On a warm Septembers day an impressive 20 Flying Fifteens turned out for racing on the Bay. It was a difficult day for the PRO Eddie Totterdell and his team as the weather was to shift at some stage to the SW but when it would change nobody knew, but change it did on the first beat of the first race.
In Race 1 the wind was still NW and there was a strong outgoing tide, so strong that boats had difficulty getting over the start line. An individual recall was called, a few who had dipped down were too close to call, this included McCambridge and Gorman who played safe and went back.
Tom Murphy along with O,Neill and the Meaghers headed towards the shore while Mathews and most of the fleet went right as the SB20 had done. Meanwhile those who went back including Gorman and Coughlan were having their own little battle to see who would be off the start line last!
A short time later the winds were changing as forecast and those on the left looked like they would get it first, they did but they had overstood the mark. Gorman after a late start tacked early and somehow managed to get in a good position as they approached the weather mark, at this stage the wind was behind and the spinakers were up!
O'Neill & MJ Mulligan led but Gorman managed to slip inside at the wing mark to take the lead down the run which was now a beat down to the gate which was the new weather mark! It stayed this way for the next lap with the Meaghers third, Murphy fourth and Alan Balfe fifth.
After resetting the course Race 2 got going but with the tide pushing the boats over the line and with the boats going up to soon and to fast there was a general recall. No messing with Eddie and the black flag went up for the restart. Three were still over the line, others including Gorman got stuck adjacent the committee boat as most of the fleet headed out to sea. The Meagher;s and O’Neill were nip and tuck but judging the tide and wind perfectly the Meagher’s lead at the weather mark and there was no catching them. They were closely followed by O’Neill and Mathews but it was all very close behind. On the last lap the Meagher’s increased their lead but behind there were changes happening, Mathews moved into second, Frazer & Gabrial were third and Gorman with the yellow Mitsibishi spinnaker had moved to fourth. The Meagher’s third and first was enough for them to deservedly win the day.
Thanks to the PRO Eddie and his team who did a great job in difficult conditions. To have 20 boats out in a club race was fantastic, all being well there will be a good number entered for the East Coast Championships that take place in two weeks time in Dun Laoghaire.
