GP14 Ulster Championship 2025 at East Antrim Boat Club
by Curly Morris & Meg Tyrrell 24 May 10:04 BST
17-18 May 2025
GP14 Ulster Championship at East Antrim © Lesley Craig
Sunshine, high tide, beautiful breezes - not generally the GP14 Class's mental picture of Larne Lough, but that's how it was in the weekend 17/18 May for the GP14 Ulster Championships. OK - the breeze was a little fickle and patchy but always there and climbed to 16 knots for the final race of the weekend.
Twenty-five boats with a variety of has-been and would-be Champions answered the starting boat. After their usual conservative start Ger Owens and Mel Morris laid down a marker for how the weekend was going to go, working their way to the front and then consolidating their lead, although being hard pressed by Alan Blay and Hugh McNally, followed by Colman Grimes and Ross Gingles.
While the star billing remained the same for the second race there was a complete change in the supporting cast with Keith and Mateo Louden in second and Curly Morris and Meg Tyrrell in third. The third race saw the first windward leeward course of the day.
The cast of extras in the Ger and Mel show provided an upset in the third race with Alistair Duffin, having retuned his boat between race 2 and 3 joining the cast. Things were still tight at the front, but when Connor Twohig launched his spinnaker he found it necessary to reattach his spinnaker sheets, forcing him to sail on the un-fancied starboard gybe for longer than intended. The result was that he approached the gate with a substantial lead and was able to hold off the pursuing Ger and Mel for long enough to take the gun.
At the end of the first day Ger and Mel had a comfortable lead but the pursuing bunch were tightly packed with positions swapping around considerably depending on how the discards were applied.
Sunday morning provided the same sailing as Saturday, only with the Northerly breeze having a little more east in it so that the windward mark was laid a little closer to the Islandmagee shore. Colman and Ross had another go at displacing Ger and Mel from the front, but without success. Silver fleeters Adam and Emily Torrens seemed to prefer mixing it with the Gold fleet and took a well deserved third. (Something to do with the recent E.H. Davies youth training in Plas Menai at Easter?)
In the fifth race John and Donal McGuinness, having had a quiet day previously, decided to join the party depriving Curly and Meg of their favoured pin end start and then tried very hard (but unsuccessfully) to deprive Ger and Mel of their favoured finishing position. Alistair Duffin and Andy Corkhill took a second third place after a battle with Curly and Meg.
By the start of the last race the wind was increasing in strength reaching 16 knots but still with flat water. Didn't make much difference to Ger and Mel except like everybody else they had more sitting out to do. They took another first allowing them to discard their second place. Behind them were Keith and Mateo followed by Colman and Ross and after them John and Donal while Robert and Chris Gingles found the fresher conditions to their liking finishing fifth.
When the overall standings were calculated first place was never in doubt, Colman and Ross had a little clear water between them and the rest, but coming out of the bunch were Curly and Meg who had been very consistent over at least the first five races and had a point or two to spare over the next three boats.
In the Silver fleet Adam and Emily spent most of their time dicing with the Gold fleet and were comfortable winners. Max Cully with Sam Street crewing were second with a one point ahead of Cathal Sheridan and David Cooke in third. Racing was tight throughout the whole fleet with small points differences between the top places. The Cully / Street combination also seemed to work in the bronze fleet with Denis and Matthew taking first while Paula and Muriel Carty took second overall from Jennifer Bryce and Vivika Timmer despite an excellent tenth place for the latter in the first race.
All thanks to East Antrim Boat Club for the excellent organisation that various Classes have come to expect. Commodore Lucy Whitford is fortunate to have a strong team lead by Gordon Kane as the event organiser; and race officer Richard Doig has an experienced team on board the committee boat and laying and moving marks. On shore is also well coordinated with registration, launching and recovery and the "jam spreaders" providing food at critical times
Next event is the Munster Championship in Cullaun Sailing Club on weekend June 7/8.
Results: membership.eabc.club/article/gp14-ulster-championships-1