British crews gaining strong grip at Skerries

Richard Estaugh and his crew Simon Potts moved decisively into first overall yesterday in the Heineken-sponsored GP14 World Championship at Skerries. Approaching today's halfway stage in the seven-race series, the pair from Chase Sailing Club in Britain have a clear 6.25

point advantage over the second placed boat in the 143-strong fleet.

Crews were at sea for over eight hours as light winds off the

Fingal coast made for minimal racing conditions. A large number of protests had been received last night by the race committee and results were provisional.

In spite of the near calm conditions, the wind direction remained reasonably consistent throughout the two races and only varied by as little as 10 degrees.

Irish boats fared better in the first race of the day but slipped badly on the overall provisional results that emerged late last night. Going into races four and five today, just two boats are barely in the top 20 as an all British line-up dominates the front end of the fleet. However, a forecast cold front with associated rain and wind may affect conditions and consequent form for some of these boats.

Irish Olympic hopeful Donal Byrne with Allen Parker, from Clontarf

YBC and Skerries SC respectively, jumped to eighth overall following yesterday's first race, raising hopes that they were improving from

10th overall after the first day. However, a 39th followed in the afternoon and the Irish crew plummeted down to 16th going into today's racing.

A 10th in race two brought Peter and Brian O'Hara up to 19th while

Colman Grimes and Ian Taft from Cobh Sailing Club are now in 24th overall. The Duffin and Penny crewed Alzurra from East Down YC lead the strong Northern Ireland contingent, in 26th place, thanks to a ninth in the morning race.

Nevertheless, as Estaugh prepares to expand his lead and expectation of retaining his world champion title, a considerable gap is starting to emerge on the points table between the top 10 places and the front Irish boats hoping for a high placing within reach of the leader and runner-up places. Currently, a 20-point margin exists between Byrne in 16th and Sunday's leaders Craig Burton and Adrian

Jeffs in 10th.

Clearly, the large fleet size is causing problems for many crews and re-assessment of tactics may be needed. Several leading crews have noted a tendency by many boats to engage other nearby rivals in wasteful duels instead of concentrating on boatspeed and getting away from crowded marks and into clear air. The promise of more wind today could assist many crews but the actual weather on the course remains to be seen.

GP14 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP (at Skerries SC) - Overall after three races: 1 R Estaugh and S Potts; 2 R Instone and C Anderson; 3 N

Marsden and D Hill; 4 N Platt and C Aubrey; 5 N Platt and J Gaskin; 6

T Woods and J Dewhurst; best Irish: 16 D Byrne and A Parker

(CYBC/SSC); 19 P and B O'Hara (CYBC/SSC); 24 C Grimes and I Taft

(Cobh SC). All results provisional.