GP14 Leinster Championship at Skerries Sailing Club

by David Johnston 12 Jul 2018 13:31 BST 7-8 July 2018

After many weeks of amazing summer weather, the GP14 Leinsters did not disappoint with Skerries producing a fantastic weekend sailing. With light winds forecasted all weekend the OD and his team had planned ahead to allow for four races to be sailed on the Saturday in preparation of very little wind on the Sunday. In the end it proved to be the right call.

Much to the appreciation of the fleet, gate starts were proposed for all races, as the Mounts Bay bound Irish contingent prepared for the 2018 World Championships. With only a handful of very late, barging boats, the gate starts worked very well. With many boats benefiting from the great coaching sessions organised by the class earlier in the year, these gate starts have become a lot less intimidating for sailors not as accustomed to them.

The racing was very tight as the results from day 1 would tell you, with four different race winners the championship was still well open going into Sunday. Shane Mac Carthy & Damien Bracken took first honours in race one followed closely by Ger Owens and Melanie Morris in 2nd and a great performance by youth helm Peter Boyle crewed by father Stephen taking third. Ger & Mel took first in race 2, Niall Henry & Oisin Geraghty taking first in race 3, and Alan Blay & David Johnston winning the last race of the day.

With only two points separating second and fourth place, and then a further three to first, the championship was wide open. Despite matching Ger & Mel with a second and first on the final day (with time to spare for Alan to answer the call from nature up the final beat), Alan & David had to settle for third overall as Shane & Damien had done enough with a 3 and 5 to earn them top spot and another Leinster Championship. Ger & Mel narrowly missing out by one point.

Thank you to all in Skerries Sailing Club for hosting such a fantastic event in testing conditions.

Overall Results: (with apologies to the hard-working crews who are not named)

Pos	Sail No	Flet	Owner	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	Pts
1	14203	Gold	Shane Mac Carthy	1	3	2	2	3	5	11
2	14076	Gold	Ger Owens	2	1	6	6	1	2	12
3	14235	Gold	Alan Blay	11	4	5	1	2	1	13
4	13993	Gold	Niall Henry	10	2	1	5	6	6	20
5	14219	Gold	Curly Morris	4	7	4	8	4	3	22
6	14180	Gold	Alastair Duffin	8	5	9	14	7	4	33
7	14209	Youth Gold	Gareth Gallagher	7	8	7	3	14	13	38
8	13917	Youth Silver	Josh Porter	9	13	12	7	5	8	41
9	14116	Youth Silver	Peter Boyle	3	10	13	9	16	10	45
10	14214	Gold	Keith Louder	14	9	8	4	10	25	45
11	14144	Gold	Colman Grimes	18	17	3	12	9	12	53
12	14225	Silver	Cathal Sheridan	13	11	16	17	12	7	59
13	13888	Youth Silver	James Hockley	12	16	17	10	8	15	61
14	14054	Silver	Doire Shiels	15	20	14	11	13	11	64
15	4076	Silver	Alan Pinder	6	12	15	15	23	19	67
16	14105	Gold	Katie Dwyer	5	6	10	25	24	26	70
17	13669	Gold	Norman Lee	22	14	11	13	18	20	76
18	14138	Silver	Simon Cully	20	21	20	16	23	9	86
19	13644	Bronze	Stuart McCormick	16	15	24	18	15	23	87
20	13847	Bronze	Noel Clarke	25	25	18	24	11	14	92
21	14061	Bronze	Michael Collender	17	24	19	21	17	18	92
22	13840	Bronze	James Hackett	19	19	21	20	21	21	100
23	14133	Youth Bronze	Jack Buttimer	24	18	23	23	20	17	101
24	13624	Youth Silver	Ciaran Keogh	21	22	25	19	22	24	108
25	13782	Silver	Simon Crowe	23	23	22	22	19	22	108
26	14247	Gold	John McGuinness	28	27	25	26	23	16	117
27	13890	Bronze	Ian Fitzpatrick	26	27	25	26	24	26	127