Fickle wind to play its part

Sailing News: The gun-metal grey topsides of Ireland's newest racing yacht merged with similar coloured clouds in a meteorological conspiracy off Dún Laoghaire yesterday as Eamon Conneelly's Patches tore away from the start line of the Pierse Dún Laoghaire to Dingle Race.

The fresh nor'westerly wind made for ideal conditions under spinnaker and while 300 miles awaited the 34 entrants to regain any losses, smarter sail hoists from the more able crews instilled confidence among the spectators.

The course, southwards to the Tuskar Rock leaving this and other major waypoints to starboard, will bring the fleet into Dingle anytime from this evening onwards. But weather, as always with Irish sailing, is set to play the deciding hand.

Ahead of Patches, the smaller fleet of cruising yachts ranging in size up to 60 feet had a half hour head start and were set to be over-hauled by the Galway yacht off Bray Head. Further south, however, the 20-knot breeze in the opening stage was set to disappear altogether and the fleet faced a race to beat the tidal gate off Wicklow.

About six hours after the start, the leader had 10 miles to sail before reaching the Tuskar Rock but was down to windspeeds of three to six knots but with a following breeze was able to maintain similar boatspeed and still retained a favourable tide.

While the glamour attention may be directed at the Conneelly crew with his Olympic and Americas Cup pros mixing with his regular clubmates from the west coast, the race for overall victory on corrected handicap time is wide open.

The line honours for this event are - gear failure notwithstanding ­ certain to rest with the grey Transpac 52. A new record of less than the current 36 hours will be decided by the fickle wind gods.

Seasoned Corinthian sailors such as Oliver Sheehy's Tiger or the determined Dingle crew on Southbound led by Aodhan Fitzgerald are treating this hunt like any other offshore race and its relatively short distance will mean minimum time off watch as the boats are pushed for maximum speed.