Melges 15 Irish National Championships
Darragh O’Connor and Brian Byrne are the winners of the 2024 Melges 15 National championships hosted by Howth Yacht Club. After four races on Saturday the 19 boat fleet kept fingers and toes crossed for sailing on Sunday, but with gusts of up to 30 knots and a difficult sea state, racing was abandoned.
This years event was organised by Cormac Farrelly of the Howth Yacht Club who led the event team while delivering long, close, fun sailing to the competitors. The event was also a first event in Ireland running new Race Management technology, RaceSense which in essence is an operating system for racing that pairs to the Vakaros GPS devices on all boats. Four races were started and finished with the system, a new technology welcomed by the fleet.
Saturdays 4 races were three Windward Leeward courses delivered in winds of 14-19 knots. Race lengths were on average 40 minutes giving sailors plenty of time to improve their positions on the track. Data off the units showed that on average each boat covered over 50km distance over the day with top speeds recorded of 17+knots. Making for tired but enthused sailors returning to ashore late Saturday Afternoon.
Saturday evening saw the event dinner and AGM with members welcoming Theo Lyttle remaining as class President. Events were discussed for next year with a consensus that the Irish South Coasts 2025 will be held in Cascais over Easter. The Irish Armada being keen to return to the Portuguese coast for some warm weather sailing and Portuguese cuisine.
Sunday morning saw PRO Richard Kissane assess the conditions Afloat but it was not to be. This pause in sailing gave everyone time to appreciate the spectacular drone footage and photos taken by top Portuguese drone photographer Goncalo de Melo of Bow Media.
To see some of this footage head over to IRISH SAILING
Family connections were a big factor in boat combinations. The winners are brothers in law, runners up were and Uncle and niece combination and 3rd place was a father son crew. Ages across the fleet ranged from the youngest helm Sarah McLoughlin at 13 years old to the oldest helm at 60. After this great 19 boat event, the Melges 15 sailors are already looking forward to next season with strong rumors of more boats arriving as this new class to Irish sailing continues to expand.
Results:
- 1st Darragh O’Connor and Bryan Byrne
- 2nd John and Katie Sheehy
- 3rd Mike and Andrew Evans