Positions as clear as mud

The third day of racing in Ford Cork Week gets under way shortly before midday today although the largest single fleet of one-design boats will remain ashore.

The 1720 Sportboats had opted to include a lay-day today, but with light winds disrupting the racing schedule on Monday and yesterday, pressure had been mounting to sail anyway.

Computer problems for calculating the overall results mean that no overall position for any of the approximately 630 boats is known.

For the 1720s, sailing their third European Championship, an unofficial estimate places Mark Selden's British entry Proctor Winning Masts in the overall lead.

John Nesbit's Finn McCouls duelled with Howth's Max McMullan's On All Fours in the opening race before former Finnclass Olympic hopeful John Driscoll moved into second place for the finish, forcing the latter into third.

Harold Cudmore's defence of his 1998 overall win continued yesterday when he broke his opening day's tie for first place with Roy Disney's super sled Pyewacket. Both boats have emerged as frontrunners for the class zero title along with David McClean's third-placed Babbalaas II.

Royal Irish YC sailor Tim Goodbody on White Mischief followed a disappointing 29th in the opening race with his third race win out of four races in the event so far.

Meanwhile, the event is creaking under the pressure of 8,000 competitors and, for the second day, there is no accurate official position of who is leading the various classes.

The sheer volume of mobile phone users in the area has resulted in almost permanent cell phone network failure, forcing organisers to return results from the race course by sea.