Sailing/Cork Week: The opening day of Cork Week 2004 proved a mixed bag for the 500 yachts competing on the waters around Roche's Point yesterday as light winds varied across the six courses.
A highlight of the day was the Sigma 33 One-design class competing for its European Championship as part of this event.
Defending champion Tim Goodbody and the crew of White Mischief from the Royal Irish Yacht Club proved their mettle with a convincing victory in the day's only race in the category.
Irish boats dominated the 37-boat fleet with Clem McElligot on Sea Hawk second and Dermot Baker on Shillelagh third.
In the larger Sigma 38 class, Paddy Kirwan's Errislannan had a good opening day, making up for the recent disappointment in the Round Ireland Race by taking second place behind the Cahills on Supernatural.
However, it was a difficult start for the pre-event Irish favourites in the 1720 Sportsboat class as Graeme Scott's King Quick won the opening race.
Howth boats Wet 'n' Black, owned by Paul Reilly, and Aquaatack, owned by Des Faherty, were fourth and fifth while Cork's Anthony O'Leary on Antix had a disappointing eighth.
In the showcase fleet of Class Zero, the hotly billed European debut contest between Maxis Pyewacket and Morning Glory was another casualty of the fickle breeze.
Following an exciting start off Roche's Point, the first stage to Ringabella saw the 86-footers power away from the main fleet. But while Roy Disney's Pyewacket led throughout, even by up to three miles at one stage, a calm at the end of the race some four hours later saw the German maxi of Hasso Plattner steal the advantage once again to close the gap to a few hundred metres.
Although Disney took line honours, a slight handicap advantage saw Plattner beat the American.
Charging in on fresh breeze from behind was the bulk of Class Zero with DK46 footer Erivale taking the overall win of the day from Colm Barrington on his new Kerr 39 Flying Glove in second.
The Dun Laoghaire skipper can take some comfort from finishing second to the bigger boat as his big boat team-mate for the forthcoming Commodore's Cup in two weeks is another DK46, Fidessa Fastwave. Both boats are Wicklow-based Mark Mills designs.
The remainder of the results appeared mired in controversy. In a decision bearing uncanny similarity to a 2002 row, the race committee applied to the International Jury to have its own rule governing time limits lifted to allow the boats hindered in the slow breeze be reinstated.
The jury agreed these boats had been prejudiced but the fate of boats that had already retired fearing the time limit had expired was unclear late last night.
Unclear also was the situation regarding overall results for the majority of the classes as the late finish to the day and record-keeping problems reportedly delayed official results until late into the evening.
Meanwhile, Pyewacket and Morning Glory's reputed rivalry was evidenced yesterday by comments coming ashore. One on-board source on the American boat described relations between the two maxis as "lacking empathy" while another said "they got off lucky, they still got a drubbing" in spite of losing to the German boat on handicap.
Plattner's team responded by stating their higher handicap had been to allow Pyewacket a chance and had they not carried their spinnaker pole at the Americans' request, their win would have been even bigger.
