Three sailors from the top 10 of the world rankings will add spice to tomorrow's Eagle Star sponsored Champion of Champions competition at Howth Yacht Club, but Fastnet Race winner and wild card invitee Roy Dickson of the host club will not be competing.
The pick of Ireland's Olympic crews, including Maria Coleman (ranked second in the world Europe Class), Laura Dillon (third in the Yngling keelboat rankings) and Mark Mansfield (fourth in the Star) join a selection of Irish champions for the 55th staging of the event.
The top 24 of the country's sailors have been invited to a schedule of three elimination rounds and a cut-throat final in the Puppeteer 22-foot keelboats which organisers say have been "equalised" with the addition of new genoas in order to make the competition between sailors from across Ireland's dinghy and keelboat fleets as fair as possible. Details of the results from each round will be available live at www.sailing.ie.
In Cork, John McWilliam will replace Donal McClement as Principal Race Officer at next year's Ford Cork Week regatta. The Royal Cork Yacht Club has announced that the biennial event is scheduled to run from July 13th to July 19th 2002. The regatta's Notice of Race has been published and can be read at www.fordcorkweek.com.
Meanwhile, on the basis of its team racing achievements in 2000, a Cork team has been selected to represent Ireland at tomorrow's Student Yachting World Cup in France. The event, which has attracted university entries from 20 countries, will be sailed in one-design Beneteau yachts.
The Irish crew will be skippered by Cork Institute of Technology's David Rose. His crew includes Brian Goggin, Matthias Helstern, Ian Heffernan, Alex Brown, Charles Dwyer, Bernard Fitzpatrick, Rebecca Maher and Glen How.
Following his 11th-place finish overall in the World Sonar Keelboat Championships a month ago in Connecticut, Irish disabled sailor and Commodore of Kinsale Yacht Club John Twomey, together with crew Paul McCarthy and Seanie McGrath, competes this weekend at the World Disabled Sailing Championships also being sailed in Sonars, this time at St Petersburg, Florida.
Royal North of Ireland sailor Peter Keig's attempt to become the first person to sail solo and non-stop around Ireland has suffered a setback due to gale-force winds on the south coast.
Keig left Belfast Lough last Saturday at noon in his 38-foot steel cutter Zeal (a boat he built himself) and had completed over half the distance before the threat of a worsening forecast forced him to seek shelter (within the rules of the record attempt) in Crookhaven, Co Cork yesterday morning.
This week's record attempt over a course length of 704 miles is governed by the rules of the World Speed Sailing Record Council and the International Sailing Federation (ISAF), who will both monitor the attempt and ratify the record if successful.
The Irish Water Safety Association (IWA) has issued a bank holiday weekend warning to avoid mixing alcohol with water-based activities. The association also reminds the public of new legislation which requires all children under 16 to wear a lifejacket on deck whilst a vessel is underway.
