Sailing Dragon World ChampionshipsIn a major show of strength for Irish Dragon sailing, four local boats feature in the top 10 overall going into today's penultimate round of the Aberdeen World championships on Dublin Bay.
Irish champions Neil Hegarty, David Williams and Peter Bowring stay in the top 10, but after two "disappointing" races yesterday - by their own reckoning - they finished 20th and 34th and have slipped from third to sixth overall.
A single discard was applied after race six last night and this made for substantial changes to the score sheet, completely changing the top five placings.
Two teen results from Simon Brien's Belfast Lough entry "Kin" moves him into to seventh overall.
Royal St George's Andrew Craig stays eighth, but clubmate John Ross Murphy added a seventh to his tally to move up from 23rd to 10th.
In what looks like ending as a high-scoring regatta tomorrow only 30 points separate first and 10th place. In a big upset for Marcus Wieser, the overall leader at the halfway stage, the German professional sailing Ukraine entry Bunker Queen, was judged OCS in race five.
Last night he was one of four competitors to lodge a protest against the Race Committee.
"I want to hear the tape," he told The Irish Times, a reference to the fact that the European champion is requesting the race officer's dictaphone tape to be produced as evidence in a jury hearing scheduled to be heard last night.
Wieser, a top international match racer, wants to be sure that race officer Alan Crosbie recorded UKR 777 as having started prematurely.
Bunker Queen's performance did not improve after the OCS either. He finished 56th in race six. The two poor results are enough to take Weiser from the lead to 11th overall.
Light winds prevailed on the bay yesterday with a steady breeze and little chop from 295 degrees. It was nevertheless tough sailing for the 68-boat fleet with crews spotting wind pressure on the course faring best. Ukraine's Yvegen Braslavets was the winner of race five. He was followed by Britain's David Palmer who discovered he too was OCS only after crossing the finish line. Switzerland's Uli Libor took his place with Lars Jensen of Denmark third.
Light, but steady conditions from the west remained for the afternoon race with some bright sunshine and it was won by the new overall leader Muller. Second was Sweden's Lars Idmyr and third Germany's stefan Link.
A strong flood tide running from Dalkey island to Sutton dictated tactics on a day when a long port tack off the start line was favoured by the majority of the fleet.
Racing continues today - and concludes tomorrow with race eight and a second discard.
DRAGON WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS (Dublin Bay): Overall (after six races and one discard): 1, T Muller (Ger); 2, U Libor (Swi); 3, L Jones (Brit). Top Irish: 6, N Hegarty; 7, S Brien; 8, A Craig; 10, J Ross Murphy.
