Sailing 1720 European Championship: Professional sailors and other champions were to the fore in the opening three races of the Fáilte Ireland 1720 European Championship at Howth Yacht Club yesterday, ably dealing with the light airs and strong flood tide off the Fingal coast.
Round the World Race veteran Tim Powell has joined Brian Lennon and Roger Cagney's local boat Hibernian, bringing Hamble-based sailmaker Tom McWilliam on board for the series. The combination proved itself yesterday with two firsts and a fourth in the tricky conditions.
Waterford brothers Tom and John Murphy beefed up their usual line-up on Peugeot Motocycles by moving regular helm and former Irish Olympian John Driscoll on to the mainsheet to make way for the current world match-racing champion Chris Law.
On his first day ever in the class, Law brought the Howth-based team into second overall some 17-points behind Hibernian. Having paced Powell from the start of race one, the tide, flooding at almost two knots at the weather mark, created problems in estimating the clearance needed and Law lost ground as the leader opened an even greater lead.
"We managed to keep our nose clean today," Powell said last night. "Starting was the key in the light conditions - after that it was relatively easy. The Race Officer did a great job - no hanging around and great at communicating what was happening in the build-up to the start sequence."
Further back along the fleet, attempts at the first mark continued to be frustrated by the tide and light airflow and one by one, boats arriving at the top of the course were lucky to escape even the briefest of raft-ups.
Other leading sailors peppered the top places of the overnight leader-board and included triple Laser class World Champion Glen Bourke, currently the CEO of the Volvo Ocean Race who placed fourth overnight on board Yachts and Yachting.
Defending title-holder Des Faherty is without last year's helm Maurice "Prof" O'Connell, who is in Spain coaching Olympic squad members and has been replaced by skiff sailor Mel Collins. After day one, the Howth boat lies fifth overall, seven points off second place.
Today's racing is certain to be prefaced with a repeat of yesterday's crowd huddled around the Nowcasting weather service on the event broadband internet link that accurately predicted the arrival of the light easterly breeze in the early afternoon. A gradual increase in wind-strength over the coming days is suggested making any of the current leader-board likely contenders for Saturday's final outcome.
Overall after three races: 1 Hibernian (Lennon and Cagney, Irl 5.50 points); 2 Peugeot Motocycles (T and J Murphy, Irl 23.00); 3 Key Yachting (M and P Hays, Br 26.00); 4 Yachts and Yachting (G Bourke, Br 27.00); 5 Aquatack (D Faherty, Irl 30.00); 6 Ba Mizu (Cummings and Hegney, Irl 30.00).
l Results provisional - subject to protests.
