Monkstown Bay SC probably has as big an active fleet of 505s as any club in the British Isles, and there was a good turnout for the Irish/British open event over the weekend 30/31 October. This was despite the damaging storms earlier in the week, with high tides nearly a metre higher than predicted that completely flooded the dinghy park and the water front, and land-water floods that cut off the roads to Monkstown for 24 hours. The Irish hospitality started in the bar when members of the UK teams started to arrive on Friday evening, and continued throughout the weekend. Some of us were put up in members' homes on Friday night, and Saturday started in leasurely style with a full home-made Irish breakfast - at 11:00 am.
The forecast for Sunday was for light winds, so three races were sailed on Saturday afternoon. On the quayside at Monkstown it was a firm force 3, but there were significant holes and shifts in the race area behind Cooleen and Black Point. The tide was also somewhat odd, the excessive land water holding back the main flood tide. In races one and two, Ian Pinnell and Steve Hunt kept clear of the argie-bargie at the start and scored two wins. Behind them the racing was close, with places 2, 3, 4 and 5 of race one exactly reversed in race two, with the likelyhood (if Sunday's forecast was to be believed) of race three being the decider for the minor places. This time it was the young local aces Colin Barry and Charles Dwyer who broke away at the start and held the lead at every mark from Steve Hunt, who had taken over the helm from Ian Pinnell.
As predicted, there was virtually no wind on Sunday, and racing was abandoned. This left Barry and Dwyer second overall - a remarkable achievement in an oldish borrowed boat, hastily set up with a second-hand 6m spinnaker bought just before the race.
Our thanks to all the club members for their hospitality and fun, and especially the Commodore, Kieran O'Leary, for all the organising and shuttle services to/from the airport; David Barry and the race management and rescue teams for the excellent racing; and Mike O'Brien - I will not forget the 50-knot speedboat ride to Cobh for curry supper on Saturday evening!
(15 boats; 3 races out of 4 scheduled; 3 races to count:)
| 1 | GBR 8834 | Ian Pinnell/Steve Hunt | 1 1 2 |
| 2 | IRL 8269 | Colin Barry/Charles Dwyer | 3 4 1 |
| 3 | GBR 8708 | Martin Wedge/Scott Allen | 5 2 3 |
| 4 | GBR 8701 | Rob Napier/Matt Bristow | 2 5 4 |
| 5 | GBR 8694 | Andy Williams/Andy Edmunds | 4 3 7 |
| 6 | GBR 8835 S | imon Lake/Rick Berry | 7 6 9 |
| 7 | IRL 8521 | Ronan Kenneally/ | 8 7 8 |
| 8 | IRL 8357 | Michael O'Brien/William O'Brien | 10 9 6 |
| 9 | GBR 8678 | Jim Berry/David Barnes | 6 13 10 |
| 10 | IRL 8678 | James O'Brien/Sandy Rimmington | DNF 10 5 |
| 11 | IRL 8072 | Chris Marwood/Gavin Burnell | 11 8 11 |
| 12 | IRL 848 | Jennie McCarthy/ | 9 12 14 |
| 13 | IRL 8313 | David O'Connell/Shane O'Connell | DNF 11 12 |
| 14 | IRL 8408 | Brian Jones/Dale Spoonley | DNF 13 13 |
| 15 | GBR 8474 | Chris Thorne/Chris Romans | 12 DNF DNC |
Question: How do you break your forestay by hitting a mark of the course? Chris Thorne found the answer: When the mark is a navigation post with a protruding access platform 15 or 20 feet up above the water.