SAILING: ANTHONY O'LEARY'S custom 1720 will not only breathe new life into a defunct design but will add spice to cruiser racing this season when the former sportsboat turned cruiser debuts at the ICRA National Championships in Tralee next month.
The modified 1720 competes next week in Scottish waters before sailing in Tralee, club racing in Cork harbour and July’s Volvo Dun Laoghaire regatta.
There has been huge interest in O’Leary’s Antix Beag, the 1720 converted into an IRC racer, at the Crosshaven marina this week.
Royal Cork pundits are examining how O’Leary has managed to add a coach roof, pushpit, pulpit, stanchions, bunks and guardrails to the former open boat design, now looking for all the world like a little half tonner. The novelty has a toilet and teak flooring fitted, too.
It complies with stringent offshore safety rules in order to race under the popular IRC handicap.
O’Leary, the campaigner of the successful 2008 Commodore’s Cupper Antix Dubh, says the inspiration to modify the boat came from a desire to sail with three mates rather than search each week for a crew of 10 for bigger craft.
It is not the first time a 1720 has been modified – a similar job was done in Cowes on Full Pelt by British naval architect Joe Richards.
Although there are plenty of changes above deck and a beautiful paint job, the underwater profile, or rig, is unmistakably 1720. Now 120kg heavier, Antix Beag is expected to perform well under her new IRC handicap of 1.000, especially downwind in heavy airs, when she lines up against her new class mates such as Beneteau 34.7s, 36.7s and J109s.
There are now eight class zero boats entered for the ICRA cruiser national championships in a total fleet of 66 entries. It is a significant achievement for the event, now in its sixth staging, but first on the west coast. There are 21 class one boats, in which Antix Beag will sail, 24 class two and 12 class three entries.
More entries are also expected before first gun on June 11th, and there are 15 coming from six east coast clubs. Many of these will compete in the preceding week’s Dun Laoghaire to Dingle race from the National Yacht Club (NYC) as a means of positioning boats to Kerry. NYC is expecting 31 entries for the 180-miler.
Staying offshore, Seán Lemass’s Galileo was the handicap winner of a windy Lee Overlay Offshore race to Arklow last Saturday, where westerly breezes, gusting to over 35 knots, greeted the Dublin fleet at 10am. Fifteen boats came to the line in Scotsman’s Bay, a significant increase in numbers now participating in this coastal and offshore league hosted by the Royal Alfred YC.
In a mix of new and old craft, Galileo led to Sandycove point on their way out of Dublin Bay, hugging the coast in a flooding tide to Arklow, followed by the little Jeanneau Sunfast 3200 Big Hillie.
Rules for the series include the stipulation that the boats must be skippered, helmed and crewed by her regular Corinthian crew, one of the reasons perhaps for some to opt out of DBSC’s round-the-cans format and take off for a day passage to Arklow instead.
Second overall on handicap was Tsunami, and third was the Royal Alfred’s vice-commodore, Peter Beamish, sailing Aztec.
This weekend Royal Alfred YC stages its annual Baily Bowl for one designs. Expected for tomorrow’s first gun at 11am are SB3s, Dragons, Flying Fifteens, Squibs and a Belfast fleet of RS Elites.
