SAILING: Sailing lived up to its reputation as chess on water yesterday evening as American crews emerged as one of the medal favourites following two days of boat familiarisation and divisional races in tricky breezes across Dublin Bay.
The medal races begin this morning at 9 a.m. for 78 athletes from 12 countries at the Royal St George Yacht club, Dún Laoghaire, but triple Olympian Casey Kirwan (35), from the United States, had already stolen a march on her competitors by the end of yesterday evening.
"I like the conditions but it's real shifty, especially at 15 knots, just like home" says Casey, who admits that though she is now a sailing expert, for a long time going afloat was a real chore.
"My cousins forced me into it. They said they needed extra weight so they brought me along as ballast".
Now the Newport, Rhode Island sailor says she loves the sport and that this latest Irish experience has been wonderful.
Fresh westerly bay breezes have provided challenging short, sharp opening rounds within the protection of the harbour walls but even the confines of Dún Laoghaire's pier were not enough to prevent capsizes as Sunday's blustery winds gusted over the west breakwater and on to the triangular course area.
At least a dozen capsizes of the "tippy" 12 foot Firefly dinghy have made a lot of competitors opt now for the relative security of the larger Squib keelboat.
In this regard the opportunity of Sunday's boat familiarisation day - if not the capsizes themselves - has been widely welcomed by competitors.
"I hate the Firefly" says Casey, a double gold medallist from the '95 and '99 games. "They're unstable and tippy," she says, in comparison with the Flying Junior, her boat of choice at home.
It's a point echoed by Austrian coach Gregor Mayr who says that his team too are opting for the Squib, with its identifiable tanned sails, as they are not familiar with the round-bottomed Firefly.
The Squib is a boat capable of taking three crew in comfort and is more stable thanks to an iron keel rather than a wooden centreboard. But yesterday, when winds gusted close to the 18 knot racing limit, even Squibs carried reefed sails to prevent further wipe-outs.
The races so far have served to split the fleet of dinghy and keelboat crews into three levels to decide the overall medals by the weekend.
In level one a Special Olympics athlete performs a crew function only while an experienced sailor, known as a "unified partner" steers the yacht.
Level two athletes steer the yacht for at least 50 per cent of the race and in level three athletes steer for the duration of the race and there is no unified partner on board.
And such is the cut and thrust of the heats that the jury have already been involved in sorting out a dispute when two yachts sailing on opposite tacks collided.
The tiny harbour course, under principal race officer Henry Leonard, stretching from the east to the west piers, is marshalled by rescue, race jury and Naval Service personnel who are there to observe that competitors comply with the rigorous racing rules of sailing.
Avoiding collisions afloat is a priority and safety on the water is paramount. In a break from standard racing rules, any competitor who capsizes is immediately taken ashore and the waterlogged boat dealt with by rescue crews.
The Royal St George organisers have been praised for the efficiency of the regatta.