Colm Barrington's chartered Whitbread 60 ft yacht Jeep Cherokee is heading for a course record in the 704-mile Cork Dry Gin Round Ireland Race. High winds off the west and north coasts have favoured the 64-foot yacht that has surfed northwards in the huge rolling seas for which the boat was designed.
Close behind is 83-foot maxi Bridgestone F1, with Irish Times journalist Johnny Watterson on board. But the smaller boat has a definite edge due largely to the water ballasting, which adds considerable power to the rig. Yesterday afternoon, Barrington had an estimated three-hour lead over his main rival.
Both boats were inside Lawrie Smith's 1990 record of 84 hours and 56 minutes, and they must finish before 03.26 tomorrow morning to set a course time. Jeep's substantial lead has also delivered the overall handicap lead, in spite of a Channel Handicap rating of 1.5. Further fresh to strong conditions today should maintain this advantage.
The only factor that could alter the current scenario is a major breakage such as mast failure. This problem beset the 1996 winner, Michael Boyd, who was navigator on Chez Youen, his J35 skippered this time round by Youen Jacob Jnr, of Baltimore SC. At 01.30 yesterday morning, the constant pounding upwind over the previous 36 hours took its toll when the forestay fitting came apart.
Although the crew managed to keep the rig upright using spare halyards, it had started to become severe at deck level and the crew was forced to retire from the race. Six hours later, Jacob and his team arrived into Kinsale to begin the repair operation and inevitable "debriefing" at one of the town's many hospitable hostelries.
Later on, two more boats retired: Joliba of the Wicklow SC team pulled out with steering gear problems, and Banzai from Wales retired due to unspecified reasons.
Then, late in the afternoon, Army New Age Services had Valentia Lifeboat on stand-by after their mast failed in heavy conditions off the Blaskets. The Beneteau 43s5 managed to cut the rig free and stood the lifeboat down when their engine was running once again. In all cases, there were no reports of injuries.
This section of coast is invariably the make or break point in this race, and crews which reach the Atlantic have the worst of their race over.
Tom O'Connor's Air Corps crew on Sunday Times has moved into third place in class one CHS and is fourth overall behind Keep on Smiling, from Pwellhi in Wales. The Sigma 400 has a highly experienced offshore racing crew, but O'Connor's Prima 38 is just 17 seconds behind on handicap. The fleet is well spread out and overall handicap positions are hard to rely on.
Other boats reporting in include Janey Mac II and Interlink Express/Today FM. Both are neck and neck off the west coast, but yesterday afternoon the pair were encountering heavy following seas on their passage north from the Blaskets. Todd Forsyth, on Interlink Express/Today FM reported, blowing out two spinnakers within a short time and were running under mainsail only. Their former Admiral's Cupper prefers lighter weather and steering dead downwind was particularly hazardous.
