Optimist Championships at Carlingford Lough

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Royal North’s Oppie Fleet in the Prizes Again

Royal North have now got seven Oppies firmly on “the circuit” and last weekend (17th & 18th June) saw six of them compete in our local regional event – “The Ulster’s” at Carlingford Lough Yacht Club.

For those of you who don’t know Carlingford Lough Yacht Club is not actually in Carlingford, County Louth, but in the village of Killowen, near Rostrevor, County Down - 24 miles by road from Carlingford but only about a mile across the water.

Geography lesson over, so how did our team get on?

Main Fleet

Jess Brien not only improves her sailing with every event now.  She is even improving during events.  Now moved up to the Gold fleet after recent successes, Jess showed that she can cut the mustard at the top end of Oppie sailing.  With solid results in the twenties in Saturday’s races, she showed on Sunday that a little bit more wind suited her and returned two excellent race placings of 7th and 9th to finish 21st overall.

Jess’s little brother Jack, at nine years old showed that he justifies a recent move up into the main fleet.  With a 20th place in one race Jack shows that the family talent is beginning to show through.  He beat many Silver fleet and some Gold fleet sailors.  Jack came through to win the prize for the Best Under-10 sailor.  An excellent result!

Adam Hill, recent winner of the Regatta Fleet prize at the Leinsters in Dun Laoghaire, also moved up to the main fleet and in his first event sailing with the big boys showed that he too is not intimidated by all those boats (55).  Showing some great boat speed, Adam steadily improved his race positions over the weekend to finish in sixth place in the Bronze fleet - yet another prize for Royal North.

Ross Vaughan as usual was superb up at that very competitive front end of the fleet.  The top sailors were all there and competition was as tight as ever.  In six races we had four different race winners and at the end of the event only 11 points spanned the top six places.  Eventually winner Diana Kissane only won one race but with nothing worse than a sixth, consistency paid off to put her at the top of the pile.  Ross won two races but a poor result (by his standards), an 11th, in the last race saw him take 3rd place overall – only 5 points behind the winner.

Regatta Fleet

With Royal North sailors, Holly Campbell and Adam Hill winning the previous two regional Regatta fleet prizes at Cork and Dun Laoghaire, the pressure was on young Ryan Gilmore to do it again.  Well, Ryan was up for the challenge and came through a competent winner of The Ulster Championships Regatta fleet prize.  Light airs on the Saturday made sailing quite difficult for most of the fleet but Sunday’s poorer weather but steadier breeze made it all easier to understand.

Craig Campbell entertained the regatta fleet with his boat handling acrobatics and roll tacking to such an extent that he lost his glasses overboard.  The light airs on Saturday didn’t appear to suit Craig but when the breeze got up a bit on Sunday he came in with a 3rd and two 2nd’s to finish 3rd overall in the Regatta fleet.  His first prize, Craig is very proud of his achievement.

Holly Campbell didn’t attend the event due to a previous sporting commitment in England.

Support teams ashore and on the water were of course kept very busy.  The Brien’s new coaching RIB proved an excellent craft for bringing the kid’s alongside between races and giving them that all important advice, the odd Mars bar and carrying out some rig adjustments.  Simon, Juanita and Tiffany were joined by Oppie dad’s Fred Campbell and Mike Hill.  Excellent on-board catering was enjoyed both days and Simon even had the foresight to bring along a banana boat to give the kids rides round the bay after sailing – just in case they weren’t tired enough.

With Mike and Val Vaughan also on their RIB, the Royal North sailors were well supported on the water.  Ashore, Una Gilmore stood by and utilised newly acquired skills by helping with de-rigging and pastoral care – a developing Oppie mum.

Next events on the calendar are The Easterns at Howth 8th, 9th July, Crosbie Cup at Malahide 29th, 30th July and then the Nationals at Kinsale 17th – 20th August.  Watch out for our protégé’s at all these events on http://www.iodai.com/live/results/

Don’t forget, Oppie and Topper sailing for kid’s of all abilities on Friday evenings at Royal North 5.30 – 7 p.m.  There should be an opportunity for kids new to sailing to get out on the water, even if it’s only for a few minutes.  The whole thing is casual, the idea being that it’s a bit of fun to encourage our younger members into sailing. 

Please do note that parents must remain present while their children are out on the water.

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