Strong day for O'Leary

Irish team move into pole at Murphy and Nye 1720 Europeans

After the frustration of a shortened programme on day 1, followed by a fogged out day day on Wednesday, the 1720 sailors in St Malo were delighted to resume battle on Thursday.

The slow moving high produced a day of sunshine and a 10-18 knot Northerly breeze that moved to the North east during the day.

PRO Jean Journe amended the schedule to four races, instead of the previously planned three, and took the fleet out to the Western race area for the first time.

The first race of the day, race 3 of the regatta, was won by the Scott’s in King Quick, the defending champions. King Quick having been initially crossed by a few boats, moved in to the lead by the first mark and led to the finish, runners up were Conor Clarke and Dermot Crean aboard Wow, who have Jamie Lea on the tiller with Andrew 'Bart' Simpson calling the shots. Third was Anthony O’Leary’s Wet and Black.

Race four saw a major wind shift bringing the whole fleet into the top mark in a very tight bunch, popping out of the confusion in the lead were Wow who led the fleet home followed by Goacher Sails and Dark Side helmed by The UK’s new offshore endurance expert Rob Larke. Wet and Black were dumped out the back door and finishing 15th, whilst fellow Cork based boat Mariners Cove, scored their first top five result.

The Wet and Black team regained their composure in race 5 taking the bullet, Go Ferret ,who had led at the first mark, having fallen foul of the Black Flag along with Wow .

For the final race of the day victory went to Goacher Sails, winning the favoured pin end at the start, they were able to cross the fleet after a few minutes and went on to build a good lead. David Greenhalgh’s G & T making good use of wind shifts, closed the lead on the second beat, Goacher then extended downwind.

Six races with six different winners, the Irish on Wet and Black lead going in to the last day by one point from King Quick with Goacher Sails in third . The final two races are due to take place on Friday morning.

Points at 18.00 on Thursday:

		Boat/skipper	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	Pts tot	Pts Net
1	IRL 1843	WET AND BLACK	2	3	3	15	1	4	28	13
		O'LEARY Athony
2	GBR1777L	KING QUICK	3	4	1	3	4	3	18	14
		SCOTT Graeme
3	GBR1760L	GOACHER SAILS	6	12	4	2	5	1	30	18
		GOACHER Steve
4	IRL 1759	WOW	7	6	2	1	BFD	5	43	21
		CLARK/CREAN
5	GBR1710L	G & T	5	5	5	13	7	2	37	24
		GREENHALGH David
6	GBR1773L	FLYING DUTCHMAN	1	8	13	4	6	13	45	32
		DUCKER Chris
7	GBR1743L	SNBSM	4	1	16	10	8	14	53	37
		LEMARCHAND Nicolas
8	GBR1785L	BOATS.COM	15	7	8	7	9	8	54	39
		ATKINS Ian
9	GBR1797L	DARKSIDE	11	11	7	9	3	10	51	40
		LARKE Robe
10	IRL 1807	MARINERSCOVE.IE	9	16	11	5	12	7	60	44
		DWYER/DURCAN
11	GBR1767L	SWORDED FISH	16	OCS	9	8	2	11	68	46
		BLAKE SIMON
12	GBR1742L	MAD COW	8	14	6	12	DNF	6	68	46
		BAKER Darren
13	GBR1712L	GO FERRET	12	10	15	14	BFD	9	82	60
		MC IRVINE Andrew
14	IRL 1773	YOKE	17	15	14	11	10	12	79	62
		WINKELMANN Adam
15	GBR1701L	LA LICORNE	OCS	18	12	6	11	16	85	63
		GREENAWAY Mark
16	IRL 1751	LEMON	14	2	10	DNF	DNC	DNC	92	70
		GALAVAN Collin
17	IRL 1781	HOOT	13	9	19	18	15	15	89	70
		COUGHLAN Denis
18	GBR1730L	FINN M'COULS	18	17	18	17	14	17	101	83
		CLAY Tom
19	GBR1770L	LUVLY JUBBLY	OCS	20	17	16	13	18	106	84
		GRIFFITH Eleri
20	GBR 1702	INFLEXION	10	13	DNC	DNC	DNC	DNC	111	89
		HAMILTON Christian
21	GBR1704L	CELTIC CHALLENGE	19	19	20	19	16	OCS	115	93
		TINN Terry