SAILING/Round-up: A third race setback in an otherwise strong performance may yet cost an Irish Dragon trio the Edinburgh Cup as the final race of the six-race series gets under way off Cowes this morning.
Lying second overall to Olympic gold medallist helmsman Pol-Rikard Hoj-Jensen, fickle winds have failed to thwart Andrew Craig, Anthony Shanks and Graham Elmes, who won the opening race. The consistent Hoj-Jensen has notched up four results in the top five. Craig's steady sailing was paying off, too - he followed his win with a fifth- and a second-placing over long courses until a light-air race saw him caught in the mid-20s. It will be a result that Craig will be anxious to discard this morning but one that nevertheless gives the Danish leader a greater lever for victory.
Wednesday's race followed a postponement due to light winds and Craig had to weigh up the prospect of a stronger flood tide on the right of the course or the expected building wind on the left of the Peel bank. The majority of the 47-boat fleet went for the tide which unfortunately did not pay. Craig trailed home in 25th and his club-mate Neil Hegarty finished 27th.
In Scotland, the big IRC Handicap class and the 1720 One Designs produced two Irish class wins but not before racing went right to the wire at the Bell Lawrie Series at Tarbert, Loch Fyne, last week.
In IRC 1, a David and Goliath match race developed at various stages between Bob and Bairbre Stewart's 40-foot Dubois-designed Dublin boat Azure and the 65-foot Swan ketch of Richard Loftus, Desperado.
As Dave Ovington's Mumm 30 ran out the day's winner and both Desperado and Azure finished with their worst scores of the regatta, the class win overall was Azure's by just two points.
The result, however, was secured in the absence of arch rival Gloves Off which made a dramatic exit from the series when the 38-footer, having won the first offshore race, was dismasted shortly after rounding the top mark on the second inshore race in gale-force winds.
Anthony O'Leary escaped back to Cork with the 1720 class honours after a miraculous recovery in the final race. They came back from 10th to fifth to win overall from Tarbert helm Ruaraidh Scott on King Quick, which has now finished second for three years in-a-row.
