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Irish Laser 2 Eastern Championships at Wicklow Sailing Club

by Jim Devlin 11 Jul 2001 08:36 BST

The 20 boat fleet rigged on Saturday morning to the tune of whistling rigging as a 25 knot breeze blew down from the hills of Wicklow at the recent Laser II Eastern Championships. In light of the fact that it would be unsafe to race in such conditions, the fleet retired to the Bridge Tavern to watch the Lions game. After the game ended the entire fleet suddenly felt up to racing in the gusty and shifting conditions.

The racing got going quickly in an unstable Westerly breeze which was funnelled unevenly through the Wicklow mountains. This made for some of the shiftiest weather the fleet had ever raced in. Laura Dillon and Ben O' Donoghue won the first three races convincingly while the next four boats raced tightly for second place. It was clear from the start that Laura was a cut above the rest as she won six of the nine races over the weekend.

The shifty conditions on Saturday didn't make the racing inconsistent though as the top 5 boats never finished a race below sixth place. The racing was at all times tight and fast for everyone with several boats having to retire quite often and one boat retiring due to injury at the start of the first race.

Day one finished with Laura a mile ahead and the next four boats a point between each place and all was to race for on day two.

The fleet enjoyed the spoils of a sponsored event as they tucked into cheap drink at the happy hour on Saturday night with a DJ in the background. All of this was made possible by Conway's Port of Wicklow's generous sponsorship.

Sunday kicked off in a dying Westerly which was being pushed back by the incoming Easterly sea breeze. This made the first race quite an interesting affair as the wind suddenly stopped and took ten minutes to come back in from the opposite direction. This all happened in such a way that the entire fleet ran out of breeze right at the leeward mark and then started to drift past it in the tide. The wind came back in just before the finish and the entire fleet crossed the line in four minutes with the event leader in second last after being second to the leeward mark.

The breeze grew strong from the East and some excellent racing ensued in which the PRO, Richella Carroll, did well to get in four races in three hours! Laura and Ben dominated once again with the only two boats to beat her fairly all weekend being the second and third placed boats overall: Neil O' Toole & Stroud Hall and Noel Butler & Stephen Campion.

Overall Results:

Pos Sail Helm / Crew Club Boat Name R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 R8 R9 Tot
1 10329 Laura Dillon / Ben O'Donoghue HYC Halidon 1 1 1 2 17 1 2 1 1 8
2 8959 Neil O'Toole / Stroud Hall RIYC Eric.T.Boner 4 6 2 1 2 6 3 2 5 19
3 10032 Noel Butler / Stephen Campion DMYC 3Com 3 5 5 3 5 4 1 3 3 22
4 10532 Conor Clancy / Jim Devlin RStGYC Tipsy McStagger 5 2 4 4 4 3 4 4 2 23
5 8172 James Gorman / Martin Starkie NYC Alpha Writer 2 3 3 6 1 5 6 6 6 26
6 6176 Peter O'Dovovan / Damien O'Sullivan Fountainstown SC Apples, Balloons & C 7 4 6 8 6 2 7 5 4 34
7 10364 Keith Thornbury / Glen Ward Carlingford YC no name 11 7 DNF 5 3 9 5 DNF 9 49
8 10039 Shane Mugan / Garth Ablett NYC Trigger Happy 6 8 7 10 15 8 11 9 8 56
9 10338 Kevin Johnson / Barry Byrne WSC/DFSA Clean 9 10 8 7 11 10 9 11 12 64
10 10356 Carl Haughton / Dave Meehan RStGYC Cold Turkey 10 9 11 12 10 16 8 8 11 67
11 9283 Brian Fenlon / Dylan Redmond WHBC Censored 3 12 11 10 11 8 11 12 7 10 68
12 10598 Hugh Butler / Ciara Butler RStGYC Joint Venture 8 12 9 9 16 12 13 10 DNF 73
13 10034 Margaret Casey / Catherine Mooney DMYC no name 14 18 14 14 18 7 10 DNF 7 84
14 8969 Conor Hilliard / Siobhan Hayes Coal Harbour 2 Blind Mice 13 13 12 13 12 18 16 12 15 90
15 10115 Carisa Power / Marie Barry NYC TBA 16 15 13 DNF 13 14 15 13 16 99
16 8960 Derval O' Carroll / Una L'Estrange GBSC no name 15 14 15 15 14 15 14 14 17 101
17 9296 Paul Ruddy / Eoghan Moriarty ULSC Silverberries DNF 16 DNF DNC 7 13 17 15 14 103
18 8396 Yvonne Coakley / Mark Dunn   no name DNF 17 DNC 16 9 17 18 16 13 106
19 10345 Thomas Hurney / Eoin O'Loughlin Courtown SC no name DNF DNC DNC DNC 19 19 19 DNF DNF 141
20 10113 John Collins / Liz Collins WSC Moist DNF DNC DNC DNC DNC DNC DNC DNC DNC 147

More Information:

Results generated and submitted using Sailwave - completely free Windows® sailing scoring software

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