The SB20 Eastern Championships was held in Howth Yacht Club over the weekend of the 22-23^rd of April. A fleet of 16 boats arrived at the start line on Saturday morning to commence an extremely hard fought and competitive series. Despite a forecast for light and shifty winds, a reasonably steady breeze gave us 3 good races on the Saturday efficiently run and set by race officer Paddy Judge and his team. Three different winners of the Saturday races meant that only 3 points separated the top 3 boats with early pace setter Colin Galvan leading ahead of Michael O’Connor and Peter Kennedy.

Sunday began with a postponement due to lack of wind but after an hour the fleet launched and the breeze built to a perfect strength for racing. Colin Galvan won the first race looking set to put a hand on the title with Darren Martin on his heel in second and Michael O’Connor in third keeping it tight at the top. Race 2 saw O’Connor win with Martin second and Peter Kennedy coming third, with Galvan having a 7^th it was now anbodies championship going into the last race. Race 3 saw Peter Kennedy win with Darragh Sheridan second and Ger Dempsey third. A fourth in the last race gave Micheal O’Connor the overall win topping a table that had only 3 points between the top 4. The overall placings were 1^st Michael O’Connor, 2^nd Peter Kennedy and 3^rd Colin Galvan with Marty Cuppage winning the silver fleet. On behalf of the class I would like to thank HYC for hosting an excellent event with special thanks to Paddy Judge and his team for their superb work on the water.

(Report by Shane Murphy - Top photo: Commodore Joe McPeake presents Michael O'Connor and the crew of Sin Bin with the Eastern Championship trophy)