O'Leary Life Sovereign's Cup Regatta at Kinsale Yacht Club - Day 1
by Bobby Nash 27 Jun 2019 06:39 BST
26-29 June 2019
O'Leary Life Sovereign's Cup at Kinsale day 1 © David Branigan / Oceansport
Challenging conditions with competitors being pushed to the pin of their collar in a rolling swell made for a perfect start to the biennial O'Leary Life Sovereign's Cup at Kinsale Yacht Club where 95 boats are in action for four days.
A mix of courses ranging from a three-hour coastal race to 'Round the Cans and Windward-Leeward saw the fleet complete a full programme for the day.
All are competing for class wins as well as the overall Sovereign's Cup for the best boat under IRC rating and the Portcullis Trophy for best boat under ECHO performance handicapping.
Notable performances for the day included Frank Whelan's Eleuthera from Greystones Sailing Club with back to back wins in Division 0 IRC and George Sisk's WOW from the Royal Irish Yacht Club who won the Coastal race.
The 17-strong Dragon class competing for their Irish championship title ended their two-race day with Martin Byrne's Jaguar Racing from the Royal St. George Yacht Club at the top of the leaderboard but only after a three-way tie-break.
The next three are also tied on points. (Kinsale Yacht Club will host the Dragon Gold Cup in September 2020).
Amongst the White Sails boats, former Kinsale Yacht Club Commodore and veteran Irish Paralympian John Twomey leads Class 2 on Shillelagh after day one while Waterford Harbour Sailing Club's Shane Statham on Slack Alice leads the other White Sails fleet.
Amongst the IRC classes racing windward-leeward courses, no single boat had straight wins for the day but several highly consistent top three results point to possible favourites emerging.
In Division 1, Richard Colwell and John Murphys' Outrajeous from Howth Yacht Club leads the nine boat class against second placed John Maybury on Joker 2, the four times class national champion from the Royal Irish Yacht Club.
Division 2 sees Nigel Biggs from Manchester sailing for the Royal Irish and Howth Yacht Clubs top his 19-strong class, the largest of the event after a first and second place for the day that also places him at the top of the standings for the Irish Half-ton cup.
Racing is scheduled to continue on Thursday with conditions to be reviewed in the morning in view of the forecast strong winds.
Full results available here.