SAILING:Ireland have secured the overall victory at the annual Bell Lawrie Scottish Series for the fourth consecutive year, with the title again going to a Royal Cork Yacht Club (RCYC) crew.
Conor Phelan steered Jump Juice to seven wins from eight races in the series that ended on Monday.
The depth in this country among "semi-professional" racers will be reassuring following last year's close call when all three Irish teams dominated the competition for most of the Rolex Commodore's Cup series at Cowes.
Typifying the approach of several owner-drivers, Phelan gathered the best top-level club sailors for his crew and added veteran talents such as Mark Mansfield as tactician, who also steered for part of the series, as well as local expert and champion 1720 Sportsboat sailor Ruairidh Scott.
The overall trophy is awarded to the best performing boat of any class during the event in the opinion of the organisers based on actual performance weighted for class size.
This year's series enjoyed conditions ranging from eight to 20 knots, though with fickle winds at times, organisers were obliged to shorten the programme.
"I'm delighted," said Phelan. "We came here with a competitive boat and figured we had a good chance of winning the class, but only after we won the first race did we start to think we really have a chance of the overall trophy.
"I came here for the first time two years ago on a Beneteau 36.7 and did not do very well, but this is fantastic and we'll be back next year."
Mansfield also pointed to the improvements made to the boat during the winter that contributed to the boost in performance. A switch was made to a normal fin keel in place of the trim tab keel, which resulted in a handicap rating advantage for the Jason Ker-designed boat.
Meanwhile, Irish boats were to the fore across many of the classes. A knife-edge decision between Class One's Jump Juice and stable-mate Blondie III in Class Two was decided on the basis of the bigger boats having a slight overall competitive edge.
Nevertheless, Eamonn Rohan's boat also scored seven race wins plus a second place which was discarded. Blondie III also had the benefit of Maurice "Prof" O'Connell on board as helm.
And while O'Connell, as Olympic contender for the Star keelboat event along with Ben Cooke, might have hoped to add the overall Scottish Series Trophy to his scalps for the year, he will have been very content with the news he has been selected to compete at the pre-Olympic test event at the Beijing 2008 venue in Qingdao this August.
The Irish Sailing Association Olympic Group announced their selection for this event with the following candidates confirmed: Debbie Hanna, Laser Radial; Russell and Matt McGovern, 49er; Gerbil Owens and Phil Lawton, 470; Tim Goodbody, Finn; Maurice O'Connell and Ben Cooke, Star.
Meanwhile, the Laser nomination process has been extended to include the Holland Regatta and Laser European Championship before a final decision is announced. All six classes have yet to qualify for the games proper and all attention is focused on Caiscais in Portugal in four weeks for the ISAF World Championships.
