A protest that alleges Royal Irish Yacht Club skipper Colm Barrington sailed with one crew too many in yesterday's opening races of the Barlo Plastics-sponsored ISORA (Irish Sea Offshore Racing Association) off Howth will determine the overall leader of class one after four races in the series have been completed this evening.
A Howth Yacht Club protest committee will hear evidence that leader Barrington raced two 10-mile races with one crew over the maximum allowed in light air conditions - which ironically should suit fewer crew, not more.
The protest, brought by Tino Hyland of the Royal St George Yacht Club, whose X-332 yacht Maxim is second overall, alleges that Barrington's 30-foot Velvet Glove sailed with nine, and not eight, crew and therefore broke rule 9.2 of the regatta's sailing instructions.
"I have photographs and crew names of those concerned and an individual on the race committee has volunteered to be a witness of this infringement," Hyland said.
Racing a new John Corby-designed 30-footer, Barrington won both of yesterday's light air races by margins of over five minutes on corrected time, and he is a favourite for the 19-boat class one ISORA title.
When contacted by The Irish Times last night, Barrington would not comment on the matter before the hearing.
According to the sailing instructions, if tonight's protest committee decision goes against him he will have to count at least one disqualification in his final tally of points in what is a one discard series.
In the remaining classes, zero and two, Howth boats control the leaderboard. Red Eye (Greg O'Brien/John Wickham) leads the National Yacht Club's Humphrey go-Kart (E Crosbie) in the smaller division, while in class zero, in a turnout of 12 boats, Roy Dickson's Cracklin' Rosie leads from Welsh entrant Megalopolis (Jones/Cowper).
Also on the East coast, at Bangor Week, the rolling fog bank which delayed the start of Sunday's racing lasted only 20 minutes, after which the 15-18 knot breeze settled in from the north east to give excellent conditions for the 72-boat fleet gathered on Belfast lough.
Graham and Michael Vaughan, from Royal North, added a second yesterday to a first on Sunday to hold on to first overall, although a good showing by Iain Graham of the Clyde is a foretaste of the Scottish visitor's skill in this class.
In class two, Trevor Halliwell in Shooting Star counted another first, while Hugh Ennis in class three did the same in the second and third races to claim an emphatic first overall after two days.
