SAILING/ Round Ireland Race: At 6.10 p.m. last night the National Yacht Club's 32-footer Calyx Voice and Data reconfirmed her intentions for the BMW Round Ireland title by reaching Innistrahull hours earlier than expected to dislodge Royal Malta-entry Jazz as handicap fleet leader since Eagle Island.
In this morning's run down the East coast the Eamon Crosbie skippered yacht leads by an estimated 50 minutes from Holland's Piet Vroon's Tonnerre de Breskens to join Jazz sailed by Chris Bull as well as Royal Cork's Minnie the Moocher, Anthony Richards, in a tight race for handicap honours.
The north-coast performance of the comparatively tiny Dún Laoghaire 32-footer will haunt 60-footers 02 Team Spirit and CityJet Solune, who both finished the 704-mile race last night.
Between Eagle Island and Innistrahull Jazz extended her corrected time lead by over an hour over nearest rival Royal Cork 38-footer Minnie the Moocher but yesterday's tea-time news from Malin Head coastguard that Calyx had reached Inistrahull hours earlier than expected eclipses even the Maltese performance.
Minnie the Moocher, as the third Irish yacht in this leading six-boat group, made the best of the north coast's tidal gate arriving at Inistrahull yesterday lunch-time. The timing meant the Crosshaven entry caught the afternoon tide to be slingshot around Rathlin Island making 11-knots over the ground. The 10-boat crew, made up of a core of ex-Moonduster sailors, were aiming to hit Mew Island and stay in fair tide just after midnight.
All four in this group may benefit this from the prospect of a freer reaching wind from the west that the 60-footers did not get in an arduous beat to Wicklow yesterday.
The fourth night at sea for the fleet followed a day of changing fortunes after gale-force winds gave way to a relatively sedate passage across the north coast in 15-20 knot winds.
French Dieppe-entry Group Partouche (C.Coathdam) retired into Arranmore reducing the fleet to 38 from 47 starters last Saturday.
Back in Wicklow, the use of mandatory check-in time information obtained via the coastguard and used by Wicklow Sailing Club to process handicap results has led to question marks over the accuracy of the interim data.
Queries have been made concerning the validity of corrected times on results posted on the race website since Saturday's first check-in at Tuskar rock.
Round Ireland veteran Donal McClement, following the progress of the race on the site has warned Wicklow that calculations should not be taken from what he calls "notoriously inaccurate" check-in times.
Competitors are required to make 10 check-in calls during the circumnavigation to confirm their position but the information request to call in by VHF radio to coast guard radios is for safety rather than performance reasons.
"The all-ladies crew on Confusion, for instance, was listed as sixth at Innisteareacht but were 33rd at the Fastnet. If this is the case it means - in the space of a seven hour leg - they sailed it faster than the 60-footer 02." McClement told The Irish Times.
Organiser Dennis Noonan said yesterday that results posted on the event website were only an estimate. They do not form part of the final overall results.
