Irish Fireball National Championship at Lough Ree Yacht Club - Day 1
by Cormac Bradley 13 Sep 2014 15:15 BST
12-14 September 2014
The 2014 Irish Fireball Nationals, hosted by the second oldest yacht club in the world, Lough Ree Yacht Club in Athlone, has attracted a modest entry of 16 boats, the 16th having arrived after the completion of three races.
The wind conditions were much favourable than had been expected and the first race was started in 12 knots. As the day progressed the wind eased but even in the last race there was upwind trapezing and on the first reach of the last race trapezing was compulsory with spinnaker as a consequence of a gybe mark set too high relative to the weather mark.
Going into the regatta "smart money" would have been on Barry McCartin & Conor Kinsella who have yet to loose a regaata this year and scored a 4th at the Europeans and a 5th at the UK Nationals. At the end of the day they were in pole position (2, 1, 1) but they had to work for it and ashore you would have thought they were further down the fleet so unhappy they were with their performance on the water. Oh for the comfort of being so self critical!
Team Clancy, Conor & James, opening proceedings with a convincing race win and they added a 3 and a 5 to finish the day in 2nd overall, tied on points with Noel Butler & Stephen Oram (4, 2, 3).
Race Officer John Leech was true to his word in getting races away promptly with a punctual 14:30 start and three races completed by 18:30.
He had a few problems to resolve after the first race - length & gybe mark - shortened his second race and reduced the size of the course for his third race.
Today, in addition to a 16th Fireball, we are joined by the Wayfarers for their two day Nationals.
Both classes will hope to complete 6 races over Saturday & Sunday.
Lough Ree is bright and sunny this morning with the gentle breeze coming from the opposite direction to yesterday.