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| Day 1 - 17th September |
| by Graham Smith |
The first day's racing in the six-race Anglo Irish Bank Autumn League on Sunday (17th September), which has attracted 174 entries, saw the 9 classes compete in light to moderate, generally westerly winds that began from the south-west but which veered to the north-west as the morning progressed.
Although no class had its full complement of entries on the starting line, Class 2, White Sails and Puppeteers had the largest fleets as expected, each with over 20 boats.
Class 0 was always going to be a small gathering once the southside big boats had decided they had had enough racing for one season. So only five boats contested race 1 and line honours went to Nobby Reilly's new acquisition 'Geronimo', a mere 40 seconds ahead of Matt Davis' 'Independent Bear'. Roy Dickson's 'Rosie' and 'Tiger' (Hughes & Harris) won the race on IRC and ECHO respectively.
A larger fleet of 13 boats made the first Class 1 start and showing the same turn of speed that brought success last year was the Tyrrells' J109 Aquelina from Arklow. A 40-second gap over 2nd on the water 'Same Old Story', Dermot Cronin's J35 from Malahide wasn't enough to give the Wicklow visitors a top three finish on either handicap.
It was another visitor from further afield, Martin Reilly's 'Esperanto' from Sligo YC, that took the IRC laurels ahead of the Malahide boat which had the consolation of heading up the ECHO standings.
Class 2 was almost twice as large as Class 1 and it developed into a tight contest between the crews of 'Kinetic' (Colwell/Murphy) and 'King One' (Cullen/Bourke), which in a previous life knew each other well on the Class 3 circuit. It was the former that got the gun by 20 seconds over their old rival sailing their new boat in its very first race, and that was their respective placings on IRC too!
IRC Restricted Division was won by Dermot Skehan's 'Toughnut' while DMYC visitor 'Relax Freebird' (R.Dalton) took the ECHO honours ahead of two HYC entries 'Sunsari' and 'Impetuous'.
Vince Gaffney and the crew of 'Alliance' got back to winning ways on day one in Class 3 by taking line, IRC and ECHO honours ahead of 'Goyave' (Camier & Fitzpatrick) from Malahide and a dozen other boats. After winning the ICRA Nationals at the beginning of the season, followed by the WIORA title out west and the Lambay Race, 'Alliance' had enjoyed little success over the intervening months until now, so the rest of fleet can take note that the fast Albin Express means business.
On the Inshore Course, four one-design classes held centre stage. A good fleet if 23 Puppeteers was headed by 'Mojo' (Callan & Stanley) from 'Ibis' (G.May) and 'Mayfly' (A&S Sargent), with only two minutes separating the first five finishers. 'Mojo's' margin of victory was also sufficiently good enough to earn the HPH honours as well.
There was no real surprise in the Etchells' race where newly crowned national champions Dan O'Grady/Raz Beshoff/Paul Reilly came out on top again, this time in 'Mandeline Reign', two minutes ahead of second placed 'Gelert' (J.Flynn) and 'The Chill' (C.McComack) in third.
Club Coach Gillian Guinness, with Se O'Leary in 'Kookaburra', dominated the 10-boat Squib fleet and had 3 minutes to spare over 'Pot Black' (R.McMurtry) and 'Shadowfax' (P.Merry) in the runners-up spots while 'Roxanne' (J.O'Flynn) won on HPH.
In the Howth 17s, normal service was resumed, with 'Oona' and 'Erica' battling it out for the honours. Peter Courtney, who recently won the '17 Worlds' got line honours a minute and a half ahead of rivals Peter Cronin & Others in 'Erica', with Roddy Cooper's 'Leila' a minutes further back in third. HPH honours went to 'Zaida' (Houlihan/Hassell).
If the results of race one in the White Sails Cruiser class are to be repeated for the duration of the Autumn League, it might be more appropriate for them to race for the Commodore's Cup! No less than three past Club Commodores filled 2nd, 3rd and 4th places, just behind the current Vice-Commodore!
Gerry O'Neill's 'Geriatrix' took the honours and was followed in succession by 'Alphida' (Harry Byrne), 'Sandpiper of Howth' (Andrew Knowles) and 'Shoestring' (Derek Bothwell)!
By tradition now, the Team Event is a feature of the League, throwing up as it always does a number of interesting combinations. After one race, the "Spunky Monkeys" - a.k.a. 'Rosie', 'King One' and 'Mandeline Reign' - hold a slender 2-point lead over another HYC team comprising 'Klipbok', 'Alliance' and 'Mojo'. Each team must contain three boats from three different classes.
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