Five new champions crowned

A marathon end to the ICRA National Championships kept the 115-storng fleet at sea for eight hours yesterday as slightly fresher winds arrived to permit a four-race programme.

Wind had abandoned Dublin Bay completely on Saturday leaving a viable championship in doubt. However, yesterday dawned bright and sunny with a light to moderate breeze for most of the day.

Five new Irish champions were decided with Conor Phelan on Jump Juice from Crosshaven taking his first Class Zero title in this country along with an earlier British national title in 2008.

Fellow Royal Cork clubmates George and Neil Kenefick were squeezed out of the running for the Class 3 on their revamped classic quarter-tonner Tiger now sailing as the Nathan Kirwan Trust.

Having missed a course change in the second race on Friday that placed them sixth, a critical wind-shift in yesterday’s second race placed them ninth.

The two slips were enough to allow Jonathan Skerritt’s Quest from the hosting Royal Irish Yacht Club to nail the class title with three first places and two seconds over the weekend.

Ian Nagle’s RCYC entry Jelly Baby picked up another Class 1 title.

Four race wins for Nigel Biggs of the Royal St. George YC in Dun Laoghaire secured Class 3 with ease.

In Cowes, Anthony O’Leary’s Antix was the overall winner of the biggest class at the British IRC nationals championships. And in another positive indicator ahead of July’s Commodores’ Cup, team-mate Catapult from the United States placed third.