GP14 Leinster Championships at Blessington Sailing Club
by Chris Scott 2 Jul 2008 07:14 BST
28-29 June 2008
The GP14 Leinster Championships took place over the weekend at Blessington Sailing Club, Co. Wicklow. The weekend proved exciting and close with only two points separating the top three boats at the end of the weekends sailing.
Tim Corcoran and Brendan Brogan of Sligo Yacht Club got the Championships off to a textbook start winning both races on Saturday. Sutton’s Hugh Gill in his first event of the season, crewed by Ciaran Murphy finished an impressive 2nd place in Race 1. There was a lot of jostling of positions throughout the fleet in both of Saturday’s races with very tight racing in medium wind conditions.
On Sunday morning sailing conditions proved much more challenging. It was windy and very gusty for the first race, ensuring a multitude of capsizes, mainly on the reaches as sailors were caught unaware by sudden gusts. Corcoran/Brogan Championship leaders were among the casualties in this race scoring a DNF. Gill/Murphy got off to an early lead in this race and just held on to his lead chased to the line by Niall Henry & Ossian Geraghty who recovered from a 15th place first windward mark rounding to finish a close 2nd
Going into the final race, the Championships were wide open with a number of boats in contention. Norman Lee and Steve Lynch were first to the windward mark chased by John and Donal McGuinness, from Moville. Corcoran/Brogan were in significant trouble after a disastrous first beat but made a fantastic recovery, most of which was made on the second beat, when the force five wind disappeared for about 15 minutes in the middle of the race. Corcoran/Brogan sailed their socks of to get back to 4th place and deliver them the Leinster title for 2008. At the front of the fleet Alastair Duffin and Stephen Nelson kept pushing, and passed Lee & Lynch on the final beat just approaching the finish to take the honours in race 4. Again there were multiple capsizes in Race 4 as strong wind filled in again later in the Race. Hugh Gill fell victim on this occasion but had earned sufficient points in the previous races to secure him a second place overall finish with John and Donal McGuinness in third.
Local sailors Simon Cully and Libby Tierney took the honours in the Silver fleet with newcomers to the fleet Peter Collings and Jane Holland winning the Bronze fleet in their new boat Alzurra. The Leinster Youth Champions for 2008 were Allan Blay and John Pearson of SDC, who have recently been promoted to the Gold Fleet after their debut performance at the O’Tiarnaigh Challenge, which took place earlier in June.
Overall the weekend was a great success and the GP14 Class Association President, Niall Henry, thanked Declan Scallan (OD) and his team at Blessington for hosting such a successful event both on and off the water. In his closing remarks he sent his best wishes from the Association to Peter Hannon, a lifelong member.
The next GP14 event to take place is the Ulster Championships, which takes place at Sligo Yacht Club, on the 26th-27th July 2008. This event incorporates the Ulster Youth Championships and the Masters 2008. For further information please see our website, www.gp14ireland.com
Overall Results:
Pos | Sail No | Helm | Crew | Club | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | Pts |
1 | 13801 | Tim Corcoran | Brendan Brogan | SYC | 1 | 1 | 25 | 4 | 6 |
2 | 13195 | Hugh Gill | Ciaran Murphy | SDC | 2 | 5 | 1 | 25 | 8 |
3 | 13866 | John McGuinness | Donal McGuinness | MBC | 3 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 8 |
4 | 13993 | Niall Henry | Ossian Geraghty | SYC | 4 | 3 | 2 | 8 | 9 |
5 | 13891 | Colm O’Flaherty | Brian Reilly | SYC | 5 | 4 | 3 | 6 | 12 |
6 | 13901 | Alastair Duffin | Stephen Nelson | NSC | 7 | 8 | 5 | 1 | 13 |
7 | 13403 | Norman Lee | Steve Lynch | LDYC | 6 | 12 | 8 | 2 | 16 |
8 | 13794 | Diarmud Mullen | James Conlon | SYC | 9 | 6 | 14 | 5 | 20 |
9 | 13833 | Chris Scott | Mark Taylor | LEYC | 8 | 9 | 6 | 25 | 23 |
10 | 13977 | Alan Blay | John Pearson | SDC | 16 | 7 | 9 | 9 | 25 |
11 | 13982 | Paul Maguire | Conor O’Neill | SDC | 10 | 13 | 12 | 7 | 29 |
12 | 13865 | Keith Louden | Dessie Hughs | LFYC | 11 | 15 | 7 | 11 | 29 |
13 | 13228 | Richard Street | Dan Crilly | BLSC | 12 | 11 | 11 | 14 | 34 |
14 | 13988 | Ken Louden | David Louden | LFYC | 15 | 10 | 16 | 10 | 35 |
15 | 13951 | Simon Cully | Libby Tierney | BLSC | 14 | 16 | 10 | 13 | 37 |
16 | 13902 | Nigel Sloan | Laura McFarland | NSC | 13 | 14 | 15 | 12 | 39 |
17 | 13955 | Gerard O’Sullivan | Ben Saunders | SDC | 18 | 17 | 13 | 17 | 47 |
18 | 13460 | Peter Collings | Jane Holland | SDC | 17 | 20 | 19 | 15 | 51 |
19 | 13850 | Peter Smyth | Jackie Malone | SSBC | 21 | 21 | 17 | 16 | 54 |
20 | 13910 | Brian Andrews | Paul Whitcombe | NSC | 25 | 19 | 18 | 25 | 62 |
21 | 13644 | Stuart McCormack | Suzie Whyte | MSC | 20 | 18 | 25 | 25 | 63 |
22 | 13267 | Gerry Ryan | John Mac | BLSC | 19 | 25 | 25 | 25 | 69 |
23 | 13782 | Michael Collender | Brian Walker | MSC | 25 | 22 | 25 | 25 | 72 |
24 | 13238 | Alan Leddy | Mary Nelson | GSC | 25 | 23 | 25 | 25 | 73 |