French championship enters home waters for Irish crews

EXPECTATION of a good home result is building at the Royal Cork Yacht Club today as the first yachts in the biennial French Offshore Racing Championship, La Starmanche, begin to arrive in Crosshaven from Weymouth on the third leg of the 800 mile event.

The two Irish crews competing are faring well in the face of tough competition, but will be looking forward to local waters to boost their finishing positions in this leg.

Paddy Garibaldi's, skippered by Andrew Creighton (21), is seventh in this leg, while their team mate, Irish Offshore Challenge, skippered by Stephen McFeeley, is 11th. The race features cash prizes and attracts mostly French professional crews, although provision is made for overseas entries among the 25 boats.

Ireland's last entry was in 1992 when Whitbread veteran Joe English from Cork and the then national sailing coach, David Harte, also from Cork, ended 16th and 17th respectively.

Next stop for the fleet of Figaro 31 footers after the Crosshaven break will be Cherbourg before the series ends at Ouistreham.

Meanwhile, in stark contrast to the Irish Sailing Association's (ISA) annual general meeting, the egm of the national authority last Monday night at the National Yacht Club was a smooth and positive occasion when the new membership scheme was unanimously approved. In his first major address as president of the ISA, Neil Murphy, gave details as to how the additional revenue would be spent from the start of next season.

The need for the egm arose when clubs became concerned that traditional block voting rights would be lost under the new scheme that would make all sailing club members contribute to the ISA.

Although the voting rights issue was regarded in some quarters as a thinly disguised diversion from the issue of compelling non sailing members to pay for the upkeep of the sport, Monday night's decision has been hailed as a milestone for sailing.

While the introduction of the new scheme has effectively been delayed a year because of the additional meeting, the ISA is now confident of restoring its finances to a level whereby development within the sport can take place. Among the plans outlined by Murphy was the recruitment of a national training and development officer, while the occasion was also used to launch the National Coaching Programme.

The new programme, developed with the National Coaching and Training Centre at the University of Limerick, is aimed at the racing sailor with different levels of expertise ranging from introduction to racing up to international standard.

While the Royal St George YC and Schull Community College have both been very active in the field for several years, the new plan is expected to allow clubs and classes around the country to have access to suitable coaching.

This summer, 17 trainee coaches from around the country are working on the practical requirements of the course under introduction from three ISA tutors.

Eric Stacey has developed the existing programme at Schull, while the current helmsman champion of Ireland, Ruan O Tiarnaigh, and former GP14 national champion Hugh Gill make up the initial team. James O'Callaghan and Daragh Peelo are in training to join these three as tutors as well.