Irish Open Multihull Championship at Carlingford Sailing Club

Irish Open Multihull Championship at Carlingford © Lou Ann Crowcroft / Diarmuid Gorman

Irish Open Multihull Championship at Carlingford © Lou Ann Crowcroft / Diarmuid Gorman

Carlingford Sailing Club hosted the Irish Open Multihull Championships on the 12th and 13th September. We arrived on Friday night to 40 knot winds and driving rain, not deterred at all we set up tents! And had a beer... or two. After a few hours the tents had been trashed so several competitors had to take to the race office shed... a very cosy welcome to Ireland for Si and Lou from Bala Sailing Club in Wales, and Shane and Tewi Hatton all the way from Humpybong Yacht Club in Brisbane who were sailing a Hurricane 5.9SX. Simon Flack was over to defend his title won last year at Lough Neagh, sailing this year with multi-Irish champion crew Barry Swanston sailing on Adrian Allen's Cirrus R.

The open fleet format with all types of catamaran from a catapult to an F18 rated under SCHRS and racing an equal number of windward – leeward and triangular courses (to balance performance strengths) was used with all boats starting off the same start line. Classes were also subdivided into C1 and C2 fleets for individual fleet prizes.

Saturday's forecast was gloomy to say the least. Rain and 25 knot baseline winds gusting to 40 knots from the South West. To this add the infamous Carlingford Kettles roaring off the top of the hills at all angles ripping up mini tornadoes of water that march and meander across the Lough... not to be missed!

After much head scratching and nervous looks to the broken water in the lough and vicious squalls rolling down off the hills it was decided (after a postponement) to 'give it a rattle sure'.

We were treated to an unexpected two races in variable but safe conditions.

Race 1 - Swannie and Jenni executed a perfect port tack start only to fall into the pack mid first beat, the fleet then had several place changes throughout the race with Simon Flack and Barry quickly getting used to the Cirrus had a great race with Wyatt Orsmond and Patrick Billlington in their new Goodall C2. With an increase to the breeze the Hurricane 5.9 sx with it's Irish Aussie pair were flying Wyatt pipped them at the post to secure his first bullet. Swannie and Jenni Brittain 3rd.

Race 2< - Again the pattern was set with the C2 and Cirrus leading the way with very competitive sailing throughout the race Simon settled to the Cirrus and pulled off a great first place over the C2 with the Shockwave in 3rd.

Sore heads woke to a much more benign weather picture on Sunday with Carlingford looking at its glorious best. A gentle southerly 4 to 8 knots the forecast. We all sailed out in sparkling 10-12 knot winds with kites up in bright sunshine!

Race 3 (Triangle course) - With the wind freshening, racing was tight in both the C1 and C2 fleets. Simon and Barry again came out on top with the C2 in 2nd place with the Shockwave coming in 3rd again.

Race 4 (Triangle course) - The wind was now a steady(ish) 15-18 knots. With the tidal influences beginning to take effect, the judging of lay lines was proving critical both upwind and downwind. Swannie was boxed out whilst leading at the start/finish gate and the leaders then misjudged the downwind gybing angles to allow the fleet to group together for a frantic last high speed lap. David Biddulf sailing with newbie to cats Stephen Magee had an incredibly close race with Si and Baz to win by 1 second with Wyatt in the C2 snapping at their heels 19 seconds behind.

Race 5 (Windward/Leeward) - The Cirrus and C2 flew away in this race with only seconds separating them throughout, Simon and Barry winning by only 11 seconds. The Aussie Hurricane 5.9SX showed some blistering pace upwind and down, unfortunately having some gear failure lead to a clearing of the heads! The Shockwave was in third place again.

Race 6 - The final race belonged to Wyatt and Paddy in their C2 leading from start to finish. Swannie and Jenni showed some great pace in the breeze to have a ding-dong battle with Si and Baz, the battling Jenni (girlfriend) beating the master of the hoist Baz (boyfriend) to fill the kite and powered over the Cirrus at the spreader mark. The battle continued to the last beat when, just as the Shocker rolled the Cirrus, Swannie's mainsheet broke!

The white sail boats had close racing between Dermott Mangan (dad) in his amazing Catapult and Neil Mangan (son) with Simon Griffin as crew on their Dart 16. Both gained excellent overall placings under SCHRS. They may have done even better with a longer second leg to the gybe mark improving the angle between the marks.

So the overall win went to Simon Flack and Barry Swanston by one point, great racing! The C2 fleet was won by Neil Mangan from the evergreen Dermot Mangan. The Travellers' Trophy was won by Wyatt.

Overall Results: