Royal Ulster Yacht Club
Racing continues in autumn series
OVER 20 entries took part in the final series races of the year at Royal Ulster Yacht Club on Sunday.
Racing in the Grange Wine Merchants Autumn Series took place off Ballyholme Bay with two windward/leeward races run back-to-back for the unrestricted (spinnaker) Classes 1 and 2 and the Whitesail Class3 which had the largest number of entries.
The weather was warm with hazy sunshine, but unfortunately the breeze could have done with being a bit stronger, as a persistent swell was rolling in throughout the races making the crews have to work hard for boat speed.
In race one under IRC handicap, John Minnis’ Final Call II took first place ahead of Adrian Allen’s Succession in second and the Ritchie’s Sigmantra in third while in race two the O’Tiarnaigh, Mulholland and Harrington team in eXcession were third behind Final Call and Succession.
Under YTC handicap in race one the order was Succession, Sigmantra, eXcession. In race two YTC eXcession managed to open the gap on Sigmantra to take second behind Succession.
For Class 2, The Coffey, Bell, Thompson team took first places in both races under IRC handicap but were beaten under YTC by Aiden Pounder’s Caesium in Race 2. The Hamilton/Milne team on Endeavour notched up a second and a third place under IRC while David Quinn’s Bonanza had the same results under YTC.
For the Whitesail Class it was the Johnston Brothers in Impulz who took first in both races with Martin and Vicky Dews’ Elandra of Down placed second and Leslie and Gavin Mitchell in Whisper placed third in both races.
Racing in the Grange Wine Merchants Autumn Series continues until October 27 with a mixture of Windward Leeward and Round the Lough style races.
