The Milne/Hamilton duo and crew won the major title at Royal Ulster's cruiser racing event in the Sea Bangor Festival. Their Sigma 33 Blues dominated the class and was judged by the Race Officer and club Sailing Secretary to be worth winners of the Town Cup.
Nearly thirty boats turned out for the six araces run by top Race Officer, Robin Gray, and the fleet included visiting boats from the Isle of Man, Scotland, Cushendall, Donaghadee, Carrickfergus and Cultra.
The Sigma 33 class attracted visitors from the Isle of Man and Cushendall. Top places were shared between ‘Blues’, Gerry Bell’s ‘Cariad’ and the Johnston brothers’ ‘Impulz’. Largest class was the PY Unrestricted and victory here went to the local boat, Sean and Cathy Doran’s Beneteau First 31.7, ‘Caesium’ which just pipped by one point on handicap, Gerry Reid’s RS Elite ‘Tai Pan’ from Royal North.
The Dorans counted two firsts, a second and two thirds and were never out of the top five in this 14 strong class. Third was the Scottish Beneteau 36.7, ‘Carmen 11’, whose owners Paul Scutt and Alan Jeffrey are no strangers to Belfast Lough. The IRC division was also a close run thing, with Kenny Halliwell’s ‘She of the North’ scraping past the Carrick visitor, the J24 ‘Bad’ owned by Steve Atkinson by half a point. Both boats counted two firsts and two seconds. In the PY Whitesail division George Baird in his Najad 332 ‘Chimaera’ hardly faltered, winning four of the six races and ending three points ahead of the visiting boat ‘Clever Clogs’, owned by Michael and Claire Speers from Donaghadee. In the RS Elite class, recently introduced to the Lough, Gerry Reid visiting from Royal North dominated the results in the small three boat division, winning four of the six races and finishing comfortably ahead of John Patterson’s Momentary Laps.
The event was sponsored by Quay Marinas, and supported by North Down Borough Council and Norfolk Line.
