Tralee Bay Sailors do well at West Of IrelandOffshire  Racing  Championship.

Some of the WIORA Winners

Nine boats from Tralee Bay Sailing Club made the long trip to Clifden for this years West of Ireland Offshore Racing  Championship (WIORA) The trip up formed the OSM 100 mile race and in light and shifty conditions. Donal Browne’s Excuse Me and  David Buckley’s Boojum was the first TBSC boats to finish. Several of the local boats retired during the night as they ran out of wind.

At the  main WIORA  event two races were held on the first day and the highlights included two wins in IRC 2 for Finbar O’Connell’s Treyona closely followed by David Buckley’s Boojum. In Class 4 (whitesails) Brian O’Sullivans Navillus 2 also went well and won both races. Raphael Crowley’s Bunbury was well up in Class 3 ECHO with one win. On Thursday the PRO Alan Crosbie elected to run the coastal race and classes one and two had a long beat up the coast to High Island in glorious sailing conditions. In class two it was very tight between Boojum and Treyona but eventually it was Treyona who took the win and with it the Tommy O’Keeffe trophy which was one of the few WIORA trophies that Finbarr had not won in the past! After two day Treyona was leading the field with 3 bullets closely followed by Boojum. Classes three and four had a shorter race as they only rounded Croagh Island but once again Navillus 2 and Bunbury were to the fore.

On day three it was very light and shifty and the early leaders suffered somewhat. Bunbury in ECHO 3 and Gary Forts K Vector II in ECHO 2 kept the show on the road with good results. Mark Prendiville’s Roster who had done so well in the Fenit Regatta struggled with gear failure but still managed some good mid fleet results in Class 3. The event was still wide open after 5 races.

Saturday was a complete change with rain and strong winds. The first race took little over an hour and by the time of the second race it was blowing more than 30 knots. A number of boats retired but Dan Counihan’s Scotia gave a demonstration of heavy air sailing as they raced downwind at ten to twelve knots with not a roll or broach to be seen. Once again Treyona and Boojum were fighting it out at the front of the fleet in class 2 but had to be satisfied with seconds and thirds as a well sailed Corby 26 took both races.

The prizegiving for the event was held in Clifden’s Station House Hotel and all of the Tralee crews were present. The sartorial highlight of the evening was Raphael’s crew in their ‘Funbury’ t-shirts in day-glo orange. TBSC sailors held first place in three categories in the  overall results : Navillus 2 won class 4, Bunbury was the winner in Class 3 ECHO and
K Vector II took ECHO 2. In the highly competitive class 2 IRC Boojum was third  overall  and Treyona second to Ruthless from Sligo. IRC 1 was won by Roxanne from Mayo with Jopyrider form Foynes taking ECHO 1. Vince Gaffney’s Alliance from HYC was again the winner in IRC 3 and held onto the overall WIORA trophy which they won for the first time last year.

Clifden Boat Club did a magnificent job of staging such a big event in a small club. WIORA next year will be held in Tralee with the dates yet to be decided. We will have our work cut out to match Clifden where the whole town seemed to be involved in one way or another.

For   Further  information    in  sailing in Tralee see  www.traleebaysailingclub.com  or  www.traleebaysailingschool.com

David Buckley
Commodore