Green Dragon faces crucial decision

SAILING

ADRIAN LEE’S Cookson 50-footer Lee Overlay Partners from the Royal St George YC looks likely to be declared the overall winner of the inaugural Caribbean 600 (mile) Race, which began last weekend and is expecting the remaining finishers in Antigua this weekend.

Line honours fell to the Orma 60-foot multi-hull Region Guadaloupe, while Mike Slade’s super-maxi ICAP Leopard was first of the mono-hulls.

Lee’s time for the course was 15 hours later than Slade’s at 60 hours, 45 minutes and 40 seconds, but that was good enough to claim the Class One and overall victories on IRC handicap, subject to official ratification.

Meanwhile, the Maritime Safety Directorate (MSD) of the Department of Transport has issued a marine notice for May’s Volvo Ocean Race stop-over in Galway.

Commercial operators of spectator boats, as well as those offering ferry services to and from the moorings of the expected fleet of spectators, are reminded that current passenger boat licences are required.

Vessels with existing licences from outside the Galway area must obtain a temporary change of operating plying limits.

Officers will patrol the bay during the event to ensure the rules are complied with.

The MSD also notes that the organisers have produced an approved water activities safety plan, involving the marshalling and control of spectator craft during the coastal race events.

Finally, Irish Olympian Tim Goodbody was yesterday obliged to confirm that he was not involved in an incident on Dublin Bay a week ago that is now the subject of several inquiries.

The incident is understood to have involved a Laser dinghy and a Rib, when the occupants of the Rib were thrown from the boat which then collided with the dinghy.

The National Yacht Club and Irish Sailing Association have confirmed the incident is being investigated and that the Beijing athlete was not involved.

Green Dragon faces crucial decision

THE NEXT few days are likely to prove decisive for Green Dragon in the Volvo Ocean Race as the fleet passes Fiji and begins the final approach to the first scoring-gate far to the east of Auckland.

Light winds block the path south, and skipper Ian Walker is certain further compression will occur in the pack as they prepare to enter the Southern Ocean en route to Brazil.

“We’ve done really well out in the east,” he told The Irish Times by satellite phone yesterday. “But the weather’s changing all the time. If we have to go west of Fiji to stay with them we’ll trail by 50 miles.”

However, his team is prepared to continue sailing their own tactics rather than cover the leaders, and once again he acknowledged that “we’re not the fastest boat on the water, that’s for sure!”

Nevertheless, Walker remains pleased with their progress, aside from a problem with their radar that makes spotting rain clouds in the doldrums impossible at night.

“The best route is straight through Fiji, so a decision is likely today on which option to take,” he said.

Overall leader Torben Grael on Ericsson 4 maintains a vice-like grip on the lead.