#calvesweek – There was a very mixed forecast for today's racing at Calves Week for the Fastnet Race writes Claire Bateman. The Race Officer sent Class 4 and Whitesail 2 straight to the Rock and back a distance of some fourteen miles. Classes 2 and 3 were also sent to the Rock but had to return via the Calf Islands while Zero and 1, having rounded the Rock, had to go round Cape Clear. This resulted in a mass finish of boats in the harbour all close together.
The weather was somewhat unkind starting out as sunny but on the way to the rock deteriorated into fog and rain and a very lumpy sea brought about by a flooding spring tide resulting in some gear breakage.
Once again there was no stopping Kieran Twomey in Gloves Off who took a third win of the three races sailed to date in IRC. Conor and Denise Phelan, as ever enjoying their annual West Cork trip, were second today and are lying second overall. Paul O'Higgins Rockabill had to be content with an eighth place but is lying third on equal points with Robert McConnell's Fools Gold.
In Class 2/3 IRC it was Foynes entry Derek Dillon took first place and now leads overall followed in second place by Ernie Dillon from Royal Cork in overall second while in third place was Brian O'Sullivan's Amazing Grace from TBSC who has now climbed to second overall. In Class 4 Michael Murphy of Shelly D is smiling tonight as he leads overall in both IRC and ECHO. Second in ECHO to day was Rene Wubben's Seven Whistler followed by Richard Hanley's Saoirse in third.
The final race of the Cork Dry Gin Calves Week will take place tomorrow (Fri) followed by the prize giving.
Additional report from Calves week PR:
On day 3 of racing in the Cork Dry Gin Calves Week 2013 and with the wind backed from south easterly to south westerly overnight and forecast to get up to 18 knots forecast in the afternoon, all boats knew that they would face very different weather conditions for the scheduled run around the Fastnet Rock. A heavy swell from the southwest and a forecast for a front to pass over in midafternoon added to the challenge of deciding which route to take in the beat out to the Rock for skippers.
The simplest course - "Fastnet, Port" - was set for the smallest boats, Class 4 and Whitesail 2, who left first. Class 2/3 returned via the Calf Islands, now a familiar sight. The largest boats, in Class 0/1 and Whitesail 1, had the added challenge of a run around Clear Island and through the Gascanane Sound after rounding the lighthouse, and a beat back around Western Calf before the reach for the line.
The fleet divided on the way out, with some choosing to head south to Cape Clear, and others heading west along the southern shore of Long Island before tacking south towards the Fastnet. The front came through earlier than expected and the result wind shift benefited those who had gone west.
Perhaps reflecting their detailed knowledge, local boats did well in the results. The first boats finished in a little under 3 hours with Kieran Twomey in Gloves Off from the Royal Cork completing a hat trick in IRC, ahead of Jump Juice. He was trumped in ECHO by Gabby Hogan in local boat Growler , ahead of Frank Whelan sailing Wavetrain (Royal St George). The Dillon brothers on Big Deal and Silk Breeze divided IRC and Echo honours in Classes 2/3, with Big Deal less than a minute ahead on corrected time from Silk Breeze after 3 hours of racing. Micheal Murphy in Shelly D, from Schull won both Class 4 prizes.
In the Whitesail 1 fleet, Ciaran Geoghegan from Dungarvan, skippering Fizz, again took the IRC prize, with Tom McCarthy in Ashanta picking up his first prize in Echo. The Ronan famil y in Kopper Two won in Whitesail 2.
