The stakes are high this morning for the final day of racing at the 1720 Europeans 2021 at Waterford Harbour Sailing Club, where the top three boats have already discarded teens or higher results after six races sailed.

A 27-boat fleet, one of the biggest in recent years, has gathered at Dunmore East, but so far proceedings have not gone as expected for pre-championship favourite Robert O'Leary and his Dutch Gold crew from Baltimore Sailing Club.

Instead, the Ross McDonald skippered Rope Dock Atara from Howth, and Royal Cork hold a commanding 16-point lead going into today's final three races, according to provisional results (see link below).

The 'McBearla' crew count two race wins on their scoresheet from six starts but will also be well aware they are discarding a 17 from race five.

This week's performance is a return to the form that McDonald found in July when he won the Eastern Championships on his home waters at Howth.

Thanks to a win and a sixth-place scored on Friday afternoon, another Howth helmsman, Robert Dix, now holds second place by a point. Therefore, the 1976 Olympian and his Lemon crew will be keen to keep a clean score sheet as they are discarding a disqualification from the second race on Thursday.

With only five points separating second O'Leary in fifth place, the national champions remain in contention for a podium later today. 

Top five after six races sailed at 1720 Europeans 2021 at Waterford Harbour Sailing Club

1 1720 Rope DocK Atara 1720 2000 HYC/RCYC McBearla's 7.0 1.0 2.0 4.0 (17.0) 1.0 32.0 15.0
2 1720 Elder Lemon 1720 2888 BSC Robert Dix 2.0 (28.0 DSQ) 5.0 17.0 1.0 6.0 59.0 31.0
3 1720 Live Wire 1720 1755 BSC BSC 4.0 (16.0) 14.0 6.0 4.0 4.0 48.0 32.0
4 1720 Probably Legal 1720 1804 RCYC Mia Murphy 5.0 7.0 12.0 7.0 (19.0) 3.0 53.0 34.0
5 1720 Dutch Gold 1720 2020 BSC Rob O'Leary 1.0 10.0 10.0 (28.0 OCS) 8.0 7.0 64.0 36.0

 Results here

The McBearla's Rope Dock Atara leads the 1720 European Championships at Dunmore East after three races sailed in an impressive fleet of 27 boats. The Cork-Dublin crew skippered by Ross McDonald of Howth counts a 7, 1, 2 to lead from National Champion Robert O'Leary and the Dutch Gold crew are second on 21 points with scores of 1,10 and 10. 

Waterford Harbour local entry Red Eye (Alex Coleman) is lying third on 22 points 

Racing starts continues at 10.55 am this morning (Friday) and Saturday.

Results are here

10 boats entered in the first 24 hours of registration opening this week for the 1720 European Championships from September 23th to 25th 2021 at Waterford Harbour Sailing Club, one of the first major one-design championships of the sailing season.

The prediction follows a 20 boat fleet assembled in Cork Habour for the class national championships at Royal Cork Yacht Club a week ago.

"We expect to break the 25 boat mark, possibly exceed 30" upbeat organiser Julian Hughes told Afloat.

The Nationals was dominated by Robert O'Leary's Dutch Gold crew from Baltimore Sailing Club who are now pre-event favourites for the European crown at Dunmore East. 

As regular Afloat readers will know, the 1720 Euros were originally scheduled June 4th but moved to September due to COVID. 

The entry fee for the Audi Waterford sponsored event is €275. This fee includes boat lift fees (in & out).

Hughes says there will be a fleet crane in ahead of the championships and there will also be a crane out immediately post-racing with two cranes on the dock to speed up lift-out. 

More here

1720 sportsboat champion Robert O'Leary and the Dutch Gold crew from West Cork successfully defended their national title today with a domination of the 20-boat sportsboat fleet in Cork Harbour.

O'Leary took five wins from six starts and did not need to sail the final race this afternoon at Royal Cork Yacht Club.

Baltimore Sailing Club clubmate Fionn Lyden sailing Spiced Beef finished second overall on 25 points, some 13 points behind O'Leary.

Howth's Dan O'Grady took third place on 30 points sailing Wet & Black.

The impressive sportsboat fleet was made up largely of south cost boats; five from Baltimore, five from Waterford Harbour, eight from Royal Cork and two from the east coast at Howth. 

The event serves as a useful warm-up for the fleet's Europeans Championships on 23rd September at Waterford Harbour Sailing Club.

Howth's Dan O'Grady took third place on 30 points sailing Wet & Black Photo: Bob Bateman

For a 1720 day one photo gallery click here. See the day three gallery below.

Results are here

Day 3 1720 National Championships Photo Gallery By Bateman below

Defending 1720 sportsboat champion Robert O'Leary and the Dutch Gold crew from West Cork are stamping their authority on a 20-boat National Championship fleet after five races sailed at Royal Cork Yacht Club.

After one discard, O'Leary has built on his day one lead and sits on four nett points, 11 points clear of Baltimore Sailing Club clubmate Fionn Lyden sailing Spiced Beef on 15 points.

Howth's Ross McDonald in RopeDoc Atara is on the same points in third place. 

The impressive sportsboat fleet is made up largely of south cost boats; five from Baltimore, five from Waterford Harbour, eight from Royal Cork and two from the east coast at Howth. 

Racing continues in Cork Harbour today. For a 1720 Day One photo gallery click here

Results are here

Two race wins put Robert O'Leary top of the 20-boat 1720 National Championships at Royal Cork Yacht Club after two races sailed in Cork Harbour.

Westerly winds of 18 to 20 knots got the championships off to a great start even though it took three attempts to get the fleet started on the first race.

Racing was held on the Harbour's eastern bank, the ebb tide from East Ferry pushing the fleet up to the startline.

Lying second overall is the recent winner of the East coast Championships, Ross McDonald's Atara from Howth Yacht Club who counts a 3 and a 5.

Third is Baltimore Sailing Club entry Livewire on nine points.

Racing continues tomorrow when the 1720s will be joined by the SB20s who race for southern championship honours.

Results are here

Day One 1720 National Championships Photo Gallery 

There is a hectic weekend ahead in Cork Harbour with four events scheduled.

Cobh People's Regatta, the 1720 National Championships, the SB20 Southerns and the National 18's Lowflo Trophy are to be sailed.

Cobh People's Regatta will be held at Cove Sailing Club with racing for cruisers and dinghies. The packed schedule includes a commemorative event for the revived Rankin dinghy fleet on Saturday, for which the First Gun is at 1245.

Cruisers racing for the Titanic Trophy on Friday night are the first regatta event, with First Gun at 7 p.m. The Rankin dinghies will begin the racing on Saturday with their commemorative event for the Rankin Brothers Cup.

This will be followed by the Optimist Spit Bank Challenge starting at 1300 and followed by the Fast Dinghies fleet racing at 1330 and the Lower Handicap Dinghies at 1400. Cruiser Racing involving other harbour clubs will be on Sunday, with First Gun at 1330.

National 18's are racing for the Lowflo Trophy at Royal Cork Yacht Club Photo: Bob Bateman

As Afloat reported previously, the 1720 National Championships, organised by the RCYC and the Sportsboat Class Association, start this Friday afternoon with two races. Four are scheduled for Saturday and three on Sunday.

The SB20s, also to be raced out of the Crosshaven club, have three races planned for Saturday and the same number on Sunday.

Colin Galavan and Richard Hayes from the Royal Irish Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire are sailing their SB20 Carpe Diem in the Southern class Championships at Royal Cork

The modified 1720 sportsboat Antix Beag skippered by Anthony O'Leary of Royal Cork Yacht Club continues to lead the biggest class of Schull Harbour Sailing Club's Calves Week 2021 Regatta.

After Wednesday's race around the Fastnet Rock, O'Leary has managed to stay in front of some strong visiting boats to West Cork (including the reigning ISORA Champion Rockabill VI), but points are tight at the top of Class One with one point separating the top three overall and two races left to sail.

O'Leary is on four points, but Frank Whelan's new J/122 Kaya from Greystones Sailing Club is now into second place but on the same five points as Brian Jones J/109 Jelly Baby from Royal Cork Yacht Club, who stays third in the 12-boat class one fleet.

Cortegada continues to lead class two

RCYC Half Tonner Cortegada, owned by George Radley, continues to lead Flor Riordan's Elan 31 Three Cheers in nine boat class two and now has a two-point cushion. Norbert Reilly's J/80 Red Cloud from Howth Yacht Club has leapfrogged the Sunfast 32  Bad Company skippered by Frank Desmond for third.

Quarter Tonner Snoopy in charge of class three

Courtown Sailing Club Quarter Tonner Snoopy (Martin Mahon) also still leads Class Three IRC. Patrick Collins Dehler 34 Ealu from Baltimore Sailing Club is now second and ahead of Peter O'Leary's First Class 8, Repo8 from Crookhaven Sailing Club.

BonJourno tops class four

Rob O'Reilly's quarter tonner BonJourNo! Part Deux from Monkstown Bay Sailing Club in Cork Harbour has taken the lead of five boat class four, toppling early leader Richard Hanley of Kinsale Yacht Club in the GK 24 Saoirse now in second. Rene Wubben's Albin Ballad Seven Whistler from Waterford Harbour Sailing Club stays third. 

White Sails IRC is led by Frank Caul's Grand Soleil 37 Prince of Tides from Royal Cork Yacht Club from Schull Harbour Sailing Club's Indulgence, a Dehler 36 skippered by Aidan Heffernan. The Sovereign 400 VSOP skippered by Don McCarthy of the host club lies third. 

Racing continues until Friday.

See regatta preview, entry list and race schedule here

Results are here

When the Royal Cork Yacht Club unveiled the fresh concept of the Tony Castro-designed 1720 Sportsboat back in 1994, one of the tongue-in-cheek suggestions was that finance in developing the class could be through some grant scheme for Job Creation, as it was envisaged that each of these 26ft boats would be raced by a crew of five, and this was something which could surely be monetised.

Thus it means that any club hosting an event for this currently regenerating class can expect a good turnout of hungry and thirsty enthusiasts even when there's a modest entry list. And with a healthy entry of 15 boats sweeping into Howth on Friday for their BNRG-sponsored Eastern Championship, the pandemic-modified HYC hospitality machine was delighted to find that around a hundred extra consumers were grafted on to a home customer base which is already increasing with every race as people adjust to the new possibilities.

BNRG (David Maguire) heading out of Howth Harbour on Saturday morning with all the promise of an idyllic day of sea breeze racing. Photo: Annraoi Blaney

In short, in addition to boats in club racing and the developing Fingal Series for cruiser-racers, it meant that in Saturday's sunshine the joint was jumping – in socially-distanced style, of course. And in all, for the 1720s - in addition to three boats from the host club - nine other clubs were represented. Their geographical spread went halfway round the coast of Ireland, starting from Skerries (David Love with Mini Apple), and finishing with Galway Bay (Aodhan FitzGerald with After Midnight).

Western entry – Aodhan FitzGerald and his crew from Galway Bay SC with After Midnight find that the "soft" east coast can serve up its own cliffs with features like the gannet-laden Stack at Ireland's Eye off Howth. Photo: Annraoi Blaney

The breeze firming in to provide a neat start for an entry list that came from ten very diverse clubs. Photo: Annraoi Blaney  

It tells us much about the ports which are hitching themselves to the accelerating 1720 train that the other clubs were Royal Irish, Royal St George and Irish National SC from Dun Laoghaire, Arklow SC, Wexford Harbour Boat & Tennis Club, Waterford Harbour SC (Dunmore East), Royal Cork YC, and Baltimore SC, whose Rob O'Leary is the defending overall 1720 champion.

The two days of racing both provided easterly winds, but of very different type. Saturday's was a strongly sunlit-strengthened sea breeze of a sparkling type which we'd thought had almost become extinct for all the talk of global warming, whereas Sunday's was an eventually rain-bearing grey wind which showed that normal service had been resumed, but both days provided super racing nevertheless.

"Blue days at sea" – summertime for the 1720s off the coast of Fingal. Photo: Annraoi Blaney

Action stations! If the 1720s were provided with neat furlers for their jibs, it might lead to job losses in a vulnerable sector of the maritime workforce………Photo: Annraoi Blaney

And everything seemed to be going to plan with the first race, as the winner was the sponsor' own boat, BNRG sailed by David Maguire of Howth. But then for those following the leaderboard, a mystery of sorts emerged, as the remaining five races were won by some boat called Atara, registered as raced by the Mc Bearla clan under the Howth YC colours.

The battle lines are drawn – Atara emerging ahead of Wet & Ready. Photo: Annraoi Blaney

We got Poirot on the job, and he came up with the info that McBearla is the Irish name for anyone called English, and the last time the name Atara figured in really big headlines in Irish sailing was when John Storey's Farr 43 of that name was overall winner for Ireland of the 1991 Sydney-Hobart Race, with promising young fellows like Harold Cudmore and Gordon Maguire on the strength.

The ancestral and direct links in the current 1720 class to that giddy time when Ireland also won the Southern Cross Series would take for ever to detail, but sufficient to say that the McBearlas on Atara are Ross McDonald and Aoife English on Rope Dock, and after they'd won the second race there was no stopping them.

Neck and neck for the new Easterns Champion Atara (aka Rope Dock) and Wet & Ready. Photo: Annraoi Blaney

Dan O'Grady, a personal veteran of that 1991 Australia campaign, managed to keep ahead of Rob O'Leary for the second overall, but it was close enough with the Baltimore skipper comfortably third overall by the finish, and thereafter in the body of the fleet there was enough variety in the scorelines to suggest that the 1720s in their new wave are on a healthy learning curve.

Full details here

Sportboats have started to arrive in Howth Yacht Club for the BNRG sponsored 1720 Eastern Championships to be hosted by the club this weekend.

The event has 15 confirmed entries with teams from Dublin, Cork, Galway and Northern Ireland. Seven races will be sailed over Saturday and Sunday, and racing is expected to be tight in this one design sportsboat fleet. 

Under strict class rules, teams must weigh in before starting to ensure they do not exceed the maximum weight of 450 kg. This means that crews are limited to between five and six on each boat.

As Afloat previously reported, as the first open event for the class, this year is expected to be exciting as the teams have been waiting to get the season started for some time.

'Dutch Gold' is Favourite for 1720 Honours

Rob O'Leary on Dutch Gold is tipped as event favourite but there are also a number of Olympians and National Champions in the fleet aiming to give the current Champion a run for his money. Local Howth talent includes Dan O'Grady's Wet N'Ready, Ross McDonald on Altara and David Maguire helming BNRG. This trio will hope that a little local knowledge may give them the edge.

A training event is scheduled for 2 pm on Friday, when most of the fleet is expected to test their starts against one another. With such tight racing expected and the first race for some time, there may be some close encounters.

Event sponsor BNRG is an Irish renewable energy company that has been building solar projects globally for over 14 years.