Early morning fog resulted in a short delay for sailing at the start of day one of the three day ICRA Liebherr National Sailing Championships sailed out of the Royal St George Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire today writes Claire Bateman. 120 yachts from Ireland and the UK have gathered for the first of the major events in this years sailing calendar.

The larger boats in Class Zero were the first to get away on a round the cans course with Anthony O’Leary’s Antix setting a blistering pace to hold off a strong challenge from Peter Rutter’s Quokka 8 to claim victory in Race One in both handicap divisions. O’Leary completed a great day of sailing by claiming victory in IRC in Race Two, this time ahead of Rob Davies/Andrew Creighton’s Roxy 6.

Dave Dwyer’s Marinerscove.ie finished first in ECHO with Roxy and Antix taking the second and third spots.

Conor Phelan’s Jump Juice was unlucky to lose her bowman Cian McCarthy overboard whilst well placed to finish in a top placing in Race One.  However, with the Bowman safely back on board hard luck still prevailed with a damaged pulpit preventing Jump Juice from starting Race Two.  

In Class 1 Paul O’Higgins in Rockabill V had an excellent start to claim victory in both IRC and Echo in Race One from the Nagle /O’Malley duo in Jelly Baby, with their positions reversed in Race Two, while Tony Fox’s Gringo had two thirds with Donal O’Leary’s D-Tox slotting nicely in between to take second in ECHO.

However, there was a sad tale for the Parnell Family and the regatta is unfortunately over for them as Black Velvet was holed in a multiple collision early in the race.

Classes Two and Three sailed three races on a windward leeward course with Nicola Harris in Zoom snatching a narrow victory in both divisions from the Cowell/Murphy combination in Kinetic in Race One. A subsequent fourth and second in the later races put them at the top of the overnight leader board ahead of Kenetic and Dennis Coleman’s Thunderbird.

Class 5 White Sail sailed only one race due to lack of wind on their course. Philip Dilworth’s Orna took first place in both IRC and ECHO with Vincent Farrell’s Tsunami and Michael O’Leary and company in Act Two swopping second and third in IRC and Echo respectively.

In White Sail 6, Welsh competitor Peter Dunlop’s Mojito leads the class having scored a first and second, ahead of Joe Carton’s Voyager and the Barry/Stirling crew in Brazen Hussey.

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