Kinsale yacht in search for body

SAILING/Round-Up: Kinsale yacht Rapparee assisted in this week's search for the body of a British yachtsman who was sailing across the Atlantic with his brother when he fell overboard in high seas.

The skipper of the 53-foot Cork yacht, Tim O'Kennedy (42), relayed messages to the coastguard during a search of the area in the mid-Atlantic as the Irish vessel was equipped with the latest Sat-coms and SSB radios for rescue co-ordination.

Phil Hitchcock, a police officer with Kent police for 27 years, was piloting the 53ft-yacht Toutazimut with his brother, David (52), from Las Palmas in Grand Canaria to St

Lucia in the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC), when he fell overboard. It is unclear how Mr Hitchcock fell from the boat on Saturday, but his brother David sent a Mayday message and other competitors, including Rapparee, a North Island type yacht, taking part in the race rushed to the scene.

David Hitchcock managed to haul his dead brother onto a dinghy, which he towed behind the yacht, but the weight made it difficult to make progress. On the advice of the coastguard, he cut loose the dinghy, which has a beacon giving its position. Organisers of the race said yesterday the high seas meant it was still too dangerous to attempt a recovery.

Simon Walker, managing director of Challenge Business, which runs the event, said: "We still do not know exactly what happened. We know Phil was at the boom end of the boat."

The brothers were almost half way into the 2,700-mile rally from the Canary Islands to St Lucia, when Toutazimut was hit by storms.

"We do not know what injuries he sustained. Our focus now is on David and making sure he is okay sailing on alone without his brother," said Walker.

Other Irish entrants in the event include Hark (Event Sailing), Maelduin (Patrick Blaney), Megawat (Phillip Watson), Sandpiper (Eugene Bannon) and Yvanna Nova (David and Bairbre Gould).

At home next June's Sovereign's Cup fixture, off Kinsale, will also comprise the National Championships for class two, the largest cruiser fleet in the country, under both IRC and ECHO handicap systems. Regatta director Pat Pyne and chairman of the Southern Region Echo Committee Denis Kiely have liaised with the Irish Sailing Association (ISA) to bring about the championship.

The ISA is in the process of forming a cruiser class two association to lay down national regulations such as handicap class bands.

Cork sailor Diarmuid Foley has announced a continuation of his Mumm 30 challenge to start at Key West regatta, Florida, early next year. Foley finished eighth in a fleet of 45 boats at the 2001 world championship in Sardinia but his 2002 world championship was marred by a collision in the second race, ruling his team out of the series.

Using the core of his 2002 world championship crew - fellow Royal Cork sailors Roy Darrer (trimmer) and Hugh Cassidy (Pitman). They will be joined by Maurice O'Connell as tactician, the UK's Rob Greenhalgh (sail trimmer), O'Connell's brother, Aidan (mastman) and Waterford boatbuilder Clifford Nicholson (bowman).