Oyster Pearl Regatta at Carlingford Sailing Club

25 yachts entered the Carlingford Sailing Club Oyster Pearl regatta, which comprised 3 races sailed on Saturday 11 June. In addition to the local boats from clubs on both sides of Carlingford Lough, there were entries from France, 2 from the Isle of Man, yachts from Dublin and Arklow. This was in addition to a strong contingent of 7 boats from Strangford Lough determined to maintain their iron grip on this event after a clean sweep of IRC, Non-IRC and White Sail trophies in 2010.

The regatta was preceded by a number of feeder races on Friday 10 June, albeit with the wind conditions only the Strangford, Malahide and Carlingford feeder races were completed. ‘Shindig’ helmed by Peter Buckley from Portaferry SC won the Strangford Race, ‘Walter Mitty’ helmed by Stephen Mullaney from Howth YC the Malahide race and ‘Shenanigan’ skippered by John McKevitt the Carlingford race.

On the Saturday, wind conditions were light and at one point during the 2nd race the boats were becalmed. The race team headed by John McCourt and Michael Harris-Barke had a difficult task in the conditions, but managed to lay 3 challenging courses, an Olympic triangle, a windward-leeward course and another Olympic triangle.

In the White Sail class the Strangford domination was broken by ‘Polished Manx’ from Douglas Bay YC appropriately helmed by Polish master mariner, Kuba Szymanski, who in his first visit to the regatta achieved a third in race 1, followed by Firsts in both races 2 & 3 to achieve first overall. The local boats, Humdinger helmed by Michael McCabe from Carlingford SC and Synergie helmed by Michael McCann from CLYC, were 2nd and 3rd respectively.

The Non-IRC class was dominated from start to finish by Apache, helmed by Jonathan Gifford, from Quoile Yacht Club. Jonathan retained the title that he won last year with 3 first places. Shenanigan from Carlingford S C, helmed by James Byrne, was in second place and Cherubino from France helmed by Yves Letertre was in 3rd place.

Without doubt, the closest racing took place in the IRC fleet. Movistar Bleu, skippered by Raymond Killops from Killyleagh YC and which won this trophy last year, started very brightly winning race 1 with a wide margin ahead of the eventual overall winner, ‘What’s the Rush’ helmed by Ernie Kelly from Ballyhenry BC, and ‘Elantic’ skippered by Clarke Allen from Arklow SC. In race 2, ‘Shindig’ was a clear winner leaving ‘Eauvation’ helmed by Jason Corlett from Douglas Bay YC in 2nd and What’s the Rush in 3rd place separated by a matter of only 3 seconds. At the end of race 2 there were 3 boats, Movistar Bleu, Shindig & What’s the Rush all on 5 points and the 3rd race and the overall winner both of the class and the prestigious Oyster Pearl trophy was determined by a matter of 7 seconds, with the order of the finish in race 3 determining the overall table, namely:

Overall Results:

As part of the weekend’s festivities Carlingford Sailing club organised traditional music on the Friday night, the customary and much-loved ‘oysters and Guinness’ on the Saturday evening followed by a steak barbecue, formal prizegiving and music & partying into the small hours for those who had still had energy left after the day’s sailing.