Cup winners begin to emerge off Cork coast

YESTERDAY'S RACING off Kinsale in the Cork Dry Gin Sovereign's Cup, as the five-day series reaches its halfway stage, saw the emergence of the potential winners of several classes. There was also criticism, from some quarters, for race officials and results are provisional overnight.

Anthony O'Leary's Ford Racing has established a clear lead, on 10 points, in the 32-boat 1720 Sportsboat class as several key Dublin boats found form in a front pack of five crews. Mark Mansfield has been overtaken by Atlanta Olympic colleague Mark Lyttle in Bond Girl. Lyttle shares second with Raz Beshoff's Vuarnet and Mansfield is just half a point behind these two current runners-up. Joe English and Neil Kennefick are another six points behind him in fifth overall.

Yesterday also saw 10 1720's disqualified for premature starts, while the afternoon racing was delayed two hours after one boat fouled the limit mark and the ground tackle was lost freeing the boat.

In other classes, John Godkin's VSOP leads class one on Channel Handicap, while Philip Watson's Pathfinder from Howth Yacht Club leads class two, albeit under pressure from local favourite Bullfrog who has recovered form after a navigational error in Monday's first race.

Class three ECHO is led overall by Challenger from the Royal Cork YC skippered by Tim and Mark Ring, while the four-boat Holland Eleven Metre One-design class is completely dominated by Shawn Kingston's Wild Thing.