May 17 / 18

Final Results available HERE 

Sunshine, high tide, beautiful breezes - not generally the GP14 Class’s mental picture of
Larne Lough, but that’s how it was in the weekend 17/18 May for the GP14 Ulster
Championships. OK - the breeze was a little fickle and patchy but always there and climbed
to 16 knots for the final race of the weekend.

Twenty-five boats with a variety of has-been and would-be Champions answered the starting
boat. After their usual conservative start Ger Owens and Mel Morris laid down a marker for
how the weekend was going to go, working their way to the front and then consolidating their
lead, although being hard pressed by Alan Blay and Hugh McNally, followed by Colman
Grimes and Ross Gingles.

While the star billing remained the same for the second race there was a complete change in the supporting cast with Keith and Mateo Louden in second and Curly Morris and Meg Tyrrell in third. The third race saw the first windward leeward course of the day. The cast of extras in the Ger and Mel show provided an upset in the third race with Alistair Duffin, having retuned his boat between race 2 and 3 joining the cast. Things were still tight at the front, but when Connor Twohig launched his spinnaker he found it necessary to reattach his spinnaker sheets, forcing him to sail on the unfancied starboard gybe for longer than intended. The result was that he approached the gate with a substantial lead and was able to hold off the pursuing Ger and Mel for long enough to take the gun.

At the end of the first day Ger and Mel had a comfortable lead but the pursuing bunch were tightly packed with positions swapping around considerably depending on how the discards were applied.

Sunday morning provided the same sailing as Saturday, only with the Northerly breeze having
a little more east in it so that the windward mark was laid a little closer to the Islandmagee
shore. Colman and Ross had another go at displacing Ger and Mel from the front, but without
success. Silver fleeters Adam and Emily Torrens seemed to prefer mixing it with the Gold
fleet and took a well deserved third. (Something to do with the recent E.H.Davies Youth
training in Plas Menai at Easter!)

In the fifth race John and Donal McGuinness, having had a quiet day previously, decided to join the party depriving Curly and Meg of their favoured pin end start and then tried very hard (but unsuccessfully) to deprive Ger and Mel of their favoured finishing position. Alistair Duffin and Andy Corkhill took a second third place after a battle with Curly and Meg.

By the start of the last race the wind was increasing in strength reaching 16 knots but still
with flat water. Didn’t make much difference to Ger and Mel except like everybody else they
had more sitting out to do. They took another first allowing them to discard their second
place. Behind them were Keith and Mateo followed by Colman and Ross and after them John
and Donal while Robert and Chris Gingles found the fresher conditions to their liking
finishing fifth.

When the overall standings were calculated first place was never in doubt, Colman and Ross
had a little clear water between them and the rest, but coming out of the bunch were Curly
and Meg who had been very consistent over at least the first five races and had a point or two
to spare over the next three boats.

In the Silver fleet Adam and Emily spent most of their time dicing with the Gold fleet and
were comfortable winners. Max Cully with Sam Street crewing were second with a one point

ahead of Cathal Sheridan and David Cooke in third. Racing was tight throughout the whole
fleet with small points differences between the top places. The Cully / Street combination also
seemed to work in the bronze fleet with Denis and Matthew taking first while Paula and
Muriel Carty took second overall from Jennifer Bryce and Vivika Timmer despite an excellent
10th place for the latter in the first race.

All thanks to East Antrim Boat Club for the excellent organisation that various Classes have
come to expect. Commodore Lucy Whitford is fortunate to have a strong team lead by
Gordon Kane as the event organiser; and race officer Richard Doig has an experienced team
on board the committee boat and laying and moving marks. On shore is also well coordinated
with registration, launching and recovery and the “jam spreaders” providing food at critical
times

Irish Ferries Discount Code AVAILABLE

(as of April 2025)

We would be more than happy to continue our event rates for you for the 2025 season and the event code that you have (GP14WC) will remain active. The rates that we have attached to the code can be used for travel UK to Ireland (which will be priced in Sterling) and Ireland to UK (which will be priced in Euro).

Bookings can be requested by email to our team at clubdeals@irishferries.com

Competitors will need to include the information below along with the event code:

• Name, date of birth and nationality for each person
• Do any passengers require special assistance
• Routes, dates and times of sailings
• Type of on board accommodation (e.g. Club Class or cabin) if needed
• Vehicle make and registration number
• Trailer dimensions (in meters), to include towbar
• Where booking for a motorhome, please include height and length of the vehicle in meters
• A contact postal address
• A contact mobile phone number

Please note that the code will not work on our website and bookings should be sent through to our team by email only

Terms & conditions: Event rates cannot be used in conjunction with any other promotion, offer or discount. Special rates cannot be used if paying with Tesco Boost Tokens and should never be advertised on any public facing content (web or social media). Use of this event code will be monPlease note that the code will not worPlease note that the code will not work on our website and bookings should be sent through to our team by email onlyk on our website and bookings should be sent through to our team by email onlyitored and will be revoked if any misuse is detected. All sailings are subject to availability.

NOTE for 2026 - We expect to be able to arrange a discount code with Irish Ferries for 2026 but as the details on their 2026 sailings, etc. wont be in place until nearer the end of this year, discussions will not start til then.