Irish test Cowes water

SAILING: A Dublin Bay assault on the British IRC championships is under way off Cowes this morning but the real aim for two competing Irish crews is practice time on the waters of next month's Commodore's Cup regatta, in which Ireland will field her strongest ever team.

The prospect of a UK title is a reality by Sunday for Voodoo Chile, which arrived on the British south coast this week with unfinished business in mind.

She is joined for the first time by big sister Flying Glove, a 39-foot version of Voodoo launched yesterday by Colm Barrington of the Royal Irish Yacht Club.

Three firsts on day one followed by two seconds and a third in last year's UK IRC championships looked like an unassailable lead for Eamon Crosbie's 32-footer until, as Voodoo's trimmer Alan Crosbie recalls, "a lifejacket mysteriously went missing out of the bag the night before the event", and a subsequent safety check led to her disqualification.

To underline her determination to crack the British fleet Voodoo was back across the water this Easter, winning her class, again in the Solent, at the Red Funnel regatta.

Barrington's new cruiser-racer performed well on her maiden sail yesterday evening and although she goes into the IRC championships without much of a work-up, the blue-hulled boat will be back in Ireland for Cork week after completing the Round Isle of Wight race the weekend after next.

Yesterday, Barrington would not be drawn on his prospects for the weekend but the boat fit-out managed by James Hynes has the potential to be fast out of the box.

Both of these Jason Ker designs form the backbone of a three-boat Irish Rolex Commodore's Cup team instigated by Barrington and Crosbie under the burgee of the national authority, the Irish Cruiser Racer Association.

ICRA commodore Fintan Cairns had to look farther afield for the third member as none of the Commodore's Cup big boats race in this country.

He selected the Mark Mills-designed Fidessa Fastwave, a British yacht owned by Solent racer Chris Brown; it will sail with a 50 per cent Irish crew to satisfy the nationality rule.

On board Flying Glove is Cowes professional Eddie Warden Ocean.

Illbruck navigator Ian Moore of Northern Ireland has been drafted into the Voodoo crew.

May's Scottish series winner, Anthony O'Leary's Antix, is the ideal small boat for a second Irish team for the Commodore's Cup yet, regrettably, the lack of suitable team-mates from the south coast - plus an already packed domestic season to include Cork week and Calves week - makes a Cork entry unlikely at this stage.

At home, Anna Brook, RORC's scrutineer, has advised that liferaft stowage will come under greater scrutiny from next Wednesday when the BMW Round Ireland fleet assembles in the east-coast harbours of Dún Laoghaire and Wicklow for mandatory safety inspections.

New ISAF rules make it plain that liferafts should be stowed in rigid canisters.

Older boats continue to carry rafts in a soft valise but scrutineers will ensure they are stowed below decks to avoid their being knocked about and make them less vulnerable to water ingress.

IRISH COMMODORE'S CUP TEAM FOR COWES: Flying Glove (IRL 2006) - Colm Barrington, James Hynes, Nigel Biggs, Ian O'Meara, Frank Rotschild, Aidan Keating, David Cullen, Niki Potterton, Jim Houston, Eddie Warden Owen; Voodoo Chile (IRL 3232) - Eamon Crosbie, Alan Crosbie, David Crosbie, Stefan Hyde, Fergus Kelly, Ross Nolan, Jonathan Coate, Ian Moore; Fidessa-Fastwave (GBR 2R) - Chris Brown, Jamie Boag, Peter Harding, Johnnie Mordaunt, Tim Thubron, Adam Cowley, Greg O'Hagan, Dave Hassett, Steve Pile, Mick Liddy, Vicky Ling, Mark Heuchan, Neil Morton, Peter Bresnan.