Irish celebrate famous victory

SAILING:Dublin's Colm Barrington has taken overall class honours in Cowes week with two days to spare following a string of consistent finishes in an 18­boat class one fleet.

The prospect of an Irish win loomed large since Wednesday when Dún Laoghaire's Barrington lifted the prestigious Britannia trophy for his midweek performance in the TP52 Flash Glove. Barrington put together a string of consistent results since Sunday (2nd, 4th, 1st, 1st, 1st, 2nd) in the 18­boat fleet but yesterday saw the most difficult conditions so far, Solent winds reaching only six knots from the northeast.

Yesterday evening a protest against the Royal Irish helmsman for alleged use of an anchor during the drifting conditions threatened to halt the string of top placings but the protest was thrown out and with that news came confirmation of his overall win. Barrington will end the eight-race series on 11 points and does not need to count results from today's or tomorrow's rounds.

At home a 30­year tradition continues this weekend with the sixth staging of the Enterprise World Championships, but with entries only a quarter of the size of the class in its hey-day, 2007 is most likely its last on Irish waters.

The Royal Irish Yacht Club (RIYC) has received an entry of just 19 boats from five countries, including Ireland, for Sunday's first of eight races under the international race officer Jack Roy.

Sadly, the numbers are a far cry from 1979, when Sligo Yacht Club in Rosses Point staged the first world championships with a fleet of 115 boats.

The fleet was back eight years later at the Royal Cork with an entry of over 80, and in 1994 they raced again with a similar sized fleet in Ballyholme, Belfast Lough.

The championship fleet were off the Wicklow coast when Bray SC started a fleet of 104 boats in the 1998 world series. They sailed at Crosshaven again in 2004 with a fleet of 70.

Three years later the blue sails are back on Irish waters for a sixth time, but in its 51st year an international collapse - caused principally, according to some insiders, by the loss of Asian Games status - has reduced it to virtually a local fleet.

Signs of the decline in the 14­foot two-man dinghy were evident at home as late as last year when just nine boats turned up for the Irish Championships in Waterford.

WEEKEND FIXTURES

Fastnet race, Cowes, Isle of Wight; Feva National Championships, Royal St George YC; Cruiser Regatta, Galway Bay Sailing Club; 17-footer championships, Howth Yacht Club; Warrenpoint Regatta, Carlingford Sailing Club; Crookhaven Regatta, Crookhaven Sailing Club; Topaz Westerns, Mullaghmore; Sailing Club Regatta, Schull Sailing Club; Enterprise World Championship, Royal Irish YC.