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GP14 Leinster Championships 2007

25th June 2007
from GP14 Ireland


The GP14 Class Association of Ireland’s Leinster Championships took place over the weekend of the 23rd – 24th June 2007 hosted by the Club. Over 30 GP14’s took to the water over the weekend for this event which is a significant achievement for the development of the fleet. Four races took place over Saturday and Sunday with very tight racing all weekend in a mixture of weather conditions.

Saturday’s weather was fresh with a strong force 3 gusting force 4 at times. The wind was patchy and from the west. In the first race Niall Henry crewed by Ossian Geraghty of SYC slipped into the lead after jostling for position at the first windward mark with the McGuinness brothers from Moville Boat Club and Alastair Duffin and Stephen Nelson from EDYC. Keith Louden and Dessie Hughes of Lough Foyle sailing fast offwind caught the leading bunch and jostling for position allowed Henry/Geraghty to pull out a short lead. Henrys lead was shortened significantly after an over enthusiastic drop of the spinnaker well before the final leeward mark. This coupled with a gust towards the end of the reach allowed the McGuinness’s and Keith Louden the opportunity to shrink Henrys lead. The race finished with a short beat with the finish line one third of the way up the beat. However as Louden was very close to McGuinness, they didn’t really have an opportunity to attack Henry and the three boats crossed the line with a boat length between each other.

In the second race with similar wind conditions to race 1, Hugh and Jamie Gill were first to the windward mark followed by Henry/Geraghty and the McGuinness brothers. There was very little separation of the fleet by the first windward mark and this made for a chaotic mark rounding for much of the fleet which converged simultaneously! On the first reach Gill & Henry pulled out a slight lead. Henry who was refused water at the first gybe mark had to duck below Gill and a fast gybe of the kite saw Henry/Geraghty sail out under Gill to take the lead. A moment later just as Gill was getting his spinnaker sorted out the Mc Guinness’s sailed over Gill. On the next beat the McGuinness’s and a number of other boats got caught on the right of the beat with a windshift, and as a result ended up way over laying the windward mark. This afforded Henry/Geraghty the opportunity to open up a big lead and they crossed well ahead of the McGuinness brothers. This hard earned second was lost on a protest later over a port starboard incident at the windward mark involving a third party.

Sunday mornings racing was an entirely different affair with much lighter winds prevailing. The 32 boat fleet spent at least an hour drifting on Lough Owel before the wind filled and the first race got under way. The McGuinness brothers got an impressive start and lead the fleet from the start to the finish, pulling out a huge lead by the finish. Norman Lee who had a last minute crew problems on Saturday finished second sailing an impressive race with a replacemenr crew, his wife Una, showing his talents in the light winds.

The Leinster title for 2007 was wide open going into the last race with John McGuinness, Niall Henry and Alastair Duffin all in the running on points. The final race got off to a number of false starts before it finally got under way in fickle winds. Half way up the first beat the wind veered. This benefited McGuinness and Henry most, both of whom had started on the middle of the line. McGuinness was first around with Henry in second Alastair Duffin 3rd and Diarmud Mullen of Sligo Yacht Club in 4th.  With McGuinness going high to protect his wind and Henry following, four boats got to the gybe mark before Henry and McGuinnesss. The first reach which ended up very broad due to the windshift meant that the second reach was very tight with some of the boats chosing to drop their kites while other boats attempted to fly it. Diarmud Mullen who passed Duffin sailed very calmly to hold his lead and take the honours in race four. A top five position was enough to do it for Henry/Geraghty who took the Leinster title for 2007.

Building on the momentum from the last event the GP14 Association were delighted to welcome another new boat, juniors from Sligo Yacht Club Gerard Healy and crew Brendan Martin, who won the bronze fleet. There were other new faces around at the weekend which is very encouraging to see.

Simon Cully and Libby Tiernan from Blessington Sailing Club took the honours in the silver fleet. Cubmates Richard Street and substitute crew Colm Crilly also put in a good result on Sunday afternoon gleefully keeping Simon under pressure throughout race 4.

The Leinster Championships was the second of six national events that count towards the Speed Sails League 2007, and the updated League Tables can be viewed on the Association website;

www.gp14ireland.com/

The next national event on the GP14 calendar is the Ulster Championships which takes place on the weekend of the 28th/29th July 2007, at Newtownards Sailing Club. As always please get your entries in early.