GP14 Irish National Championships at Skerries Sailing Club

by Richard Grange 1 Sep 2011 09:53 BST 24-26 August 2011

Dan and Hugh Gill at the GP14 Irish National Championships © Tomasz Wrobel

Forty seven boats for the Irish National Championship.Not a bad number.

Skerries was our venue, and a fine spot to host a regatta it is. The GP fleet were really well taken care of by all the members of the club who put aside their own weekend so we could have a lot of fun. Thank you.

Not only were we blessed to have a great turnout, but the calibre of it was pretty impressive too. The top ten counted counted two World Champions, a European Champion, a two time Olympian, a six time Irish National champion, a multiple English National Champion.... Steven Nelson and his brother Jonny slotted right in amongst them to blow most of the Gold fleet away and take the crown in their division by a huge margin. Well done.

Race officer Liam Dineen and his crew spent a long weekend at sea for our enjoyment a massive thank you to him and his team. Sunday, especially can not have been easy. On day one Mike Senior and Chris White were consistency personified, two races, two bullets, as were Shane Mc Carthy and Andy Davis with two seconds.

Race one paid off beautifully for those who headed straight inshore on the first beat, but if you made the mistake of repeating that on the second beat you got hosed. Main feature of the weekend was big breeze and some massive shifts. Keith Louden and Dessie Hughes got their result of the weekend with a third skinning their northern rivals the young Mc Guinness boys in the process.cue smiles all round.On one boat.

Race two and a big right shift up the last beat got a few boats that weren't looking too hot, out of trouble. Curly once had a boat by that name, I think, and he and Laura were chased into third by his daughter Melanie crewing for Ger Owens. Their boat name? True Belle. Day two Sunday, blowing hard enough that rumour has it the RO wasn't sending us out. A few launches put paid to that, and we've raced in far worse.

The Imperious English pair got their first challenge as Shane and Andy took their first win. They had been led around the first windward mark by Steven and Jonny, as fine a sight as ever we'd see...until they repeated the feat the following day! Now if the two boys had popped the kite they might have held on to the lead, but they got swallowed up. Mike and Chris had to work to hold onto the leaders and were chased home by Dave Young and Seonaid Fleming who registered their high point for the series. The effort must have taken its toll as they spent a large portion of the afternoon swimming, which meant utter exhaustion for them by the end of the day. Still smiling though.

Race four looked like it might never happen. 30 and 40 degree windshifts coming down the course with each cloudburst. Rain that was thick as fog and more than one attempt at starting which had to be abandonded with twenty seconds to go. Inevitably when the gun did go, a line that ten seconds earlier had been pin end favoured but congested, suddenly got much more so. A big shift to the left saw the fleet react, but back up the line, with room to move, Niall Henry and James Conlon crossed on port at full tilt to negate much of the advantage those by the pin had. In the lightest breeze of the weekend and heading straight into a short steep chop concentration was essential, lose it and you got spat out the back.

The end of that race saw the score tied at two all as Shane took the win followed by Mike Senior. With a building breeze and direction settling, the course swapped to a quickfire windward leeward. The two leading boats at the top mark both missed the wing, the boys behind said thank you very much. A short windward leg meant a hectic pressurised run, nothing settled until halfway up the second beat. There was little time to catch breath, let alone think. At the end the overall result had reversed itself. While both incredibly consistent, the Irish boat had scored three bullets to Mikes two.

Monday morning, cold and grey. The final denoument. Race five, again a windward leeward and a great breeze, a tight stack at the top mark meant boat handling was at a premium, who popped out in the lead at the top, Shane and Andy, with a narrow lead over a chasing pack which had buried in it the challenger, Mike and Chris had to work hard to stay in contention, those running down the left side of the second run weren't looking too good until a nice right shift came in making it all look sweeter. At the bottom the Mc Guinness brothers took the stb gate while Shane went to the left, they rounded in exact sequence but someone had picked the wrong side. Shane and Andy took the gun and with it the title. Curly Morris and crew Laura Mc Farland had come around the bottom three or four back but played a beautiful final beat to come away with second.

The new Champions headed for shore and a tepid shower, while a new winner Clive Goodwin and Tomasz Wrobel took advantage of mayhem at the windward mark and stepped up onto the podium in race seven. Nigel Sloan and Micheal Cox had a stunning race to fend off an Olympian and grab second place. Well done boys.

Overall Results:

Pos	Sail No	Helm	Crew	Club	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	Pts
1	14061	Shane Mc Carthy	Andy Davis	Greystones	2	2	1	1	1	1	48	8
2	14082	Mike Senior	Chris White	South Staffs	1	1	2	2	2	10	4	12
3	14025	Clive Goodwin	Tomas Wroble	Swords	11	8	9	4	7	3	1	32
4	14059	Ross Kearney	Ed Bradburn	Northampton/South Staffs	8	5	6	3	6	4	14	32
5	14036	Paddy O'Connor	Brendan Brogan	Sligo YC	7	13	4	7	3	9	5	35
6	14076	Ger Owens	Melanie Morris	EABC East Antrim	10	4	7	6	9	12	3	39
7	13901	Steven Nelson	Johnny Nelson	NSC	5	20	8	12	4	11	6	46
8	14056	John Mc Guinness	Donal Mc Guinness	Derry ?	4	12	19	13	5	5	13	52
9	13993	Niall Henry	James Conlon	Sligo YC	15	7	5	10	13	8	10	53
10	14055	Keith Louden	Dessie Hughes	Lough Foyle YC	3	15	13	8	8	7	17	54
11	14077	Curly Morris	Laura Mc Farland	EABC East Antrim	14	3	16	15	15	2	11	60
12	14080	Alastair Duffin	Paul Whitcombe	NSC/EDYC	13	10	15	22	12	13	7	70
13	13669	Norman Lee	Nick Sweeney	Greystones	19	17	18	9	10	14	8	76
14	13902	N Sloan	M Cox	NSC	17	19	11	14	48	20	2	83
15	13801	Dan O'Connell	Mairin Cannon	Blessington	12	11	12	21	18	17	15	85
16	13915	Daniel Gill	Hugh Gill	Sutton	23	9	23	20	11	6	23	92
17	13981	Richard Street	Dan Crilly	Blessington	20	6	10	5	14	48	48	103
18	1061	Stephen Bole	Aoife Burke	Sutton DC	16	36	21	48	17	15	9	114
19	13833	John Mc Robert	Elwyn Agnew	Ballyronan SC	22	23	14	23	26	22	12	116
20	13882	L. Baalham	Tony Brown	NSC	24	24	20	17	16	16	48	117
21	14074	Cathal Sheridan	David Cooke	Skerries	26	18	22	16	20	48	16	118
22	13894	David Pugh	Chris Cook	South Staffs	18	14	24	19	22	25	48	122
23	14054	Doire Shiels	Caragh Shiels	Skerries	25	16	43	18	29	18	18	124
24	13955	Gerard O'Sullivan	Hugh	Sutton/Howth	9	30	17	24	24	24	48	128
25	13951	Simon Cully	Libby Tierney	Blessington	21	21	29	27	23	23	48	144
26	13890	Shay Mc Gee	Owen Boylan	Skerries	31	38	25	28	21	21	22	148
27	13865	Daniel Gallagher	Gareth Gallagher	Lough Foyle YC	28	22	27	34	25	26	21	149
28	12403	Alan Pinder	Kevin Hackett	Mullingar	36	25	48	40	19	19	19	158
29	13978	Dave Young	Seonaid Fleming	South Staffs	6	48	3	11	48	48	48	164
30	13847	Noel Clarke	Paul Kelly	Skerries	27	32	26	37	48	29	26	177
31	13460	Peter Collings	Andrew Collings	Bray SC	30	48	39	36	28	28	20	181
32	14040	Bill Johnson	Stphen Byrne	Lough Foyle YC	35	40	34	30	27	31	24	181
33	14005	David Lappin	Alan Watson	Skerries	33	29	28	29	34	34	29	182
34	13782	Michael Collender	Brian Walker	Mullingar	38	34	40	26	48	37	25	200
35	13749	Patrick Savage	Bernie Grogan	Swords	39	28	35	48	48	33	28	211
36	13131	Terry Mc Coy	Maurice Creegan	Skerries	45	48	31	31	48	30	27	212
37	13891	John Knox	Avril Murray/Rory Knox	Skerries	44	39	38	41	31	35	30	214
38	13403	Robert Lee	Bernard Lee	Greystones	29	27	30	33	48	48	48	215
39	13262	Martinn O'Brien	Paul Sexton/Stuart Burns	Skerries	40	31	36	32	30	48	48	217
40	13854	Adam Scott	Andrew Sexton	Skerries	37	48	33	25	48	27	48	218
41	13961	Stan Shepherd	Ger Sexton	Skerries	48	26	37	35	32	48	48	226
42	13110	Maurice Baalham	Gary Brown	N S C	41	41	32	39	48	32	48	233
43	13256	Tadg Murphy	Robert Murphy	LDYC	43	35	42	42	35	36	48	233
44	13850	Peter Smyth	Jackie Malone	Swords	42	42	48	38	36	48	48	254
45	12450	Richard Muckle	Peter Shortt	Skerries	48	43	41	43	33	48	48	256
46	13866	Brian Mc Nally	Valerie Cronin	Skerries	32	33	48	48	48	48	48	257
47	13180	Simon Jeffrey	Rebecca Jeffrey	East Down	34	37	44	48	48	48	48	259