Irish RS Southern Championship at Killaloe Sailing Club

Irish RS400 Southern Championship at Killaloe © Aoibhi Ryan

Over 7th & 8th September Killaloe Sailing Club hosted the RS400 & RS200 Southerns. Twenty one boats entered the competition with boats travelling from Galway, Cullaun, Antrim, Cultra, Whitehead, Strangford Lough and a great big contingent from Blessington.

Saturday morning arrived and the forecast was for a northerly breeze gusting a whole 5 knots, it wasn't exactly going to get the fleet excited. Dave Mullally and his team briefed us and the plan was for three back-to-back races. At the time of launching, there was a small breeze, but by the time we got to the racecourse there were puffs of air coming across the lake, but they came and disappeared off and the next would come from a different direction.

Ross Kearney & Dan Nelson in 1440 from the GP14s were seen practicing their goosewing approach, which was intriguing. The race committee managed to get the RS400s started before realising that only three boats could escape from the line. Dave Mullally didn't hang about and quickly abandoned the race. We hung around for about an hour and without any prospect of any more solid breeze, the RIBs drove around to send us in, but not before they delivered cans of beer to each boat which went down a treat, a lovely touch and thanks to Dave & Govan for organising that.

Back on shore, a good bit of tinkering was done and Jocelyn Hill took the RS200 sailors and gave them a tuning session which was appreciated. After a quick trip to the Pipers Inn, back to the club for the evening BBQ and a few sociable drinks.

Racing was brought forward to 9.55 on Sunday morning so we could try and squeeze in four races. Sleepy and puffy faces arrived early and, to be fair to the fleet, managed to get launched in time for the start and this time there was a nice breeze and it was only going to build, but on the downside the temperature was drastically down on the previous days.

Race 1 got under way. The breeze was coming from the northwest and bouncing down the hills into the windward mark, which threw in loads of headers and lifts. The fleet was evenly split going up either side of the beat, but first to the windward mark was Ross Kearney & Dan Nelson in 1440 closely followed by Chris Helme & Alan Claffey (formally of the SB3s) in 1452, by the end Kearney & Nelson 1440 lead from start to finish with Purdon & Hayes in 1004 taking 2nd and Berridge & Coleman in 1549 taking 3rd.

The wind was building nicely for race 2 and most the fleet went left up the first beat. Helme & Claffey 1452 lead around the windward mark, most the fleet stayed to the right hand side for the downwind, Hastings & Porter in 1353 took a chance and gybed off to the right hand side and caught a vein of wind and jumped to the front of the pack, lead the whole way to the end, with Purdon & Hayes taking their second 2nd, with Helme & Claffey taking 3rd.

Race 3 and the wind had started to clock around to the left which resulted in the course pivoting. On the start line, Helme & Claffey tacked off and promptly capsized which was far from ideal, but they played a blinder. Hastings & Porter in 1353 lead the way but Helme & Claffey went to the very left-hand side while everyone else went to the right, and it didn't half pay off as they had their own blast of wind and leapfrogged the fleet which was very impressive. Bryce & O'Donnell in 1035 from Killaloe put in their best performance by rounding the leeward mark in third, but they then capsized after hardening up dashing any hopes of reaching the podium. Hastings & Porter in 1353 took another bullet, followed by Helme & Claffey in 1452 and Donnelly & McCaig in 1405 in 3rd.

Race 4 and it was a bit more of the same, but the wind had picked up another wee bit. Unfortunately for the GP14ers Kearney & Nelson, they had been called over the line so had to return to the start. After the first round, the usual suspects were at the front, locals Cunningham and Tarr in 1138 were doing well up in fourth. With the wind still building there were a number of capsizes, but the racing finished with Hastings & Porter 1353 taking 1st, Berridge & Coleman 1549 in 2nd and Helme & Claffey 1452 taking 3rd.

After four races and one discard, Robert Hastings aka Bosun Bob (SLYC) & Josh Porter (NSC) had a 5th and three bullets, took 1st place and ironically picked up the CH Marine RS Southern's Cup, followed by Purdon & Hayes (SLYC) in 2nd and Helme & Claffey (BLSC) taking 3rd. Long time antagonist Liam Donnelly (74) from CSC picked up the veteran's prize, he put his sailing longevity down to his vegetarian diet and tee-total lifestyle. Jocelyn Hill picked up 1st Female.

In the RS200s there were three separate race winners, and the points were very close after four races. McNaughton & Last (BLSC) took 1st on 6 points, O'Neill & Golder (KSC) took 2nd on 6 points on count back, Culloo & O'Connor (KSC) took 3rd on 7 points, and O'Brien & Haugh (KSC) were 4th on 7 points on count back, a very close set of results!

As this was the last traveller event of the year, the RS400 Traveller Trophy was awarded to 1004 Tom Purdon & Olivia Heyes from Strangford Lough YC. The RS200 Traveller Trophy was awarded to 1059 Timothy O'Neill & Ruth Gordon from Killaloe SC.

A big thank you to all the volunteers and members from Killaloe Sailing club for looking after us so well, from the registration team, parking and launching teams, rescue and mark boat teams, food and drinks organisers, the committee boat team and to David Mullally who directed operations so well. We will be back in the near future.

There is a lot happening over the next few months within the RS fleet:

• The ISA Champions Cup (formerly the Helmsman's) will be hosted at RNIYC in the RS400s over 5th & 6th October.
• The RYA NI have organised Transition Day for their Laser and Topper squads and anyone else thinking of getting into double handers. These will run on Sunday 13th & Sunday 27th October and the RS200s & RS400s will be at the centre of that.
• Blessington Lakes Sailing Club will be running an open Autumn Series on Sunday 6th & Sunday 20th October. 4 Races per day, more details to follow.
• RNIYC will be hosting the RS400 Frostie Series from Sunday 3rd November and this will run each Sunday right up until Sunday 22nd December.
• The Irish RS400/200/Feva Association AGM will be held online on Thursday 17th October.
• In 2025, RNIYC will be hosting the RS400 UK Nationals and combining this with the RS400 Irish Nationals. This will run from 3rd to 8th August 2025. This will be big!

Irish RS200 Southern Championship at Killaloe - photo © Keith Drayton

RS200 Results:

RS400 Results:

Irish RS400 Southern Championship at Killaloe - photo © Keith Drayton