South East goes from strength to strength

SAILING: One of the newest regatta series in the national calendar takes place this weekend when the South East Coast Regatta is staged at Wicklow Harbour, writes David Branigan.

This event was established in 1995 by clubs at Wicklow, Arklow, Bray, Courtown and Wexford and is hosted in alternate years by Wicklow and Arklow.

Crews from participating clubs will compete on Sunday for the SEC Regatta Trophy while racing will be preceded by feeder races tomorrow. The series continues on Monday with the Lifeboat pennant race and skiff racing in the harbour.

Organisers report growing interest from Dublin clubs in making the short passage south and the entry is expected to top 70 boats, placing it on a par with Galway and Bangor. Wicklow is a short 20-mile sail from Dublin Bay and has plenty of berthing space alongside the pier and river quaysides.

The young dinghy sailors of Royal Cork Yacht Club put in a trojan effort recently to raise much-required funds for special-needs sailing. Some 50 sailors in Optimists, Toppers, 420s, Lasers, Laser IIs and Mirrors, sailed non-stop from 06.00 hours until 24.00 hours. A grand total of €7,832 was collected towards the purchase of a hoist - which has already been erected and put to good use - for the increasing group of special-needs sailors in the club.

Meanwhile, junior fleets in the West Cork area will compete for the Marconi Cup tomorrow in a Le Mans style event for Mirrors and in match racing for Laser IIs. Last year's winners are the hosts at Crookhaven Harbour Sailing Club while Schull Community School are favourites for the match racing.

In Kinsale, overseas entries are flooding in for the Setanta Dragon European Championship that begins in two weeks' time. Double Olympic gold medallist Pol-Richard Hoj-Jensen heads the entry list.

In addition to his Olympic wins, "Ho-Jo" has won in excess of 90 World, European, national and international titles and is the reigning Irish National champion.

Amongst the other favourites are Denmark's Frank Berg, who finished second overall in the Dragon Gold Cup in Medemblik earlier this month, Germany's Thomas Müller and Britain's Eric Williams, fifth and sixth placed respectively.