Velvet Glove dominant

Colm Barrington and the crew of Velvet Glove stamped their authority on the fleet of 225 boats gathered at Howth for the final Heineken Autumn League of the millennium and the last major event of this season. A no-nonsense overall victory with six out of six race wins in Class One made them the lowest scoring boat. Barrington's winning formula, unique in these waters, left the rest of Class One standing in the John Corby all-season designed 30-footer, with an approach that combined state-of-the-handicap technology with efficient and familiar crewing.

In 1998, he led the way around Ireland in a water-ballasted 60-footer to take that race in both class and line honours as well as shaving some seven hours off the course record. Although racing inshore this year, his racing was equally as lonely, with leads of several minutes over Jim Hyland's Maxim, his nearest rival at the front of the 25 boat class. Shay Moran and Enda Connellan's Space Odyssey with four wins out of six gave the pair overall victory in Class Two. A premature start in the penultimate race spoilt their chances of the "overall" best boat prize.

Local Roy Dickson and Cracklin' Rosie held off the challenge from Bob Stewart's Great Bear to win by three points: the absence of Trinculo and Infinity made the final race in Class Zero easy for Dickson to cover Stewart in a much reduced class.

In other classes, Howth's David Lovegrove was again beaten by the northern visitors on Jellyroll in the Puppeteers by a one point margin. The Watson's Pathfinder took Class Three once more while the 1720 Sportsboats were eventually resulted in a close finale when the Reilly and Beshoff duo's third place on Saturday gave them the class by two points. And finally, the class that started it all in Howth, the 17 footers was won by Paddy Cronin's Gladys with a clear six point margin.