#mermaid – The fouth race of the Mermaid Championship being held in Oranmore in Galway, has extended the list of potential contenders with fresh faces making their mark at the top of the fleet. Paul Smith in "Jill" ever the model of consistency with a 6th today, has extended his lead at the top of the leader board to 4.25 points but with the discard clicking in tomorrow, things are looking like they will get very much tighter. The conditions today were very light and variable and together with a strong tide led to dramatic place changing throughout the race.
The early leader, Geraldine O' Neill in "Lively Lady" lost a huge lead on the 2nd beat and fell back to 13th whilst Anthony Carthy who was in the mid teens after the first round made a big move with a race win and was followed home in 2nd by Brain Mc Nally in 186 with Jonathan O Rourke in "Tiller Girl" in his preferred conditions, re-establishing his form with a solid and much needed 3rd to keep his challenge on course. Jim Carthy in Vee had an untypical race which he probably wants to forget finishing a disappointing 11th after being well in the hunt during the initial stages.Sam Shiels got a hard earned 7th while Mark Boylan in "This is it "maintains his interest in the final outcome with a tidy 4th in the tricky conditions. An indication of the closeness of the racing can be discerned by the fact that 2 former regular winners, Jim Dempsey and Frankie Brown are struggling to stay in the top10 overall.
The race tomorrow will be crucial in determining prospects for the leading players and Jonathan O Rourke in particular will be hoping for another top result so he can discard his expensive 14th in the windier 3rd race. Conditions are expected to remain light to moderate tomorrow and freshen over the following 2 days with plans for racing on Thursday potentially threatened by forecasted strong winds.
These fresher conditions may prove a decisive influence as noted performers in more breeze such as Jim Carthy, Sam Shiels and Mark Boylan will have a chance to play a big part in the outcome. Despite the smaller fleet than normal, this Championships is shaping up to be one of the most open and competitive in many years when any one of 8 boats are still in with a credible shot at success.
The top 5 boats after 4 races (with no discard yet) currently are;
1st Paul Smith 12.75
2nd Sam Shiels 17.00
3rd Jonathan O Rourke 19.75
4th Jim Carthy 19.75
5th Mark Boylan 20.00
Full results here
