SAILING:Fresh from last week's success at Block Island Race Week, Colm Barrington is this side of the Atlantic this morning for the first race in the British IRC championships on the south coast of England.
Barrington's core crew are the same but his boat is different. The overall Block Island trophy was won in his 50footer Magic Glove beating this weekend's host, David Aisher (RORC Commodore), in his new Rogers 46 in all races in the process.
Fitted with a new bulb keel fitted for IRC racing, Barrington is sailing Flash Glove, a Generation three TP 52. He has also added to his crew line-up the Volvo Ocean race bowman Justin Slattery from Wexford.
As a third generation boat, she would be expected to be quicker on the water than the other TP52s at the regatta, but will also sport a higher rating as a result. However, the recent experience has been that these G3 boats are much faster and taking the SORC results, he should be very competitive.
Slattery joins Barrington's usual pros on the boat such as James Hynes, Rob Greenhalgh, Dave Lens from North sails.
Voodoo Chile - aka Teng Tools - the winner of last weekend's Saab Class 1 ICRA nationals at Royal Cork, is also in Cowes for the eight-race weekend series.
The British 2006 super zero champion, from Limerick, will not be defending its title, however. Instead Ger O'Rourke's Chieftain is less than 100 miles off Galway, doing 10 knots of boat speed in 12 knots of wind and is en route to a finish line in Hamburg Germany in the closing stages of a transatlantic race from Newport, Rhode Island.
Also in Cowes, a win in race four for David Burrows at the Etchells world championships has given him sixth overall at the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club. Crewed by his father Richard and Peter Coad, the Malahide crew are top Irish crew in the 45-boat fleet that is lead by Britain's Andy Beadsworth. Racing finishes today.
Clontarf umpire Ed Alcock (53) has joined the Irish Sailing Association (ISA) as its racing manager. A national judge, Alcock's most recent role was as a jury member in the Volvo Ocean Race. The association has also announced the purchase of eight J80 Keelboats by SailFleet Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of the ISA. The aim is to increase participation in the sport with a mobile fleet that can be transported to different sailing venues.
Robert Dix, ISA president explained: "SailFleet will provide great opportunities to expand participation in our sport. We aim to facilitate the growing interest in match racing and additionally provide an introduction to sailing to those who may not otherwise have access to a boat."
The J80 Keelboat was selected as the boat most suitable following a thorough selection process by the SailFleet working group. All eight J80s will be equipped with road trailers to facilitate transport to race and training events throughout Ireland.
Offshore, by reaching Falmouth at 9am on Wednesday in near storm force conditions, Royal Cork's 38-footer Cavatina became overall winner this week of the Falmouth to Azores and back race. The 2006 Round Ireland winner has chalked up another ocean victory but this time her crew were limited to just two for the 2,440-mile trip round the Azores.
In addition to being overall winner of the yacht race to the Azores and back, skipper Eric Lisson will also receive the coveted Prince of Wales trophy for Class 2. This will be presented at the Southampton Boat Show in September.
Meanwhile, Minister of Education Mary Hanafin will launch the Volvo Dun Laoghaire week regatta in just over two weeks' time.
