After four races of the 1720 National Championships at Kinsale YC in County Cork this afternoon, Antix, skippered by Anthony O'Leary of Royal Cork, leads the 16–boat fleet by two points writes Bob Bateman.
Races were sailed in a 15-knot south westerly with Antix, the current 1720 European champion, counting two wins and two seconds. O'Leary's RCYC club mates Padraig Byrne & Don Wilson are second on eight points. In third place is Howth Yacht Club and Royal Cork entry Altara skippered by Aoife English on 21 points.
Fomer Euro champion boat MICAM skippered by Mel Collins from Baltimore SC was sixth in race one but sustained gear failure and did not compete in the next three.
Friday dawned dull and with light breezes for the 16-boat fleet of the Blacks of Kinsale 1720 National Championships. OOD Peter Crowley on “Sparetime” head south to roughly one mile south of Centrepoint and laid a course to the southwest over to Black Head. The first of three scheduled races got underway with the sun starting to break through the cloud and the promise of a great day’s sailing.
Race 1 quickly established the running order for the day, with Anthony O’Leary on “Antix” and the Padraig Byrne & Don Wilson team on “ZING” coming in first and second. By the time the second race started, the sun was well established and the wind had built up. Aoife English on “Atara” scored the sole bullet of the day not taken by “Antix” or “ZING’, but had both hot on her heels. Baltimore boats "Live Wire” and “MICAM” suffered issues during the race and neither finished the race, with “MICAM”’s broken lower spreader proving terminal to her racing for the day.
For Race 3, “Live Wire” were back in business, but Denis Murphy’s “Aquatack” were not in a position to start, denting what was otherwise shaping up to be a good day’s scoring for the RCYC boat. Another perennial front-of-fleet boat - Clive O’Shea’s and Tom Durcan’s “T-Bone” was another victim of conditions in Race 3 with “ZING” scoring her sole bullet of the day. With the sun bright in the sky, strong and steady winds and a forbidding forecast for Saturday, OOD Peter Crowley elected to run a fourth race.
Fans of full-blasting were served up a treat with boats screaming down the run on the plane, with plenty of hairy gybes and more than a few broaches and wipeouts. “T-Bone” didn’t make it to the finish for their second race in a row, and “Wahoo” from RCYC also having an off race for them with a DNF dropping them from a potential third place overall at the halfway point of the championship. “Antix” and “Zing” continued to lead the way, with O’Leary claiming the final bullet of the day. Crews returned to the marina in Kinsale with broad grins, sore limbs and more than a few ripped sails and damaged lines. The marina looked reminiscent of a team garage at a Formula 1 race as efforts were made to ready the boats for what lies ahead...
Provisional results below.
