SAILING ROUND-UP:WITH JUST three races remaining in the Etchells World Championships at Howth, Australia's John Bertrand has opened up a clear lead at the front of the 42-boat fleet following another race win yesterday.

Race one winner Ante Razmilovic remains locked in second place even after the single discard came into force last night after his worst day of the regatta with a fourth and fifth place.

His brother Nils has also moved into contention to hold third place thanks to a race win in yesterday’s morning race that saw Bertrand discard a ninth place.

Meanwhile, Olympic veteran David Burrows remains best of the Irish fleet, holding 11th place from Wednesday after a seventh place and a discarded 29th yesterday in the moderate conditions off Ireland’s Eye.

Two races are scheduled for today ahead of tomorrow’s final.

Meanwhile, following the Royal Cork Yacht Club-led operation to secure victory for Ireland at the Rolex Commodores’ Cup in Cowes, other sailors from Crosshaven now turn their attention to the junior side of the sport and the Feva National Championships in Dun Laoghaire this weekend.

The two-person dinghy has grown in popularity in recent years and at least 50 boats are expected at the Royal St George YC in one of the Irish strongholds for the class.

Strong competition is expected from recently crowned world champions Owen Bowerman and Charlie Darling, who will be among three British boats taking part.

According to local junior sailors, best of the Irish fleet should be Vikki Cudmore and Amy Harrington from the RCYC, who finished as best of the girls’ fleet in Brittany last month.

Not that the visitors can expect anything less than stiff competition from the Dun Laoghaire crews, many of whom were also competing at the worlds and have been training all week in preparation for this weekend.

Taigh Donnelly, Annabel Elliott, Amelia O’Keefe, Chloe Eggers, Richard Gilmer, James Eggers, Marcus Van der Lee and Daniel Gilmer are all competing, with most entering their final season in the class before the next dinghy.

“Everyone’s pretty psyched-up about the nationals and we’ve been training every week during the winter and every day during the summer,” said coach Mark Kelly. “All the Dun Laoghaire Feva sailors would train more if they could.

“They (Cork sailors) have a really good area to practice in and train twice a week in winter and every day in summer,” he added.

Yesterday’s on-the-water session was distracted by a pod of three dolphin that recently arrived in the south Dublin Bay area and thrilled the youth sailors by playing and performing tricks with the crews for two hours.

All of the group began sailing in Optimist single-handers, though it isn’t as sociable as the Feva and other two-handed dinghies, according to Sophie Eggers. Taigh Donnelly also switched over from Oppies recently.

“It’s a bit more complicated with three sails rather than one and there’s a lot more teamwork involved,” he said. “It’s about teamwork and having someone to talk to.”

As far as progressing through the development dinghies, while the Feva is a step-up boat from the Optimist, all the group would love to move into the 29er which is one of the classes for the ISAF Youth World Championships that will be held in Dun Laoghaire in July 2012.

And the 29er is the progression boat into the Olympic 49er that features both crew trapezing from wings and flying huge genneker sails. Trapeze rather than hiking is a big attraction for the group.

But without an established 29er class in Ireland, the 420 is the next step but is very expensive both to purchase and maintain, according to the young sailors. Second-hand boats are hard to come by and new boats cost €10,000, while a brand-new 29er is €4,000.

Meanwhile, after a reportedly successful Western Championship sailed from Galway Docks last weekend, Howth YC is preparing to host the highlight of the Sportsboat season when the Investwise SB3 Nationals is held at the north Dublin venue next weekend.