SAILING/Fastnet Race: Irish boats departed Cowes on a high yesterday after the conclusion of Skandia Cowes Week on Saturday which was followed by the start of the Rolex Fastnet Race. It was an exciting week that saw three major classes dominated by the small fleet from across the Irish Sea.
The set of results produced by Eamon Conneely's Patches, Tim Costello's Tiamat and Colm Barrington's Flying Glove in Classes zero, one and two, respectively, is a hat-trick without precedent in Irish sailing history.
None of the three Irish boats needed to sail in Saturday's finale to Cowes Week. In the case of Flying Glove and Tiamat, both had victories in their respective classes by Friday evening. They sailed the last race anyway, prospecting for the overall event win on IRC handicap.
But entries for the Fastnet Race opted out of Saturday's programme having lost hope of securing premier class trophies and preferring to prepare for the big offshore race.
Without these boats, the formula for deciding the overall win worked against Barrington and Costello with the former taking second overall in these stakes.
Conneely's Galway Bay Sailing Club boat, at the head of Class Zero, was keenly watching the Kerr 55-footer Aera, her main rival. Without her, Patches had the class won and so opted out to focus on the 608-mile race.
Patches is joint favourite with Aera for the IRC-handicap win and hit the start line yesterday afternoon with clear intent. Double-Olympic Gold medallist Shirley Robertson helmed the gun-metal grey TP52 perfectly into a cauldron of white water kicked up by a clutch of big boats almost double Patches' size.
With a strong flood tide ripping up the Solent, tacticians would opt for either the island or mainland shore to avoid the worst effects of the stream.
Led by Patches, cheekily dicing with the mighty 100-foot Kiwi sled Maximus, the squadron cannon thundered the race start just yards away from the inner-limit mark as the fastest leaders ducked into the shore and the away from the worst of the tide.
Patches was left standing as Maximus powered through the surf on her westward course along the Solent towards Hurst Castle and the exit into clearer water and hopefully, free breeze.
Astern of Patches, the giant Leopard of London, at 95-feet, was being fed dirty air as the two leaders powered ahead in the 10-knot breeze.
Within an hour of the start, Patches skipper Ian Walker was in trouble as breeze had deserted the island side of the course.
The big boats had overhauled the smaller classes and were level with other Irish boats such as Aodhan Fitzgerald and Yannick Monnier, racing two-handed on Southbound Again, and former round Ireland race winning yachts, Eamon Crosbie's Teng Tools from the National YC and Cavatina from the Royal Cork.
Aera was level with Patches and Leopard while Maximus had delivered its expected "horizon job". Then came the decider. Exiting the Solent at Hurst Narrows, the choice was the North Channel to avoid the infamous Shingles Bank or south along the island shore to the Needles Light.
Further ahead, having taken the North Channel option, Kieran Jameson on Changeling from Howth YC was enjoying a light breeze in his Sigma 38, performing well entering Christchurch Bay but could have warned Walker & Co of what the other option offered.
Having committed to the Needles option the Galway team were left parked in zero wind and just the young ebb tide helping them westwards towards home.
A long race lies ahead with the first boats not expected at the Plymouth finish before tomorrow evening. With the breeze playing games, the 80th anniversary of the world's first offshore race is open to call.
