Taggart's Junior Icebreaker Series Part 2 day 2 at Ballyholme Yacht Club
by David Nelson 11 Mar 2023 07:26 GMT
Taggart's Junior Icebreaker Series at Ballyholme Yacht Club © David Nelson
After the poor weather for part one of the series it was almost a novelty to be sailing for two weeks in a row! With the reduced temperatures getting on and off the water in a timely manner was a great achievement reducing the time waiting for sailing.
Paddy Brow was in charge of mark laying and went afloat early to have the course set while David Nelson ran a quick competitor briefing ashore. On first arrival the windward mark seemed to be 5 or 10 degrees to port off the wind. However after 5 minutes of prep on the committee boat it became apparent that the wind was oscillating either side of the bearing to the mark and that Paddy had laid it perfectly in the mid position.
There are five fleets or type of boats in the junior icebreaker racing competition and this day there were over 30 boats racing. The faster RS Feva and 29er fleets start first with the topper, topper 4.2 and laser fleets starting second.
In the 29er fleet the Robinson/Nelson combination won all three races with good boat speed despite The Reddy/Bell team winning two out of the three starts. There are now four 29ers in the club but the other two didn't make it to racing today.
The Feva fleet was very competitive with the podium changing about every race. The first race was won by the Dadley-Young and Nixon partnership despite doing a penalty for "Not putting up their spinnaker on the run". An unusual "rule" but one put in place to encourage practicing all sailing manoeuvres whenever possible. It was a relief when helm Jessica's father Andrew approached the committee boat and stated his wholehearted support for this innovation. Second in race one were the father and son Rideout combination and third the Rideout sisters. In race two the father and son Rideout boat were able to improve by a place with the Dadley-Young/Nixon in second and the sisters in third. The final race seemed to be shaping up for a second race win for the father and son combo but they stopped racing a lap early and by the time they realised they had let the sisters Emily and Annabel through for THEIR first race win. Rounding off the podium in race three was the McCartan/Piper team who had missed the first race through gear failure.
In the other start sequence the topper 4.2s had good racing. Polly Robinson who won the series last year was second in the first race to Alex Eadie with Leo Westhurst third. Polly wasn't keen on this turn of events and won the next two races leading from start to finish. In race two Caroline Byrne in her first day racing at junior icebreaker pulled off a second place result delighting her father who was helping out on the committee boat. Third in race two was Leo once more. In race three Alex was able to follow up her earlier race win with a second with her brother James rounding out the podium in third.
The prize for biggest fleet of the day went to the topper standard rig with 18 boats racing. With no squad training on the standard was very high with top five places being hotly contended. In race one Hugo Boyd made it look easy (which it wasn't) pulling clear at the start and leading all the way to the finish. Cormac Byrne came home in second and Emily Macafee was third, Tom Driscoll was fourth with Hannah Archer the only sailor to break up the squad domination of the top five came fifth.
In the second race Emily improved on her second with a first place, Hugo was second with Hannah Archer upsetting the form book once again in third place. Cormac was fourth and with tom in fifth it left everything to play for in race three!!
Race three did not fail to produce drama. It was the one and only race where there was a general recall with almost the entire fleet crossing in unison about five seconds early. The competitors were then called back to try again and once again they pushed the line hard. With 15 seconds to go Cormac was over but managed to reverse back in to position and start with speed on the whistle. The wind which had been light all day filled in slightly and the race was on. Cormac lead at the first mark with James Crossan in second and Tom back in third. For the first time on this days racing James decided to go for the right hand gate mark on the run. Cormac went with him to cover second place allowing Tom clear air at the slightly advantaged left hand gate mark. At the windward mark Tom was in first with Cormac second, Emily third, just ahead of Katie Brow. On the run Cormac stole Toms wind and was able to just pip him on the line by no more than a metre (a quick discussion as also held about tactics and rules on the run). Emily held on for third from Katie with Izzy Nixon in fifth.
The Junior Icebreaker continues next week. The racing could not take place the parents who help out and the generous support of our sponsor: Taggarts.