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NYC Regatta 2009 Thursday night saw some crews putting in a bit of last minute practice for Saturday’s Regatta. There were three boats on the water for the evening. Both Rory and Ben in the Miracle and Patton and Duncan in the RS 2000 were taking the opportunity to hone their skills in new classes of boat.Johnny took first in the Topper with Rory and Ben taking second spot.Thanks to Derek for doing OD and Ricky and Paddy for Safety Boat cover. Saturday saw sunshine, strong south, south westerly winds and some swell for Race 1 saw the strongest winds and the highest attrition rate with seven boats retiring due to technical and other difficulties. Winds were Force 4 but reaching Force 5 at times.There were several fairly dramatic capsizes at speed in the strong winds. Some of the boats were putting in lap times of just over ten minutes which is indicative of the speeds being achieved by the RS’s and Laser’s in particular. On the hardware side of things Marc’s rudder broke and Geraldine’s Mirror was dismasted which made it a little difficult for them both to continue.
The Singers lost their mainsheet pulley but improvised and continued undeterred. First home were the Coffey’s in the RS200 with Neil Strain’s RS400 and Sam and Gerry in the 470 less than two minutes behind.All three took top finish places but Chris in the Laser took second on handicap.  Due to a forecast of strong winds and rain later in the day it was decided to bring the second race forward ahead of lunch. Things were a little more sedate for this race with twelve crews starting, following the same course as before for a two lap race. The winds had eased to a Force 3 to 4 and everyone’s lap times were just a few minutes slower except for Strain’s RS400. They finished first a good four minutes ahead of their nearest competition but again Chris Law took second place on handicap. The Coffey’s finished second but having realised they had failed to take the correct penalty due to a contact infringement at one of the marks Clive advised the OD to disqualify him. This caused Anne even more work recalculating the points.
Lunch was taken before the third and final race with a welcome break for hot soup, sarnies, tea and buns and a chance to check on results and placings going in to the deciding round. |
 Fifteen boats took to the water for the third race but in the preliminary warm up before the start the winds again picked up to a 4 to 5 and as a result there were only eleven starters.
Sam and Gerry in the 470 were in a battle throughout with the Coffey’s RS200 and only in the final lap managed to pull out a lead to get over the line first. However taking handicap into account this was only good enough for fourth while the
Coffeys took first. Emily Hadden took second place with Chris Law in third. At the conclusion of racing everyone retired to the clubhouse for hot showers and hot drinks to await the overall results for the day. About now it was noticed that Mr Lennon in his keenness to get out in the morning had managed to don non-matching trainers. Either that or someone is still in the changing rooms looking for their other trainer! The Commodore, Frank Campbell, took the floor to announce the winners in the time honoured fashion announcing a joint third for Sam Banford and Gerry Lennon with Clive and Nina Coffey; second for visitors Emily Hadden and Sandra Halliwell; and finally a well deserved first for Chris Law. Many thanks go to Ann Robb for performing OD duties forfeiting, probably, a more glamorous day at Killyleagh and to Simon, John, Paddy, Patton and Duncan for safety cover. The BBQ in the evening was well attended in spite of the weather with members providing their own entertainment including the junior members with a “mouseketeer” extravaganza!
Regatta
Classes Helm/Crew
- 470 S Banford / G Lennon - Laser F Campbell, C Law (radial), C Shevlin (4.7) - Laser 2000 S Taylor/ V Cupples - Miracle R Shevlin/ B Rooney - Mirror D Mackey/ L McIlwaine, G & P Shevlin - RS 200 C & N Coffey, E Hadden/ S Halliwell - RS 400 M Miskelly/ L Mackie, A Strain/C Cunningham - RS Feva R Boyle/ S Cassidy - Scorpion J Linden/ P Spence - Seafly K & N Singer, G & K Law, A Whitcroft/ L Taylor - Topper C Hyland, E Hyland Results Overall
1st C Law 2nd E Hadden/ S Halliwell 3rd (joint) C & N Coffey S Banford/ G Lennon Thursday Series
Classes Helm/Crew
- Laser 2000 P & D Taylor - Miracle R Shevlin/ B Rooney - Topper J Linden Results
1st J Linden, 2nd R Shevlin/ B Rooney, 3rd P & D Taylor |
Regatta 09 |