Sailing/Column: After less than 48 hours at sea, a two-boat duel to the finish line at Beenbawn Point at the end of the Pierse Dún Laoghaire to Dingle Race saw a 10-minute gap separate the two leaders at the head of the 19-strong fleet.
Playing shifting winds along the south coast for 30 hours, the pair swapped the on-the-water lead as many as eight times in an exclusive battle several hours ahead of the chasing pack which allowed Ged Pierse's larger entry to retain second overall.
A strong performance for Henry Hogg on Eliminator brought third overall to Garrykennedy Sailing Club.
A clearly pleased Sheehy told The Irish Times that in spite of a watch system on board from Tuesday evening, many of his crew remained clipped on the rail throughout Wednesday night.
"The boat's been up to speed since last year's Cork Week and I haven't changed it since. It's down to crewing now and getting the mix right on board," said Sheehy.
Elsewhere on the south coast, 15 Howth 17-footers are expected to depart their base on a fleet of low-loader trucks at dawn tomorrow bound for Baltimore and on for the Glandore Classic Boats regatta next week.
Dubbed the world's oldest one-design keelboat class, the 105-year-old 17s will race to the Fastnet Lighthouse on Monday, coinciding with its centenary, before moving to Glandore for a two-day championship and then the Classic Boat series.
Meanwhile, following the publication by the Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) of its report into a complaint by triple Olympian Mark Mansfield against the Irish Sailing Association (ISA), the ISA this week issued its response noting the findings and stressing that its intention was at all times to achieve the best possible Star class representation for Ireland in Athens 2004.
The ISA board has decided to initiate an independent inquiry into the controversy, although a date for this is unknown. The board has further decided to revert to a previous selection process involving only a trials series next spring between the two crews in contention. However, the OCI report found that any trials series should be triggered on the basis of world ranking order.
In response to this latest move by the ISA, Mansfield confirmed yesterday that he had informed the association that he intends to appeal the matter to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne. The world rankings published this week show an improvement by Mansfield and Killian Collins into second, while main rivals Max Treacy and Anthony Shanks have slipped to 17th overall.
Potential future Olympians will be in action next week in Dún Laoghaire when the inaugural Youth Championship, organised by the Royal St George YC, is staged on Monday and Tuesday. Up to 250 entries have been received from Ireland and Britain.
