IRM Class at Cork Week Overall

Peter Harrison's 2003 IRM UK National Championship winning Farr 52 Chernikeeff 2 clinched the IRM Class today at Cork Week, winning the final long inshore race.

With just a relatively soft south westerly breeze blowing, and not much more than six to eight knots promised by forecasters, the race officer not only made the prudent choice to set the shortest available course option, and then scored himself some extra popularity by shortening the course still further.

This produced a long beat up to Kinsale from the Cork safe ground buoy and a corresponding run back with the finish at the same mark.

Again Chernikeeff were quick off the start line and built an early lead over Bear of Britain. Working the wind shifts well, they identified a band of compressed, stronger pressure under the cliffs and by the windward mark were two and a half minutes clear of Babbalaas, the leading Farr 45, and had Bear of Britain in check.

There was little change on the return downwind, with the same strategy required: keeping in the best pressure and again, with a clear advantage racing from the front Chernikeeff crossed first to win on corrected time from David Murrin's 2XL, the Farr 40.

Harrison's Chernikeeff 2 wins by six clear points from David McLean's Babbalaas which held second by virtue of count back, while 2XL have sailed consistently well through the regatta.

"Our main objective today was not to make any mistakes and I think we managed that." Reported Chernikeeff's navigator Marc Fitzgerald, "If Babbalaas had won today we needed to be no worse than sixth, so it was worth being careful and not doing anything rash. We had loads of pace and were cool and calm among the crew.

There were loads of worthwhile windshifts to use and we also used that band of pressure under the cliffs well, when some boats went offshore and caught a real cold."

"It has been a good class with some good quality opposition. IRM was tweaked a little through the winter to try and reduce any advantage the big boats were perceived to have but there is a reasonable spread among the top boats." He suggested.

Chernikeeff 2 has sailed this week for the first time with a trim tab, taking advantage of the change in the rating rules regarding moveable appendages designed to accommodate canting keels.

"We noticed it was relatively free of penalty - we take 3 points under IRC - and we had a spare keel in the yard after we had a new keel under warranty, so we saw it as an opportunity worth trying. We still need to do some work on it but it seemed good this week in flat water and not so effective in a sea-way."

Overall Results:

1 Farr 52, Chernikeeff 2 (P Harrison) 12pts
2 Farr 45, Babbalaas (D McLean) 18pts
3 Farr 40 2XL (D Murrin) 18pts
4 Farr 52, Bear of Britain (Tim Louis/Kit Hobday) 27.5 pts
5 Farr 45, Rebel (D Franks/D Morris) 28.5pts