There was plenty of excitement in this tight group of Class 2 boats during mark rounding
With five races now completed at the end of day two of the Saab Irish Cruiser National Championships at Howth, the titles on offer are up for grabs going into the final two races on Sunday, with the overall lead changing hands in three of the four classes.
The exception is 'Wil2Win', the Corby 25 from Pwllheli, which continues to lead Class 2 IRC, but only by half a point from defending champion 'Obsession VI' (Barry & David Rose of RCYC). The Welsh boat posted a 2nd and 10th on the round-the-cans courses set by PRO Derek Bothwell while rival Corby 25 'Kinetic' of Howth notched a third race win and a 3rd to pose a serious threat once its OCS in race one is discarded.
The presence of RTE's Marine Correspondent Tom MacSweeney and his cameraman running alongside them in Dave Murnane's RIB must have given the 'Kinetic' crew that little extra incentive. As it was, they featured prominently on RTE's 'News at Six' bulletin as did Organising Committee Chairman Chris Howard and ICRA Commodore Fintan Cairns.
Curiously, the broadcast was beamed from the RTE van on the club forecourt to a satellite somewhere over Brazil and then bounced back to Montrose, just a few miles south of Howth Head! Such is modern technology!
Consistency in the form of a 5th and 6th was enough to move 'Obsession VI' up to second overall while Colm Dunne's Elan 31 'Grin & Bear It' from Kinsale enjoyed the biggest improvement, moving up three places to third overall.
The stronger winds of day two might not have been to Class 3 leader Vince Gaffney on 'Alliance' but his cause was not helped when a key crewman fell ill before leaving the harbour and had to left ashore. That said, they would have difficulty in stopping Flor O'Driscoll's J24 'Hard on Port' which was flying in the conditions, taking two guns ahead of 'Starlet' (O'Kelly/Walsh/Wormald) and scoring two IRC wins to take over the class leadership from 'Alliance' which nevertheless managed a 4th and 6th.
Class 1 in action
On the windward-leeward courses set by PRO David Lovegrove, there was considerable starting line indiscipline and it was no surprise that the Protest Jury was kept busy after racing. There was also, regrettably, quite a bit of damage inflicted as boats collided in several incidents.
Royal Cork entries continue to dominate proceedings in Class 0, although the order of boats has changed after five races. After such a powerful display on day one with two convincing wins, day two will have been a major disappointment for Anthony O'Leary on 'Antix Eile' which took line honours in two of the three very closely contested races but corrected to 4-5-6 and dropped two places overall.
Biggest gainer was David Dwyer's 'Marinerscove.ie' with two wins and a third to assume the class leadership ahead of Conor Phelan's 'Jump Juice'. Two second places helped Eamonn Rohan's new 'Blondie IV' move up to 4th overall, although five points adrift of third place.
You don't have to be called 'Checkmate' to be noticed in Class 1 but it certainly doesn't hurt, as Mike McCarthy's Ker 32 'Checkmate' from RCYC and the Hyland/Biggs J109 'Checkmate XII' (also called Sail4Cancer) slugged it out for the premier slot. Although the Cork boat scored a 1-2-1 to its similarly named rival's 3-1-2, it is the Dun Laoghaire entry that now heads the class on IRC by just four points.
The previous day's leader 'Contango' (Barry Cunningham, RIYC) dropped two places as a result of a 20% penalty on the fifth race as well as a 3rd and 4th in the other two.
Racing concludes on Sunday 18th May with each class racing one windward-leeward and one round-the-cans race to complete the seven race series.
