SAILING/ Commodores' Cup:After three days of racing, all three Ireland teams continue to dominate the Commodores' Cup in Cowes and, following yesterday's Long Inshore Race, have consolidated the top three places
There were class wins for the Green, White and Orange teams but in the overall standings, a solid five-point gap divides overall leaders Ireland Green from Orange while another eight-point gap keeps Team White at bay.
Andrew Allen and Colm Monahans' No Naked Flames won the small boat fleet with an impressive nine-minute lead while Eamonn Rohan's Blondie was placed third.
Team big boat, Tim Costello's Tiamat had a sixth place that contributed to slippage for the overall leader.
Waiting for just such weakness is Colm Barrington's Ireland Orange, which included a scoresheet of a bullet for the captain plus a third place for Anthony O'Leary's Antix and a fourth place for Conor and Denise Phelan's Jump Juice.
Having started en masse, the 39-strong fleet sped quickly away from the Royal Yacht Squadron starting line off Cowes, boosted by a 12-knot breeze and spring ebb tide.
A first place for Dave Dwyer's marinerscove.ie 2 was well-earned for the Ireland White Team that scored fifth places by Mike McCarthy's Checkmate and Nick Haigh's chartered marinerscove.ie 1.
But late last night, the protest room in West Cowes Yacht Haven was a busy place as a score of complaints were being heard by the International Jury that could have a better set of results for the Irish battalion in the event.
Shortly after the start yesterday, two of France Blue team boats missed a mark on the course and continued sailing.
Witnessed by Irish support team boats as well as other competitors, correction was demanded of the race committee.
The race committee applied a penalty under the rules but protests were being made to have this overturned in favour of a heavier penance.
Should the race committee's decision be overturned and time added to the offending French yachts, the Irish points tally will increase further as both rival boats belong to the defending French title-holders who are currently placed fourth overall.
Every point is considered vital in these opening stages of the event as tomorrow evening's Offshore Course may take up to 30 hours to sail counts for almost one-third of the overall points for this event.
In spite of the building points cushion, that suggests an Irish victory is on the cards, the history of either this event or the old Admiral's Cup suggests nothing is certain until Sunday's prize-giving.
