Day 3 :: Penultimate Day Brings Leader Board Changes
Perfect summer sailing conditions on Dublin Bay brought changes to the leader board in several classes in the penultimate day of Ireland’s largest sailing regatta, the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta on Dublin Bay today (Saturday).
One contender for tomorrow’s (Sunday) top prize of the ‘Volvo Boat of the Regatta Trophy’ is Howth yacht ‘Outrajeous’ that held on to her overnight lead this afternoon. Richard Colwell and John Murphy’s J109 stays top of IRC one after six races sailed. A promising 10-12 knot northwesterly wind got racing for all 498 boats in 34 classes off to a solid start this morning and the breeze held all day to keep the ambitious programme of more than 290 races on target for tomorrow’s final two rounds in most classes.
The Colwell/Murphy led 26-boat IRC offshore fleet departed Scotsman’s Bay bound for Bray Outfall buoy in Wicklow, a turning mark on the 20–mile coastal course.
The north Dublin J109 is a single point clear overall of sistership and defending champion John Maybury in Joker II even though Maybury was the winner of this afternoon’s race.
Two races tomorrow morning will decide the Class One title as well as 34 other class prizes and the overall regatta winner to boot, a result that can still come from several key classes.
Classes Zero, One and Two completed the coastal race under Race Officer Con Murphy today.
Canny offshore exponents Peter Dunlop and Vicky Cox from Wales in the J109 Mojito have taken the overall lead in the biggest IRC class of the event. They overtook the series leader Mermaid (Seamus Fitzpatrick’s First 50 of the Royal Irish and now have a six-point margin. Another Welsh J109 is third, Jetstream from Holyhead Sailing Club (Nigel Ingram) and on the same points as Mermaid going into tomorrow’s final offshore race.
Frank Whelan’s Eleuthera from Greystones Sailing Club maintains the overall lead of the six-boat Class Zero fleet and has a four-point cushion over East Down’s Forty Licks skippered by Jay Colville. Likewise in class 2a, overnight leader Nigel Biggs’s Checkmate XVIII continues to lead and is now ten points clear at the top of the 21-boat fleet. Royal Cork’s Miss Whiplash (Ronan Downing) is second with Dave Cullen’s Howth Checkmate XV in third place.
Despite counting a lowly 18th in today’s race seven, there is no change at the top of IRC three for Rory Fekkes in the East Antrim-based First Class 8 who has tops Class 3 on 12 points but it means his margin over Royal St. George’s Running Wild, Brendan Foley’s optimised Impala, is reduced to 5 points.
In selected results from the one-design classes, only 3 points after eight races separate two British Olympic medalists in the RS Elite UK National Championships being held as part of the regatta. Seoul Gold Medalist Mike McIntyre leads Ossie Stewart (Bronze in Barcelona). The top seven places are taken by Hayling Island Sailing club boats in the 31-boat fleet.
Finally, there was another race win for Sam Watson and Andy Thompson from Nantwich, UK in The GP14 Leinster Championships, which puts them 13 points in front of Donegal’s John and Donal McGuinness in second after six races sailed in the 31–boat fleet.
Results are provisional and subject to protest. Full results in all classes are available on www.dlregatta.org
The Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta is Ireland’s biggest sailing event and concludes tomorrow (Sunday) with two final races for most classes and a great festival of sailing across the waterfront and Dun Laoghaire town as four sailing clubs come together for the biennial event; Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club, Royal Irish Yacht Club, Royal St. George Yacht Club and National Yacht Club.
For more information see www.dlregatta.org or find Dun Laoghaire Regatta on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.