The Ridgeway Rockbags Waszp Irish Nationals 2026 took place on the 25-26th of July at Ballyholme Yacht Club. With a West North West forecast with wind and waves a ten boat fleet assembled in Ballyholme Bay.
With four races on Saturday in 13-20kts of breeze the competitors had a simple choice every upwind and downwind. Shelter in flatter water and less wind by the beach or more wind and waves on the edge of the bay!
Johnny Flynn of the Royal St George took all four bullets with Rob Espey and Matt McGovern scrapping for twond and third respectively.
Sunday dawned and the breeze was up even more and had clocked round to the North West! This meant there was no shelter in the bay now!
Race wins were shared amongst Flynn, Espey and McGovern but in the end Flynn held on and took the overall win from Espey closely in second and McGovern in third.
Speeds of over 20 knots and spectacular dismounts where had by even the best, and the fleet was buzzing when they finished up for the weekend.
A big thank you goes to Sheela and her team for running such a slick eight race series in challenging conditions for the flying Waszps. Next year the Nationals will return to Dublin Bay where it is hoped that some fresh new faces will join the Irish swarm.
Overall Results:
Pos Sail No Helm Club R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 R8 Pts
1st 3478 Johnny Flynn RSIGYC 1 1 1 1 3 ‑4 1 ‑4 8
2nd 2810 Rob Espey BYC ‑3 2 2 ‑3 1 1 2 2 10
3rd 99 Matt McGovern BYC 2 ‑3 3 ‑4 2 3 3 1 14
4th 2752 Henry Start RSIGYC ‑4 4 4 2 ‑5 2 4 3 19
5th 20 Conor Paul LRYC 5 ‑7 ‑8 7 6 6 6 6 36
6th 3123 Alex Trickett RStGYC (DNF) (DNC) DNC DNC 4 5 5 5 41
7th 2611 Michael Ferguson BYC 6 5 5 5 (DNC) (DNC) DNC DNC 43
8th 2071 Jeremy Tomalin BYC 7 6 6 6 (DNC) (DNC) DNC DNC 47
9th 2455 Eoghan Duffy LRYC 8 (DNF) 7 (DNC) 8 DNF DNC DNC 56
10th 1 John Chambers DMYC (DNF) (DNC) DNF DNC 7 DNF DNC DNC 62
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