Last weekend saw Anthony O’Leary (RCYC) retain the All Ireland Sailing Championship (formerly the ISA Helmsmans Championship) held in Dun Laoghaire and raced in J80 fleet. Sutton Dinghy Club has a rich tradition in this event with 7 winners and a number of podium placings since its inception in 1947. That year Sutton Dinghy Clubs John Weaving took the title. Since then Sutton Dinghy Club winners have included Dave Cummins, Neville Maguire, Gerry Sargent and Ruan O’Tiarnaigh.
This year our own Alan Henry representing the IDRA14 Class with his Sutton Dinghy Club crew of Simon Revil and Ian McCormack made the final series on Sunday. Their position in the final came after some great sailing on Saturday where they finished 3rd of 8 (Flight A) after a 3 race series and took one of the 6 automatic slots. This meant they avoided the early Sunday repechage to fill the remaining final slots. See Saturday racing report.
Sundays Final Series saw 4 races in stronger breezes with O’Leary, crewed by former Sutton Dinghy Club sailor Dan O’Grady putting in a very strong performance to take the title from the RS400 representative Alex Barry. Alan Henry and his crew of Simon and Ian had to be content with 7th overall. Full event report from Afloat can be seen here.
[whohit]-2015 Henry @ Helmsmans-[/whohit]