Glorious weather welcomes sailors

Glorious weather welcomes sailors

10 July 2013

MEDITERRANEAN conditions were the order of the day for the Narrows Regatta Series which ended on Monday.

Glorious sunshine over four days helped make Strangford Lough’s annual festival of sailing even more special as the oilskins gave way to T-shirts and shorts.

There were over 100 boats on Saturday and Sunday, as well as 60-plus for the Bar Buoy Race on Friday evening.

Numbers were slightly down on Monday owing to work commitments.

Once again, there was a terrific turnout of juniors with over 30 boats racing in Castleward Bay

Light airs on Sunday and Monday turned some of the races into a drifting match, but as usual the top sailors managed to cope better than the rest.

There were also some tight finishes, particularly in the Flying 15 class where Gerry Reilly and crew Patrick McMeekin edged out Roger and Peter Chamberlain for first place by virtue of a better discard after both finished on seven points.

In the big boat IRC class Ernie Kelly’s What’s the Rush had only a point to spare from Mike Spence’s Le Basculer, while in the restricted sail cruiser class Leo McCann needed a better discard to take the honours from Colin Patterson’s GK24, Digit.

Denis Kirk was the popular winner of the PY2 category and Danny McAlea’s Scampede led the way in a highly competitive PY1 cruiser class in which four points separated the first four boats.

Stevie Martin’s Signet of Kip was the runaway winner of the IRC2 cruisers, Kenny and Sonia Smyth once again led the way in the Rivers and Messrs McKinney romped home in the Glens.

The series was organised jointly by Strangford Sailing Club and Portaferry Sailing Club. Both clubs wish to all who helped over the four days, including the main sponsors, Department of Culture Arts and Leisure and Down District Council.

Results

IRC1: 1st What’s the Rush, E. Kelly, BBC; 2nd Le Basculer, M. Spence, KYC; 3rd Shindig, P. Buckley, PSC.

IRC2: 1st Signet of Kip, P. Martin, SLYC; 2nd Ethel Rose, C. Osler; 3rd Alcyone, P. Thompson and M. Watson, EDYC.

PY1: 1st Scampede, J. McAlea, PSC; 2nd Stardust, G. McCullough and D. Maxwell, EDYC; 3rd Tiger Lily, K. Beattie, KYC.

PY2: 1st Load of Mischief, D. Kirk, SLYC; 2nd Club Coffee, C. Earney, EDYC; 3rd Escape, D. Swail, PSC.

PY Restricted Sail: 1st Alma Viva, L. McCann, KYC; 2nd Digit, C. Patterson, EDYC; 3rd Trinity, J. Baker, QYC.

PY2: 1st Silmarillion, D. Neilly, RCC; 2nd Kestrel, J. Lowry, EDYC; 3rd Extreme, M. Bridges, KYC.

Flying 15: 1st Over the Moon, G. Reilly and P. McMeekin, SSC; 2nd The Final Resort, R. and P. Chamberlain, SLYC; 3rd Too Fast and Furious, A. McCleery and C. Dougan, KYC.

Squib: 1st Nimrod, W. Cannon, QYC; 2nd Allsorts, K. Bolton, KYC; 3rd Slipstream. R. Marshall, KYC.

Glen: 1st Glen Isla, Messrs McKinney, SLYC; 2nd Glen Shiel, I. Gleadhill and V. Nelson, SLYC; 3rd Glen Lark, R. Aiken, SLYC.

River: 1st Laragh, K. and S. Smyth, SLYC; 2nd Strule, Edwards, Hinds and McKnight, SLYC; 3rd Glynn, Faulkner, Cooke, Stephens and Linford, SLYC.

Sonata: 1st Cockahoop, S. and C. McGimpsey, P. and C. Pollock, SLYC; 2nd Apache, B. Corry and P. Morgan, SLYC.

Topper: 1st Ewan Findlay, SSC; 2nd William Browne, SSC; 3rd Tom McMeekin, SSC.

Topper 4.2: 1st Ben McMeekin, SSC; 2nd Lauren Gabbie, SSC; 3rd Evie McLaughlin, SSC.

Mirror: 1st Celine and Molly Egan, QYC; 2nd Shannon Conway and Matthew Crichton, SSC; 3rd Colin Crichton and James Hughes, QYC/SSC.

Optimist: 1st Caitlin Egan, QYC; 2nd Jake Egan, QYC; 3rd Niall O’Connor, PSC.

Pico: 1st David Patterson and Torran Stock, QYC; 2nd Ellie Brownlow and Tara Findlay, SSC; 3rd Rachel Browne and Molly Rose Ramsay, SSC/EDYC.