Lough Erne boats travelled to Lough Ree and Carrickfergus for the J24 Western Championships and the Topper Northern Championships on the weekend of April, 29-30.

Three youth sailors made the trip to Carrickfergus. Foggy conditions on Belfast Lough greeted the sailors on Saturday morning, this soon cleared, and three races were completed.

Charlie Valentine sailing in the senior fleet finished a very credible 24th overall out of 42 boat fleet with his best race place 22nd. In the 4.2 fleet Ben McCaldin won the first race and also scored a fifth and third place to finish the day in third position overall just ahead of clubmate Adam Green who scored two third places and a sixth place to finish the day in fourth.

Similar conditions greeted the sailors on Sunday morning. Ben found the go fast button finishing the first two races in second place and winning the last race to take his first Regatta win and the Topper 4.2 Northern championships.

Adam had another steady day with a 10th place followed by a race win and third in the final race to finish fourth overall. It great to see the next generation of young sailors coming through and enjoying their sport away from Lough Erne.

Three Lough Erne J24s made the trip to Athlone as well as Diarmuid O’Donovan a former member now living in Kerry.

Saturday was windless until about 2pm when a very light wind filled in allowing the three races to be competed.

First overall after three races was El Ricco, helmed by JP McCaldin with Chris Scott, Brendan Brogan, Liz Copland and Ron Finnegan finishing with a fourth place and two firsts.

Luke McBride, sailing Crazy Horse with June Clarke, Judie Anderson, Declan Brennan and Charlie McBride, scored a fifth, seventh and fifth to end the day sixth place over all.

Tim and Briget Rippey sailing Jigalo with Caitriona Johnstone and Colin Meikle ended the day 11th with best individual score an eighth place.

Sunday saw more wind; El Riccio scored a third and second in the day’s first two races meaning they were tied on points going into the last race.

Unfortunately McCaldin Sr and team could not make it a double and third place in the final race meant they had to settle for second overall with the 2023 J24 Western Championships title going to multiple champions led by Cillian Dixon sailing Headcase.

Luke McBride and team on Crazyhorse scored a sixth and finished with two fourth places to move up to fifth overall while Jigalo maintained her 11th place over all.