Greystones Sailing Club Regatta drew a fleet of over 80 boats for its annual regatta today. Despite the wet and windy forecast, the popular end–of–season fixture drew boats from clubs as far north as Malahide in County Dublin and as far south as Arklow in County Wicklow but by far and away the biggest visiting contingent were from Dublin Bay with nearly half the regatta fleet coming from Dun Laoghaire.
Today's two-race regatta was preceded on Saturday by feeder races by ISORA and DBSC. The ISORA race was won by Chris Power Smith's J122 Aurelia, report here. The DBSC race results are here.
Greystones Harbour Marina packs in the visiting boats for the annual 'Taste of Greystones' Regatta Photo: Afloat.ie
Although Greystones Harbour's embryonic 16–boat cruiser fleet did not manage to win any of the regatta's five divisions, GSC boats were on the podium in classes one, two and the white sails division.
After a one hour postponement, conditions were light for race one with winds from zero to 15 km/h but breezier for race two with wind speeds increasing to 20 to 35km/h.
Howth's Storm Continues Class One Wins
Daragh Cafferkey's Another Adventure (above) was third and fellow GSC competitor Eleuthera (below) was fourth Photos: Afloat.ie
One of the biggest class one turnouts of the season featured three entries from the host club, including the hotly tipped Grand Soleil 44 Eleuthera skippered by Frank Whelan. But in a continuation of a season of successes for Howth Yacht Club J109 Storm, the Kelly family boat now adds the Taste of Greystones title too with two race wins today, just a week after being awarded the inaugural Celtic Cup for her season's long exploits across the Irish Sea Race area. Second to Storm was another J109, Tim Goodbody's White Mischief from the Royal Irish Yacht Club while Greystones own A35 Another Adventure (Daragh Cafferkey) was third overall.
Keating's Checkmate Wins Class Two
Half Tonner Checkmate XVIII competed in Greystones Photo: Afloat.ie
Howth Half Tonner Checkmate (not that one) was the winner of the ten boat Cruisers 2 fleet with Boomerang (James Kirwan) second. The Half Tonner competing in Greystones was Checkmate XVIII, the Nigel Biggs restored half-tonner entered for the Wicklow Regatta by Ross Keating.
Third was Greystones Sailing Club's own 'Virgin Triangle' skippered by Graham Noonan.
Running Wild Wins Class Three
Brendan Foley's Impala, Running Wild Photo: Afloat.ie
In Cruisers 3, the biggest fleet of the BJ Marine sponsored regatta with 22 boats, Brendan Foley's Impala Running Wild from the Royal St. George Yacht Club, was the clear winner with two first places from Barry Cunningham's Quarter Tonner Quest of the Royal Irish Yacht Club. Third was Luke Fegan's Hustler 32, Smokehaze from Malahide Yacht Club.
Full results are downloadable below
