Fresh winds and clear skies brought champagne sailing conditions to Kinsale

for the ICRA Nationals Sovereigns Cup though the bubbly stuff was far from many crews' thoughts.

Yesterday saw over 20 knots of wind from a south-west direction that gusted to near gale force at times according to some crews.

Ironically, it was the boats most likely to withstand rougher conditions that suffered the most with Division 0 substantially reduced in numbers going into today’s final two races.

Class favourite Keronimo from Plymouth, the hands-down favourite for the division and possibly should have been in a larger class size had there been demand for it, is not expected to be competing today following a series of errors all week.

On form, the Ker 40 footer clips off race wins with ease in this 10-boat division and yesterday’s opening race was no exception. But this was followed by a man-overboard incident between races – there were up to six such incidents across the 109 -boat fleet yesterday – and followed this with a spectacular broach that resulted in their retirement from the race with a maximum score.

Overall lead

That left the overall lead to Norbert Reilly’s Crazy Horse from Howth Yacht Club and a reasonable points cushion with today’s races remaining. But the Division 0 carnage was not limited to the class favourite alone.

Conor Phelan’s Jump Juice from the Royal Cork YC had to switch to emergency steering during the first race after gear failure that was being fixed overnight in time for the final races.

Jay Colville’s Forty Licks from East Down YC is also out of action following a broken boom.

Elsewhere in the eight divisions, overall standings changed in the conditions that have steadily freshened since Wednesday’s light airs opener.

In Division 1, John Maybury’s Joker 2 from the Royal Irish YC appears to have outgunned their main rival in fellow J109 Jelly Baby though Rob McConnell’s Fool’s Gold from Waterford Harbour SC has now become the main challenger.