SAILING/Fastnet Race: David Braniganon how this Fastnet victory neatly caps Ger O'Rourke's two-year romance with his Cookson 50.

Ireland's Ger O'Rourke will tonight lift the Fastnet Trophy in Plymouth after earning overall victory in the 608-mile offshore race. The Limerick skipper is the first Irish winner of the trophy, and is the second Irish winner of the race following Tim Goodbody's success during the 1987 Admiral's Cup. (Goodbody's win officially counted in the results of the Admiral's Cup but Royal Ocean Racing Club rules excluded sponsored boats from receiving trophies.)

The race is still under way as the remainder of the gale-ravaged fleet makes progress towards the finishing line and may still be under way when the prize-giving ceremony is held this evening.

Yesterday began with the handicap clock slowly counting down to and past the deadline for French offshore racing ace Gery Trentesaux's Courrier du Cour to reach Plymouth and beat Chieftain's handicap-corrected elapsed time for the course.

Champagne flowed as the 12-person crew of Chieftain were feted at the Queen Ann's Battery marina where they had slept overnight on board their sodden yacht as accommodation in the finishing port was fully booked.

Chieftain's entry into the Fastnet was a last-minute one as the Royal Ocean Racing Club had capped the fleet-size at 300 boats and O'Rourke was number 40 on the waiting list for weeks before last Monday's start off Cowes.

The victory in this race neatly caps O'Rourke's two-year whirlwind romance with his Cookson 50 that has brought major race wins in both hemispheres.

Recalling his first experience in New Zealand in 2005, O'Rourke arrived in Auckland where builder Mick Cookson assembled a hot-shot team of top America's Cup professional for a demonstration sail.

"I went sailing with a crew of AC rock stars including Erle Williams at the helm," O'Rourke told The Irish Times yesterday. "There I was, a local sailor from the Western Yacht Club considering moving up from a 40-footer to a 50 and surrounded by the world's best sailors."

The contrast couldn't have been greater.

Yet two years on, O'Rourke appears to have found his magic formula and with his win in the Sydney to Hobart and now, victory in the iconic counterpart to that event, this Corinthian skipper is on top of the curve. His immediate aims are to secure sponsorship for the 2008 season and he will compete in the British IRC championships. A campaign for the Commodore's Cup is a possibility though Chieftain is unsuitable and a 45-footer may yet be acquired.

Competing for the Irish IRC Nationals is also on the cards though more boats around Chieftain's size, possibly the growing fleet of TP52 footers, would give a fairer class size to make this a worthwhile competition.

The intensive travel programme that saw Chieftain compete on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean and across it as well in the past 12 months has had its pressure on his schedule so more local racing will serve as an antidote. "I'm really enjoying my SB3 (sportsboat) and though we're at the back of that fleet, it's great to be sailing one-designs and getting back to basics," he said. "But I've no doubt the hunger will return soon and we'll be off again."

O'Rourke is also deeply involved in a debate about the future of canting keeled boats racing under IRC which heavily favours fixed keels. Chieftain's owner/skipper maintains canting keels are actually safer than fixed keels despite the negative publicity the earliest designs using this technology created. "At first, the Cookson 50 seemed complicated but as you become used to it and it becomes very simple," he maintains. "In heavy-weather conditions, the canted keel improves stability whereas a fixed keel boat would be wiping out all the time."

The Cookson's keel design enabled Chieftain to compete at maximum performance levels during this week's race while other boats of her size had to back off to minimise pitching and rolling.

Yet despite the technology, the Limerick crew returned to basic navigation techniques when their main GPS equipment failed halfway through the race which put their tactical computer out of action.

Having used dead-reckoning for the stage from The Lizard to the Fastnet and back to The Scilly Isles, it was only when they came into mobile phone coverage that they could download their position from the public website that showed almost live tracking of the fleet. From this, they were able to "fix" their position for the final stage home.

And it was around this time that O'Rourke's sea-sickness cleared as he prepared to helm Chieftain to the finish. "It was the worst sea-sickness I've had but I just suffered through it and got some carbohydrates into me so I got through it - it's a mental thing as well (as physical)."

Such discomforts explained many of the retrials within the 300-entry of the race that may only see 50 finishers by this evening. For O'Rourke and his crew, Chieftain's place in the record books stands as the first Irish boat on the famous trophy that was first sailed for in 1925.