….the Englishman, Irishman, Scotsman and an Italian? While most of the population were watching some football match last Thursday, the Englishman preferred sailing to football and the Irishman and the Scot preferred anything to watching England play football. The Italian said ‘What football competition?’ and went to set the course. Three minutes later they were off – the Scot got a good start, but was soon overtaken by the Englishman who had a faster boat. The Irishman went up the other side of the beat and was almost first to the mark. The Englishman set off downwind in the lead, but the Irishman had rigged his spinnaker in some strange Irish way – three times around the jib – and lost ground whilst his crew rectified it. As the race progressed, the Italian went ashore to watch the football and forgot about the sailing race. The Englishman continued to stretch his lead, but was never comfortably ahead. The Scot and the Irishman traded places numerous times depending on who had tacked on the right wind shift. After four laps, the Englishman was first across the line, with the Scot about 40 seconds later and the Irishman only 5 seconds behind that. However, once handicaps were calculated, the positions were reversed.
