Sportsboat Cup

Flor O’Driscoll and the crew of his J/24 HARD ON PORT were the deserving overall Sportsboat Cup winners for 2014 and were awarded the Romaine Cagney Trophy. Impressively, they did not count a result worse than second for the regatta and won half of the races. The popular winners have been stalwarts of the J/24 class in Ireland who also have won several IRC titles in the well-campaigned boat. The wind dropped on Saturday for the J/24s. The direction chopped and changed to the point where PRO Richard Kissane decided to abandon and restart Race 2. The restarted race got away smartly in a bit more breeze allowing the fleet to get all scheduled races under their belts. Sunday’s racing was brought forward an hour. O’Driscoll and his team put in a stellar Sunday performance. Overnight leader Stefan Hyde on Hamilton Bear finished off the weekend with a well-deserved bullet. In the last, they weren’t able to push Hard On Port down the fleet enough in the last to snatch the overall title, so it was second overall for them. Howth Yacht Club’s Under 25 Keelboat Team on Eurocarparks Kilcullen rounded out the podium in third place.