The 2022 "Champion's Cup" took place at Sutton Dinghy Club over the weekend, marking the 75th anniversary of the event.

Much has been written and spoken of what was formerly the Helmsman's Championship in the last few weeks, but for the GP14 Class in Ireland, it was an honour to be asked to run the event in conjunction with Sutton Dinghy Club.

The Club itself has a strong connection to the event, and with a strong GP14 fleet, the pressure was on to ensure a great weekend.

The GP14 representative was National Champion Shane MacCarthy, with Ger Owens also selected as the holder of the event. Jane Kearney received a Female wildcard entry with a superb season of top finishes in both the GP14 Worlds and the GP14 National Championship.

Former Class President Stephen Boyle organised a very strong fleet of 10 borrowed GP14s, and with the help and support of Andy Davis in HD Sails, the fleet was all dressed in brand-new Genoas for the event. With 16 helms selected, two flights of 8 were prepared with two spare boats available in the event of gear failure of damage. The boats were gathered in Sutton the week prior to the event and duly rigged, checked and fitted out with new sails ready for practice on Friday. However, the wind gods looked to intervene, and the practice was cancelled, with winds gusting up to 27kts all day. The broader forecast also started to cast doubt on the ability to run the event over the two scheduled days. While Saturday was set fair for a south southwest 12 to 15 kts, Sunday looked decidedly dodgy, with all the forecasts showing 20kts gusting up to 30kts right through to the early afternoon.

A strong fleet of 10 borrowed GP14s were used at the Champions' Cup at Sutton Dinghy Club Photo: Afloat

With the tide a key consideration in Sutton, the PRO for the event Michael Conway and his team of Jim Lambkin, Stephen Boyle and Emmet Dalton gathered on Friday afternoon with a view to figuring out how to ensure an event could be garnered from possibly a single days racing. By early Friday evening and after liaising with Met Eireann, the call was made to focus on completing the event on Saturday.

Despite ditching the repechage element, the race management team still set themselves the goal of completing up to 10 races. This would include slick launch and recovery as well as quick turnaround of races and boat exchanges between flights. No easy feat considering the tidal window. But with support from Jim Lambkin, Scorie Walls, and Gordon Davies, Michael was confident of getting the event concluded.

Former All Ireland Champion Michael O'Connor representing the SB20 class sailing with Michelle Rowley at Sutton Dinghy Club Photo: Afloat

Saturday dawned, and following an early registration and briefing, the boat draw for Flight 1 & Flight 2 was made. Flight 1 included former GP14 World Champion Shane MacCarthy, Barry McCartin (Fireballs), former Champion Michael O’Connor (SB20), Darragh Sheridan (RS Aero), former Champion and Olympian Peter Kennedy (Flying Fifteen), Olympic campaigner Aoife Hopkins (ILCA 6), Jocelyn Hill (RS200) and Rob Espey (RS400).

Tokyo 2020 Radial Trialists in the Laser Radial, Aisling Keller (left) and Aoife Hopkins competing in the Champions Cup off Sutton Dinghy Club Photo: Afloat

Flight 2 comprised of holder and three-time Olympic Campaigner Ger Owens, Cameron Good (Dragons), Jane Kearney (GP14), David Dickson (Shannon One Design), John O’Driscoll (Water Wag), Ian Travers (Squibs), Tadgh O’Loinsigh (J24) and Niamh Henry (Team Racing).

Flight 1 certainly looked tough draw considering the presence of former Champions, Olympians and World Championship podium placers.

RS Aero Champion's Cup representatives Daragh Sheridan and lead a bunch of boats into a leeward mark at Sutton Dinghy Club Photo: Afloat

The 3 races were completed in Flight 1 with very close and tight racing with no obvious boat bias. With an average race time of 30min, the PRO team were confident of getting through the schedule, which would hopefully see four races in the final. An OCS was not the start that Shane MacCarthy was looking for in Race 1 but he recovered with a 1st and 2nd to give himself a chance to make the final. With no discard, his progression would be down to results throughout the Flight. With Dan Gill crewing, Darragh Sheridan posted three consistent results to lead the flight after three races. However, a couple of on-the-water penalties applied incidents saw Barry McCartin and Rob Espey seal the top 3 spots, with Shane MacCarthy taking fourth, just squeezing out Peter Kennedy.

Flight 2 again saw tight starts and close and even racing through the fleet. The wind had started to drop a little, and Ger Owens began to show his boat handling and experience and took three bullets to take him easily through to the final. Behind him, the battle for the final three final slots was fierce with Niamh Henry using her boat handling and team racing skills to work her way into 2nd. A battling 2nd place in the final race was enough to ensure Jane Kearney made it to the final, with John O’Driscoll completing the finalists.

Robert Espey and Richard McCullough representing the RS400s at the Champion's Cup at Sutton Dinghy Club Photo: Afloat

With on the water boat allocation and switching complete, the PRO attempted to get the final underway. However, some adjustments on a couple of rigs saw a short delay, with the first of 4 races finally getting underway shortly before 3 pm.

And what a final we were treated to. 4 clean and tight starts saw most of the finalists in the top 3 at some stage over the first 2 legs of each race with rarely more than a couple of boat lengths between 1st and 8th. Shane MacCarthy took the first 2 races legs after close battles with Ger Owens but thereafter the face of the final started to change. While Shane MacCarthy, Barry McCartin and Ger Owens had all shown incredible speed upwind, both Jane Kearney and Rob Espey started to finds the gears downwind and exert an influence on where thew title would go. In Race 3 Ger and Shane battled it out up front till the last downwind leg where both Jane Kearney and Barry McCartin managed to squeeze between Ger and Shane, leaving a one point difference between the pair.

GP14 National Champion Shane McCarthy and Josh Porter round a leeward mark at the Champions' Cup at Sutton Dinghy Club Photo: Afloat

The 4th race saw another close and tight start with Barry McCartin and Shane MacCarthy looking good up the first beat. On the downwind, Rob Espey first picked up the stronger breeze and worked his way into the lead. With Jane Kearney and Barry McCartin now also finding great speed and looking to try and secure a podium, Shane looked to be covering Ger when a port starboard incident resulted in penalty turns.

Fireball sailors Barry McCartin and Conor Kinsella competing at the Champion's Cup in Sutton Photo: Afloat

This now left Ger in the driving seat and he successfully secured the title with a 4th place finish. Up ahead Rob Espey continued to lead the race with Jane Kearney battling Barry McCartin for the result they both felt would get them on the podium. Jane Kearney managed to squeeze past Barry McCartin around the last leeward mark and clock up a second 2nd place finish. However, 2nd place overall was still not decided. The incident pushed Shane MacCarthy to the back of the fleet and his chance of the title had disappeared. However he was not finished and quickly recovered a spot. If he could recover one more spot, he would still have a chance to take 2nd overall. Despite a late surge, he could not get past Darragh Sheridan, which meant Jane Jearney had taken 2nd overall by a point from Shane MacCarthy in 3rd. Barry McCartin, after a superb event, was a further point back in 4th.

2022 "Champion's Cup" results

With the time now almost 5 pm and tide well out now, walking and pulling the GP14s up the Creek and across the sand bar was the order of the day.  A great day's sailing had ended late, but the PRO team had managed to complete the full schedule. The tired fleet retired to Sutton Dinghy Club for a quick change and more photographs before dinner and prize-giving in the Marine Hotel.

Sutton Dinghy Club on the north shore of Dublin Bay Photo: Afloat

Marking the occasion of the 75th anniversary, stories were recounted about the beginnings of this iconic event as told by Afloat's WM Nixon here and welcomed a number of past Champions, including David Gay (1975), Robert Dix (1970), Chris Arrowsmith (1979), Anthony O’Leary ( 2014 & 2015), Gerry Sargent (1962), Tom Fitzpatrick (1994, 1997, 1998 & 2004), Alex Barry (2016), Laura Dillon (1996) and Mark Mansfield (1990 & 1999).

Commodore Ciara O’Tiarnaigh also welcomed the past Champions and thanked all the Club volunteers who helped make the event such a huge success.

Ger and Mel with GP14 Ireland President, Andy Johnston (centre) Photo: Sutton DC

Ger Owens with Mel Morris accepted the silver salvers. Despite having won the event a number of times, it was clear this was a special occasion for Ger. Winning the event with Mel, his regular crew for over 20 years, in a GP14 and on the 75th anniversary. It couldn't get any better, could it? He vowed to be back to defend his title and attempt to go for three in a row, which Nin O’Leary had previously only accomplished. Another victory would also see him join Tom Fitzpatrick as only the second sailor to win it four times. 

GP14 calendar

The GP14 Ireland fleet moves to Newtownards Sailing Club next week for the Hot Toddy & Youth Championship. The word is that Ger, Shane and Jane will all be present. We expect a good fleet in this penultimate event of what has been a tremendous season for the GP14 fleet in Ireland.

The final event sees us move to Cullaun in November in what is fast becoming one of the stand-out favourites of the fleet.

The Race Officer In The Armchair is as big a pain as the Hurler On The Ditch, particularly when either is operating in hindsight. And they're only slightly less of a pest when they're throwing in their tuppence-worth of advice beforehand, for heaven knows that those all-too-often unsung heroes of the sailing scene, the conscientious Race Officers, have their own network of top-level information to draw on when it's clear a difficult event is coming down the line.

Yet, in some ways it's reassuring to know that throughout Ireland, the Race Officers In The Armchair (let's call them ROITA) will be looking at what is going to be a volatile weekend weatherwise. "Volatile" is getting over-used these days, and it will soon go the way of "iconic", but we'll plough on with it for now, as the ROITA are going to be running the rule over the main events planned in this coming weekend of meteorological volatility. They will already know that Saturday is going
to be good - almost a ridge day in fact - such that in some places, there's even a chance that a lack of wind will briefly be a problem. But Sunday is going to be a complete stinker.

There'll almost certainly be southerly gales countrywide. So whatever you may think about the accuracy or otherwise of weather forecasts, you'd be flying in the face of reason to assert that any plans for racing anticipated on Sunday should be kept firmly in place regardless.

Because Sunday is going to be the kind of day which makes you realise why most of the yacht clubs in Ireland - and virtually all the major ones - face north. For if you're going to operate the clubhouse on a year-round basis with a winter sailing programme supported by an active in-house series of social events, you don't want your members and guests being blown away before they can get near the clubhouse or their boats.

Normally this fact of north-facing club life is barely noticed, but this weekend sees the two-day staging of the new-look Champions' Cup, otherwise the 75th Anniversary of the Helmsman's Championship. And it's being staged at the south-facing Sutton Dinghy Club in GP 14s. Sutton Dinghy Club is the very essence of the summer place. It may face across to Dublin city, yet in good weather with the fascinating abundance and variety of the Bull Island Nature reserve just across the way on the other side of Sutton Creek, the sense of being completely away from it all and at one with nature, of being young again with an exciting world right there to be explored in your little sailing dinghy, is what makes Suttonians - young and old - go misty-eyed.

GP 14s racing in a brisk southerly at Sutton. Photo: Andy Johnston

But an Autumn southerly gale at Sutton, made even more pressurised by the season's high-density air, is something else altogether, particularly with the tidal launching area. So presumably, they're already making plans in anticipation of it being a one day event which, come to think of it, was the form that the Championship took 75 years ago. High Water is 11.26 on Saturday, so dawn patrol racing could be possible to get a good chunk of the programme out of the way early, and
then all home, done and dusted and the 75th Anniversary Champion announced by evening time Saturday.

This meeting of the ROITA Association is now closed.