SAILING:AFTER AN intense two-boat battle, George Kenefick emerged as overall winner of the Waterways Ireland ISA Sailing championship at Lough Derg yesterday.

His crew was Mel Collins and John Downey. The 23-year-old Crosshaven sailor defeated two-times past winner and Olympic veteran Mark Mansfield only on tie-break after an eight race series.

Sixteen national class champions started the championship on Saturday morning where Kenefick bettered Mansfield in their flight with a strong opening performance by both crews.

The afternoon saw the surprise exit of Anthony O’Leary, also of the Royal Cork Yacht Club who has been a frequent runner-up in recent championships that was won by his son Nicholas for the past three years.

The Irish Cruiser Racing Association (ICRA) class zero national champion scored a fifth in his first race on Saturday followed by a disqualification for an early start. Victory in the third race wasn’t enough to prevent O’Leary exiting the competition even before the final round.

By the end of yesterday morning’s first race of five in the final round, there was widespread expectation that the event would be a continuation of Kenefick and Mansfields’ evenly-matched battle from day one.

Only as the two boats went into the rain and near gale swept final race was the winning scenario clear: Mansfield had a slim lead but a win in the sixth race for the younger helm with another boat in second could deny Mansfield his third appearance on the Irish Dinghy Racing Association silver salver.

And that was exactly what came to pass.

Kenefick delivered his fourth race win while the Laser SB3 national champion Ben Duncan held his own against Mansfield who was forced into third place. The margin between first and second was only half a boat-length so the outcome to the event might easily have been different.

The dualling pair were tied on points so the tie-break of the most race wins decided the event, only by the slimmest of margins.