Jack Fahy and Adam Hyland were convincing winners of the Easterns championships this weekend. Held as part of the Dun Laoghaire cup the duo’s stellar performance also saw them win the Dun Laoghaire Cup itself as best performing boat at the regatta. An ability to come back from the occasional bad start and some impressive fleet management being key to their success.

Dublin Bay served up glorious sea breeze conditions all weekend where teams were faced with the ongoing dilemma; clean start off the line or protect the right hand side of the course. None were better than this than Northern Raiders Paddy Oliver and Diane Oliver who were always to be found in the leading bunch at every top mark. This consistency up the first beat saw then finish second overall, a worthy result after a long winter of training.

Racing was tight across the fleet. Mike Huang and Scotia Ryer recovered from a poor race 3 by winning the first 2 races on Sunday with blistering downwind speed that could not be matched. New comers and rising stars, Dan Moran and Kohanna Tanaka delivered a strong first outing in the class and with a combined age or 34 have many more years of great Melges sailing to come as evidenced by the few Centurions teams competing.

Race Officer Micheal Tyrell and his team supported by Toby Hudson Fowler from the Melges 15 class delivered 6 races over the weekend with Vakaros’s Racesense delivering fast and fair racing. The highlight for many over the weekend was the last race where the surprise arrival of 18 knots of breeze funneling down from Dalkey Island saw a final downwind blast to the finish with speeds recorded of 16 knots plus saw many smiling faces crossing the line.

Next up for the class in the Northern Championships hosted by Howth Yacht Club on June 20/21.

Fahy and Hyland win Melges 15 Easterns