Ideal championship sailing conditions in Cork Harbour led to clear leaders emerging after day one and three races of the Laser National Championships at Royal Cork Yacht Club. 

As expected, Rio rep Finn Lynch, Team Ireland's only sailor at the World Cup Finals in Santander, Spain in June has stormed into the lead in a less than stellar turnout of 14 standard rig Lasers. The National Yacht Club ace has three straight wins, and that's something in common with the leaders in both the Radial and 4.7 divisions too.

Admittedly, there are a number of international Laser events running concurrently and this has robbed the Crosshaven event of some Irish Laser stars including Crosshaven's own Johnny Durcan who is attending the youth European championships. Also absent are U21 stars Aoife Hopkins, who was recently crowned U21 European Radial Champion in Douarnenez, France, and Lough Derg's Aisling Keller, who are both competing at the Laser World Championships in Holland. 

Tokyo trialist Liam Glynn from Ballyholme Yacht Club, who was so close to making Gold fleet at June's Kiel Week, is second to Lynch with three seconds and Royal Cork's Nick Walsh is third.  See the standard rig results here.

In much better turnouts in the 32–boat Radial, Walsh's club–mate Luke McGrath is tops with three firsts. Chris Bateman is second with Royal St. George's Patrick Cahill third. Read the Radial results here.

In the biggest fleet of the Championships, Jack Fahy of the Royal St.George YC also counts three wins to lead a 42–boat 4.7 fleet. Second is the National Yacht Club's Clare Gorman, and third is Kinsale YC's Michael Carroll. 4.7 results are here.

Also not competing in Cork Harbour is Olympic Laser Silver Medallist Annalise Murphy. Ireland's sailing star has a 'serious' knee injury that forced her withdrawal from Medemblik, but not it appears – as reported – from a passage from Portsmouth to Ireland on Nin O'Leary's Vendee Globe entry Hugo Boss next week. 

Meanwwhile, tonight's Irish Laser Class Association agm will be held at Royal Cork.