Results / Irish Nationals Skerries SC - 13/10/2006
RS200 Irish National Championships and Fat Face Eurocup.
It the past five years the RS Irish Nationals have been held at
Greystones SC in mid October; often with some heavy rain and autumn
strong winds. This year the Irish Nationals made a very successful move
up the east coast of Eire to Skerries SC 10 miles north of Dublin for
three days of some mighty fine racing on Oct 13-15th. A smaller than
usual group of boats travelled from Britain, boy did they find great
sailing conditions and a very friendly club.
Friday saw three races in a good force 4-5 from the south in mild weather
and very small sea. Saturday and four races were held in almost totally
blue sky and a more patchy force 4 coming slightly off the land giving a
very flat sea; you had to keep on reminding yourself this was October and
not July. Then Sunday lulled us all into a false sense of security; it
dawned very grey and misty and as the RS200 and RS400 fleets rigged in
the lee of the harbour the overnight leader was expressing the view there
was only 10 knots of wind. The wind had gone Southeast and slowly built
all morning to force 4 bringing with it a proper sea; the sort of long
waves that will be talked about for a long time; believe the stories. So
we had two races where downwind made you go yahoo the whole time and
boats kept on disappearing in troughs.
The event was totally dominated by Ian Pickard/Loopy Lucy Matthews from
Bristol Corinthian YC who had awesome downwind speed throughout the
event. Even when Lucy lived up to her nickname and drank herself under
the table on Irish cider they still won; that is cheating! Pippa Williams
from Emsworth was short of a helm for her boat on Monday so rang Sean
Craig who organised his cousin Roger Craig to helm. Roger is the
prospective Irish Laser helm at the next Olympics and quickly
demonstrated he could sail to windward leading at many windward marks but
loosing out to the Bristol boys downwind. The longer the event went on
the quicker he got the hang of downwind and an emphatic display on Sunday
sealed second overall and the Irish Nationals. Pete Vincent/Eluned Jones
from Bristol Corinthian YC were always in the fight but in the end had to
settle for a long way clear in third overall. Sean Craig/Heather King,
Paul Lewis/Felicity Pearson and Frank O�Rouke/Sarah Byrne were
competitive and had good races but could not consistently challenge the
leading three.
A very tired but very happy group of sailors made their way home.
Skerries had been excellent hosts, particularly with providing quick food
after sailing often included the entry fee.
Pete Vincent
1. 1165 Ian Pickard Loopie Lucy Bristol Corinthian
10 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 1
1 6
2. 491 Roger Craig Pipa Williams RStGYC/Hayling 15
2 5 2 3 2 1 1 3 2
1
3. 1077 Pete Vincent Eluned Jones Bristol Corinthian
22 3 2 4 2 3 3 6 2
3 3
4. 771 Sean Craig Heather King RStGYC/Greystones
33 4 4 3 4 7 6 4 5
5 2
5. 744 Paul Lewis Felicity Pearson Burghfield SC
36 5 3 17 5 6 5 5 4
4 4
6. 632 Frank O'Rourke Sarah Byrne Greystones S C 47
6 6 6 9 8 4 3 6 17
5
7. 759 Graeme Noonan Nicola Smyth Greystones S C 60
7 9 8 7 5 7 7 7 10
17
8. 633 John Todd Ben Moag RNIYC 69 8
10 5 11 9 12 8 8 6 17
9. 1181 Roy Van Maanen Glen Reid Greystones S C 87
9 8 7 6 4 17 17 17 11
17
10. 631 Marty O' Leary Rachel Smyth Courtown SC/Greystones
87 10 13 10 10 13 8 17 9
7 17
11. 417 Gabrielle Igoe Celine Mc Guire Greystones S C 87
11 14 12 12 14 11 10 12 9
7
13. 421 Brian Flahive Erica Smyth Wicklow/Greystones
94 12 7 11 17 12 9 11 10
17 17
14. 1114 Ross Kearney Catherine Vaughan RNIYC
104 13 11 9 8 17 17 17 17
8 17
15. 985 Michael Wright Lindsay Mc Carty RNIYC
109 14 17 17 17 11 10 9 11
17 17
16. 214 Steven Tyner Emma Hett Greystones
124 15 17 17 17 10 17 17 17
12 17
17. 687 Lloyd Hamilton Felton Mark Felton Greystones
131 16 12 17 17 17 17 17 17
17 17