Royal Ulster Yacht Club and Bangor Marina on Belfast Lough are gearing up for an influx of boats for Bangor Town Regatta at the end of June, with 55 currently entered.
The event of the same name was first sailed over 100 years ago and resurrected in 2018.
The regatta will run from 23rd till 26th June out of Bangor Marina with racing on various courses. Con Murphy of the National Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire is in charge as the principal race officer with a local team's support.
Jay Colville’s First Forty, Forty Licks from East Down
Entries vary from Fairies, day keelboats from Royal North of Ireland YC about five miles along the coast to the big hitters such as the Harrington/Mulholland/O’Tiarnaigh trio’s IMX 38 Excession entered under RUYC, Ballyholme and Sutton DC, Jay Colville’s First Forty, Forty Licks from East Down on Strangford Lough, Pat Kelly’s J109 from Howth YC and Rush SC and John Minnis’s Archambault 35 Final Call II, the latter two part of the six-boat RC35 division.
Pat Kelly’s J109 from Howth YC and Rush SC
But it looks as though Paul Prentice, Class Captain of the Northern Sigmas of the Sigma 33 Class, will get his ‘magic 15’ wish in what seems to be the largest class at the moment who will be competing in the Irish and Class Championships within the event.
At the moment, fourteen Sigmas are entered, but there is talk of Starshine Challenger, which has been ashore for some time, having been bought locally, so could it be that she will make up the 15 Paul wished for?
