Half Way Stage of the Autumn League at Howth Yacht Club
by Neil Murphy 30 Sep 13:20 BST
27 September 2025
Howth 17 class - Autumn League at Howth © Susanne Cruise
Saturday was day three and the half-way stage of the 2025 Autumn League, sponsored by Fingal County Council. The torrential rain that washed the east coast for the morning duly followed the forecasters' instructions and dried up in time for the race starts.
Despite the steady 12 - 14 knots of westerly wind the racing was held in, the relatively changeable conditions and the leftover swell rolling up the beats gave plenty of scope for gains and losses. By the time the fleets returned ashore, Howth was bathed in sunshine and the places that got away provided plenty of stories of what might have been as the sailors' rehydration programmes were completed.
The White Sails Classes, 4 and 5, race a single race on each day of the event and the first boat in Class 4 took exactly one hour to complete their 'round the cans' course. After the results were calculated, David Greene's Elan 333, White Pearl, won on both IRC and HPH with Splashdance (Beckett & George) second on IRC and Changeling (K Jameson) second on HPH. In Class 5, Leeuwin (Burke & Murray) took its third HPH bullet of the series with Joker's Wild (Flood, Greene & MacQuarrie) celebrating a second place in its first completed race of the series.
The Puppeteer 22s and Squibs completed two Windward-Leeward races to bring their count of races completed to five, assuring them of a discard over the series. Tom McMahon's Squib, Tears in Heaven, saw its clean sweep of race wins interrupted by the victory of Kaizen (Ronan MacDonnell) in the first race while Tears for Fears (Niall Monks) added to its string of seconds. However, it was back to normal service for the second race with Tears in Heaven leading the fleet home again, chased by Kaizen. On HPH, Tears for Fears and Tears in Heaven each took a win while Kaizen was runner-up in both races.
Nimon (N. Biggs) maintained its unbeaten status in the Puppeteer fleet, the margin of its wins and the identity of the runner-up in each race being the fleet's principal points of interest. Harlequin (D. Clarke) and Yellow Peril (Murphy & Costello) fulfilled that role in the two races while Harlequin's result in the first race ensured its HPH victory with Snowgoose (S Robertson) in second. Gepetto (O'Reilly & McDyer) and Snowgoose took the one-two on HPH in race 2.
The Howth 17s raced a single 'round the cans' race and Isobel (B&C Turvey) maintained their progression up the results table, adding a victory on scratch to their second and third places in the previous races of the event with Erica (D. Nixon) in second. The fourth place of Deilginis (Massey, Toomey, Kenny) leaves just three points spanning the top three overall in the Howth 17s. Rita (Lynch & Curley) finished third on the water to secure their first place on HPH, just ahead of Rosemary (Curley, Jones, Potter).
In the Offshore Fleet, the unstable wind direction forced a short postponement to allow it to settle enough for the race management team to decide the mark positions. Class 1 saw The Big Picture (M & R Evans) and Indian (S Knowles) share the top two places on IRC over the pair of races. Indian took the HPH win in the first race from Lambay Rules (S Quinn), which then ascended to the top spot in the second race with The Big Picture as runner-up. Class 2 saw Impetuous (Noonan & Chambers) and Mata (Wright & DeNeve) continuing their IRC battle, each taking a first and second on the day.
Impetuous also tops the overall results on HPH and added a first and third to their results while Mata scored a first and second. No Excuse (Wormald, Walsh, O'Neill) had their first day afloat in the event and took two thirds on IRC and a third and second on HPH, putting the two leaders on notice that they cannot rest on their laurels over the remaining four races of the event.
In Class 3, Insider (S Mullaney) added two more firsts to their IRC total with Alliance II (V Gaffney) the runner-up in both. Malahide YC's Battling J is proving the boat to beat on HPH, with two more race wins strengthening their lead. Alliance II was runner up to them in the first race while the second race produced a dead-heat for second place between Gecko (K Darmody) and Johnny Bravo (C Shackleton).