With a rising westerly of notably dense air today (Saturday), Race Officer Scorie Walls did well to get three contests completed for the vintage Howth 17s annual championship at their home port, with the fleet benefiting from the class having already completed a sedate mid-week style race without topsails on Friday evening, sailing under a picturesque but pessimistic sky whose indications of stronger winds were borne out as Saturday progressed.
In such conditions, the Debate of the Day with these venerable boats is whether to race with topsails or not. And though a significant number sallied forth with full cloth early on Saturday morning, it was notable that Deilginis utilized a clear OCS in Race 3 to take time out to become bald-headed, thereby enabling her to get a convincing win in the final race and ensure that the title moved on from 2020 champion Pauline (Shane O’Doherty and partners), which had raced without the topsail from the start, yet had logged two useful seconds to keep her in the frame.
However, although topsail or not was just one of several Issues of the Day, Brian and Conor Turvey kept it centre stage with Isobel by masterfully managing the special trick of a double gybe, ending up with topsail on one side and mainsail on the other - something which newcomers to the class had thought was in the realms of mythology. Fortunately, a photographer was on hand to show it can be done, but he failed to capture the bonus of the helmsman going over the side and being hauled back by the brother grabbing his ankle – “It was only a footnote, really,” we are told.
Inevitably there was some damage as the series went on – damage of a type unknown to modern sailors, as they seemed to feature various disconnections with the gaff booms, the most notable being Rosemary whose gaff was irretrievably fractured such that a diet of bread and dripping will be the order of the day in three households until the complete replacement cost is recovered.
The ding-dong for the straight title continued, but freed of her topsail Deilginis had a scoreline - after the discard of her OCS - of two firsts and a third, while defending champion Pauline was on two seconds and a fifth, the third-placed Aura (Ian Malcolm) consistently logging two thirds and a fourth.
Under HPH, the Tom Houlihan partnership with Zaida won overall, but despite a rugged handicap, Deilginis was second, while Sheila (Dave Mulligan & Andy Johnston) was third in a championship which showed this venerable class to be in fine form. Details here