Darragh O’Connor and Brian (Teddy) Byrne of Howth Yacht club are the winners of the 2024 Melges 15 National championships held at Howth this weekend. After four great races on Saturday the 19 boat fleet kept fingers and toes crossed for sailing on Sunday, but with gusts of up to 30 knots and a difficult sea state, racing was abandoned for the day.

Brothers in arms and Irish Champions for 2024, Brothers in law, Darragh O’Connor & Teddy Byrne powering up to the windward mark.

This years event was superbly pulled together by Cormac Farrelly of the host club who led the event team well delivering long, close, fun sailing to the competitors. The event was also a first event in Ireland running new Race Management technology, RaceSense which in essence is an operating system for racing that pairs to the Vakaros GPS devices on all boats. Four races were started and finished with the system with the technology adoption welcomed by the fleet.

Planing conditions allowed for big gains offwind where boatspeeds at 17+knots were recorded

Saturdays 4 races were three round Windward Leeward courses delivered in winds of 14-19 knots. Race lengths were on average 40 minutes giving sailors plenty of time to improve their positions on the track. Data off the units showed that on average each boat covered over 50km distance over the day with top speeds recorded of 17+knots. No wonder everyone was tired returning to the shore late Saturday Afternoon.

Close boat on boat action at the windward mark as teams looked to position themselves for the spreader leg.

Saturday evening saw the event dinner and AGM with members welcoming Theo Lyttle remaining as class President. Events were discussed for next year with a consensus that the Irish South Coasts 2025 will be held in Cascais over Easter. The Irish Armada being keen to return to the Portuguese coast for some warm weather sailing and Portuguese cuisine.

Excellent drone footage from Portugese expert Goncalo Melo of Bow_Media who flew in for the event bringing some sunshine with him on day 1.

Sunday morning saw PRO Richard Kissane assess the conditions afloat but it was not to be. This pause in sailing gave everyone time to appreciate the spectacular drone footage and photos taken by top Portuguese drone photographer Goncalo de Melo of Bow Media.

Scotia Ryer & Mike Huang lead the fleet downwind. This husband wife partnership had a first and second at the event and were unlucky not to take away the prizes!

After a 19 boat event with crews racing from 13 to 60 years of age, the Melges 15 sailors are already looking forward to next season with strong rumors of more boats arriving as this new class to Irish sailing continues to expand.

Pictured below some of the many parent child combinations that featured at the event.

RESULTS

Melges 15 🇮🇪 Championships 2024
🥇Darragh O’Connor & Bryan Byrne
🥈John & Katie Sheehy
🥉Mike & Andrew Evans
⭐️Sarah McLoughlin youngest helm (13)
💫Florence Knaggs Butler youngest female crew (13)
🌟Will Cullen youngest male crew (14)

O’Connor and Byrne of the host club take out the Melges 15 National Championships