SAILING / 1720 European Championship: Fresh winds and bright sun swept the 50-boat fleet of the Fáilte Ireland 1720 European Championship past the event halfway point off Howth yesterday with little change to the overall title stakes.
Brian Lennon and Roger Cagney's Hibernian, with past Laser European champion Tim Powell helming continues to dominate thanks to a first and a third yesterday.
Pressure is building however, from a sailor with a pedigree of no less than three consecutive Laser world titles in the form of Glenn Bourke racing Yachts & Yachting. A third, fourth and fifth yesterday saw Bourke oust world match-racing champion Chris Law from second overall to fourth and the leader is some 13 points distant now.
"Our boatspeed was fine - in race five we had a bad start and yet we managed to get from something like 10th from last at the first mark to 10th at the finish," he said.
Law is helming Tom and John Murphy's Peugeot Motocycles and is getting to grips with the 1720 on his first outing in the class as well as making the change from racing one-on-one a lá match-racing to competing in a large fleet, though he is refusing to concede defeat just yet.
For Powell, five races remain to protect his lead to secure a win at an event he ended third in last year. "There's too many races left to say its comfortable - we've just got the lead after six races but there's nothing to say somebody can't do that after five races. This is definitely a more competitive fleet than last year, it's a lot harder and everyone has upped their game."
The fifth race of the series was somewhat of a shocker for Hibernian when 14th appeared a long way off the earlier form of three first places. "We had a bad start, my fault - I got the timing wrong and couldn't get into clear wind so was stuffed on the line," he said. "We were somewhere in the late 20s at the first mark and only managed to pull up to 14th." Fortunately, the first of two discards took that result out of the scores.
So if anyone is going to break his grip on the event, where will this come from? Of course, Powell points to Bourke, who has been racing 1720s for the last year but also tips Andrew McLelland on Crash Test Dummies in third overall. This boat was the best scoring yesterday and according to Powell could be a real threat if their form continues to improve over the final two days.
While McLelland produced another of yesterday's wins, the Royal Cork Yacht Club's David Rose, helming Donpack, scored a terrific win in race five having led the entire pack from the outset. This isn't a record for the Crosshaven sailor as he produced three wins at the 2001 Europeans though if Powell is right, this sportsboat fleet has moved on since then.
1720 European Championship - Overall after six races (one discard); 1 Hibernian (IRL - Lennon & Cagney) 9.25 points; 2 Yachts and Yachting (GBR - G Bourke) 23.00; 3 Splash Test Dummies (GBR - A & J McLelland) 29.75; 4 Peugeot Motocycles (IRL - T & J Murphy) 31.00; 5 Key Yachting (GBR - M & P Hays) 34.00; 6 King Quick (GBR - R & G Scott) 38.00;
l Results provisional - subject to protests
