SAILING ROUND-UP:NEWLY CROWNED All-Ireland Sailing Champion, 23-year-old student George Kenefick, is back on the water again this week, in pursuit of the Student Yachting World Cup, a title he won three years ago in a major boost for Irish varsity sailing.
Kenefick, the youngest competitor in last weekend’s All-Ireland event, won by the narrowest of margins on Lough Derg, beating Olympic helm Mark Mansfield on the tie-break rule.
Next week he leads Ireland’s only entry into the 13-nation event at the French port of La Trinité-sur-Mer in southern Britanny.
There’s good reason why the Cork’s student winning form might continue, not withstanding the strength of the competition that includes two British entries among the 15 teams for the 31st edition of the Cup.
Firstly, this Cork Institute of Technology crew have lifted the world title before on these same French waters and secondly, because Kenefick’s eight-strong crew (five male/three female) have already notched up some notable 2011 victories, not least the national class three championship sailing Kenefick’s quarter tonner, Tiger.
It is Kenefick’s fourth appearance at the cup, his second as skipper. The CIT crew include: Joe Bruen, Kevin Goulding, Aidan MacLaverty, Donagh Good, Maria Connolly, Gemma Twohig and Judy O’Brien.
Ireland is making an early move to defend the Commodore’s Cup it won in Cowes in 2010. Yesterday the Irish Cruiser Racing Association announced it is seeking expressions of interest from owners to form an Irish team for next July’s competition.
The association’s Commodore Barry Rose says despite the current difficult environment he remains hopeful of mounting a serious defence.
The association says it has waited until now to allow the maximum time to those who might consider the challenge.
The regatta format has been changed by event organisers, the Royal Ocean Racing Club, for the three boat team event. The smallest boat will now have a minimum rating of 1.020 with the biggest boat maximum rating of 1.230. There will be only one boat per team allowed to rate in excess of 1.150. This means there will no longer be three separate classes so race starts will be ‘‘all in affairs’’ for the team championship.
In Cork at the O’Flynn Exham’s autmun regatta the 1720 keelboat continues its revival.
Last weekend’s blustery conditions putting boat handling at a premium in the five-man sportsboat class. Denis Murphy’s 1720 Aquatack from Royal Cork took the honours followed by Peter O’Flynn’s Two 2 Tango.
On Belfast Lough the top four boats in the third race of the Mackey Eyecare Autumn Series finished within a minute of each other on corrected time. Ken Halliwell sailing Chain Gang was only 16 seconds ahead of Ian Wilson’s Respect.
