The violent overnight thunderstorms certainly cleared the air in Schull for the start of day four of Calves Week writes Michael Murphy.
Unfortunately, it also cleared the wind, leaving race officer Alan Crosbie starting his fleets in a falling southeasterly from a line well inside the harbour.
As the breeze continued to drop, most of the fleets drifted aimlessly off the harbour mouth, for up to an hour and a half. Then the forecasted weather front arrived, first came the torrential rain and then the strong southwesterly, sweeping all the backmarkers safely home after up to four hours of racing.
Tricky conditions on day four of Calves Week
In class 1 it was a clean sweep for Paul O'Higgins' “Rockabill VI, whose victory in both divisions, also clinched him the overall title, from the 2018 holder and event sponsor Frank Whelan's “Eleuthera” in IRC and Dennis O'Sullivan's “Aris” in Echo.
Rockabill VI (Paul O'Higgins) from the Royal Irish Yacht Club Photo: Bob Bateman
In class two, IRC Jonny Swan's “Harmony” finished the week in style to claim both the daily prize and the overall from Frank Desmond's “Bad Company”.
In Echo, it was a dead heat between Rob Allen's “Smile” and Kevin Daly's “Jamaro”, while George Radley's” Cortegada” took the overall trophy.
Class three IRC also finished in a tie with David Buckley's “Jaguar ”winning the overall by reason of a victory over “ Dave Doyle's “Musketeer” in the final race.
In Echo, the overall went to another Tralee Bay boat, with Diarmuid Dineen's “Growler” finishing one point ahead of the Dwyer family in “Sally in Stitches”, while the Kerry club finished off a great week with Paul Taylor winning class four Echo in “Sea Psalm”. The IRC trophy was claimed by Rob O Reily in “Bonjourno”.
RIYC winners at Calves 2019: Act 2 owners David Andrews, Michael O’Leary and Tom Roche (and all their trophies won last week!) with winning IRC One winning skipper Paul O’Higgins of Rockabill VI pictured second from right.
In White sail one IRC Michael O'Leary in “Act Two” was able to discard the final day's race to secure overall victory by one point from Aiden Heffernans “Indulgence”, while Tom McCarthy's “Bateleur 88” won Echo.
Local Schull boats dominated White Sail Two, with Don Buckley's “Zeezwan” winning the tiebreaker from Frank Murphy in “Dreamcatcher”
Results are here
