Tralee Bay Sailing Club will be our hosts on the weekend of 30 June – 1 July for our 2012 Southerns Championship.

The Notice of Race with entry form have been issued, download your copy here (pdf file).

From Donie Harrington, Lough Ree Yacht Club:

Regarding the SB3 weekends and storage in LRYC during the ISAF Youth Games when all SB20′s must be cleared from the NYC, RStGYC and RIYC, The idea I have is the following…

July 1st or thereafter: SB3’s arrive in LRYC for storage

July 14th & 15th: 2 days racing (5 or 6 races) on Lough Ree with a
late start on Saturday and an early finish on Sunday to allow
travelling. A barbecue will be available at the club on Saturday
evening.

July 21st & 22nd: A coaching day/weekend. 2 Ribs will be provided by
LRYC but the SB3 class must arrange a coach.

July 27th: Boats depart LRYC for Westerns in Galway.

Free camping will be available on site. Crane or slipway launching
will be included.

I am proposing a fee of €60 for storage only or €150 for the storage
and two weekend events.

A minimum of 10 to 12 boats would be needed to make this viable as we
may have to rent the field beside the club.

To book a place in the sun, email Donal.Herraghty@esb.ie
with a cc to Dun Laoghaire Class Captain Doug Smith dsmith@efc.ie

Congratulations to Peter Kennedy, Dave Cheyne and Steve Kane, Northerns Champions at Carrickfergus.

Belfast Lough proved a formidable tactical challenge again for the SB20 Northern Championships held over the weekend of June 9/10.  Ben Duncan’s stranglehold on this event (3 time consecutive winner) came to a  halt over the weekend as 15 boats lined up for racing hosted by Carrickfergus Sailing Club and sponsored by Boat-MEC.

Although starting the event with a flourish, Duncan got caught On Course Side and received a black flag penalty going into race 2.  Despite having another win in Race 3 the resident Kiwi was unable to claw back any form of podium finish for the first day as he had to carry a 14 point result from his fourth race.

Mel Collins form for the day was much more consistent in the shifting breeze with two 2nd places and 2 4th places.  Mel is showing surprising pace in the class and is tipped as a contender for the national title this coming September in Belfast Lough.  Local entry, Peter Kennedy’s Ridgefence.com however had a much more solid last race (race 5 of the series) to beat Collins by only a single point to take the title.

Aidan O’Connell’s pace onboard Ruby Blue (3072) is constantly improving and he scored evenly during the event to hold on to 3rd place overall.  The next event in the class circuit is the Southern Championships in Fenit at the end of June which the class hopes to be as well attended.   Duncan has yet been unable to turn into gold for the past 2 years having last won this event in Baltimore in 2009..  Cork Entry Collins will be one to watch out for as local experience may count for much.

Justin Burke aided by Class president Jerry Dowling finished just outside the podium on 4th with a very respectful 3rd place in the 5th and final race and having shown good performance throughout Saturday..

Many thanks to Carrickfergus Sailing Club, our RO and his team and our sponsors for a well run event.

Second was Mel Collins, Scott McKeown and Aidan Sweeny from the Royal Cork.

Third:  Aidan O’Connell, Graham  Elmes and Alan Daly from RStGYC.

Silver Prize went to Martin Cuppage, Peter Lee and Michael Galvin, also from the George.

Complete race results here

Photos from the Sunday are here