August 29th was a delightful evening for racing in a pursuit race, with eight to ten knots of wind from 310 degrees and a blue sky. Rainer positioned the committee boat to the north of the DBSC Turning Mark. Vincent Delany selected a platonic course consisting of Boyd, Seapoint Salthill and finish. It was a distance of 3.24 miles which should have been achievable in just over an hour by even the slowest boats. Thirty -four competitors arrived at the starting area. They varied from Mandy Chambers in a Water Wag, Shindilla as the smallest to Jonathan Nicholson in El Pocko which was tall enough to tower over the entire starting area.
All ran very smoothly with Michael Moran’s Betty B and Shipmans The Den (Aisling Costello), Shelka (Des Walshe), Poppy (Alain Deladienne) and Twocan (David Freeman) being the first to start en route for Boyd Mark. They were soon followed by two Glens and three DBSC 21s. After sailing only three to four hundred meters, this leading group met a change of wind, or was it a lack of wind? Boats were heading in every direction looking for wind. Later starters sailed around the static bunch of boats in the hope of finding wind.
The committee boat crews of Rainer, Vincent, Stuart, Liz S. and Seamus S called the latest starters Dehliverence, Windjammer and El Pocko to start a little bit earlier, as it was evident that the handicaps were becoming irrelevant. The committee boat followed the fleet in order escape a large black raincloud which was hovering over Tallaght.
Whispers of wind came and went away again. The tide pushing the boats backwards was getting stronger. A long finish line was laid off the Boyd mark and the entire fleet of boats crossed the line together in one tight fleet.
The winners were: Tim Pearson in a Flying Fifteen.
Juliet Ryan in SB20 Turbulance Too.
Neil Colin in a Flying Fifteen.
David Freeman in Twocan.
Phil Lawton and his young crew in a Flying Fifteen.
Mandy Chambers in Water Wag Shindilla.
Judy O’Beirne and the all-lady crews of a J80.
Dermot Bremner (Glenluce) and Brian Denham (Glendun) were presented with matching ties in recognition of finishing in a dead heat.
John Sugars and the crew of DBSC 21 Naneen.
Mark Hennessy and the well-coiffed young crew of Alig8r.
John White of Northern Soul.
Sean Doyle and Columba in DBSC 21 Estelle.
Linsday Casey of Windjammer for taking second place.
And the overall winner of the Shindilla Cup was Jonathan Nicholson’s El Pocko.
