sailing: Barrington beaming

It has been a remarkable Skandia Life Cowes Week all round - the sun has shone throughout and the wind has slowly started to co-operate - and particularly remarkable for Colm Barrington, writes Stuart Alexander from Cowes.

The aircraft leasing expert from Dalkey, south of Dublin, completed a memorable double yesterday by adding the New York Yacht Club Challenge Cup to the Britannia Cup, which he became the first Irishman to win.

As his Surfing Shoes was followed home by Geoff Howison's sistership, Local Hero, to whom Barrington was second in Tuesday's Batsheba Trophy, there could hardly have been a more glorious platform for the new Australian designed and built Bashford 41.

Barrington has also been able to use the boat when training some of the crew on Jameson 1, the Irish team's big boat for the Champagne Mumm Admiral's Cup, sharing as he does, an interest with that boat's charterer, Tom Power.

The Class One fleet was sent off deep into the eastern Solent, after a buoy called Horse Elbow worked its way back to the finish at the Squadron and ashore for a well-earned celebration.