With thirty offshore miles to race and the finishers ranging in size from 30ft to 50ft, it was no surprise that the finish times between the Dun Laoghaire pierheads for the Offshore Class were spread over an hour in Saturday's Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta race.
Line honours were taken by the First 50 Checkmate XX (Nigel Biggs & Dave Cullen, HYC) close ahead of clubmate Robert Rendell's Grand Soleil 44 Samatom, but when the numbers were crunched, it was that hyper-keen J/109 Mojito (Vicky Cox & Peter Dunlop, Pwllheli SC) which emerged in front as to the manner born, and they did it by more than three minutes ahead of Checkmate.
John O'Gorman's Sunfast 3600 Hot Cookie (National YC) continued to have a good regatta with a third, and with one race to sail, she jointly leads overall level on 6 points with Checkmate, which shimmies in ahead on countback.
Mojito has leapt into third OA on 6, but overnight leader El Gran Senor from Scotland (Jonathan Anderson, RIYC) found that today's fifth was not enough to keep her above fourth OA (again on countback), but with the tied leaders on 4 points and the fourth-placed on 6, there's all to race for on Sunday in an impressive turnout of 24 boats
The 22 mile course for the final race on Sunday is: Start at Omega, Muglins (S), Bray (P), Killiney (P), Bray (P), North Burford (P) and S90 (S) and Finish at Dun Laoghaire's pier heads.