Optimist first for Lisa Tait

After a gruelling 11-race series, Lisa Tait of the Royal Cork Yacht Club emerged as the first Irish boat to win the Optimist National Championship at Howth YC yesterday. Placed third overall, the winner was Luke Patience of the Royal Northern & Clyde YC with Tom Smedley of Hayling Island second.

The new Irish champion could have placed higher overall having held the overall lead going into yesterday's three races. However, Dun Laoghaire sailor Conor Byrne was proving a serious threat to the 13 year old's command of the series and defensive tactics were required to successfully win the national title.

The event was sailed in mostly light airs that rarely exceeded 10 knots and introduced the complication of strong tides on the course. Nevertheless, the 106 boats racing in the main fleet appeared to have considerable difficulty in their starting procedure.

The principal race officer was constantly obliged to take the highly unusual measure of asking rescue boats to usher the fleet to the correct side of the line, even inside the one-minute pre-start period. Only the dreaded black flag, with instant disqualification for offending boats, had the desired effect of keeping the fleets in check.

Meanwhile, on the southern side of the Howth peninsula, a fleet of almost 60 boats will today reach the conclusion of the GP14 Championship of Ireland. Timed to coincide with the UK Bank Holiday weekend, the competitors will be hoping for better conditions at Sutton following a seven-hour stint afloat yesterday to get just one race.

Damian Bracken and Allen Parker of Clontarf and Skerries lead the home challenge for the title in third overall while Carl Jeffs and Jim Toothil from Trimpley Sailing Club hold the overall lead. At Baltimore SC in West Cork, the Enterprise National Championship ended on Saturday with a convincing win for Richard Estaugh from Britain. Best of the Irish in the eight-race series was Sean Craig in second place followed by Tim Redmond in third. Fifty boats competed with a full range of conditions.

Colm Barrington and the crew of Gloves Off won the annual Bank of Scotland (Ireland) Challenge after a close but decisive four race series yesterday. The new Corby 38 footer is virtually unbeatable after a season of victories at every major event.

Three race wins plus a second in the no-discard series secured the overall win across the four eligible classes in the event. A narrow points was the major deciding factor but the Dublin Bay Sailing Club organisers also looked to finishing times in deciding the final winner.

As usual, Roy Dickson's Cracklin Rosie was the main contender in class zero just four points behind. Both boats had virtually a private class on the points table with a substantial gap between them and the other nine boats.

However, it was in the other classes that the Howth flag flew high. Ian Switzer's Lethal Weapon won class one just ahead of Dun Laoghaire's Scenario Encore. Similarly in class two, Howth's Superhero beat Space Odyssey from the Royal Irish YC by another small margin.

In the Sigma 33 fleet, the first year that a one-design class has been permitted to take part in this event, the tie-breaker had to be used to separate Blue Peregrine and Gwili Two for first place. The latter lost out but the high-scores involved meant that the Sigmas were not in the running for the overall trophy.