O’Tiarnaighs Hold Healthy Lead at GP14 Spring Series at Royal North of Ireland Yacht Club

7th March 2023

An 11-boat fleet is contesting the annual GP14 Spring Series at Royal North of Ireland Yacht Club on Belfast Lough

The second weekend of the annual GP14 Spring Series at Royal North of Ireland Yacht Club on Belfast Lough kicked off with a pleasant 10-12 knots. The 11-boat fleet relished the longer beats set by PRO Gerry Reid and his team, allowing for good tactical racing and plenty of place-changing.

Race 1 saw the right-hand pay, with Ruan and Natasha O’Tiarniagh round first, closely followed by Patrick Hamilton with crew Hana Stolcova. Unfortunately, the experienced Ruan O’Tiarnaigh didn’t keep his eye out for the O flag signalling an Olympic course, and he led Patrick on a dead run towards the leeward mark. This gave the lead to Jane Kearney and Becca O’Tiarnaigh, with Ross Kearney and Daniel Nelson in close pursuit. Ross and Dan took the win, Steven Nelson and Martin Weatherstone in second and Patrick and Hana in third.

Race two got underway with the fleet working the left of the course; the right side seemed to get slightly more pressure and allowed Ross and Dan to round with a comfortable lead; they managed to hold onto the lead with Steven and Martin with another second and Keith and Matteo Louden in third.

Race three saw the breeze become more variable in strength and direction; with rain clouds building on the far shore, it was difficult to predict. Ruan and Natasha did so superbly and held a healthy lead right to the finish, Michael Cox and Claire Cromie had an excellent second beat and managed to predict the favoured side of the incoming pressure. They held onto second place with Steven and Martin a very consistent third.

This gave Steven and Martin the daily win, with Ruan and Natasha holding a healthy lead in the overall series.

Published in GP14, Belfast Lough

Published in GP14

Tagged under

GP14

About The Author

Afloat.ie Team

Email The Author

Afloat.ie is Ireland's dedicated marine journalism team.

Have you got a story for our reporters? Email us here.

We've got a favour to ask

More people are reading Afloat.ie than ever thanks to the power of the internet but we're in stormy seas because advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news sites, we haven't put up a paywall because we want to keep our marine journalism open.

Afloat.ie is Ireland's only full-time marine journalism team and it takes time, money and hard work to produce our content.

So you can see why we need to ask for your help.

If everyone chipped in, we can enhance our coverage and our future would be more secure. You can help us through a small donation. Thank you.