Since Des McWilliam retired and sold the UK Sails business to Barry Hayes and Graham Curran at the end of the year, they have lost no time in getting their new designed products out to their customers. In addition they have brought in the knowledge of Mark Mansfield, the four time Olympian and professional sailor, to work with them as an agent and racing consultant.
Results are already showing with the season only just started. In the first of the 2018 ISORA Races, the Welsh ISORA race was won overall by Andrew Hall's, J125 Jackknife, sporting UK Ireland sails, and winning by a considerable margin. Andrew has also just purchased one of the new J121 speedsters which also sports a full suit of UK Ireland sails, the subject of a recent article on Afloat.ie here
Andrew Hall's, J125 Jackknife
On the same day, the first ISORA race was run on Dublin Bay and the winner of Class 1 was Roger Smith's Wakey Wakey from Poolbeg Yacht & Boat Club, which included, in her sail inventory, the new UK sails J1 – JX Jib which was tested here in Dublin recently here
First DBSC Races
More recently, last weekend's first DBSC weekend race featured Uk sails winners in Both Class 0 IRC and Class 1 IRC. In Class 0, Paul O'Higgins JPK 10.80, Rockabill VI, won sporting new A 1.5 and S2 spinnakers from UK sailmakers. In class 1, John and Brian Halls’ J109, Something Else, showed good speed with her UK Sails inventory to win Class 1.
Kinsale Spring League
In Kinsale, KYC's Spring League, as featured here with photo gallery, finished up last Sunday with an emphatic win for Kieran Collins Olsen 30, Ocacle IV, in IRC Class 2, with straight wins, sporting a new X Drive main and Jib and Spinnaker from UK Sailmakers. This was an impressive result as in their class was also Finbarr O'Regan's well sailed Artful Dodger, an Elan 333, which won its class at Sovereigns Week in 2017.
Kieran Collins Olsen 30, Ocacle IV Photo: Bob Bateman
Warsash Spring Championships
Further afield, Mansfield was Tactician and Mainsheet on John Smarts’ J109, Jukebox, which won the Warsash Spring Championships which was an 11 race series run over two weekends in the Solent, which finished last Sunday. Mark Will be Tactician on Jukebox, when she competes in the upcoming IRC Europeans being held in Cowes in June, in conjunction with the Commodores Cup. Included in the fleet for that event will be Rob McConnell's Fools Gold, winner of last year Class in Sovereigns Cup and the Welsh IRC Nationals. Fools Gold also sports a full UK sails Inventory, and trimming on that boat will be Graham Curran of the loft.
This weekend sees all 3 UK sails people (Barry Hayes, Graham Curran and Mark Mansfield) performing sail trials on a number of clients yachts in Dun Laoghaire who have opted for the new technology and expertise that the new UK Ireland Sails team are bringing to the market.
