What started out as a miserable day soon brightened steadily to light breeze and comfortable conditions for the National Powerboat Challenge in Wexford Harbour Boat and Tennis Club.

Enthusiasm levels were high right from the start with the first bell sounding right on the scheduled time. Tension increased as there was only 5 points between the leaders and 3rd place in the end and 8 points between 1st and the joint fourth places. The magic of this challenge is each team must have 2 under 16s and a female, which give a great mix in the teams and gives the teenagers a a new challenge beyond sailing and creates an awareness of safety boat tactics. The challenges include man over board, control in tight space and lee shore rescues – all valuable skills in clubs and centres on our shores. Course participants were mostly juniors with only 2 of the one-the-water participants over 23 out of 20 participants.

Five teams entered on the day with the winner being decided right down to the final session. In the end, the Wicklow team came 1st, 2nd place to Wexford Team 1, 3rd place to Bray team 2 and joint 4th places to Wexford team 2 and Bray team 1. Great fun was had by all. Bray are going to host the next powerboat challenge.