Some of the Offshore Fleet passing Irelands Eye to their finish in Howth Sound
Relaxing in brilliant sunshine after racing
Glorious Sunshine but light airs for first Autumn League race
The weather forecast for the first race in the 2009 Autumn League, jointly sponsored by Crystal Holidays, Irish Life Investment Managers and Today FM, was as accurate as it gets - lots of sunshine and light airs - and it proved to be a pleasant start to the six-race series which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year.
143 boats have entered the League in nine classes and they faced a light 10-knot north-easterly breeze in race one where tight finishes were the order of the day in both handicap and scratch classes.
The one exception was in White Sail Class 4 where Colm Bermingham's 'Bite the Bullet had an impressive win by over two minutes in both handicap divisions. By contrast, Andrew Knowles' Sandpiper had only 7 seconds to spare in the other White Sail Class 5.
Crazy Horse (Chambers & Reilly) and Tiger (Hughes & Harris) led the Class 1 fleet on the water and then shared the spoils, with the former winning IRC and the latter taking the ECHO honours.
In the absence of Kinetic, there was still healthy competition in Class 2 - with 27 entries the single biggest class - where Dave Cullen's King One took the gun but Impetuous (Noonan/Chambers) enjoyed the handicap success on IRC and C'est la Vie (Flannelly & Others) headed the ECHO standings.
Vincent Gaffney's Alliance is used to winning things in Class 3 but on day one had to play second fiddle to Starlet (O'Kelly/Walsh) which turned in an impressive performance on the water to yield a comfortable IRC victory and even second on ECHO behind Malahide visitor Tobago (Ray & others).
Over on the inshore course, the one-design classes were given an Olympic course and in addition to the light airs also had to contend with a slop around the back of Ireland's Eye. Only three minutes separated the six Etchells racing, with Crop Duster (O'Grady/Reilly) crossing the line 40 seconds ahead of Simon Knowles' Jabberwocky.
David Clarke's Harlequin took the Puppeteer line honours by a minute from Garret May's Ibis and Emmet Dalton's Klipbok had an identical margin in the Squibs, ahead of Emer Harte's Puffin (winner on handicap).
Ian Malcolm and his crew in Aura had significantly less time - 10 seconds to be precise - to spare on second-placed Gladys (Cronin/Jones) in the Howth 17s, while Derek Bothwell, taking a rest from Race Officer duties, no doubt enjoyed sailing the newest 17 Sheila to second on handicap behind Deilginis (Massey & Others).
