The ingredients were almost all reunited to produce the best regatta of the winter. Kinsale was indeed once more ready to deliver a superb regatta with loads of prizes, great sailing conditions and many smiles on the sailors faces. All due credit must go to Michael O Sullivan and his team who made their upmost best to keep the Xmas regatta one of the ones to attend towards the end of the year. The turnout may have been low with a mere 27 sailors making their way to a great weekend sailing, but quality was there with many of the last couple of month front runners and it showed on the water with 5 different race winner, extremely close racing where the tiniest mistake was paid cash straight away. The absents were with no doubt wrong not to have made the journey!

Day 1 : Rain, a lot of rain and wind we have not seen for some time. It did not stop the hardy sailors to head out for 2 windward leeward course. It was noted that despite the harsh conditions, the youngest sailors were hanging in there showing outstanding determination illustrated by 9 year old Jamie McMahon finishing the final race in 25kts after capsizing.
There was a lot of swamping and capsizes within the best sailors of the fleet with favorite Peter McCann using his bailers a lot more than what he would have liked! In the challenging conditions, Scott Levie was the initial race winner fending off Douglas Elmes attempts to get him back. Jil McGinley was on top on the second race after she successfully manage to overtake a resilient Ronan Cournane who found a new liking for the savage surfs big breeze provides. She took the lead ahead of Harry Whittaker (twice 3rd).

Day 2 : what a change! gorgeous sunshine and a gentle oscillating westerly. The tide became a big factor and the sailors had to deal with it especially on the startline. The usual trapezoid course came back to fashion with the nicer breeze. It was a visitor from Dublin who got the guns out first. Harry Craig showed great speed and smart moves to move up to a lead he never dropped winning in style the first race of the day. The fight for second was extremely close but it was to be Jil who just edged out Ronan and Douglas. Peter McCann took a commanding lead in the second race of the day, But fel victim of Harry Craig superior speed letting the Dublin sailor take a second gun in the regatta. Jil reaching the line in 3rd tightened her grip on the overall standing. The 3rd race saw the awakening of Cliodhna Ni Suilleabhain. The Kinsale sailor had been sick on the saturday preventing her from even making the boat park, she started slow on the sunday but on this race, it was to be a one girl show when she took the lead and never dropped it. Ronan Cournane was once more 2nd with Jil wrapping up her event even before the final race with a 3rd. The fight for second was however well alive with mathematically 6 sailors still with a chance. Ronan was the front runner but fell victim of the black flag. Douglas Elmes and Harry Whittaker started a very entertaining mano a mano for the final gun of the day. it also transpired that the winner of the duel would take second overall with Harry Craig fighting further back and the other contenders in need of actually being ahead. Anyway Douglas finished his event on top taking 2nd overall from Harry. But the star of the weekend was with no doubt Jil who added a second open event after winning the Cobbler league to her Autumn Campaign.

The top 3 Seniors Gold
1 (1) Jil McGinley, RCYC
2 (2) Douglas Elmes, RCYC
3 (3) Harry Whittaker, RCYC

The top Senior silver
1 (25) Jack McGrane, KYC

The top 3 junior Gold
1 (4) Ronan Cournane, KYC
2 (5) Ewan McMahon, HYC
3 (6) Harry Craig, RstGYC

the top 3 junior silver
1 (16) Tom Keal, RCYC
2 (17) Luke McGrath, RCYC
3 (18) Micheal O Suilleabhain, KYC

full results