SAILING COLUMN:FOLLOWING LAST weekend's Saab ICRA National Championship at Howth, attention switches to Tarbert where the annual Bell Lawrie Scottish Series will be an opportunity for several of Ireland's leading boats to test the new title-holders on new waters

Dave Dwyers's marinerscove.ie emerged overall winner of the Division Zero national title after a tie-break with Conor Phelan's Jump Juice. The latter is the Scottish Series defending title-holder and will certainly be seeking to retain this result at weekend.

So too will Anthony O'Leary with Antix Eíle after a disappointing fourth place in Howth but with a possible hat-trick on the cards at Loch Fyne if he can equal his victories in 2004 and 2006. The intensity of activity is in preparation for the Rolex Commodore's Cup that gets under way in Cowes at the end of next month which is also preceded by the British IRC National Championships.

Meanwhile, reporting of last weekend's racing has drawn criticism from within the ranks of the Irish Cruiser Racing Association at the lack of inclusion of the ECHO handicap system results under which all participants compete in addition to the IRC handicap system. It has been suggested that personal bias against ECHO is responsible for the failure to give equal prominence as IRC receives. This is not the case.

The situation arises from the need to produce objective results when boats of different sizes, construction design and materials as well as other criteria compete against each. Over the decades, many handicapping systems have sought to meet this need with varying degrees of success. Currently the IRC system has found widespread following in Britain, France, Ireland and more recently a growing list of countries such as Australia and the United States.

Within Irish sailing circles, IRC is generally regarded as the premier handicapping system and is promoted by the ICRA. In addition to IRC, the ECHO system is also promoted by the ICRA and is regarded as an equal system to the IRC by the organisation as well as its parent body, the Irish Sailing Association, that formerly administered this domestic Irish handicap.

ECHO differs significantly from IRC in that it is a performance-based handicap; the better a boat does, the more its handicap increases. In practice, it penalises accomplishment, the corollary of which is a reward for mediocre performances. Yet a role exists for ECHO, that has been endorsed by the RORC as an important method of encouraging participation by boats that may not otherwise feature at prize-givings.

In terms of media coverage, the mandate is to recognise the achievements of the winners, of those who achieve the results and overcome challenges that might otherwise hand victory to their rivals. To place the winners of a lesser handicap system on the same level as those of unarguably higher achievement is to diminish their result. branigan@indigo.ie