It’s been said before, and I'm sure it'll be said again – sailing at Kinvara is quite unlike sailing anywhere else on the Heron circuit. For starters, the race 'briefing' starts the night before – in the bar – with the various crews meeting up and entering into friendly banter about the next day’s racing. The locals try to out ‘psych' the visitors while the visitors try to make sure they don't get too drunk on the local tipple and end up with a hangover for the race (all part of the local's plan to make sure the visitors won’t be first over the line!). Anyway this year actually started on the Friday afternoon – Declan Connolly taking Indigo for a test sail, having borrowed her from Mark Haugard as his own boat is 'too heavy', while Jon Hunt and Mike Tully spent the afternoon rigging the boat Jon was borrowing. By the time Jon arrived in Connelly's bar he was already protesting that his sail was too small and that Mike was trying to beat him by not giving him a burgee. Mike duly found a burgee – only for Jon to later confess he hadn't looked at it once while sailing, preferring to use Mike's old cassette tape tell-tales trailing from the shrouds.

This year the event was to consist of a single long race lasting around 2 hours. The start and finish would be from the village harbour itself, starting late in the day to fit in with the tides. The race would sail out to Tara Pier, cross to Crushua and return to the village – with appropriate sausage legs en-route. We were told all this the night before – but to be on the safe side the visitors were whisked out on the crash boat to place the marks. An original plan to place a mark out beyond the mussel rafts was sensibly dropped because the wind at the mouth of the bay was starting to lift. Outside the harbour the wind was easily F4. While the race itself would run without incident, there was an alarm just 20 seconds before the start. A local yacht owner launching his boat from the slipway, where the Heron fleet had launched minutes earlier, failed to notice the overhead power-line crossing the slipway. The result was a significant explosion, a lot of stress for the owner, and loss of power to part of the village. Miraculously no-one was injured!

The race started well with Mike Tully trying to take his usual spot in the lead from the start; however Jon Hunt had other ideas and almost forced him the wrong side of the outer marker. At this time the wind in the harbour was very light and Tully just managed to squeeze by Hunt’s bow, but had to throw his tiller over to make sure there was no contact, which almost left him facing the wrong way. As a result, Hunt got away to the first mark in front, closely followed by Tully and Kananagh. Tactics for the first leg were fairly consistent and the fleet started to spread out as normal. From the mark near the castle there were some tactical choices to be made – with most boats taking a longer course in the centre of the bay to gain the advantage of the ebbing tide. Tully kept close inshore at this point and gained a significant advantage. He also appeared to miss the weed, whereas Hunt managed to pick up quite a lot. Tully took the lead! Polwart, having already managed to drop from 6^th place to 9^th, after collecting some weed, decided to try the shorter more direct course by hugging the shore line but only gained more weed!

From Tara Pier there was a sausage-shaped leg to Crushua, back to Tara and then back again to Crushua. In a strong F4 over such long distances, crossing the ebbing tide, this leg was a test of both skill and stamina. (Just as well the visiting crews had avoided the hangover that was being schemed for them the night before!). While boats would seem to pass one another, by the time they reached the next mark they had slipped back again. Tully kept his lead, but kept looking over his shoulder to make sure Hunt was not creeping up on him. Kavanagh and Dufresne chased Hunt and got close but then dropped back. Dufresne was using a small jib and kept up with the boats using genoas: he is determined to win a race with his small jib! There were some interesting swells while we were dashing across the bay, with spray coming over the bows!

The leg from Crushua back to the village requires another tactical decision – to pass inside or outside of the islands. The advantages of passing inside the first and larger island are a shorter course and a slacker tide, but the island can create a wind shadow making that option a risk in some circumstances. This year everyone went on the inside of this first island - taking the gamble that the stiff wind wouldn't be blocked that much (or hoping that it would in order to recover from hiking out for the reaches across the bay!). There is then a second smaller island, which almost no-one tries to take the same gamble with – the water is too shallow and if the rocks don't get you the weed almost certainly will. However Tully took a major gamble, which paid off, and decided to pass on the inside of the second island. Hunt went round the outside but made no inroads into Tully’s lead and from there the positions were set. Tully held the lead to the finish; however, on the last run from the harbour mark to the castle, Kavanagh and Dufresne made a meat sandwich of Hunt, with Dufresne on the inside with the advantage at the mark. Unfortunately for him, Dufresne forgot to put down his centreboard and was blown the wrong side of the mark, allowing Hunt through with the advantage over Kavanagh. The final beat to the finish was a bit tricky, because not only did the helms have to watch the other boats, they had to sail round the rafts of weed. From there the places looked set, with Deegan and Browne some distance ahead of Polwart. However Polwart kept his speed and by the time he'd passed the Kinvara Harbour mark, and then the castle mark ready for the final approach to the finish line, he was making significant ground on Browne. Her pink boat, named Barbie, despite all its feminine charm wasn't going to win any favours with Polwart as he squeezed past on starboard tack. Realising he'd picked up some significant speed that the others were struggling to match, Polwart set course for the finish line hoping to catch Deegan. With little more than inches between them Polwart passed the line ahead of Deegan and pulled back the 6^th place he was in when he crossed the start line!

Once the racing was over and the boats were packed away, the traditional prize giving was foregone in favour of attending Chris Dufresne's 50^th Birthday Party. For those with the energy, I believe the party-goers managed to watch the sunrise come in over the harbour the following morning! Jon Hunt has photographs to prove it! Another fantastic open event in Kinvara was thus over for another year – the only question on the visitors lips: “When will next year’s open be?”