Reluctant breeze better than downpour

SAILING:It was a reluctant breeze that eventually graced the 3,000 competitors on the opening day of the Volvo Dún Laoghaire Regatta yesterday, but, given it and bright sunshine had replaced torrential downpours, few of the 520 boats had complaints.

Among the exotic divisions, Colm Barrington's Flash Glove won the Super Zeros on the water, but the lower-handicapped Island Fling, another TP52-footer owned by Paul Winkelmann, edged him into second place on IRC corrected time.

In Class Zero, Conor and Denise Phelan's Jump Juice from the Royal Cork YC sprang into the lead, but only by 20 seconds from local Tim Costello's Tiamat at the start of the four-day series.

Among the Laser SB3 sportboats, racing en masse in their debut major regatta, Ben Duncan's Sharkbait from Howth Yacht Club showed the other 40 boats a clean stern racing on the Sutton course, one of seven race areas in use on the bay.

In the Ecover Half Ton Classics Cup, Tino Hyland and Nigel Biggs's Henri Lloyd Harmony has yet to be beaten in a single race and now counts eight straight bullets from this series that started on Tuesday.

For George Radley's Miss Whiplash, in second place, a 23-point gap will be hard to overcome and a battle has emerged between a clutch of closely placed and tied boats for the remaining podium results.

The 26-boat class heads north today, leaving Dublin Bay to the rest of the regatta fleet as they embark on a long, inshore course and mindful of the small-craft and gale warnings issued by Met Éireann last night.