Irish Fireball Northerns at Carlingford Lough Yacht Club
by Conor Byrne 30 Jun 2008 05:41 PDT
28-29 June 2008
Noel Butler (DMYC) & Seamus Moore (SSC) won the Fireball Northerns at scenic Carlingford Lough Yacht Club. Winds ranged from 'a lot' to 'not a lot' and from varying degrees of directions based around South-west. The championship was won on countback from Conor Clancy (RSTGYC) & Francis Rowan (NYC), who lost the lead to a powerful Butler / Moore on the last reach, and were then pipped by Kenny Rumball & Dave Moran (RSTGYC) on the line.
The 26 boat fleet suffered breakages throughout the weekend, including the severely bent mast of Rumball / Moran in Race 2, with which they continued on with to post a fifth and a third in races 3 and 4. A new mast for Sunday did the job with a win in race five.
While most of the Skerries crews and new Daddy Butler made a mass exodus back to the Republic on Saturday evening, a very welcome meal was enjoyed in the club by the remainder of the fleet, and one or two hardy folk even had some beer. Clancy / Rowan were clubhouse leaders.
Several boats had a shot at the lead after day one, Simon McGrotty & Doire Shiels (SSC) proving to be very consistent and fast in their new boat, but not managing to keep up the same pace on day 2 and finished in sixth position.
Gold 2 winners Owen Laverty / Ed Butler (RSTGYC) were regularly to be seen at the top end, and finally broke into the lead for parts of race 5. Will Moody (RSA) made a cameo appearance with crew Stephen Oram (DMYC) and poked their boat in front of most races, missing the podium by a point to Damien Bracken / Brian O'Hara (CYBC), winners of race 1.
Fireball Class chairman Cormac Bradley made an emotional presentation of a beautiful half model Fireball to CLYC for the clubs' 50th anniversary. Cormac's father was a founder member and former captain, who passed away earlier this year.
As noted by Butler in the winner's speech, it was encouraging for the Fireball fleet to see many young new teams and new boats on the water. The event attracted four Northern boats, an increase on recent years.
Overall Results:
1st Noel Butler & Seamus Moore (DMYC & SSC), 13 points
2nd Conor Clancy & Francis Rowan (RSTGYC & NYC), 13 points
3rd Damien Bracken & Bria O'Hara (CYBC), 15 points