SAILING: An unseasonal record attempt by an ocean-racing veteran is under way this weekend as a brief weather window makes for favourable conditions. The 82-foot maxi Irish Independent Challenger, based in Dun Laoghaire, is aiming to set a new course record for the circumnavigation of Ireland.
Led by Gary Keegan and with Irish Air Corps and Rescue pilot Mick Liddy as navigator, the two-times Whitbread Race yacht is carrying a mixture of professional sailors and locally recruited crew.
The accepted starting point is the Kish Lighthouse where Steve Fossett claimed a new multi-hull record on Lakota seven years ago of just under 48 hours. Officially, no mono-hull record for the course exists so completing the 700-mile route would establish grounds for the World Record Speed Sailing Council to ratify the attempt.
However, a Round Ireland circumnavigation record does exist under the Round Ireland Race structure but as the WRSSC has not recorded these details, the time is not internationally recognised. In 1998, Colm Barrington and his team on Jeep Cherokee took the overall race handicap title and line honours with a new course time of just under 77 hours.
So what are Challenger's chances? Barrington shaved more than 10 hours off Lawrie Smith's 1990 record set on board the maxi Rothmans, fresh from the 1989-90 Whitbread Race. His bowman from that race, Paul Standbridge, was the skipper on Jeep Cherokee, also battle-hardened from the 1997-98 Round the World Race racing as Dennis Conner's Toshiba.
Smith's yacht was a full maxi. Four years later the Whitbread also introduced the smaller 60-foot class that was later refined to include masthead spinnakers and powerful water-ballasting allowing crew numbers to be almost halved.
Smith's 1990 maxi also competed against Challenger, sailing Martela OF, in that Whitbread but was forced out of the race shortly after rounding Cape Horn when her keel fell off and the boat capsized. None of the crew were injured and the Finnish boat was salvaged and sailed in the next race four years later as Uruguay Natural.
Since then, she has sailed in the Baltic as a charter race yacht and also as Bol Sport before she was purchased by her Irish syndicate.
Having made their start from the Kish Lighthouse off Dublin Bay late on Wednesday evening, the 20-strong crew have until the early hours of Sunday morning to beat the unofficial record. Keegan and Liddy have selected the "north-about" option to maximise the anticipated weather advantage.
The team face the task of the west coast stage. One Irish Naval Officer once described the winter weather off Ireland's western seaboard as worse than the icy wastes that encircle Antarctica.
Last night Challenger was one hour ahead of schedule and sailing in 20 knots of wind off Tory Island. Forecasters are devided as to whether the wind will change from the southwest to the west, the latter option been favourable to a record time.
