Results / Irish Nationals Greystones SC - 10/10/2003

The Data and Record Management RS400 Irish Nationals, and final leg of RS Fat Face Eurocup Any dinghy racers who have ever gone to an event in Ireland very quickly find out that such events are very special; always with a great atmosphere. The Data and Record Management Irish RS200 and RS400 Nationals were no exception and were an assault course of a good time. As Nick Craig so rightly pointed out in his victory speech "I do not know what has made me more tired, the sailing or the partying. You know your going to be in trouble when you arrive from the ferry at 23.40 to find the club bar still open and you leave at 02.30 drunk." Greystones is a town 15 miles south of Dublin centre, the sailing club is small but full of characters, dead friendly and a huge desire to run a great event. The sea front of Greystones consists of the sailing club, the chip shop (great curry chips), two pubs that serve Smirnoff ice on draught, a great Restaurant and Club Death (actually called Club Life but earned the name because most of us were dead next morning after being there to the wee hours) with numerous bed and breakfasts in between including one that lets everyone camp in her front garden. Not far off dinghy sailor�s heaven. There is a down side to Greystones and it is called the tide, which is not subtle. Due to an action packed schedule of separate Inlands, Endeavour and Southampton Boat Show in the UK the Irish Nationals had to be held on a strong tide weekend. It also has a bizarre arrangement where the tide flows south for 20 hours and north for only it seems 4 hours and thats when we are asleep as we all found out at the briefing. "Which way does the tide flow before high tide?" "South", "Which way does it flow after high tide?" "South" "When does the flow slacken?" "Christmas." This also tended to sum up the dynamic duo that were joint race officers, Francis Donnelly and Arky, that well known comedy act large and large. They were a good race team who obviously enjoyed themselves and had the worrying habit of being the last to leave Club Death. On to the racing; 18 400's from the UK travelled on various ferries from Holyhead to join 13 Irish 400's. Friday seemed like pretty good practice for next weeks Inlands as a highly erratic west breeze which varied in strength from force 1-3, rolled down from the hills above Greystones across a dead flat sea. Race one caused a controversial start to the series, Nick Craig arrived at the windward mark first and built a good lead on the first downwind. As the fleet approached the first leeward mark it soon became apparent that the pin end of the line had been left near the leeward mark and both buoys were identical. Despite some colourful language from Craig the fleet were non the wiser by the time they arrived. Craig and Kenwood took the sensible option of going round both and still came out on top. The rest of the leaders followed but it wasn�t long before the fleet took the chance and just went round the closer mark. In the resulting re- start and chaos there were some big losers with Tom Halhead dropping from 4th to 15th and Tubby O�Brien looking equally as bad. Nick Craig and Dobbin Kenwood both managed to leave all the trouble behind them and sailed on to take first and second. Dave Snier was also going well but was overtaken just before the finish line by Mike Budd who had been on a charge through the fleet all race recovering from a dodgy windward mark position. In the second race Budd managed to improve his windward mark position a little and arrived first followed by the usual chasing pack. Being the lucky sod he is, the wind soon swung to the turn the course into a fetch and reach so that, with all the passing lanes closed, he sailed on to take an easy win. Craig continued a good day to take second with Gilbert improving on his earlier 6th to take 3rd. After an excellent beer and curry evening laid on by the club and the mandatory trip to Club Death there was certainly a lot more wind around on the Saturday morning. On the water most struggled to get off the start line due to laughing at Mike Budd�s attempt at a port approach start which left him carving into windward and needing a set of waterwings. Gilbert finally found his speed again to take his first bullet of the weekend after both he and Craig had disappeared over the horizon in their own match race. Dave Snier was also going well in third, the only boat that even came close to plugging the gap between the front two and the rest of the fleet. Obviously aggrieved by his 12th in the first race Mike Budd fired up the first beat to arrive at the windward mark first. The usual pairing of Craig and Gilbert were charging hard behind though although Budd put in an excellent performance to keep them at bay and take his second bullet of the weekend. Craig took second from Gilbert in third. John Callaghan had obviously been getting a bit worked up by the fierce competition, as he decided to take a backward dive off the gunwhale. As well as the bizarre tides, anther natural phenonomen must have been afoot as at the windward mark in race 5, the black kite of the Grimms could be seen hoisted in first place. Obviously as shocked by this as everybody else they duly pulled over and allowed the first 5 boat through. A close battle then ensued for the lead but nobody saw Tubby O�Brien and Melissa Storey coming as they hit the right hand corner to sail round everybody and from fifth to first in one leg. Tubby made no mistakes though to sail on and take the win whilst being push hard by Budd in second and Craig in third. In the final race of the day the conditions were perfect for Kenyon and Lewis and they took full advantage to show the fleet what they were capable of. Kenyon, Gilbert and Craig all broke away from the fleet again but it was Kenyon who always looked the in control. A great display under pressure gave them a well-deserved win from Gilbert in second and Craig third. After a great days sailing the fleet couldn�t ask for more in the evening as well; football, Guinness and the championship dinner. All followed by a change into clean clothes after the obligatory food fight and another legendary night in club death. Sunday morning broke to a wild scene. Dark grey skies, a monstrous rolling sea and a steady force 5 whipping up white water as far and the eye could see. After a short postponement (which was best utilised by Little Grimm to undertake some serious cleaning work prior to checking out his B&B) the fleet set out to sail just a single race. The conditions really were awesome with very few of the fleet able to make it round without capsizing a least once and lots of spinnakers looking more like doilies than sails. Craig and Brown love a �bit of rough� and so powered up the first beat to take the lead where they stayed to the finish consolidating their first overall. Budd came in 2nd to steal 2nd overall from Roger Gilbert, whilst Entwistle finally got the boat moving to score his first respectable result of the weekend in 3rd.