Whilst racing will be held on the Sunday’s of the South Coast and North Coast Championships, the organisers have made it clear that they wish the Cork and Belfast Lough Circuit events to be well attended, and have built in sufficient discards to cater for attendance at these events. Dun Laoghaire SB3 fleet hope this will provide a template for racing in local fleets across the country, and welcome all interested SB3s to join them in this series

3 Irish boats, 3257 from Dublin, 3258 from Holywood, and 3259 from Wexford, all fresh out of their wrapping, joined the 11 UK boats travelling the short hop to the Principality, to engage the Italian and French teams in the first event of the One Design European Calendar in Monaco.

Last year 11 SB3s appeared, this year 26 came to the line, and after the first couple of days, it was obvious that anyone could win, with nearly all the final top 16 posting top three results in the event. Conditions were light and a bit flicky for the first three days, as light thermal breezes kicked in at lunchtime, providing southerly F1-2 racing in cloudless skies. Sunday dawned with a stonking F3-4 from nearly the opposite direction, but with a glorious 3-6 foot swell – champagne stuff indeed, with the backdrop of the beautiful Casino, which many thought was the Palace; the Palace, which many thought was the Castle; and Gael Pawson’s place, the swanky Hotel de Paris, which many thought was a dodgy ploy to get a billionaire boyfriend. We never found out what happened. Suffice to say, you can have anything you like in Monaco, and outside Gael’s hotel, a car thief would have had a field day, with Lamborghini’s, Ferraris and Bentleys scattered around, some possibly having been forgotten about by their owners. I didn’t check, but I dare say many of them weren’t even locked.

Day one dawned to a slow start, until the thermal breeze kicked in and we lined up for our first start, using the Casino as the pin transit.

First out of the blocks was Nico Honor, with Europeans Champion Craig Burlington hot on his heels (was this a pseudo name to cover some unexpected last minute leave from work?) driving 3257, Colin Galavan of Dun Laoghaire’s new boat. Mark Rushall came in fourth behind a spritely Stewart Reed, looking none the worse for a day’s skiing in Isola the day before, and a night’s sleep at the roulette table. Sadly this was to be Stewart’s best result, as the high life seemed rapidly to take its toll, and his eyes sank further and further back into his head with every struggled attempt to get to the breakfast table.

Race two and 3258, sailing under 3200 sail number, Team Ceco, from Holywood in the North, (with the reappeared PK helming, DrC now in the middle, and old “Richardsons” helm Greg Bell in the bow) made an appearance, in third, to take the overnight lead on a rather unconvincing 10 points. Pietro Negri’s coordinated Italian team looked good with an afternoon bullet, but then became a bit sporadic after that.

Day two belonged to Mark Rushall, with a 4 and a 1, to lead overnight Day 2, after snakes seemed to outnumber ladders for most. Friday’s transit was the Café de Paris.

Saturday dawned lifeless, but by midday the thermal breeze brought the year’s first near planing conditions, and a little more consistency to proceedings. Craig Burlton pointed his tub around in fine style to take the overall lead, on a day that was notable for Jonty Sherwill and Wexford’s Derek Joyce sampling a nice pair of 1st and 2nds each.

After another night of fine fare, kicked of with yet more free beer and gallons of free bubbly, we all set off into conditions that will take some beating this year. Using the tunnel bend of the Grand Prix circuit as our pin transit, we all set off from a rather biased line, and the Holywood boys finally started to show some good speed, and were chased around the roly polys by John Outhwaite’s family entry in Balloo 3057, who posted an excellent 2nd and 1st behind Team Ceco, and ahead of Rushall in the final race.

Burlton appeared to have blown the lead, as he trucked in down the numbers, in Race 9, only to gain redress for picking up a swimmer from one of the other boats. This gave the Irishman top slot on the podium, for the first time since his European victory in 2006. He looked relieved, pleased and rather distressed to have his photo taken whilst wearing a Leprechaun’s hat, whilst his Paddy bow-woman Paula, in perfect Gaelic Gallic, gave thanks to the assembled masses, all resplendent in the SLAM prize jackets.

What a blinder of an opening event. Surely this event will become a permanent fixture on the calendar for the SB3 fleet, unless we are distracted by a World Cup in Tuscany in 2008 – who knows? All we can say is that if the season continues like this, we are all in for a fine old 2007! For myself, I’d gladly go back. In fact, my boat at once staged refused to leave the place, hopping of the back of my car and overtaking me up one of the tunnels in an attempt to get back to the harbour…..such an entertaining trip…..

Photos by Fiona Brown

Primo Cup results