Liebherr ICRA Nationals at Royal St George Yacht Club
by Claire Bateman, ICRA 25 May 2010 12:15 BST
21-23 May 2010
Day One
Early morning fog resulted in a short delay at the start of day one of the three day ICRA Liebherr National Sailing Championships sailed out of the Royal St George Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire today (Friday). 120 yachts from Ireland and the UK have gathered for the first of the major events in this years sailing calendar.
The larger boats in Class Zero were the first to get away on a round the cans course with Anthony O’Leary’s Antix setting a blistering pace to hold off a strong challenge from Peter Rutter’s Quokka 8 to claim victory in Race One in both handicap divisions. O’Leary completed a great day of sailing by claiming victory in IRC in Race Two, this time ahead of Rob Davies/Andrew Creighton’s Roxy 6.
Dave Dwyer’s Marinerscove.ie finished first in ECHO with Roxy and Antix taking the second and third spots.
Conor Phelan’s Jump Juice was unlucky to lose her bowman Cian McCarthy overboard whilst well placed to finish in a top placing in Race One. However, with the Bowman safely back on board hard luck still prevailed with a damaged pulpit preventing Jump Juice from starting Race Two.
In Class 1 Paul O’Higgins in Rockabill V had an excellent start to claim victory in both IRC and Echo in Race One from the Nagle /O’Malley duo in Jelly Baby, with their positions reversed in Race Two, while Tony Fox’s Gringo had two thirds with Donal O’Leary’s D-Tox slotting nicely in between to take second in ECHO.
However, there was a sad tale for the Parnell Family and the regatta is unfortunately over for them as Black Velvet was holed in a multiple collision early in the race.
Classes Two and Three sailed three races on a windward leeward course with Nicola Harris in Zoom snatching a narrow victory in both divisions from the Cowell/Murphy combination in Kinetic in Race One. A subsequent fourth and second in the later races put them at the top of the overnight leader board ahead of Kenetic and Dennis Coleman’s Thunderbird.
Class 5 White Sail sailed only one race due to lack of wind on their course. Philip Dilworth’s Orna took first place in both IRC and ECHO with Vincent Farrell’s Tsunami and Michael O’Leary and company in Act Two swopping second and third in IRC and Echo respectively.
In White Sail 6, Welsh competitor Peter Dunlop’s Mojito leads the class having scored a first and second, ahead of Joe Carton’s Voyager and the Barry/Stirling crew in Brazen Hussey.
Day Two
There is no doubt but that the Royal St. George Yacht Club must have their own private arrangement with Aeolus the ruler of the Greek Wind Gods. Not only had they clear blue skies in Dublin Bay today but a sea breeze filled in to 12 knots providing perfect sailing conditions for magnificent racing. Indeed today’s results illustrate the closeness of the competition in most divisions and the tightness of the results so far.
Anthony O’Leary in Antix is leading IRC 0 after five races and indeed had the unusual situation today of having a tied result with Dave Dwyer’s Marinerscove.ie on corrected time each receiving 1.5 points in Race four. This is keeping it very much in the O’Leary family as it is Anthony’s son Nicholas is helming Mariners cove. Mariners had a better day today scoring a total of 4.5 from the three races and as the defending champion is now a mere three points adrift of the leader. It is great to see Peter Rutter’s Quokka 8 competing and he is now lying third on 17 points.
In Class One IRC the O’Higgins Rockabill V appears to be walking away with the series having scored three wins and two seconds leaving him with seven points. Currently following on Rockabill’s heels, is a plethora of J109s led by J.Maybury’s Joker 2 followed by Jalapeno and Jelly Baby in that order. However, should there be a discard tomorrow Jelly Baby could come up the leader board and it is all to play for here.
In Class Two IRC the pre race favourite, Kinetic, the Colwell/Murphy well sailed Corby 25 and defending title holder, has built up a good lead and is currently on 12 points followed by Denis Coleman’s Corby 25 Thunderbird from Cork with Anthony Gore Grimes in the X302 DUX just one point adrift.
Things are very tight with the top two boats in Class Three IRC with just one point separating the current leader the O’Brien, Kenefick and Kenefick, Tiger, from the defending title hoilder Flor O’Driscoll in his J24 Hard on Port. Currently lying third is Supernova and it most def initely is all to play for in this class tomorrow.
In the Non Spinnaker Division Five IRC four races have been sailed and they have aleady received a discard. Counting the discard and leading on 4 points is Tsumnai, one point ahead of Orna followed by Lula Belle on 7 points.
In the Non Spinnaker Division 6, again with one discard applied, the Howth Yacht Club Dehler 34 Voyager is on four points, two points ahead of fellow HYC yacht Brazen Hussy, and a Welsh raider from Pwllheli SC, Mojito, who is on equal points with Brazen Hussy.
In Class 0 ECHO Marinerscove.ie continues to hold her lead followed by Tiamat and Antix respectively. In Class One ECH0 Rockabill V leads Joker 2 with Donal O’Leary’s D-Tox in third position. In Class Two ECHO Kinetic leads Thunderbird followed by Indigo who is on equal points with Thunderbird. Class Three ECHO has very tight results to date at the top with only one point separating the leading three boats. The current leader is Jibberish on 33 points, followed by Tiger and Supernova both on 34 points. However, it is Tiger has the more consistent results which could stand to her in the case of a discard.
Class Five ECHO Adelie is on 7 points, Lula Belle also has 7 points and the Sigma 38 Persistance is just one point adrift on 8 points. Class 6 ECHO is currently led by Voyager on 5 points followed by Brazen Hussy on 7 points and Mojito on 8 points.
A lot at stake for tomorrow in many classes.
Day Three
The Championships concluded today (Sun) for all classes with the run of good luck holding up with winds of 10 knots and flat seas providing exciting and tight racing. After the first race was sailed today the fleets swapped courses and sailed on their alternative course for the second race adding variety and spice to the racing
Anthony O’Leary in Antix on 9.5 pts took the Class 0 IRC title by the slimmest of margins over Dave Dwyer’s Marinerscove.ie who had 10.5 pts. Marinerscove, sailed by Nicholas O’Leary, had two first places today as the lighter airs seemed to suit the Mills 39 a little better and Antix is giving her 40 seconds in the hour.. In the strong tides and light winds Antix secured second and third today. Peter Rutter’s Quokka 8 a British Commodore’s Cup Team member had a third and second today but was very consistent throughout the event and was able to discard a 6th and this cemented his third place on 16 points.
On the whole there were no major surprises in the IRC results with just a couple of changes in placings, with a notable exception in Division One IRC ,with the emergence of Tony Fox’s A35 Gringo to take second place. Gringo who was lying in sixth place yesterday, today scored two seconds and with a discard of 19 this was enough to bring him to second place. The winner, Rockabill, sailed by Mel Collins had five firstsand a second in the series in what was possibly, with 29 boats, the most competitive of the classes. The best of the J109s, Joker 2, was third.
In Class Two an interesting fact is that Corby 25s took places one two and three. The pre race favourite the Colwell/Murphy Kinetic took the trophy from two Cork boats, Denis Coleman in Thunderbird second and Vinny O’Shea in Yanks and ffrancs third.
In Class Three Flor O’Driscoll in Hard on Port lost his crown to the Faroux Quarter tonner Tiger of Joxer O’Brien and the Kenefick father and son pairing followed in third place by the quarter tonner Supernova from the Royal Irish Yacht Club.
The non spinnaker Division 5 sailed only five races for the series and Vincent Farrell in Tsunami took the crown here followed by Philip Dilworth in Orna Liam Coyne in Lula Belle.
Non spinnaker Division 6 was won by Joe Carlton in Voyager, followed by Peter Dunlop of Wales in Mojito with Howth Yacht Club Brazen Hussy of J.Barry and M. Stirling in third place.
All in all it was an excellent series with strong competition in all fleets and will be a hard act to follow for the hosts of 2011, the Royal Cork Yacht Club.
Click here for full results.