The North Sails Ireland team were at WAVE Regatta in Howth Yacht Club over the weekend supporting their customers on and off the water.
North Sails Ireland supplied the event with over 150 premium laminated skipper packs for the competitors. Nigel Young was in the RIB providing video support and analysis. Maurice "Prof" O'Connell was tactician on "Jump Juice" in IRC 0 and Shane Hughes raced on Jonny Swan's "Harmony" in IRC 2 on Friday.
Maurice "Prof" O'Connell was tactician on "Jump Juice" in IRC 0 Photo: Afloat.ie
Service manager Richard Marshall was in Howth too for any overnight repair and service requests.
Nigel Young was in the North Sails RIB providing video support and analysis Photo: Afloat.ie
North Sails powered boats emerged victorious across numerous classes in the tricky and variable conditions.
J109 Juggerknot Photo: Afloat.ie
In the uber-competitive IRC 1 fleet, Andrew Algeo's "Juggerknot" continued her winning ways powering to victory with a sizable margin. Speaking after the event, Algeo said, "Prof, as I hope you know, your support is invaluable - we wouldn't be at the races without it."
J109 Storm Photo: Afloat.ie
2nd (the Kelly's J109 "Storm II") , 3rd (John Maybury's J109 "Joker II") , 4th (Colin Byrne's Xp33 "Bon Exemple") and 5th (Tim and Richard Goodbody's J109 "White Mischief") were also taken by North Sails-powered boats flying 3Di / 3DL upwind inventories and V-Series downwind sails.
Half Tonner Harmony Photo: Afloat.ie
In an equally competitive IRC 2 fleet, the half-tonner shoot-out was won by Dave Cullen's "Checkmate XV". Cullen's team were pushed hard by Jonny Swan's "Harmony" in 2nd and Mike and Richard Evans' "The Big Picture" in 3rd. 4th in this tough class was Stephen Quinn's J97 "Lambay Rules". All four boats were powered by North Sails flying 3DL / 3Di / V-Series sails. Speaking after the event, Dave Cullen said "We have worked with Prof in North Sails Ireland ever since we acquired "Checkmate". Our new 3Di RAW main is a thing of beauty and we were flying at the weekend!".
"Our new 3Di RAW main is a thing of beauty and we were flying at the weekend!"
The one-design Puppeteer fleet raced the Lambay Race on the Saturday with 1st and 2nd taken by North Sails-powered "pups". Colin and Kathy Kavanagh in "Blue Velvet" won the race, They were in the lead from start to finish flying their new GN-1B genoa. Neil Murphy and Conor Costello's in yellow "Yellow Peril" took the silver medal spot, also flying a full NS inventory.
In the non-spinnaker IRC 4 division, Colm Bermingham's Elan 333 "Bite The Bullet" took the spoils, flying their 3DL carbon aramid upwind (and indeed also downwind!) sails. After sailing on Sunday Colm said, "Cheers Prof....Delighted to win the class overall (against all the bigger boats) and to get a win each day too, in quite different conditions. Guess that shows the versatility of the North 3DL's!!".
In IRC 5 (non-spinnaker), Windsor Laudan and Steffi Ennis' lovely Shamrock "Demelza" took 2nd overall with their full NS inventory. Speaking after the event, Windsor said, "our new No. 2 genoa was amazing, even in lighter airs, we still had plenty of power".
Royal Hong Kong entry Signal 8 on her way to winning IRC 0 Flying her North Sails A3 Asymmetric and Spinnaker Staysail 1 Photo: North Sails Ireland
North Sails Ireland Manager Nigel Young, speaking from Howth said, "the first WAVE regatta was a great success for Howth YC. North Sails Ireland worked with the regatta organising team since it's inception and we were delighted to provide the skipper's packs for the event. It was really great to see so many of our clients sailing fast. Well done and congratulations to all the teams involved!".
