SAILING: The majority of what looks increasingly like three Irish Commodore's Cup teams will be on the start line of the Saab Irish Cruiser Racing National Championships (ICRA) on Dublin Bay in May.
As well as national championship honours, the regatta will provide the first domestic indication of strength following a flurry of activity that includes the arrival of several new one-off boats.
The first team announcement broke late last year and news yesterday that Colm Barrington, Conor and Denise Phelan and Anthony O'Leary are to be joined by a second ICRA team came as no real surprise.
The Class 1 boat of the second three-boat team is skippered by Dublin Bay Sailing Commodore Tim Costello. Tiamat, a Mills 40, had a very successful first season last year and was a dominant force at the Scottish Series as well as a class winner in Cowes.
The Dublin Bay boat will have Cork and Belfast team-mates. Cork-based Eamonn Rohan is the owner of the newly commissioned Corby 37; she has yet to be named but is going under the working title of Blondie III and will be the Class 2 boat in the team.
Andrew Allen's and Colm Monahan's Belfast-based J 109 No Naked Flames fills the Class 3 boat slot. In 2005, her successes included coming second in her class at Cowes Week, winning Strangford Week and being tied with Anthony O'Leary's Antix at Dún Laoghaire Week, only to finish second on countback.
A third ICRA team has yet to be announced but it is expected Cork boats and possibly a UK boat that satisfies the nationality rule will figure.
While there may be doubt over this third team there is certainty that the season will kick off for these and cruiser-racer crews at the Royal Irish Yacht Club for the third staging of the ICRA Nationals, and over 100 boats are expected.
The event marks one of the biggest occasions for Dún Laoghaire this season and its early billing, May 12th, provides a good start to the season.
Dún Laoghaire aims to build on the ICRA championships in 2007 with the staging of a second Dún Laoghaire week with dates already confirmed in the 2007 calendar as July 12th to 15th.
Brian Craig is back in harness as event chair and aims to increase participation from UK and Cork sailors to a potential fleet size of over 500.
Ireland's Ken Ryan is to be awarded the ISAF's Beppe Croce Trophy in recognition of his major contribution to sailing in Ireland and internationally. He will join a distinguished list of winners that includes King Olav V of Norway, Paul Elvstrom, King Juan Carlos of Spain, Olin Stephens, Mary Pera and, most recently, Paul Henderson.
Making the announcement, the ISAF praised Ken's enormous contribution to the sport over four decades.
Recently retired, in 2004, as ISAF vice president, a position he held since 1998, Ryan's main focus during his 36 years as a volunteer for ISAF was the implementation and ongoing development of the ISAF Race Officials Programme.
Ryan, of Blackrock, Co Dublin, first attended a then IYRU annual conference in 1968 and has not missed a conference since.
He has attended nine Olympic Games in one capacity or another. His first involvement was in 1972 as a member of the Irish team - and he has been at every Olympics since.
Abroad, light winds have hampered starts at this year's Enterprise world dinghy championships in Sri Lanka, which is being led by Britain's Richard Estaugh and Pete Rowley on 16 points.
A Pakistani crew, Mamoon Sadiq and Abdul Hameed, are second with Greystones Sailing Club's Shane McCarthy and Al Fry fourth on 37 points after six races.
