Antix and Catapult in fierce fight for Cork Week honours

Light winds at times led to delays off Roche’s Point yesterday as day three of Volvo Cork Week saw most of the fleet only return to shore nearing 6pm, but with three races completed.

The reduced programme of races this year saw a single race for Tuesday but three races per day planned before Friday’s prizegiving.

Ireland’s three Commodores’ Cup team boats were again to the fore in two of the eight classes afloat, with squad captain Anthony O’Leary on Antix taking a hit in Class One that sailed on the Slalom Course type yesterday.

Highlighting the differences between Antix and Catapult, Marc Glimcher’s American boat with a mostly Irish crew won all three races while O’Leary had 4-5-2 for the day, dropping the team captain to second overall.

However, a return to windward-leeward type courses today could favour O’Leary, who is tied on points with three other boats for second place in the small, five-boat class.

Antix and Catapult’s team-mate Quokka 8, entered by Michael Boyd and Niall Dowling in Class 2, had another good day afloat yesterday after their win on Tuesday.

Another two first places almost led to a hat-trick except for a blown spinnaker in the third race when the crew placed fourth. Welsh entry Dark Angel is barely 1.5 points behind, so a battle for the lead is certain over the remaining two days of racing.

Irish national champion Conor Phelan on Jump Juice also had a good day — unusually for handicap racing — tied on corrected time with Dark Angel for second place in the opening race of the day.

However, Phelan will need an extra boost to jump into contention for the class, which might come from the event discard which should come into force after today’s races.

Former national champion Pat Kelly on Storm from Rush Sailing Club followed his Class 2 win on Tuesday with a further two bullets yesterday and a fourth place in the late afternoon.

Paul O’Higgins Rockabill V has emerged from the bulk of this 20-boat fleet as a possible challenger but must still overcome a significant points spread to the leader, even after discards on the scores so far.

Meanwhile Paul Tingle’s Corby 25 Alpaca has taken over the lead of Class Four but only by a slim margin as Tim Cunliffe’s half-tonner Insatiable appears to be setting-up for a two-way battle to win this 12-strong class, lying just two points shy of the lead, second overall.

In the remaining IRC-handicap class, Jason and Dominic Losty’s quarter tonner Illes Pitiuses has the best scoreline of the entire event with four straight wins to lead Class 5 outright.