Katie Tingle wins The Girls Junior Helmsman Championship.

Four current Optimist Helms and their crews traveled to Belfast last weekend to take part in the Junior Helmsman Championship at The Royal North Of Ireland Yacht Club sponsored by Alliance and ISA. Approximately 14 of the 18 sailors competing were either ex or current Optimist sailors.

Katie Tingle, Conor O Brien, Alyson Rumball qualified for the main Junior Helmsman Championship. Suzanne Burke qualified for the Girls only Championship.

A total of eighteen junior (under 18 years of age) sailors from around the Country and nominated by their respective dinghy classes as national Champions and highest ranked sailors took to the water on Saturday in a very windy 25knts of breeze. Racing took place in Firefly dinghies (a two sailed, two handed dinghy).

Conditions on Saturday morning did not auger well for our Optimist sailors as it was blowing 25knts. All our sailors are on the light side and with a minimum weight of 18 stone their crews had to be a bit on the large side to make up the weight limit. This doesn't help in a Firefly as the crew space is very limited.

The Racing was abandoned in the afternoon as winds rose to 35knts. The first 8 sailors automatically qualified for the finals on Sunday with the remaining 10 sailors to do battle in a repurchase series for the four remaining final places.

Katie and Conor finished on equal points after the preliminaries but just outside the required 8th to qualify (Katie 9th and Conor 10th Alyson 15th).

Sunday was again a windy 25knts with wind against tide creating some difficult conditions for racing. Katie won the reportage with 2 firsts. Katie then opted to compete in the separate Girls Championship, which was being run on Sunday with 8 Girl Helms taking place.

Conor was unfortunate to suffer gear failure in the first reportage race and then had a poor second race, which meant he couldn't qualify for the final. Alyson also found the conditions tough going and did not qualify.

After 5 competitive races the main Junior Championship for 2004 was won by George Kingston of KYC/RCYC followed closely by last years winner Nicholas O Leary (RCYC).  Katie (crewed by George Kennefick) went onto win the Girls Helmsman

Championship convincingly with four 1sts and a 2nd. Another good win for the Cork sailor as she won the Optimist National Championships in Howth in August. Suzanne Burke HYC came second overall after a great showing in the last two races. Suzanne and her crew Johnny O Dowd improved as they got used to sailing these boats in these conditions. They had a 4th, 3rd, 8th, 1st and 2nd. This rounded off a great season for Suzanne after a great result in the nationals.