SAILING/DUN LAOGHAIRE REGATTA:A 33-YEAR-OLD local yacht took top prize from a combined fleet of 420 competitors at Ireland's biggest regatta, in Dún Laoghaire yesterday afternoon.
A three-year campaign and a winter of modifications helped secure the overall win for the immaculately prepared vintage quarter-tonner Supernova, skippered by Ken Lawless.
In a hard battle for honours in the biggest class of the regatta, Supernova, of the Royal Irish YC, overhauled Hard on Port (Flor O’Driscoll) of the Royal St George YC by five seconds to win yesterday’s final, sixth race for Class III and lift the overall Volvo Trophy for the best performance of the regatta.
The biennial event drifted to a light air conclusion, in stark contrast to how it started four days earlier when yachts in the huge boat fleet were dismasted in strong easterly winds and big seas.
Yesterday’s final rounds marked a major achievement for the organisers, who ran more than 200 races over nine courses in 25 classes.
In a season of successes for the vintage Dubois Starflash design, Dún Laoghaire sailor Lawless and his partners, Sybil McCormack and Pat Shannon, had already won class honours in June’s Lambay race. The quarter-tonner had taken overall honours, too, in Dublin Bay Sailing Club’s first series.
Part of the reason for the success has been a winter of overhauls to the 1978 design, including extra downwind sail area and improved stability with the relocation of its floorboards.
The improvements brought about better performances downwind, especially in light airs.
The vintage boat from the old IOR handicap days is, in fact, a carbon copy of the famous 1979 Admiral’s Cup two-tonner Police Car, a boat that has held huge appeal for Lawless.
“We were second to Hard on Port at this regatta two years ago when they won boat of the week, so there was intense rivalry today but we knew we could do it,” Lawless said last night.
Across the fleets there were a number of other successes for local boats too.
Howth campaigners Norbert Reilly and Alan Chambers, sailing Crazy Horse, held off a strong challenge from the Clyde to win the biggest IRC Zero fleet of the season with 14 competing boats.
Scottish visitors, though, claimed second and third overall. Steven Cowie’s Beneteau 40, Zephyr, from Royal Gourock, was four points behind the Howth winner, with the Dufour 42 Grand Cru from Clyde Cruising Club three points further adrift.
Tim Goodbody’s clean sweep of the Sigma 33 class this weekend, with five wins, completes a month of success that began with national championship honours on Belfast Lough prior to claiming class two honours at Kinsale’s Sovereign’s Cup a fortnight ago.
There was more one-design success from locals David Gorman and Chris Doorly in their Flying Fifteen Hyfive. The pair, who won the national title on Dublin Bay this month, were in commanding form again, but the guest appearance of J24 sailor Bryan Maguire, with Ben Mulligan, spoiled a faultless scorecard in race five.
