Fifteens decided on tiebreaker

Having led the Flying Fifteen National Championship since Friday, Gerry Donleavy and Barry Hayes found themselves relegated to second place yesterday in a cruel twist of fate. Tied with Justin Burke and Alan Green, both boats found themselves on equal points after the six race series at Heineken Dinghy Week ended and the tiebreaker was brought into play.

Neil Spain and Andy Davitt rose to the top of the 420 class to win their National Championship battle that started on Thursday. Local Mirror world champion Martin Maloney, with Brendan Heffernan, had looked set to take the title after a good start to the event, but were gradually beaten out of second place. Outright victory in the largest fleet at the event was hardly a problem for multiple world champion Richard Estaugh from Britain sailing with Shane McCarthy. However, a late drive by Greystone's Roy and Neil Van Maanen saw them rise from seventh overall to overtake the previous best Irish boat and finish second. Sean Craig and Karena O'Rourke had to settle for third place in the 33 boat fleet.

Rob Bateman and Marcia Dalton moved up the standings in the Portsmouth Yardstick fleet to overtake the Laser 2 leaders and take first overall in their International 14 foot skiff. Ironically, the Laser 2 class had just three boats competing this year while in 1997, their World Championship was held in conjunction with Dinghy Week and attracted over 100 boats.

Meanwhile, the Halidon Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race ended on Friday with Cormac Twomey's Sarah J taking line honours and Michael Horgan's Emircedes, the smallest boat in the race winning overall on handicap. Twomey and his crew eventually caught up on the fleet having parked off Dalkey at the start in a wind hole in which they also tore a spinnaker.