This weekend the fourth annual Elmo Trophy took place in the Royal St George Yacht Club. This is a team racing event for teenagers aged up to nineteen–years old. This year sixteen teams from all around the country travelled to Dublin to compete.
On Saturday morning the sailors came down to rig the twelve George fireflies and a flight of TRs kindly donated to the event by Sutton Dinghy Club. Racing was postponed until the wind filled in and then the race committee successfully completed 58 races in challenging light and shifty conditions. The sailors finally got off the water at 5:15 pm after a long day of team racing in the blistering sunshine.
On Saturday evening 120 people gathered into the yacht club’s dining room for a formal dinner. Speeches were made thanking all the volunteers and parents who had helped throughout the day and in the run-up to the event, in particular to John Sheehy, who organised and coordinated the event alongside Elaine Malcolm.
On Sunday morning the suncream was administered and again the 16 teams took to the water to complete another round robin in their respective fleets; Gold, Silver and Bronze. After intensive racing, 8 teams made it into the final knock out stage. ‘The Reachers’ emerged victorious in the final and narrowly beat the team ‘Lasers’ in the last upwind in the third race of the final. ‘George Ezra’, one of the five teams from the Royal St. George Yacht Club, came third overall.
At the prize giving, Frank Elmes presented the trophy to the winning team, Tom Higgins, Clare Gorman, Peter Fagan, Nell Staunton, Jack Fahy and Sarah Seymour. The perpetual trophy was kindly donated by Sage Pay and is named after the late Graham Elmes, the founder of the Irish Team Racing Association.
Over the weekend 119 high-quality races of team racing were sailed.
