SAILING:PETER O'LEARY unleashed a secret weapon in Miami last week signalling a potent return to the Olympic circuit, scoring second overall at the prestigious Star class Bacardi Cup.
After nearly a two-year break since the Beijing Olympics, O’Leary and crew Steven Milne renewed acquaintances to produce a stunning score line, including a sixth race win for O’Leary at the Florida venue in the last three years.
There were plenty of reasons why it should not have worked out for the Cork-Belfast pair. There was little in the way of pre-event training and the arrival of a new boat only complicated matters, especially in a fleet studded with Olympic and World champions yet this scenario belies a steady preparation ashore.
Firstly, O’Leary has been involved in an intense sports science programme to put on muscle mass, increasing his weight from 80kg to 92kg in the last 18 months.
Secondly, while O’Leary might have been adding pounds in the gym he was shedding them from a new boat design. O’Leary’s new P-Star is an Irish secret weapon that so far has not got into the hands of much of the opposition. Last week O’Leary says it gave him impressive gains downwind on Biscayne Bay.
The new hull has a paper thin aft deck and the weight saving made there is put where it’s useful, into the floor of the boat. The P-Star also has a narrower rudder and keel. So pleased is he with the new hull O’Leary is one of the first of the international fleet to put a deposit down for a new P-Star now in build by German Olympic sailor Marc Pickel, who also coached O’Leary in Florida last week.
The net result was when Bacardi Miami Sailing Week blustered to an early conclusion last Saturday there were a number of damaged boats, prompting organisers to halt all racing by early afternoon, leaving the lone Irish crew sitting pretty in second overall.
They counted two thirds and a race win in the five-race series, beating a host of champions including America’s double Olympic gold medallists Mark Reynolds and Hal Haehnal, who ended 15th in the 84-boat fleet. Last year’s winner, Peter Bromby of Bermuda, ended 17th after breaking a mast.
At home, as the news sinks in that Ireland will host the finish of the Volvo Ocean Race in Galway in two years’ time, it also transpires this massive event will most likely impact on the traditional timing of both the Round Ireland Race at the end of June and July’s Cork Week. Given Ireland will also stage the ISAF Youth Worlds in July 2012, perhaps there is a need for these organisers to work out how – within four weeks of each other – the combined staging of these great events might work together to promote Irish sailing?
Meanwhile, Cork will rejoin the Clipper Round the World Race for its final stages under a new skipper, several months after its entry hit a reef in the Java Sea. The new skipper, Hannah Jenner, was announced at a conference in Port of Cork on Monday. The Australian-born sailor will celebrate her 30th birthday as she races into Kinsale as the skipper of the Cork in July.
Meanwhile, the former skipper of Cork, Richie Fearon, reveals how the accident happened in the current issue of Afloat magazine.
The Port of Cork are to install a 100 metre long pontoon for the city centre, a major improvement for leisure craft this Summer. It is hoped the pontoons will open up the city quays for leisure craft and visiting boats and will remain a permanent fixture for the City.
The south coast is to get another 56 berths following an announcement that a marina is planned for Buttimers Dock in Youghal.
Staying on the south coast, details of a number of prestigious international sailing events taking place at Kinsale Yacht Club (KYC) this year were announced by Alice Kingston, Commodore of KYC, at a reception for local dignitaries and business people.
This June the club is hosting The Round Britain and Ireland Race, then the double-handed Triangle Race. In July the Clipper Round The World Yacht Race visits and it is followed in August by Le Figaro single-handed race from France.
