Irish Squib South Coast Championships at Glandore Harbour Yacht Club

Colm Dunne and Rob Gill win the Squib South Coast Championships at Glandore Harbour (Commodore John Dowling in the centre) © Mary Casey

Squib South Coast Championships at Glandore Harbour © Kathleen Hayes

They came from far and near to compete in the Squib South Coast Championship at glorious Glandore. Beautiful weather but light or no wind provided Principal Race Officer Nigel Kearney with challenging conditions to run the planned 3 races on the Saturday 19th July.

Nigel achieved 2 shortened races but was forced to abandon the third race on the first beat, due to a significant fading wind shift. Patience and prayer would not suffice and all sailors were directed to the shore.

Race 1 saw Anemos, helmed by Pete Evans in first, Quickstep III helmed by Gordon Patterson second and Perfection helmed by Jill Fleming in third.

Race 2 provided a win for Lola helmed by Frank Whelan, second for Quickstep III and a third place for Anemos. Allegro improved to fourth, but posed no overall threat.

Sunday the 20th began with a light, but dying land breeze; racers wallowed around for approximately two hours for the wind gods to return to normal service. Race 4 commenced with a 10 to 15 knots of wind and sunshine – champagne sailing.

From way back in the rankings, Allegro now found the groove and produced a sparkling first place finish, with Lola, and Quickstep III in close order. Effective points now were 5, 3 & 4 respectively.

In what would transpire to be the last race of the event Allegro pulled a dramatic first to Quickstep III's second, with Why Not helmed by Derek Jago, crashing the party with a third place, relegating Lola to fourth in this race.

Final effective points in the Gold Fleet were Allegro and Quickstep III, tied on 6 points each and Lola with 7 points, which was resolved by the scorer using appendix A8.1. The final result was first Allegro from KYC, second Quickstep III from RNYC and third Lola RSGYC.

In the Silver Fleet, John Stanley on Bateleur, KYC, took third, local hotshot Pat O'Riordan, GHYC on Blue Bottle placed second, and Colm Daly on Lazarus placed first.

Overall Results:

Squib South Coast Championships at Glandore Harbour - photo © Kathleen Hayes