Laura Dillon (19), defends her Church and General-sponsored Helmsman's Championship title against 22 of Ireland's top sailors on home waters tomorrow in the biggest staging of sailing's champion of champions competition in recent years.
Invited competitors drawn from a variety of dinghy, keelboat and multi-hull classes will battle over 10 weekend races at Howth Yacht Club for a prize of £1,000.
The 51st event will be raced in Squib one-design keelboats that present - on paper at least - the fairest set of conditions the competition has enjoyed for some years.
Dillon, the Laser II champion who last year became the youngest winner - and first woman - is one of four local sailors competing. Robbie Stanley (Squib), previous winner Tom Fitzpatrick (Laser II), Dan O'Grady (Skiffs) and Paul Flynn (Cruisers III) all have a good knowledge of the Howth sound race course.
North Dublin dinghy club Swords SBC have four qualifying helmsmen, including Neil Spain (420), Tony Nolan (420 runnerup), Fireball National champion Matthew Treadwell and Stephen and Garry Duffy from the Hurricane 5.9 Catamaran class.
The Squib keelboat, more sedate than last year's selected Laser II dinghy, is proving a popular choice and will, in theory, negate many of the handling skills required in performance dinghies. This, says event organiser Paddy Boyd, has been one of the main reasons for the big turnout, and has allowed disabled sailing champion John Sullivan, of Monkstown Bay Sailing Club, to compete.
Sullivan will be joined in Howth by three other helms: Royal Cork Sportsboat champion Anthony O'Leary, who also qualified as the National 18 champion; Tom Crosbie, the National 18 runner-up, and Mirror champion Ed Moloney.
Meanwhile, tomorrow's championship hosts have closed their membership list, and while this is a positive indicator of the growth of the sport, it is also a signal that existing facilities are being put under serious pressure. Howth is the country's biggest yacht club with 1,950 members, and club commodore Harry Byrne said this week that membership was closed because club resources would become strained if membership growth continued. In Cork, a three-way battle for overall honours in the 1720 class of the Crosshaven Boatyard-sponsored October league will take place in tomorrow's final race between Union Chandlery (Mark Mansfield), Mica and Micanite (Neil Hogan) and Eko (English/Kenefick/O'Brien syndicate).
In class one, Kinsale's John Godkin's VSOP has established an overall lead in Channel handicap, while Denis Doyle's Moonduster leads under the local ECHO (East coast handicapping organisation) rule. Donal Harding's Formula 28, Starlet, leads both handicap divisions in class two after a three-race battle with Dave Hennessy, skippering Luas.
The largest turnout of windsurfers this season is expected in Roundstone, Co Galway, tomorrow, the penultimate event - round six - of the Heineken windsurfing tour. One hundred surfers are scheduled to take part in the short-board event, which involves a mixture of three disciplines - giant slalom, master blast and Figure 8. Leading contenders are defending tour champion Oisin Van Gelderen, Joe Meehan, Fintan Day, Sean Flanagan and Derek Lambert.
UCD represent Ireland this weekend in Marseilles, France, at the Student Yachting World Cup, which has attracted 24 nations for racing in Jeanneau 35-foot cruiser-racers.
