Starting costs Irish pair in the finish

THE offshore winds continue to frustrate and confound many of the Irish team at the pre-Olympic Regatta on the Saronic Gulf off Athens yesterday, although operator error continues to play a large part.

For Cork’s Mark Mansfield and Killian Collins in the Star class it was starting which proved their expensive downfall.

After sailing to a well earned, hard won fourth place in the first of their two heats yesterday they were disqualified in the second heat for being on the course side of the start line during the final minute before the start gun.

In their best race to date at the regatta Mansfield and Collins were one of the first to break from the left side of the start line to round the first mark in ninth. The Irish duo also sailed astutely on the second beat, taking two more places at the windward mark, second time around, finishing hard on the heels of the leading pack.

Now with two OCS disqualifications accounting for both of their available discards in the 11 race series, the pressure is on Mansfield and Collins, the current European champions, to crack the top half of what is already shaping up to be a very high scoring regatta.

Bermuda’s Peter Bromby and Lee White lead the fleet from Brazil’s Torben Grael and Marcelo Ferreira.

In the Europe class Maria Coleman scored a pair of consistent mid-fleet finishes with a 13th and 10th, but she too needs to step up her game and lies ninth overall.

In the 49er class Dublin’s Tom Fitzpatrick and Fraser Brown continue to show flashes of form in what is a very competitive class which is all the more highly charged for the big breaks and big losses handed down by the big wind shifts and sudden quiet spells which spread down their course area.

After a 14th in their first heat yesterday they came back to lead round the first mark in the second heat. They chose to gybe-set away in the opposite direction to the chasing pack but still lead at the bottom of the second run. They dropped to sixth on the last beat but regained two places on the final sprint to the finish.