As usual Dunmore East didn’t disappoint at the weekend with great Flying Fifteen racing in this picturesque village as well as fantastic hospitality. The winds held steady and a full programme of races was completed with Sean Craig & Alan Green (NYC) winning the event in Frequent Flyer after a consistant series of results from David Gorman & Chris Doorly (NYC) in second and Andy McCleery & Colin Dougan (KYC) in third.
On Saturday racing started at a popular time of 2pm, in Race 1 after a hectic start where the pin end was favoured Ben Mulligan led the way at the weather mark closely followed by Brian Willis & John McPeake. On the run Willis took the lead he was to hold till the end sailing particularly well on the reaches holding off Craig. These finished first and second with Gorman third and Mathews fourth after an excellent recovery getting inside a group of boats on the last run.
Race 2 the race was similar, pin end bias, shifty but one main direction to go, Mathews was out of the blocks quickly and led all the way, the Martin brothers were second with McCleery third, on the last leeward mark Gorman got inside Craig to take fourth place.
Race 3 the wind was a good 14 knots still from the NW and still shifty off the land, there were some strange wind bends coming from the village. Gorman was in good position to weather of the fleet but Craig and Mathews below them seemed to get their own private wind and took the lead at the weather mark. They both stayed ahead to be first and second but behind there were plenty of places changing, local men Lee Statham and Charlie Boland were in the thick of it and finally McCleery finished third, Statham fourth with Gorman falling down to sixth.
With the strong wind all the crews were wrecked as generally it has been light winds all summer. There was great food available and everyone enjoyed the evening, some too much as they appeared on Sunday. Mathews and Craig were in pole position going into Sunday and Gorman had only an outside chance to retain the trophy.
For Race 4 the wind was from the SW and the tide was still flooding. Gorman started at the boat end and then headed out to sea but those who headed inshore in the second half of the beat came out with a nice lift on port, Colman & Quinn lead the way from Mulligan with Gorman third. Down wind Gorman gybed to the inside and took the lead at the gate which he was to keep, with Colman still second and Craig third. Mathews had a poor start and was back in the group and couldn’t make a recovery. Craig moved up to second with Colman slipping to thirdand now would only lose the event if he had a bad last race and Gorman was to win. Its sailing and anything can happen.
Race 5 was very difficult, there were two general recalls and a black flag, the tide was now ebbing and pushing the boats over the line but the pin bias was way too much so everyone piled down there. With a lot of banging and shouting the fleet got off, again Mulligan and Colman went inshore to lok good but Gorman soon took the lead and went on to win his second race of the day. For a while itw as looking good for him to win as Mathews and Craig were in trouble on the start line. Craig got out of it and slowly moved up the fleet to finish second, enough to win the championship. Mathews ended up doing turns after the start and as it was his discard headed home. McCleery was third again with Colman fourth.
So Craig won, Gorman a close second and McCleery third. Lee Statham won the Silver fleet and Orla Devlin the classic. It was a great event and the race officer, his team and all the volenteers did a great job appreciated by all. It was great to see new faces at the event including Niall and Margaret from the DMYC and Frazer Mitchell and Gabrial Greer (NYC). We look forward to returning!
