Menu

Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Displaying items by tag: Donal O Leary

Near perfect weather and the largest fleet of the week graced the waters off Schull on Sunday for the annual regatta and final day of Calves Week.With
the start line moved outside the harbour the fleets took in both the Goat and Calve Islands together with the marks off Castle Island.

In Class Zero IRC Kieran Twomeys "Gloves Off" finished a brilliant week of sailing to take the Regatta Cup and also the overall trophies in both handicap divisions, while Schull Sailing Club Commodore Morgan O' Donovan's "Loco" won the Regatta Echo cup.

In Class One IRC the overall result went right down to the wire with victory in the final race giving Donal O Leary's "D Tox" the title after a six points tie break with Simon Coveney s "Wavetrain". D Tox finished a very successful weeks racing by also winning the Echo overall trophy.

Screen_shot_2010-08-10_at_07.10.50

Infinity and Beyond (left) and Loco on opposite tacks. Photo: Bob Bateman. More photos on the gallery here

Competition was also intense in Class Two IRC with Conor Ronan's "Ruthless" just edging out the Deasey/Ivers/Desmond crew in "Bad Company" for the overall trophy thanks to his better last race result, while in Echo a third place in the regatta race, behind Andrew Mackeys "Lornadrew" was good enough to win the overall for John McGowan's "Mackey G".

The overall in Class Three IRC was never in doubt with David Kenefick in "Tiger" scoring five bullet , while a third in the final race for Paul Murrays "Full Pelt" saw him claim the Echo overall.

In Class Four the Hanley Brothers in "Saoirse" finished off a productive weeks racing by winning the IRC regatta cup and the overalls in both handicap divisions with Una Buckley sailing "Tete-a-Tete to victory in Echo.

In the White Sail One fleet the Don McCarthy sailed VSOP won the regatta race, while a third place for Bryan Heffernans "Aisling" was good enough for
him to clinch the overall trophy. In White Sail Two Tadgh Dwyer's "Brazen Huzie" won the overall, having discarded the regatta result which saw Frank
Murphys "Dreamcatcher take the trophy.

The McMahon trophy for best local boat went to Paul Murray's "Full Pelt" while the Pearson "Spirit of the regatta trophy "was presented to Bill Rigney.

Published in Calves Week

About Quarter Tonners

The Quarter Ton Class is a sailing class of the International Offshore Rule racing the Quarter Ton Cup between 1967 and 1996 and from 2005 until today.

The class is sailed by smaller keelboats of similar size and is likely the world's most-produced keelboat class.

The Ton, Half, Quarter, etc. 'classes' were each given a 'length' and yacht designers had almost free rein to work the hull shapes and measurements to achieve the best speed for that nominal length.

The Ton Rules produced cranky and tender boats without actual downwind speed. Measurement points created weird, almost square hull shapes with longish overhangs.

They were challenging to sail optimally and lost value very quickly as any new wrinkle (e.g. 'bustles') to take advantage of the rule made older boats very quickly uncompetitive.

Although its heyday was 30 years ago, the boat class continues to make its presence felt by holding its own in terms of popularity against some fern race fleets.