SAILING - CORK WEEK:IT MAY have taken the weather a week to deliver it but as the south coast enjoyed its own micro-climate yesterday, there was champagne sailing for the finale to ACCBank Cork Week as a westerly breeze and bright sunshine brought the 410 boat fleet ashore at Crosshaven.
Despite the idyllic weather we were treated to fierce battles of strategy and boat-handling in many of the 26 divisions.
The event has rarely seen as close a result as in the Class Super Zero, where long-time leader Niklas Zennstrom's Transpac 52-footer Ran could not hold off off the onslaught of Dan Myers's Judel Vrolijk 66-footer Numbers.
Myers and his team, mostly comprising sailors from the America's Cup holders Alinghi, pounced in the most unlikely of circumstances.
A timing error on the course flagship saw the starting gun fired one minute early, catching most of the 14-strong fleet off guard, except for Numbers, which took off like a scalded cat, albeit one that did indeed get the cream.
In the absence of a recall, the pack gave chase but were unable to pull back the missing minute and Myers went on to score an emphatic win on handicap and just 40 seconds behind George David's super-maxi Rambler.
Undaunted, Ran sprinted straight to the international jury to seek redress, which was duly granted - the two points awarded leaving the two boats tied.
The tie-break was applied and Myers, on the bigger boat, won out.
Ireland's Colm Barrington on Flash Glove placed second and took third overall in the class.
There was no mistaking the overall winner of the week as the South Africans David and Roger Hudson's City of Cape Town took first place in the Laser SB3 class.
In the best of the 40-boat fleet, one of the largest at the event, the four-person crew counted four wins from the 13 races sailed.
Determined by a combination of fleet size and performance, this award is at the discretion of the event committee. So too is the Prix d'Elegance, won this year by Agne Nilsson's Fortis Excel, a 45-footer notable for its mirror-like silver finish.
Notable Irish winners included David Dwyer's marinerscove.ie in Class One IRC. The Cork 39-footer, designed by Wicklow- based Mark Mills, had a comfortable four-point lead over Nigel Passmore's Apollo, who retired after Dwyer got ahead in the single race yesterday.
A third consecutive win yesterday for Roy and Vera Dickson's Rosie, skippered by David Nixon from Howth Yacht Club, was more than enough to secure Class Two IRC from Andrew Creighton's Mustang Sally.
John Moorehead's Bengal Magic picked up the top prize in the 40-strong Class Three IRC and Stuart Kinnear's Dick Dastardly prevailed in the 22-strong Class Four, also under IRC handicap.
The three-way battle for Class Five hung by a thread going into yesterday's final and Barry Rose's Obsession VI slipped from their week-long lead when Richard Colwell's Kinetic from Howth YC won the race, taking the class by a point from the local leader.
Phil Eagleton's Chia Chia ended third, way ahead of the next boat in the 28-strong class.
Kinsale's Ian Traver's Bandit scored another race win yesterday to confirm his Class Six IRC victory.
Details in SPORTS ROUND-UP
