Jeffs wins Championship of Ireland

The 50th anniversary GP14 Class Association Championship of Ireland, sponsored by the Radisson SAS Hotel, Sligo, was held in Sligo Yacht at the weekend. Fifty boats from all parts of Ireland were joined by seven boats from the UK.

Two races were held on Friday afternoon in strong breezes. Race 1 was won by Hugh Gill and Stuart Boyle of Sutton Dinghy Club. Race two was held immediately afterwards, and the race was won by UK visitor, Carl Jeffs of Trimpley SC crewed by Jim Toothill, after local sailor Tim Corcoran crewed by Brendan Brogan who had been leading for much of the race was passed and finished in a close third place.

Principal Race Officer, Gus Henry, had an early start on Saturday morning, with race three starting at 11 o'clock. The early start also caught a number of boats still napping and a total of seventeen boats were black-flagged, which leads to instant disqualification. The race win went to another UK visitor, Graham Nelson of Blackpool SC crewed by Mike Senior.

Race four followed after a break for lunch on the water, and a revitalised local sailor Colm O'Flaherty crewed by Connor Bree in his brand new boat number 13891, was vying for the lead throughout the race only to be held off on the line by eventual winner Graham Nelson.

Race five followed immediately afterwards and this time a close duel between Carl Jeffs and Graham was won by Carl, with another UK visitor Justin Jones in third.

Race six on Sunday morning made things extremely close at the head of the championship, the win went to yet another UK boat this time, Richard Instone and James Goodfellow of Chase SC, followed by Carl Jeffs and then Graham Nelson. This meant that Carl Jeffs had the slimmest of leads only differentiating himself from Graham Nelson due to a better discard score after six races.

Race seven was a tense affair with Carl and Graham jousting to be ahead of the other and take a lead into the final race. After a full race distance of two laps, a sausage and a full beat, Richard Instone came through the leading gladiators for the race win with Carl covering Graham to take the win and as there was no race 8 the Championship.

Przies were awarded by Eoin Little, GM of the Radisson SAS Hotel, Sligo. Leading Irish boat in fourth place overall was Sligo Yacht Club favourite, Tim Corcoran crewed by Brendan Brogan. Other locals who showed well were Niall Henry crewed by Ossian Geraghty in seventh place overall and Paddy and Tania McHale who were unfortunate to have had black flags in two races and still ended up in fifteenth place overall.

Thomas and Paul Sexton continued their fine form and were second in the silver fleet and will be a force when they get used to their recently acquired new boat. Top all-female crew went to local die-hards Anita Owens and Saoirse Flynn.