SAILING:DÚN LAOGHAIRE Dragon trio Martin Byrne, Adam Winkelmann and Pedro Andrade have put up a strong defence of the Edinburgh Cup after the opening races on Belfast Lough this week.
Byrne, commodore of the Royal St George YC in Dún Laoghaire, lifted the prestigious British Dragon trophy in Wales last summer and is seeking to retain it this week in Northern Ireland.
A formidable 45-boat fleet includes the world champion, Britain’s Lawrie Smith.
Byrne took an eight and a three scores to be third overall in the first two rounds and put Smith two points behind. Another British helm, Julia Bailey, leads.
Fog on the lough delayed proceedings yesterday. Racing concludes tomorrow.
While the courses for next week’s Cork Week have the same format as two years ago there are some changes to the traditional harbour course. For the last day of racing (next Friday) the fleet will race in Cork Harbour and with 100 boats and an estimated 1,000 competitors in Crosshaven for the biennial event it should be quite a spectacle.
Royal Cork is awarding a long-standing trophy. The Carroll Cup dates back to 1858 and this year it will be the prize for a new harbour race time trial.
The Round Ireland race committee has lodged a protest against the largest yacht in the fleet, Green Dragon, the Volvo 70 entry that crossed the line first in last month’s race. The protest is made under rule 47.2 of the racing rules of sailing (RRS) that states “no person on board shall leave, unless ill or injured or to help a person or vessel in danger”. A protest hearing is to be chaired by the Irish Sailing Association’s (ISA) Ed Alcock.
Meanwhile, the race prize-giving dinner will take place in the the Grand Hotel, Wicklow, on October 20th.
The 2012 Fireball National Champions are Noel Butler and Stephen Oram from Dún Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club. The pair sailed an excellent series at a windy Howth venue to claim the title ahead of Simon McGrotty and Darrach Dineen (Skerries SC) and Kenny Rumball/David Moran (Irish National SC).
With six wins from eight races in the first SB20 sports boat event of the season, Ben Duncan and his Howth crew continued their winning ways at Tralee Bay Sailing Club last weekend. Runner up in the small fleet at Fenit was Shane Murphy of Dinghy Supplies.
Against a 14-strong RS400 fleet, reigning national champion Simon Herriott and Shane Mac Carthy came out on top in the second event of the RS400 and RS200 traveller series at Newcastle Yacht Club, Co Down, last weekend. In the 12-boat fleet of RS200’s, Graeme Noonan and Brian MacCarthy dominated. The Greystones pair had a convincing win, scoring five firsts and a second over national champions Roy Van Maanen and Glen Reid.
In Cowes, in the Corinthian Division of the Quarter Ton Cup for all-amateur crews sailed last weekend Cork’s George Kenefick sailed Tiger – the 1989 Fauroux design he owns jointly with his father Neil – to victory ahead of Britain’s Sergeant Pepper, Richard and Anne Thomas’s Bolero.
Over 30 yachts from west coast clubs from Mountshannon to Mayo will contest next week’s WIORA Championship. Foynes Yacht Club, on the the Shannon Estuary, will host the five-day event, an important honour for the club as it celebrates its golden jubilee.
Next weekend the ninth Glandore Classic Boat Summer School in west Cork offers talks and lectures, book readings and a model exhibition in the local renovated church.
Minister for the Marine Simon Coveney TD will give a keynote talk next Saturday on “Our Ocean Wealth”, a new Government initiative aimed at developing our seas.
