After mounting multiple teams, considered favourite going into both the 2006 and 2008 events but failing to win either, so the Irish boats Antix, marinerscove.ie and Roxy 6 today secured the Rolex Commodores’ Cup for the emerald isle.

“It is delightful to finally have a chance to get our hands on the trophy,” declared Anthony O’Leary, owner and helmsman of the Ker 39 Antix, the Irish team’s big boat. “For all three boats, the Rolex Commodores’ Cup has been the absolute pinnacle of what we have wanted to do this year. While Antix and marinerscove have been around, it is a credit to the guys on Roxy because they had a new build and got the boat in the water, and then there were all the attendant things you have to do. Owner Rob Davies, in fairness to him, didn’t take a huge amount of persuasion to sign up and make the extra effort required to do it. We owe him a huge debt.”

David Dwyer and his marinerscove.ie team were equally ecstatic. “I bought this boat in 2006 and we have been waiting since then for the right time. This time it worked. It was absolutely brilliant.”

Now on 64.5 points to second placed Hong Kong’s 100.5, the Irish team’s position at the Rolex Commodores’ Cup is looking all but unassailable. With just one inshore race to go tomorrow it would now take a major disaster in all three classes for the immaculate Irish to lose their grip of the trophy that has eluded them for so long.

Today the 29 strong fleet (one down with Paul Turner’s Artemis in GBR Black out of the competition with a damaged keel) sailed anti-clockwise around the Isle of Wight, the results from this 55-nautical-mile carrying a points co-efficient of 1.5x. This was held in southwesterly wind that peaked at around 24 knots as the boats battled their down the western Solent towards the Needles in lumpy wind against tide conditions.

In the big boat class, Anthony O’Leary’s Ker 39 Antix scored another win, her fourth this week, giving her by far the lowest points score of all the boats at the Rolex Commodores’ Cup. She won on corrected by a minute, once again from her sistership, Bernard Gouy’s Inis Mor racing in France Yellow.

The Caja Mediterráneo Region of Murcia Trophy was presented today at the Cartagena Town Hall. The scheduled racing starts next Tuesday, but the Public Village opens tomorrow (Saturday) on the dockside of Cartagena, offering free access to all of the excitement and information which supports the 2010 Audi MedCup Circuit.