It has been a sports-filled day in Northern Ireland today (July 19th). Up on the North Coast, there is golf at The Open in Portrush, from Australia we see the British and Irish Lions secured a victory in their first Test and, in Belfast Lough there was a water borne contest, the first ever IRC Northern Ireland Championships, the last event in the new Irish Sea Nations Cup.

The fleet started in benign conditions, with a light offshore wind providing a flattish sea, resulting in fairly smooth sailing without any exciting antics. The Race Officer was Bill O'Hara.

Leading IRC 1 after three races is John Minnis’s Archambault 35 Final Call II, having been predicted to add some spice to the proceeding after its Class 0 win last week at the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta in Dublin Bay with Scottish visitor John Stanley-Whyte’s J109 Blue Jay runner-up and another J109, Strangford Lough’s Peter Holden Going to Red third.

Snoopy, Martin McMahon’s 1979 Joubert-Nivelt Quarter Tonner from Courtown in Co. Wexford leads in IRC 2 at the Northern Ireland IRC Championships on Belfast lough Photo: Afloat

In IRC 2 it was Snoopy, Martin McMahon’s 1979 Joubert-Nivelt Quarter Tonner from Courtown in Co. Wexford leading two Impala 28s the Coffey/Bell duo in Menace and Davy Quinn’s Bonanza third.

In the Coastal IRC race round the Copeland Islands off Donaghadee to the east of Bangor, it was the Sigma 33 Elandra of Down (Victoria and Martin Dews) ahead of Shaun Douglas’s Beneteau 40.7.

Results for both IRC and YTC are below