Team Racing makes for great sailing sport, and is unrivalled in its effectiveness in honing close-quarters boat-handling skills. But it’s an especially unforgiving type of contest, for although everyone is mutually reliant for success, at the very end it often comes clearly down to the relative individual showing of one helm at the tail end of the final race.
Niamh Henry of Royal St George YC, sailing for Technical University Dublin in the maelstrom of the Irish Team Racing Championship at Royal Cork in Crosshaven, found herself in this unsought yet key role. Despite capsizes being part of a volatile mix in the final, she kept her cool to maintain a two boat lead over her Baltimore SC rival to produce a tied four points apiece finish, but with TUD on track to win the tie break and the title.
It may have looked chaotic to a casual observer. But right at the heart of it, Niamh Henry knew precisely what was needed to carry the day, and she did it.
1968 is the last occasion that a female helm was on the winning team of the Irish Team Racing Championships. After a 53 year gap, Niamh now joins an elite group in the history of Irish Team Racing.
