SAILING: IS IT a contradiction to provide a championship for a gentleman's racing class, or has cruiser racing changed so much that this year's regatta season will be filled with white sails? An idea hatched mainly to get seldom-used boats off moorings has become the biggest of all racing classes on Dublin bay and in Cork harbour.
The attraction was easy to see; a bunch of friends sailing together on an average cruiser could participate in simple racing after work or at weekends without any of the high-end hassle of spinnakers, big cheque books and large crews.
Because 75 per cent of all Irish sailing is undertaken in keelboats, the development of what now amounts to one of few growth areas in the sport has a significance for the majority of Irish sailors. Its popularity has sparked talk about defining the white sails to offer a little bit more than a cruise in company. A set of rules was published by the Irish Cruiser Racer Association (ICRA) last November and it has put white sail racing on a national footing.
Although providing a championship trophy might sound like an oxymoron, the move to inaugurate a white sail national championship is an inevitable response to demand from the sailors themselves.
Dun Laoghaire has its finger on the pulse in gearing up to meet this demand that may top 100 boats next July. Organisers of Volvo Dun Laoghaire regatta are pitching it as the first national white sail championship in the world. They expect national title honours to be awarded in a fleet comprising three divisions - super, one and two.
In Cork, in the Housework's white sail Friday fleet, 30 boats are on the water, and, according to Royal Cork admiral Mike McCarthy it has opened the sport to a new group of sailors, and, with this experience, some of the boats have progressed to regular Thursday and Saturday racing.
Now RCYC is considering the introduction of two classes for Friday nights, and in Dublin the success of the winter turkey shoot and its coming spring chicken series has also been an entrée for the Dublin Bay Sailing Club summer season.
As the fleets increase and become more competitive, there have inevitably been some difference of opinion on where the fun racing stops and the full racing starts. For example, Dun Laoghaire regatta organiser Phil Smyth, a white sail competitor himself, says some of the Dublin bay white sail class are dissatisfied with the sail cloth rule that currently permits high-tech sails alongside traditional dacron.
Meanwhile, Ericsson 4, the leader of the seven-boat Volvo Ocean Race, will not be penalised under the protest filed by the rule management group, it was announced yesterday in Singapore.
The international jury found the team were not obliged to inform the measurers of changes made to the bow of the boat, and therefore the team had not broken a rule.
Damian Foxall has stepped ashore from fifth-overall Green Dragon for the next leg.
In-port racing begins tomorrow in Singapore and leg four to Qingdao, China, begins on Sunday, January 18th.
