The conditions for Race 3 of the Antrim Boat Club Winter Series were not just as gusty as the previous weeks but nevertheless, it was blowing hard. With its situation on the North shore of Lough Neagh at the mouth of the Six Mile Water river, it was unfortunate that the wind was south-westerly which meant big waves at the river mouth and with weeks of rain, the level was high, meaning there was the danger of grounding between the waves on the way out.
Race officer Alan Reilly displayed the postponement flag and gave it half an hour to see if a change was in the offing and then made the decision to go ahead. It turned out to be manageable.
The start line was long with no distinct bias. Alfie Mayrs in the Achilles 24 Tenacious and Charlie McAllister’s Limbo 6.6 in FA2 got the best start. At the windward mark it was FA2 with a clear lead and JouJou, the Miles family’s Hunter 21, then Andy Speedy in the MG 25 Corinthian.
A big shift in the wind as it veered towards the west meant the subsequent laps were lopsided, with the big waves battering the boats in the long starboard tack. Once round the windward mark, the crews had no problems controlling the spinnaker on the first reach, but not all carried them on the port reach. The last beat and leg saw FA2 unchallenged in the lead with the MG 25, Corinthian (Andy Speedie) and Peter Frazer’s H323 Tictac establishing a gap from the following boats. Tictac judged the long second tack well and just got her nose in front to take second place by seconds.
Race 4
Antrim Boat Club had another lively race in its winter series, with strong winds and glorious sunshine for Race 4, but then as it nearly mid-winter, very low temperatures. Again, after weeks of rain the water was high at the mouth of the Six Mile Water river so there was no problem getting out on to the Lough.
The now standard Olympic Triangle course with short legs kept the crews working hard and skippers were seen to test the line using various methods finding apparently only a slight bias with a starboard start. One though, the skipper of Corinthian, Andy Speedie, looked as if he might try a port hand start at the pin end, but thought the better of it as the rest of the fleet bore down on starboard, changed his mind, and tacked at the last moment. The visibility on the first beat suffered from the bright mid-winter sun low in the sky.
Charlie McAlister and Jeff Harrison in the Limbo 6.6 FA2, seemed well to leeward of the fleet but must have been going fast, as after her first tack was first at the windward mark. Tictac, the H323 with Peter Frazer sailing single handed was second and Andy Speedie in Corinthian third.
Eventually the tight knit three at the front opened out a gap from the rest, but the others managed to put up a fight and with Alfie Mayrs in the Achilles 24, Tenacious flying her big blue and white spinnaker and Murphy, a Trapper TS240; (Karl Thrower) and Willy McIlvenna in the MG Spring 25 Jamie Jess all mixing it
It stayed like that until the downwind leg when Corinthian took a penalty turn and in doing so was overtaken by Karl Thrower in Murphy. The chase was on for third. Murphy’s crew, galvanised by their good fortune, upped their game and the fleet was now three groups.
The close contest lasted to the end with FA 2 finishing first followed by Tic Tac and then Tenacious, who pipped both Murphy and Corinthian to finish third.
This leaves the overall leader FA2 Limbo 6.6 Charlie McAllister and Jeff Harrison with TicTac H323 Peter Frazer in second slot and Tenacious Achilles 24 Alfie Mayrs third.
The first half of the Howden Joinery sponsored series ends on Sunday 11th December.
Antrim Boat Club Winter Series Overall Results
