Swords Sailing and Boating Club (SSBC) hosted the Irish Multihull Association (IMA) Eastern Championships this weekend, 13/14 June, proudly sponsored by Caterbox and Biddulph Refrigeration.
Boats travelled from Galway (GBSC), Ballyholme (BYC), and Blessington (BLSC) to compete with the SSBC fleet for the title of IMA Eastern Champions 2026. With winds forecast to gust up to 26 knots from the west on Sat and briefing done, Race Officer Declan O’Brien took to the water with support team on schedule and the fleet followed for what promised to be an exciting showdown between both class 1 and class 2 boats on the Broadmeadows
Estuary.
The RO and team set the course for the event, W/L with a spreader at the top and gate at the bottom, with the committee boat positioned to allow for a downwind finish.
R1 Day 1, with 11 boats on the water and the wind gusting 20+ from the west as forecast the sequence commenced for the first race, with 7 races planned over the two days of the event. SSBC Trojanowski/Dorenbusch battled with BYC McNicholl/Swanston and GBSC Lemonier/Mathieu for the win in race one, with Trojanowski/Dorenbusch taking the win on the line. BYC team McNicholl/Swanston 2nd and GBSC team Lemonier/Mathieu 3rd, all on F18’s.
R2 Day 1, the battle continues for top positions and it’s a rerun of R1 results with Trojanowski/Dorenbusch taking the win again with McNicholl/Swanston 2nd and Lemonier/Mathieu 3rd.
R3 Day 1, it was the turn of McNicholl/Swanston to take the lead and the win, with Lemonier/Mathieu in 2nd this time and Trojanowski/Dorenbusch in 3rd. SSBC Biddulph/Gray on F18 were not far behind in 4th place. The gusts are starting to catch out a few boats with capsizes around the course and a pitchpole by SSBC Hatton/Sweeney at
the spreader.
R4 Day 1, McNicholl/Swanston take the lead again, put under pressure by Hatton/Sweeney F18 chasing hard and holding 2nd, Lemonier/Mathieu taking another 3rd and staying in contention for a podium position.
In the C2 fleet Dermot Mangan BLSC on his Catapult staying ahead of Nicholas Metzger SSBC on Dart 16 in Races 1-4 in the challenging conditions.
So with Day 1 over there was very little separating the lead boats after extremely tight racing. It was into the club for race analyses, some well-earned food and refreshments with the competition for the title of IMA Eastern Champion’s 2026 set to continue on Sunday. Overnight leaders McNicholl/Swanston on 4 points, Trojanowski/Dorenbusch on 5 points and Lemonier/Mathieu on 8 points following 1 discard.
Day 2 and lighter airs forecast coming from the east. The RO and team took to the water on time and the 12 multihulls launched for the 10:55 start.
R1 Day 2, and the battle continued. Mathieu/Wallace took an early lead and held it to the finish, McNicholl/Swanston taking 2nd and Swanston/TJ taking 3rd.
R2 Day 2 Mathieu/Wallace took the first again, this new helm/crew combination from GBSC/BYC going extremely well in the lighter airs, McNicholl/Swanston in 2nd, Lemonier/Mathieu taking 3rd, SSBC Broaders/Broaders F18 followed in 4th. Hatton Sweeney forced to retire due to collision on the course but back out for race 3.
R3 Day 2, McNicholl/Swanston do enough to take the lead and the win in the final race, Broaders/Broaders crossing 2nd on the line but losing out due to an infringement, so Mathieu/Wallace take 2nd and Swanston/TJ 3rd in the last race.
We had the IMA Eastern Champions for 2026, McNicholl/Swanston 1st overall, Lemonier/Mathieu 2nd overall, Trojanowski/Dorenbusch in 3rd.
In the C2 fleet, SSBC McKay/Cullen joined the fleet on their Topkat on day 2 with some very close races between them, Dermot Mangan and Nicholas Metzger but it was Dermot that took the win for the C2 class.
Thank you to all our competitors, support volunteers, our RO Declan O’Brien and our sponsors, Caterbox and Biddulph Refrigeration for making this such a super event.
See you all on the water soon! Results: Sailwave results for IMA Easterns 2026 at SSBC 2026