Boulter steals the thunder in light airs from Barrington

SAILING: In a thrilling light airs finale to Ford Cork Week, Colm Barrington on Gloves Off succumbed to Richard Boulter's Thunder 2 on the harbour course yesterday afternoon. Elsewhere, Irish boats had a mixed bag of results but in general fared better than in recent years. Popular opinion, too, declared the event a success with improvements in key areas.

Barrington had held an overnight lead of a single point from tied second place holders Thunder 2 and Paul Winkelmann's Swan 60, Island Fling. If the latter boat won yesterday's final race and Gloves Off came second, the pair would have tied and the bigger boat would win on tie-breaks. If Barrington came second to the smaller boat, he would be tied again but would win on the incredibly tight margin of the sixth tie-break.

Starting in less than six knots of wind off Weaver's Point, Gloves Off and Island Fling took to the shore as the flood tide peaked. Boulter, further back, was buried among larger boats and lost ground immediately. By the second mark, Fling was in trouble and losing time to Barrington. Thunder 2, meanwhile, lost more ground and time after being carried wide of the mark; the race and event win was looking good for the Dun Laoghaire boat.

Breeze filling in from behind approaching the famous Cobh turning mark saw Gloves Off and Island Fling just minutes apart. But the breeze and tide had swept Thunder back into contention. While Winkelmann was now out of contention, Barrington engaged Boulter in an apparently pointless duel approaching the finishing line. Distracted, Gloves Off saw Roy Dickson on Cracklin' Rosie creep up the standings and nip ahead to take second place on corrected time, denying Barrington a show-down on the tie-breaks as Thunder rolled across the finish, first on corrected handicap time.

Meanwhile, Grenville Snowden's Sigma 38 Prophet, from Hamble, became the inaugural overall winner of the event across all 20 classes. Based on a complex system devised by Jamie McWilliam and Bob McPherson, the prize measured the performance of all the top boats in every class.

Dun Laoghaire Class Five winner Humphrey Go-Kart had appeared a certain contender for this prize but a slip midway through the series spoilt a string of first places and Eamon Crosbie's crew had to be content with third place overall.

In Class Seven, Sydney 2000 Paralympian John Twomey scored a fifth place yesterday to recover to third overall having led the 36-strong class for the first half of the week. In the feature class, the IRM High performance fleet, Glynn Williams's Corel 45 took a fourth in the Harbour course to win from Nick Hewson's Farr 52 Team Tonic is a hotly contested series.

In spite of widespread concern among the 'Grand Prix' classes of the IRM High Performance and IRC Zero fleets regarding what one prominent professional sailor described as "substandard", there was ringing endorsement of the level of organisation this year compared to 2000. With the exception of several cases of over-charging, visiting crews were ecstatic in their praise of the event.

Improvement this year centred on a deliberate reduction in numbers permitted. Although the self-imposed limit of 500 boats was allowed to rise to 540, there was a noticeable difference in crowds and space while several veterans suggested that Cork Week was returning to its former self. In 2000, entries peaked at a stifling 730 boats, causing congestion both afloat and ashore.

Careful attention to expenditure eliminated wastage. The special television 'station' featuring two comedians each day on a giant screen was absent this year though this was hardly noticed. One report suggested that in 2000, an additional £38,000 was spent on entertainment compared to the previous event.

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