Tralee Bay Sailing Club Women at the Helm 2024
On the 20th of July 2024, Tralee Bay Sailing Club (TBSC) in Fenit, Co. Kerry, held its first Women at the Helm event in almost twelve years. The regatta was women led, women organised, and women raced with a female Race Officer and five female helms competing. Due to windy conditions, Race Officer Jane Deasy made the call to have the event be white sails only which allowed the event to run despite the challenging conditions. Three races were held around Tralee Bay, each of them finishing just off of Fenit Beach, between St Brendan and the Lighthouse.
The first race began at 12:05 with Elysium, under the helm of Rhiona Mc Morrow Moriarty, making a strong start at the committee boat side of the line. Elysium maintained and built on their lead throughout the upwind leg, rounding the windward mark first. Jaguar rounded the windward mark second under the helm of Rachel Deasy, who then handed the helm to Sadhbh Murphy for the downwind leg. Jaguar gained some ground on Elysium, however, Elysium rounded the leeward mark first and took off on a fetch to the finish line coming first on the water and first on corrected time (the only boat in the event to do so). Jaguar crossed the line a minute later to finish in second. Samphire, under the helm of Mary O’Sullivan, came in third; Growler, under the helm of Máire Dineen, came in fourth; and Cariad, under the helm of Anneliese Stack, came in fifth. In the first race, first and fofth were separated by only two minutes and thirty seconds on corrected times, demonstrating just how close the race had been.
At 13:00 the second race began. Máire Dineen secured an excellent start for Growler at the committee boat end of the line. Elysium was forced to tack off and Jaguar was forced to start at the pin end. This led to Elysium sticking to the east side of the course while Jaguar and Growler went west, with Samphire and Cariad close on the three leading boats tails. After a close upwind battle, Jaguar rounded the windward first having come into the mark on starboard forcing Elysium to duck them approaching the windward mark. Elysium rounded second with Growler not far behind. Jaguar managed to build on their lead on the following three legs to cross the line first on the water, however, on corrected times, the race was won by Growler thanks to their incredible start and impeccable upwind performance. Jaguar finished in second and Elysium in third. But, it was the battke at the back of the fleet which was the most nail biting to watch, with Anneliese Stack on Cariad and Mary O’Sullivan on Samphire brining their respective boats to finish on the exact same corrected time to complete the race in joint fourth. Once again the hour long race was exceptionally close with less than two minutes and thirty seconds separating the five boats on corrected time.
The final race began at 15:00 with all five boats hitting th line as the starting hooter sounded. This was a longer race, approximately an hour and a half long with six legs allowing for some jostling for positions. Anneliese Stack helmed Cariad for a wonderful upwind on the first leg, opening up a lead on Growler and Samphire which she maintained throughout the race. Meanwhile, Jaguar and Elysium were in an all out battle. Jaguar rounded the first mark before Elysium with Rachel once again handing the helm off, this time to Ruth Kelleher, for the downwind leg, where they maintained their lead. However, thanks to the keen eye of Rhiona and the crew of Elysium, they managed to avoid a bad header, perfectly laying the second windward mark, while Jaguar overlayed the mark significantly. Thus, Elysium rounded first, closesly followed by Jaguar, leading to a neck and neck race for the following three legs. Jaguar finally managed to squeak by Elysium on the final leg, to cross the line first on the water. Howeverm it was Cariad who won the race with an incredible start and performance having crossed the line in third, after Elysium. In second place was Samphire having maintained a comfortable lead on Growler throughout the race thanks to Mary O’sullivan’s expertise and experience, perfectly predicting that the wind would die once a squall had passed through. In third was Jaguar; in fourth was Elysium; and in fifth was Growler.
The event had been incredible close with no way to tell on the water which boat would win. Only five and a half points separated first and fifth at the end of the three races; and of the three race winners, only one made the podium. But before the winner was announced, Cormac Murphy, Commodore of TBSC, spoke briefly of the reason for hosting the event and the importance of keeping women in sailing. He also spoke of the history of women on the water in TBSC, including how TBSC was the first sailing club in the worlf to have a female Commodore.
Next event organiser Rachel Deasy thanked all the sponsors of the event including CH Chemists, O’Sullivan Marine, Waterworld, The Tankard, Spa Seafood, Walsh Brothers, Wild Water Adventures, High Voltage Engineering, ICRA, Sport Ireland, and Irish Sailing. Thanks were also extended to all of the volunteers who had helped organise and run the event, in particular to Jane Deasy the Race Officer and Aileen Kelleher and the rest of the TBSC Committee. Recognition was alos given to the many women in Fenit over the years who have been shining examples of women on the water including Eimer Moriarty (who helped fight for the event to happen but unfortunately was unable to attend), Denise Lynch (Fenit RNLI coxswain), Sophie Browne, Lorna Browne, Jacquie Browne, Ellie Cunnane, Fiona Frawley, Joyce Walsh, Cara McMorrow Moriarty, Aisling Kelliher, Louise MaGowan, Aliqoue Daly, Michelle Moore, and Liz Lynch.
As the event came to a close Jane Carter, Diversity and Inclusion Officer for Irish Sailing, spoke briefly about the Women at the Helm initiative as well as Irish Sailing’s drive to keep women in sailing. Jane spoke of Irish Sailing’s commitment to support clubs in promoting their own initiatives to keep women in sailing through their grant programme as well as publicity. Then Jane awarded the prizes to the competitors alongside Commodore Cormac Murphy.
The final results were:
5th Anneliese Stack Cariad
4th Máire Dinnen Growler
3rd Mary O’Sullivan Samphire
2nd Rhiona McMorrow Moriarty Elysium
1st Rachel Deasy, Ruth Kelleher, and Sadhbh Murphy Jaguar
The event was an excellent demonstration of the incredible female sailors within the club.