Weymouth joy for Murphy and O’Leary

THERE were smiles all-round the Irish camp in Weymouth last night as late results of the women’s Laser Radial single-handed racing arrived ashore: Annalise Murphy won the second race of the day, topping her earlier second place and securing the best result to date at this London 2012 Olympic sailing venue.

But there was further good news when Peter O’Leary delivered a second race victory for the squad in the Star class following a successful protest against the race committee that saw the Cork Olympic veteran improve his placing from second to first place.

Murphy and O’Leary are two of 11 sailors competing in the Irish Sailing Association squad at the Skandia Sail for Gold regatta that has attracted 989 sailors from 56 nations including most of the current world and Olympic champions.

Murphy’s form in windy conditions is already established but yesterday saw the Bay of Weymouth transformed from its more usual sunny south coast of England resort to a grey, misty and very wet arena with near gale force winds and difficult waves.

The Laser Radial class was one of several to be constantly postponed as race management tried to set course in visibility reduced to 100 yards at times.

Murphy’s first race saw the Dun Laoghaire sailor lead by up to 300 yards at one point but the conditions delivered a wind-shift and she placed second in her 45-strong flight.

The second race of the day was staged much later and in spite of the demanding conditions, Murphy scored a well-deserved first place.

Meanwhile, O’Leary had earlier sailed a single race in the Star keelboat class in the more exposed race area close to Lulworth Cove.

With substitute crewman Frithjof Kleen standing in for David Burrows, the pair led the fleet at the start but in the poor visibility, the race committee had not set the first mark correctly on their windward/leeward course.

O’Leary was disadvantaged and overtaken by the world champion Iain Percy with Andrew Simpson but in turn, this duo discovered that the second “spreader mark” had also not been laid and had to sail back to round correctly.

Although O’Leary and Kleen placed second in the race, both boats protested the race committee who found in favour of the Irish crew while Percy’s result of fifth remained.