The second regional event on the Optimist IODAI circuit took place in Malahide Sailing Club over last weekend.HYC was again very well represented with over 20 combined sailors in Regatta, Junior and Senior main fleet.

 

REGATTA RACES

In the Regatta fleet, HYC sailors comprised of Harry Dunne, Steve Gannon O Connor, Piers Halwood, Keelan Darby and Katie Fanning.

All of the regatta fleet enjoyed a great weekend of sailing and got a total of 7 races in over the two days. It was the perfect weekend for practicing their race skills and all of them put in great efforts with particular mentions going to Steve on getting a first ever 1st place in race 2, and to Harry who secured a couple of 3rd place finishes and also to Piers Hallwood who finished up in first place within his age category.

In the Main Fleet Junior field, William Walsh, Cillian Twomey, Des Turvey, Sienna Wright, Oisin Kelly, Daire O Neil, Ciara McMahon, Elliott Tomkin Beddy, Hanna Walsh, Sarah and Hannah Scott represented HYC.

The event began with a lack of wind and then big wind shifts on the Saturday resulting in a long frustrating day of stop/starts abandonments and only 2 full races completed over 5 hours, However the wind picked up sufficiently on the Sunday and conditions were perfect for the fleet to get another 4 races in to finish the programme.

And what a good event it was for HYC and smiles all round as we had 4 sailors in the top 5 of Junior Gold fleet. Cillian topped the Gold fleet with his first Junior Gold first place position followed by William in second, Des in third and Oisin in fifth spot. Elliot, Ciara and Daire had fine finishes in a number of races, whilst Sienna is thriving since moving up from the regatta to join the junior main. The Scott girls also made the move to junior main and performed admirably over the two days. 

    

 

CILLIAN TWOMEY 1ST PLACE JUNIOR GOLD   WILLIAM WALSH 2ND PLACE JUNIOR GOLD

 

  

DES TURVEY 3RD IN JUNIOR GOLD FLEET   OISIN KELLY 5TH IN JUNIOR GOLD FLEET

 

In the Main Fleet Senior Field, HYC was represented by Rocco Wright, Luke Turvey, Johny Flynn, Charlie Keating, Sorcha Gannon O Connor, Hugo Crawford, Evan Darby.

The senior fleet also took a while to get going with the restarts and lack of wind on Saturday but it didn’t affect Rocco too much as he held his nerve and raced well to come out as the winner of the Senior Gold in main fleet. Johny and Luke were next best placed for HYC in 5th & 6th respectively. Sorcha also put together a steady series of races and In the Silver fleet Charlie had another fine weekend and came in 2nd place in the Senior silver and 22nd overall. Some of the Howth sailors that made IODAI teams were also presented with their international gear at the event and we wish them good luck in the Europeans, Worlds and IDT1 events.

 

  

ROCCO WRIGHT 1st SENIOR GOLD FLEET      JOHNY FLYNN 5th SENIOR GOLD FLEET

 

JOHNY, LUKE, ROCCO AND SORCHA WITH THEIR IRISH PACKS  (Some of the Howth sailors that made IODAI teams were also presented with their international gear at the event and we wish them good luck in the Europeans, Worlds and IDT1 events.)

 

CHARLIE KEATING 2ND PLACE SENIOR SILVER MAIN FLEET

 

In both regional events so far, all of the HYC group have shown they are well capable of competing at the highest level and they can all be very proud and optimistic going forward onto the next regional event, the Munsters in Dunmore East. We hope to see our Optimist members there.