This past weekend saw the Howth 17 fleet take to the water off Howth for their 2025 Nationals. The sun shone brightly on both days with lots of wind at times, both helping to show off the beauty of WH Boyd’s 1890’s design even without their topsails - the lively conditions over the weekend ensuring that all were kept safely stowed for the four races.

The wind was a steady 225 degrees and mid to high teens on Friday evening for the first race of the event, which was sailed off the Pier - west-going start, reach to Garbh, beat back to Cush and broad reach home. The tide was flooding and, together with first race anxiety, it brought two thirds of the fleet over the line early for a general recall. The restart was under a U flag preparatory signal, which magically moderated the anxiety to be right on the start line.

The reach out to Garbh brought ten of the fleet to the mark together, leading to 'frank exchanges' about port / starboard and water entitlements, before the long upwind leg erased any concerns about who had what rights when. After 58 minutes of racing, Deilginis (Massey, Toomey and Kenny) took the gun by just four seconds from Rita (Lynch & Curley).

Saturday racing was from a Committee Vessel on laid courses and the wind decided to show its full range of tricks, oscillating between 225 and 305 degrees and from just over 9 to a high of 26kn over the course of the day.

The forecast was for strong gusts in the morning and the first race of the day was over a triangular course (lap, sausage, lap) to keep the boats nearer Portmarnock beach in flatter water until the expected moderation came through. Deilginis again took the winning gun with Isobel (Brian and Conor Turvey) as runner-up. The course layout was changed to a Windward Leeward for the next race. The start was delayed due to the unstable wind direction, the instability giving rise to another general recall, followed by another U flag start before Erica (Davie Nixon) led all the way from start to finish. Saturday’s third race, the final one of the event, saw the strongest winds with prolonged gusts that hit 26kn and led to spectacular sailing and some gear failure. Rita put on a masterclass of heavy weather sailing to lead for the first two thirds of the race until they lost their jib and were forced to retire, leaving Deilginis through for their third winning gun of the event.

1st Scratch, Deilginis

Regardless of wind conditions and course type, Deilginis were the boat to beat over the four races, taking 3 firsts out of four races and winning on each of the three course layouts used, before discarding a fourth place. Erica, the winner of the 2024 championship, and Isobel battled it out for second overall with both finishing on 9 points, Erica’s win in Race 3 then securing them second overall on the tie-break.

3rd HPH Echo

Race Report, Neil Murphy

Photo Gallery, Neil Murphy, Suzanne (Barry) Bulger, Susanne Cruise

Full results