Every year in Galway Bay Sailing Club, cruisers battle it out in a series of offshore races culminating in one boat being awarded the clubs most prestigious title, King of the Bay. This year for the second time in a row, this title has been won by Glenn Cahill and his crew aboard Joie de Vie having once again narrowly beaten fellow J109 skipper Tommy Smyth aboard Catalpa.

Catalpa and That's Life.

This series of races is a little different to regular weekly racing at the club in that races finish at different destinations around the bay including Kinvara, Ballyvaughan, Barna and Kilronan. As such, in addition to the usual challenges of racing, crews need to be well versed in local knowledge, wind patterns, tidal conditions and pilotage, not to mention the ability to extricate themselves from the odd lobster pot in the dark!

This year's series started off with the Larry Conneely Memorial Cup race to Kinvara raced in an unusually strong south-easterly in early May. Due to the deep drafts of modern race boats, Race Officer Dave Vinnell wisely finished the race at Parkmore pier to record a first and second for Joie de Vie and Catalpa respectively. A similar result was recorded a week later for the Spring Cup, with Liam Burkes AWOL following in third place. However the J109's were to be knocked off their perch at the next outing with Martin Breen's Corby 33 That's Life taking poll position in the Monks Cup after a windy reach into Ballyvaughan.

Next up was the classic night race the Round Aran, with boats abandoning superstition and putting to sea on the night of Friday 13th June from Galway docks. A drop in the wind early on saw a number of boats becalmed at Spiddal for several hours, while the faster boats just about got through to better pressure around the back of the Aran Islands. After about nine hours racing, Joie de Vie was only seconds ahead of her rival Catalpa, the two boats having swapped the lead twice during the night. Tomas Furey's Rhocodar took third followed by Sandrine and Quelle Surprise, with 5 boats failing to finish in the light airs.

September saw the nicest sailing conditions of the year, with both the Moran's race to the weir and the Barna race sailed in ideal winds. Once again the 109's dominated with Ibaraki starting to come into her own with two third place finishes, showing that the older boat was more than capable of dealing with the purebred Corby 33's. The final race of the series ended at Nimmo's Pier to coincide with the Galway Oyster Festival, and this time the Corbys excelled with That's Life and AWOL posting a first and a second respectively. Ibaraki recorded a third, humbling sisterships Joie de Vie and Catalpa who fittingly finished joint fourth recording identical corrected times.

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