GP14 Irish Championship at Newtownards Sailing Club

by Tim Corcoran 2 Sep 2015 21:32 BST 29-31 August 2015

GP14 Irish Championship at Newtownards © Bob Torrens / Newtonards Chronicle

GP14 Irish Championship at Newtownards © David Corkhill

McCarthy & Bracken dominate

Shane McCarthy and Damien Bracken have won the GP14 Championships of Ireland with a dominant display of top class sailing in tricky conditions at Newtownards Sailing Club.

Five races were completed over three days on the northern end of Strangford Lough. The 37 boat fleet was made up of sailors from clubs throughout the country, including Youghal, Dun Laoghaire, Sligo, Derry, Sutton, Greystones, Skerries, Mullingar and the home club of Newtownards.

There was a large youth attendance mainly from Sutton Dinghy Club, they sailed hard and partied hard long into the night. The fleet also included two boats that travelled from the UK, the International Class President Duncan Greenhalgh & Sam Watson who finished 2nd at the GP14 Worlds in 2014.

Race 1 on Saturday started in an 8-10 knot westerly breeze. McCarthy and Bracken led around the first windward mark and were never in danger from the chasing pack. There was a lot of place changes on the second and third beats due to some large shifts and variations in wind strength. At the finish it was McCarthy & Bracken from Niall Henry & Ossian Geraghty who were closely followed by Alan Blay & David Johnson.

Race 2 was sailed in bit more breeze which had shifted round to the southwest, again it was McCarthy and Bracken showing the way at the first windward mark closely followed by Dan & Hugh Gill, Sam Watson & Nick Deveraux. As the race progressed it was Henry & Geraghty who pulled through to 2nd with the fast charging Ger Owens and Mel Morris finishing in 3rd place.

The silver and bronze fleet competition was fierce, leading the silver fleet at the end of day 1 was Dan Gill and bronze fleet leader was young Peter Boyle crewed by his dad, Stephen.

There were three races scheduled for Sunday but the forecast was for little wind. The fleet stayed ashore until 1pm, a light breeze brought the fleet to the starting area but it was short lived and the PRO abandoned for the day shortly after.

Day 3 was to start at 10am in order to get a further three races in before the 14:30 deadline, a light offshore breeze of 8 to 12 knots with shifts of up to 20 degrees was the order of the day.

Pent up energy from Sunday resulted in a number of general recalls and the use of the black flag was required to keep the fleet in order.

Race 3 was again dominated by Championship leaders McCarthy and Bracken who took the gun from the returning Mark Taylor and crew Amanda Crosswaithe, Ger Owens and Mel Morris took 3rd place.

Mark Taylor's 2nd place moved him to the top of the leader board of the Bronze fleet while the Silver fleet leader was now Steven & Jonny Nelson.

Unknown to the competitors, race 4 was being filmed by a drone operated from one of the safety boats. The video footage can be viewed on https://vimeo.com/137921455. The story of this race was that McCarthy and Bracken were not at the front, the front runners were Dan O'Connell crewed by Laura McFarland and Ger Owens & Mel Morris. Dan and Ger managed to put baby talk aside for a while and swapped places a number of times during the race. In the end though, Dan & Laura hit the last leeward mark allowing Ger & Mel to sail away to victory, Tim Corcoran & Brendan Brogan took 2nd with McCarthy and Bracken 3rd.

GP14 Irish Championship at Newtownards - photo © David Corkhill

With time remaining for only one more race, Shane and Damien were crowned National Champions. It is believed that history was made on two fronts, Shane becomes the first Irish helm to hold the title of Irish and British GP14 Champion in the same year, a remarkable achievement. Not to be out done, Damien becomes the first Irish sailor to win the GP14 Championship of Ireland as both helm and crew. Word has it that next year, they will reverse roles with Damien on the helm and Shane in the front?

Race 5 would determine the winner of the Silver and Bronze fleets, Dan & Hugh Gill needed to see off the challenge of Steven & Jonny Nelson to secure the win, they sailed an excellent race to finish 5th, which left them 7th overall and Silver fleet Champions.

The Bronze fleet was between Adrian Lee & Edward Coyne and Mark Taylor & Amanda Crosswaithe, Mark and Amanda sailed another good race to claim the title of Bronze fleet Champions.

The battle for 2nd and 3rd in the Gold fleet was between Owens, Henry and Corcoran. A 4th place finish in the last race for Ger & Mel secured 2nd overall while a 2nd place for Tim & Brendan gave them 3rd overall.

The top youths were Sam Watson and Nick Deveraux who finished just ahead of Dan & Hugh Gill. A big thank you from all the competitors to Newtownards Sailing Club for hosting the event and putting on a great event both on shore and on the water.

Sutton sailors after the GP14 Irish Championship at Newtownards - photo © Bob Torrens / Newtonards Chronicle

Overall Results:

Pos	Boat Name	Sail No	Helm	Crew	Club	Fleet	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	Pts
1	TBC	14158	Shane McCarthy	Damien Bracken	GSC/SSC	G	1	1	1	3	1	4
2	True‑Belle	14076	Ger Ownes	Mel Morris	RStG	G	7	3	3	1	4	11
3	Tabelu	14036	Tim Corcoran	Brendan Brogan	SYC	G	4	9	5	2	2	13
4	Daisy Chain	13993	Nial Henry	Ossian Geraghty	SYC	G	2	2	9	9	3	16
5	Trouble I've Seen	14077	DAN O CONNELL	LAURA MCFARLAND	Swords/NSC	G	10	11	4	5	6	25
6		14110	SAM WATSON	NICK D	NANTWICH	G	5	6	7	18	8	26
7	Chi	13915	Dan Gill	Hugh Gill	SDC	S	16	5	16	6	5	32
8	Temerity	13977	Alan Blay	David Johnston	SDC	G	3	10	14	10	11	34
9	Kalaco	14130	Alistair Duffin	Andy Corkill	NSC	G	8	16	12	4	15	39
10		14089	Ross Killian	Rebecca Killian	National	G	19	19	6	8	7	40
11		14055	KEITH LOUDEN	ALAN THOMPSON	ISA	G	18	7	8	11	14	40
12	KANUKA	13901	STEVEN NELSON	JONATHAN NELSON	DSC	S	13	12	10	19	12	47
13	No surprise	14144	Colman Grimes	David Lappin	Skerries	G	6	13	19	20	10	48
14		14146	Paddy O Connor	Kevin Martyn	SYC	G	15	4	17	13	16	48
15	Blueberry Muffin	14080	Gareth Gallagher	Richard Gallagher	LFYC	S	14	15	13	7	19	49
16	Yknot	13669	Norman Lee	Una Lee	Greystones	G	ET)	21	11	12	9	53
17	The scarlet Harlot	13882	Mark Taylor	Amanda Crossthwaite	NSC	B	25	23	2	15	17	57
18	Shirl	13819	Duncan Greenhalgh	John Riley	Bassenthwaite	S	17	8	18	14	21	57
19	Mushy Peas	13951	Alan Henry	Eanna Maloney‑Lawless	SDC	S	9	14	23	24	18	64
20	Kmit	13917	Michael Cox	Josh Porter	NSC	S	12	17	20	28	27	76
21	This One	13207	Adrian Lee	Edward Coyne	YSC	B	21	18	26	16	24	79
22	Club Boat	12661	Conor Twohig	Sinead Dickson	SDC	B	24	22	24	21	13	80
23		14142	Gerard Gilligan	Lucia Nicholson	Sligo	S	23	24	15	22	20	80
24		14116	Peter Boyle	Steven Boyle	SDC	B	11	27	28	25	22	85
25	Keito	13910	Brian Andrews	Jeff MURDOCH	NSC	B	22	25	21	23	30	91
26	Aikadoo	14040	Bill Johnson	James Johnson	LFYC	S	26	20	25	27	23	94
27		13782	Michael Collender	Brian Walker	MSC	B	20	29	27	26	28	101
28		14074	Cahal Sheridan	David Cooke	SSC	S	NS)	NS)	22	17	29	106
29	Club Boat	13815	Tiarnan Dickson	Ena Gallagher	LRYC	S	28	28	28	29	25	109
30	5	13970	Tess Coyne	Ryan Sinnott	Sutton	B	30	31	31	31	31	123
36	Finbarra	14129	Newenham de Cogan	Rebecca Gibson	NSC	B	ET)	NF)	30	30	26	124
31	Club Boat	13942	Nicole Guinee	Graham Blay	SDC	B	32	33	33	32	32	129
32	Syracuse	13909	Gerald Brady	Jane Murdoch	Sligo	B	ET)	32	32	33	33	130
33	Ghost Light	13795	Gloria MacKinnon	Graeme Farrington	EDYC	B	29	26	NS)	NS)	NS)	131
34	Kylie	14133	Jack Buttimer	Finn O'Brien	YSC	B	31	30	NS)	NS)	NS)	137
35	Curved Gold	13624	Joe Kelly	Luke Farren	LUBC	B	27	ET)	NS)	NS)	NS)	141
37	Duffi	14047	J.P. McCaldin	Carolyn McCaldin	LEYC/ESYC	G	NS)	NS)	NS)	NS)	NS)	152