Mirror
Southerns Report 2008. New Mark 3 on the water in anger for the first time in
Ireland.
So you thought you’d
gotten rid of me did you?! No, I’m back and scribbling reports on mirror
events again, this time for the Southerns on Lough Derg.
23 boats made it to the
event, despite the warnings of unpleasant weather and spiders as big as Cian
Hickey. The line up didn’t even include people like Niall Carbery and Joe
McLaughlin, who are busy with something called the “Leaving Cert”.
I was worried I wouldn’t
have that much to write about this event to be honest. Alan Blay is long gone, I
have a GP14 spinnaker to mess up nowadays, Carbo was sleeping on a book and
there’s only so many times you can mention the fact that the Hickeys live in a
caravan before it gets old. I needn’t have worried, though, 3 new Mark III
mirrors from Winder were on the water and ready to make headlines.
Off the line in the first race it was Cian Hickey who looked the most impressive, tacking off early and getting clear air, but the big surprise of race 1 was Blonde Kid Adam McCullough, who came in from the left and led around the first mark in his brand new Winder “Untouchable”. Cillian Dickson was second, and the chasing duo of Karl Mackey and Mike Hill weren’t far behind.
Adam showed the same
phenomenal downwind speed he did last season to open up a commanding lead, as
the boats behind jostled for position, Mark Boylan closing fast after having to
go back at the start.
With just a few boat
lengths to go, Adam had an unassailable lead, until an outhaul failure left him
tantalisingly short of a dream maiden victory, and let Mike Hill through for the
win. Cillian Dickson was second, Karl Mackey top timber boat in third, Mark
Boylan fourth and Tim Rafferty top bronze, and top gaff-rigged boat, in fifth.
In race 2 it was Mark
Boylan who was the fastest on all legs of the course, although Adam had missed
the start due to a quick repair on the water. Mike Hill had to take turns coming
up to the windward mark, and some confusion led to him trying to do them
vertically, a bad capsize leading him to retire from the remaining races of the
day. This left Mark free to pull away from Karl Mackey and Cillian Dickson.
Catherine Vaughan finished fourth, and fifth was Craig Martin with crew Katie
Paterson, sailing Katie’s new mark 3.
Squalls and hailstones and
Johnny Hill’s interesting rudder-led spinnaker system made sure we didn’t
get bored between races, and after a quick break for lunch, race 3 was under
way.
A leading knot of boats
consisting of Mark, Karl Mackey, Blonde Kid Adam McCullough and Cillian soon
pulled away from the rest of the fleet, and after trading positions for the
first two laps settled into place to finish in that order, despite a huge shift
on the second last beat doing its best to spice things up. Catherine Vaughan was
fifth.
Saturday night was a
typical mirror affair, involving rugby balls, Eoin Hickey, table tennis, and my
brother being locked out of the hostel. Hours of entertainment for all
concerned!
I had to leave the next
morning to sail a GP, which is a bit like a mirror would be after years of
irresponsible anabolic steroid use and a punishing personalised weights
programme, so I wasn’t around to see the conclusion to the event.
The results tell their own
story, however, and in race 4, Adam banished the outhaul gremlins of the first
race and took the bullet ahead of Mark Boylan. Mike Hill was back and firing on
all cylinders with a third place. Cillian was fourth and the last of the usual
suspects was Karl Mackey in fifth.
The final race saw Mike
back on top of the heap with a second bullet. Adam was second, Cillian third,
Mark fourth and Karl fifth. Johnny Hill tried to avoid a mention by finishing
sixth for the fourth time.
Final standings were Mark
Boylan and Eoin Hickey in first, Blonde Kid Adam McCullough and Small Kid Toby
McCullough in second, Karl Mackey and Eoin Keller third, Cillian and Meadb
Dickson fourth, Johnny and Adam Hill fifth, and Catherine Vaughan and Sophie
Patterson in sixth.
Lower down the fleet, Conrad and Elliot Ryan were the only boat promoted from silver under the new promotion system. Bronze fleet was won by Craig Martin and Katie Patterson in a Mk III, second, and winners of the Weatherdial Trophy, were Tim Rafferty and Barry Mullen, and third were Andrew Collings and Phillip Michalski.
Over the course of an
action-packed weekend we had the introduction of a new boat, pelting hailstones,
force 5s and flat calms, gear failure and a capsize from the reigning national
champion. Who says mirrors aren’t exciting!
Peter Collings
The next event is the
northerns in Killyleagh at the beginning of May. Any questions or comments are
welcome, just email them to petercollings67592@gmail.com