09 Aug Calves Week day 1

 Cork Dry Gin Calves Week Day 1

Light conditions and poor visibility forced the temporary postponement of the first days racing at Calves week. Race officer Neil Prenderville eventually started all fleets on various courses taking in a windward mark in Long Island Bay and the Calves Islands.

The fickle southwesterly wind proved a handful for all the competitors with the final boats taking almost five hours to complete the course.

In class one the two largest boats Gloves Off and Jump Juice seemed to master the conditions and left the rest of the fleet trailing a long way behind, to take both IRC and Echo in that order.

In class two the fleet was dominated by John Rohans “Per Elisa”,who comfortably won both divisions ,followed home by fellow quarter tonner ,Jason Lostys “Illes Pituses”.

In class three, victory in both divisions, went to Derek Dillon from Foynes sailing club with the Barrett/Conlon combination in Y-Knot filling second place.

Class four saw one of the closes finishes of the day .with the first four boats crossing the line within fifteen seconds of one another.Richard Hanley in “Saoirse” claimed the IRC trophy ,while local schull boat “Witchcraft” sailed by Simon Nelson won Echo.

The large white sail classes had a tough day particularly on the downwind legs with Howth visitor “Sojourn” winning in both IRC and Echo  from Ciaran Geoghans “Fizz” and Bryan Heffernans, Aisling

In White Sail two,Finbarr Butlers “Moonfleet”took the trophy from Jack Coggeys “Roaring Water.