Portaferry celebrates a special birthday at regatta

Portaferry celebrates a special birthday at regatta

5 September 2018

FIFTY years of Portaferry Sailing Club were celebrated at a special anniversary regatta on Saturday.

Approximately 40 boats turned up on the start line at Blackboat Bay and enjoyed some excellent racing, while a good number of dinghies raced in Castleward Bay.

In the big boat IRC 1 class Darren Martin, from Whiterock, took the honours in his high performance SB3, Shark Bait, from clubmate Peter Holden in Go To Red, while Mike Spence’s Le Basculer, from Killyleagh, pipped Raymond Killops’ Movistar Bleu for third place.

The IRC 2 class turned out to be a battle between the Impalas from East Down with Stephen Lynn’s Mipaal getting the verdict ahead of the Patterson brothers in Chorus Line. Jonathan Gifford, from Quoile, was third in his Albin Express, Apache.

Kevin O’Neill gave the hosts plenty to cheer about when he won the NHC 1 class in Juno ahead of Frank Petticrew’s Magdaleyne, from East Down, and Raymond Beattie’s Tiger Lily, from Killyleagh.

There was a Portaferry clean sweep in the NHC 2 class with John Curran and Dessie Swail winning in Escape from Ryan Kelly’s Wandering Angus in second and Billy White’s Shanty in third.

Gerry Reilly and Jane McMeekin, from Strangford, were the winners of the Flying Fifteen class ahead of the father-and-son team of Malcolm and Philip Crichton, with Orla Lawson and her dad, Kieran Devlin, making it a Strangford one-two-three.

Corin Mackenzie showed the Glen sailors the way round to win in Glen Moyle, while PJ Gault and Dan Uprichard were second in Glen Dora and Henry Anstey was third in Glen Iris.

The River prize went to Kenny and Sonia Smyth and the crew of Laragh.

In the large dinghy handicap class the winner was Adam Fermor, from Whiterock, in a Laser and in second place were Ben McMeekin and Conor Findlay, from Strangford, in a RS400.

Strangford sailors dominated the Laser Radial class with Evie McLaughlin winning from Paul McMeekin and Ngaio Lawson.

Colin Crichton, from Quoile, was the pick of the Topper sailors ahead of Will Pannell, from Whiterock, and Christopher Reilly, from Strangford.

There was a Strangford one-two in the Optimist class with Violet McLaughlin leading the way from Caitlin Kearney.

The race officers were Shane McCarthy and John Findlay.