr runner-up in the first race.
In the second race, Daragh Sheridan and his RS Aero returned to top spot, ahead of the IDRAs of Alan Carr and DMYC visitor Pierre Long and Daragh now leads overall.
In the Melges 15s, Stephen Quinn and Ann Brereton each won a race with Andrew Evans taking second place in both.
In the ILCAs, Dan O'Connell (RStGYC) opened proceedings by winning the first race in the ILCA 7s with Dave Kirwan (Malahide YC) the runner-up but Dave took the winning gun in the second race, denying Dan his sixth win from six races in the Series. Tom Fox (Skerries SC) took second place in race 2. Daragh Peelo (Malahide YC) and Peter Hassett each took a win in the ILCA 6s with Dylan Cassidy's second place in race 2 moving him to second overall behind Daragh. Dan Brereton won both races in the ILCA 4s and now shares the overall lead with Nicole Quinn.
Full results at www.hyc.ie/results