SAILING: An investment in new boats that will top €1 million is being made to win the Commodore's Cup for Ireland as the Irish Cruiser Racer Association (ICRA) announced yesterday the first of up to three three-boat teams for the event in Cowes next July.
Colm Barrington, Conor and Denise Phelan and Anthony O'Leary are the three owners involved in the first team that has two of its boats currently in build.
Both are scheduled for launch next February in time for the Commodore's competition, an event that is shaping up to take over from the defunct Admiral's Cup (AC) as the World Championship of offshore sailing.
As an added bonus, Denise Phelan has secured Mark Mansfield as skipper of the middle boat, a move that represents the Crosshaven Olympic sailor's return to international cruiser racing for the first time since his involvement in Ireland's best ever placing in the Admiral's Cup, a fourth overall, in 1987.
"The Commodore's cup next year is where the AC was in it's heyday in the 80s." Mansfield said yesterday.
Barrington and the Phelan's have opted for Jason Ker designs, a 50- and a 37.5-foot yacht respectively. O'Leary's small boat, a Corby 35, 'Antix' - a Scottish series, Sovereign's Cup and Irish champion winner- will undergo a full refit this winter.
Barrington's boat is being built in South Africa and the Phelan boat is being built in Cowes.
The three owners have decided to play with the top end of revised handicap bands that were controversially changed by RORC. The aim, explains Barrington, provides the best chance to sail in clear air, even though the two new Irish boats will give time to the rest of the fleet.
Barrington contends that the IRC handicap rule under which the Commodore's Cup will be sailed, generally speaking, favours big boats over smaller ones, and this can be even more apparent in strong tidal areas such as the Solent.
ICRA, whose commodore Fintan Cairns has been dubbed 'sailing's matchmaker' for his ability to put so many owners in contact, announced yesterday that another two Irish teams could also be in the wings.
To date there is considerable international interest after the success of the 2004 event, where Ireland finished third. No other country and there might be as many as 15 teams is as advanced in its team formation as Ireland.
It is an advantage that Cairns is keen to protect. "In many respects we've stolen a march on our rivals and there will be few others able to build boats especially designed for the event," Mansfield told The Irish Times.
There are other boats too that ICRA is sure to attempt to match up: Eamonn Crosbie's 'Voodoo Chile', Tim Costelloe's 'Tiamat', and a new Corby 37-footer being built in Cork for Eamonn Rohan.
There could also be the possibility of Ger O'Rourke's Cookson 50 becoming involved and some form of involvement for Eamon Conneely's TP 52 'Patches' crew, currently in Sardinia.
British Olympic gold medallist Ben Ainslie is steering the Galway Bay TP 52, and she finished second behind Chilean entry 'Pisco Sour' in the opening race of the Audi Cup in Sardinia, the final event in the Medcup TP52 Circuit.
Conneely's yacht made its one-design debut for the final event in the Medcup TP52 Circuit and immediately made her impression in the 40-mile coastal race that was sailed in light to medium winds. 'Patches' beat the Russell Coutts-driven 'Lexus/Quantum'.
Belgian pro-skipper Michel Kleinjans in his Open 40 design 'Roaring 40' will set off this morning at 11am in an attempt to break the single-handed Round Ireland record which was broken earlier this month by the National Yacht Club's Michael Liddy in a conventional cruiser-racer, a Beneteau 40.7 in five days and 12 hours. "I think I can do it in three days and a half", says Kleinjans who suffered a rig failure and retired while leading last year's international Ostar race, but is a previous holder of the Britain and Ireland speed record.
