Irish GP14 Hot Toddy 2013 at Mullingar Sailing Club

GP14 Hot Toddy at Mullingar © Sean McCafferty / www.flickr.com/photos/seanphotos2013

GP14 Hot Toddy at Mullingar © Sean McCafferty / www.flickr.com/photos/seanphotos2013

Thirty GP14's attended the last major event on the Irish calendar for 2013. Mullingar Sailing Club was the host and laid on a great welcome to the fleet with fresh scones and coffee from 10am on the Saturday morning. The forecast was southerly force 3-4 with intermittent showers with a slight risk of torrential rain. There were two special guest appearances for the event, enterprise and SB20 ace Sean Craig sailing with Conor Clancy and last years J24 national champion JP McCaldin sailing with Carolyn McCaldin.

Racing got under way at 12:00 with conditions light and very shifty. Craig and Graham Elmes sailing with Rebecca Killian made the most of the pin end bias and arrived at the windward mark first and second with a gaggle of boats in the mix behind of Curly Morris, Shane McCarthy, Dan O'Connell and Keith Louden. After the first triangle Elmes and Killian had extended their lead with McCarthy sailing with Damian Bracken in second. The leading pair found it difficult to defend their lead in the shifty conditions and by the top mark team McCarthy and Bracken were hot on their heals. This remained for the downwind but on the next beat Ger Owens sailing with Melanie Morris sailed a great beat to find themselves in third closely followed by husband and wife team of Dan and Mairin O'Connell. By the bottom of the triangle the top three boats rounded within feet of each other with a short beat to the finish. Team O'Connell hit the right and managed to sneak in ahead of McCarthy of Owens to finish 2nd with Elmes and Killian getting the first bullet of the event.

Race 2 saw a new leader to the top mark in Keith Louden sailing with Alan Thompson closely followed by Craig and Clancy in 2nd and McCarthy and Bracken in 3rd. This is how the race finished only for Louden and McCarthy didn't receive a finish gun as they were both on course side at the start. This gave the race 2 win to Craig and Clancy followed by Owens and Morris in 2nd and Elmes and Killian in 3rd.

The final race of the day was postponed for half an hour while the fleet got hammered by a torrential downpour. When the race finally got away there was blue skies and glorious sunshine to nicely cap off the day. The heavy pin bias caught out many boats with some choice words overheard at the bang of the gun. National champions Owens and Morris were back into their winning ways with a healthy lead by mark one followed by McCarthy and Bracken in 2nd and Craig and Clancy in a close third. This is how the race finished leaving the overnight lead to Owens and Morris, Elmes and Killian in 2nd and Craig and Clancy 3rd.

Day 2 saw conditions more akin to an end of season event with heavy rain, gusts of 25 knots and dull grey skies.

Race 4 got away shortly after 11am with the fleet equally split left and right up the first beat. At the windward mark McCarthy Bracken came out from the left and crossed just ahead of Elmes and Killian in 2nd. There was a big right shift on the first reach and in tandem with the gusty conditions saw a number of capsizes on this leg. Owens and Morris managed to stay upright and sail into 2nd place by the end of the 2nd reach. McCarthy and Bracken extended their lead to nearly a leg by the end of the race with Owens and Morris coming in 2nd with father son team Molloy finishing in 3rd.

The PRO decided to call it a day after most of the fleet started to limp home after the severe battering of race 4 leaving Owens and Morris the overall winners from McCarthy and Braken in 2nd and Elmes and Killian in 3rd. Team McCaldin enjoyed their debut winning the silver fleet with James Ogg sailing with Stuart Wilson winning the bronze fleet.

Overall Results:

Gold Fleet
1st Ger Owens & Melanie Morris (R.ST.G.Y.C.)
2nd Shane Mc Carthy & Damian Bracken (G.S.C.)
3rd Graham Elmes & Rebecca Killian (R.ST.G.Y.C.)

Silver Fleet
1st J P McCaldin & Carolyn Mc Caldin (L.E.Y.C..)
2nd Peter Fallon & James Hockley (L.F.Y.C.)
3rd Daniel Gallagher & Garreth Gallagher (M.B.C L.F.Y.C.)

Bronze Fleet
1st James Ogg & Stuart Wilson (D.S.C.)
2nd James Hackett & Rosemarie Hackett (M.S.C.)
3rd Pat Mc Ardle & Veronica Lucy (M.S.C.)