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Displaying items by tag: regates

The penultimate days racing at Regates Royales yesterday saw Irish Dargon Jaguar skppered by Martin Byrne battle it out with their nearest competitors at the top of the 59 boat Dragon fleet. A 6th for Jaguar, the one time regatta leader, in race 6 leaves them in fourth overall with just two points separating the top four boats with one race to sail.

A superb win by the Italian team in very light conditions in the Bay of Cannes jumps them into the top spot tied on points with Poul Rickard Ho Jenson.

A tenth for the Russian team drops them to third just one point ahead of Jaguar. The second race of the day was abandoned at the half way point due to a disappearing breeze. Jaguar were lying in sixth position at this time well ahead of all three of their rivals and a finish under these circumstances would have left them comfortably in the lead overall.

It is all to play for in today's final race where the four leading contenders will be keeping a very close eye on each other with a winner takes all scenario.

Published in Dragon

William M Nixon has been writing about sailing in Ireland and internationally for many years, with his work appearing in leading sailing publications on both sides of the Atlantic. He has been a regular sailing columnist for four decades with national newspapers in Dublin, and has had several sailing books published in Ireland, the UK, and the US. An active sailor, he has owned a number of boats ranging from a Mirror dinghy to a Contessa 35 cruiser-racer, and has been directly involved in building and campaigning two offshore racers. His cruising experience ranges from Iceland to Spain as well as the Caribbean and the Mediterranean, and he has raced three times in both the Fastnet and Round Ireland Races, in addition to sailing on two round Ireland records. A member for ten years of the Council of the Irish Yachting Association (now the Irish Sailing Association), he has been writing for, and at times editing, Ireland's national sailing magazine since its earliest version more than forty years ago