Hard-working O'Leary a leading fancy for Howth event

SAILING ALL-IRELAND CHAMPIONSHIPS:PETER O'LEARY starts as one of the favourites for the All-Ireland championships, and that's not just because he is a past winner. Above all else, he says, it is his Beijing preparations that give him an edge off Howth this morning.

A week ago he finished eighth overall against 137 SB3s, a performance that kept Irish heads high in a fleet otherwise dominated by British sailors. It was all the more remarkable because it was a class the Crosshaven sailor had never raced.

Clearly this 25-year-old has talent to match his Olympic training. He estimates he spent 700 hours on the water this season. An average club sailor manages only 80.

It sets him up nicely for the big wind forecast for this afternoon, but of course it is no guarantee. In this event, in unfamiliar boats, there is always uncertainty.

It says enough about O'Leary that he was confident to jump in at the last minute to contest the SB3 title, but even more so that he chose it as a launch event for his 2012 Olympic campaign. O'Leary intends to sail for London with a new crew - Tim Goodbody of Dun Laoghaire.

O'Leary and Goodbody are two of 24 invited helmsmen for this morning's Euro Car Parks-sponsored fixture. Both are in the line-up because of their Olympic regatta participation, where O'Leary sailed the Star keelboat and Goodbody the Finn dinghy.

But having just finished the SB3 event together and announced a new, four-year partnership, the pair split tacks this weekend.

It's an end-of-season quirk of Irish sailing but, love it or hate it, the All-Ireland Championships, having being renamed four times, is a worthy celebration of sailing affairs.

O'Leary's Royal Cork club-mate Stefan Hyde, last year's winner, will be there to defend his title too in a line-up of champions and invited sailors (see panel).

The competition has evolved over time and there is no doubt it struggled in the past to live up to its own billing as Ireland's premier event. As much as the competition produces a champion of champions on water, its value is also a reflection of the state of the national classes.

For example, when Tom Fitzpatrick lifted the trophy in 1998 there were 16 invitations issued. It was staged in 1720s at Royal Cork. The fleet was drawn from 15 invited classes plus the defending champion.

Times have moved on and prosperity means the national authority no longer go cap in hand to different fleets looking for individual owners to lend equipment.

The purchase of its own fleet of eight J80 keelboats in 2007 has allowed an extra eight invitations to be issued and the competition to extend to three days.

It is an expansion, however, that still cannot accommodate all the country's one-design classes. Cruiser racing, not represented at all in 1998, now has four berths. Olympic squad participants, plus wild cards, account for a further seven invitations.There is obvious merit in such inclusion, but not at the expense of classes previously represented.

OCEAN RACE

THE SPECTACLE of two Irish boats competing in the Volvo Ocean Race begins tomorrow lunchtime with the first in-port race off Alicante, Spain, starting at 1pm.

Ian Walker's Green Dragon and Ger O'Rourke's Delta Lloyd will race in the first competition of the new generation Volvo 70 boats.

Live coverage on www.volvooceanrace.org.

ALL-IRELAND SAILING CHAMPIONSHIPS

SENIOR LINE-UP:Martin Byrne (Dragon) Pat O'Neill (E-Boat) David Burrows (Etchells Class) Noel Butler (Fireball Class) Timmy Corcoran (GP14 Class) David Dwyer (ICRA 1) Nigel Biggs (ICRA 2) Neil Spain (ICRA 3) Flor O'Driscoll (ICRA 4) Brian Goggin (Irish 5o5 Class) James Espey (Laser Class) Gareth Flannigan (Laser SB3 Class) Stefan Hyde (2007 Champion) Nicholas O'Leary (Match Race) Adrian Allen (Multihull Class) Timothy Goodbody (Olympic) Peter O'Leary (Olympic) Garrett May (Puppeteer Class) Simon Brien (RS Elite) Derek Mitchell (Ruffian 23) David Dickson (Shannon One-Design) Debbie Hanna (Wild Card) Anthony O'Leary (Wild Card) Mary O'Loughlin (Wild Card).