The 2011 running of the Des & Margaret Walsh trophy ttok place with a little bit of incident, not matching the need of the services of the lifeboat like the week before, and a lot of frovolity at the navigation of soom crews at the prizegiving afterwards! In a race that was run on the usual Ballyteigue Bay course, albeit run clockwise this time around, the fleet had to contend with a first leg dead into wind. With varying tactics used as to when to tack, it was nip and tuck between Tweedledum and Samedi rounding the first mark. The fun started her, The Ballad Of Laepylea decided to cut the corner at turn 1 as tight as they thought safe, the only trougle was they got too close and then spent the next while statioary, with the marker rope caught around the rudder. After a lot of lost time, and the committee boat helping along side, a boat hook managed to push the offending rope under the rudder, allowing the boat to continue. The ironic thing about the incident was that with the lost time taken off The Ballad's race time, a podium finish was well on the cards. To quote the skipper, it was a case of "Fast horse, stupid jockey".
The fun didn't stop there, not to blame any one boat in particular, most of the fleet were so flumoxed by sailing the course in reverse, most boats couldn't find the mark for the final turn home! With the commitee boat finding the mark, in its normal spot, the fleet ended up doing a longer course than normal. All this made for a very good evening of laughter as to what happened. A race to be remembered for the fun for quite a few years to come.
For the record, the result is as follows.
Position Boat Start time Finish time
1st Phoenix 15.24 16.34.04
2nd Fearloinge 15.16 16.39.27
3rd Topaz 15.17 16.40.05
4th Samedi 15.04 16.42.00
5th C Clipse 15.09 16.42.05
6th Terantulus 15.10 16.48.38
7th Twilight Song 15.07 16.50.37
8th Muscadet 15.06 16.54.58
9th The Ballad of Leapylea 15.06 16.56.06
10th Tweedledum 15.00 DNF
