Antix lifts trophy with Class Zero win

SAILING:A LONG weekend of miracle-like conditions on Dublin Bay decided the Irish Cruiser Racing Association's national titles for 2010 yesterday with Anthony O'Leary and the crew of Antix lifting the trophy for their Class Zero victory in the Liebherr Cruiser Championships, one of eight overall winners in the three-day series.

Blazing sunshine over the weekend since Friday delivered a reasonable sea-breeze each day that allowed the combined talents of Dublin Bay Sailing Club, the Royal Irish, Howth and hosts Royal St George Yacht Clubs to deliver a full race programme with minimal delays.

Only two disputes over IRC-handicap certificates threatened to upset proceedings when incorrect ratings were produced by two boats – one for a higher handicap and the other for a lower one – after the official deadline for entries had expired.

David Dwyer was defending his 2009 Class Zero national title on marinerscove.ie but a shaky start to the series on Friday with two fourth places handed his Commodore’s Cup and Royal Cork YC team-mate O’Leary an advantage and ultimately sealed his fate by one point for second place.

Yesterday saw Dwyer bag two wins, thanks in part to the powerful Code Zero spinnaker on marinerscove.ie but to no avail. Instead, Dwyer collected the ECHO overall win for the class.

Paul O’Higgins’ Rockabill V convincingly retained the Class One national title, counting no fewer than five wins in the seven-race series.

With a 19-point lead in the bag, Tony Fox’s Gringo led the charge of the remainder of the 30-boat class to take second place in a hotly-contested battle for the runner-up places.

Rockabill wasn’t always going to have such an easy run in the class as visiting Cork entry Jelly Baby seemed a significant threat early in the series.

However, the rating certificate problem affected their results and they were dropped down the fleet but secured the ECHO trophy for the class.

It was a similar picture in Class Two for John Murphy and Richard Colwell on Kinetic, the Howth duo who successfully defended their 2009 title though by a slimmer margin than Rockabill.

They counted two race wins plus some top-five places in a three-way battle with fellow Corby 25-footers Thunderbird and Yanks and Francs, both from the Royal Cork YC while Slack Alice from Waterford Harbour Sailing Club became the Class Two ECHO national champion.

There was a strong Cork flavour in the outcome of the much-anticipated showdown amongst the small boats of Class Three with 2009 winner, Jackie Ward’s Hallmark from Clifden Boat Club, unable to defend.

The 2008 class champion, Cobh sailor Flor O’Driscoll, was sailing on his adoptive home waters of Dublin Bay over the weekend, again on J24 Hard On Port.

However, after settling into the series on Friday, Neil Kennefick’s Fauroux Quarter Tonner “Z” clipped off four straight wins to beat O’Driscoll into second place, while Howth J24 Jibberish picked up the ECHO championship title.