Howth J99 'Snapshot' Leads Class One at the Sovereign's Cup after Day Two

25th June 2021

Michael and Richard Evans J99 Snapshot from Howth on day two of the Sovereigns Cup in KinsaleScroll down for photo gallery from Bob Bateman below Credit: Bob Bateman

It's all change at the top of the leaderboard in IRC classes One, Two and Three after four races sailed at the Sovereigns' Cup in Kinsale today.

The new Howth Yacht Club J99 design of Michael and Richard Evans has outwitted the popular J109 designs that dominated racing after day one and now tops 14-boat class one at the end of the second day of the four-day competition in West Cork.

The Evans brothers leapfrogged the top three J109s overall to move into the overall IRC lead on 13 points, some eight points clear of the National Yacht Club's J109 Something Else (Brian and John Hall).

Michael and Richard Evans J99 Snapshot from Howth crosses the finish line under spinnaker on day two of the Sovereigns Cup in Kinsale. Photo: Bob Bateman A second place and then a race win for Mike and Ritchie Evans' Snapshot bounced the Howth Yacht Club crew back into the lead of Division 1 under IRC. The J99 crew had an opening race win penalised on Wednesday and followed with an eighth place but their form is now being rewarded with a healthy points margin in the 14 strong class. Photo: Bob Bateman

Third is the day one leader, Storm (Pat Kelly), one point behind Something Else on 22 points.

But it wasn't all plain sailing on day two of the biennial event with the wind shifting 180 degrees causing headaches for race management in another day of light winds.

Half Tonner leads Class Two

In Class Two, David Kelly's Half Tonner King One from Howth has taken the lead by a single point from Royal Cork's Olson 30 Coracle VI skippered by Kieran Collins. Cove Sailing Club's Cortegada (George Radley) stays third overall in the five boat fleet.

YaGottaWanna Moves into the Class Three Lead

Dave Lane's YaGottaWanna from Royal Cork now leads clubmates Dave O Regan & Denise Phelan & Tony Donworth in the quarter tonner Supernova by shares the same six points.

Rob O'Reilly's quarter tonner BonJourno! Part Deux from Monkstown Bay SC stays third.

The two White Sails fleets that have 19 boats between them raced a coastal course

White Sails coastal course

On ECHO handicap, Paralympic veteran and former Kinsale YC Commodore John Twomey had a seventh-place for the day on Shillelagh which handed the White Sails 2 lead over to Sam Cohen on Gunsmoke. David Riome and Mark Leonards' Sigma 33 Valfreya took over from Frank Caul's Prince of Tides in White Sails 1.

Results here are provisional and subject to protest.

Day Two Sovereign's Cup Photo Gallery By Bob Bateman

Published in Sovereign's Cup

Tagged under

About The Author

Afloat.ie Team

Email The Author

Afloat.ie is Ireland's dedicated marine journalism team.

Have you got a story for our reporters? Email us here.

We've got a favour to ask

More people are reading Afloat.ie than ever thanks to the power of the internet but we're in stormy seas because advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news sites, we haven’t put up a paywall because we want to keep our marine journalism open.

Afloat.ie is Ireland's only full–time marine journalism team and it takes time, money and hard work to produce our content.

So you can see why we need to ask for your help.

If everyone chipped in, we can enhance our coverage and our future would be more secure. You can help us through a small donation. Thank you.