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Debutante Quarter Tonner Diamond Wins First Race of O'Leary Insurance League at Royal Cork Yacht Club

7th November 2021
Colman Garvey and Kieran Kelleher sailing their new quarter tonner Diamond were the winners of Sunday's first IRC race of the Royal Cork Winter League
Colman Garvey and Kieran Kelleher sailing their new quarter tonner Diamond were the winners of Sunday's first IRC race of the Royal Cork Winter League .Scroll down for photo gallery Credit: Bob Bateman

O'Leary Insurance Winter League debutantes Colman Garvey and Kieran Kelleher sailing their new Quarter Tonner Diamond were the winners of Sunday's first IRC race of the Royal Cork League that is being sailed this year exclusively under White Sails.

Dave Lane's J/24 Ya Gotta Wanna, the overall winner of the October League, stayed on form and finished second in today's light airs in Cork Harbour. Third, in the 18-boat fleet was the O'Connell Family sailing the club J/24 Jambalaya.

Although it was the subject of some misgivings, today's opening race under white sails only worked out well, even if the light harbour westerly spoiled the proceedings a little. 

Race Officers Clem and Wendy Mc Elligott gave the fleet a running start across the harbour to Corkbeg, somewhat affected by the ebb tide. 

It looked like Coracle got the best of light air start in the first race of the O'Leary Winter League Mel and Kieran Collins' Coracle (pictured left) got a good light air start in the first race of the O'Leary Winter League. Coracle (below) was sailing with just two crew.  Photo: Bob Bateman

From there, it was course 101, leaving buoys  No 1, No 8, No 10, No.7 and Corkbeg to starboard and then back to Cage to starboard and a sausage to Corkbeg, back to cage, leaving No eight and No 5 to starboard before the finish.

Paul and Deirdre Tingle's new Alpaca, an X Yacht X-4 model(Above and below) Paul and Deirdre Tingle's new Alpaca, an X Yacht X-4 'Pocket Luxury Yacht' model

Royal Cork dinghies

On a busy day for Royal Cork, the Laser (ILCA 4 and 6) and Topper dinghy Frostbite league were also on the water. There was coaching for top Optimist sailors too. 

Results here

O'Leary Insurance Royal Cork Winter League Photo Gallery

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About Quarter Tonners

The Quarter Ton Class is a sailing class of the International Offshore Rule racing the Quarter Ton Cup between 1967 and 1996 and from 2005 until today.

The class is sailed by smaller keelboats of similar size and is likely the world's most-produced keelboat class.

The Ton, Half, Quarter, etc. 'classes' were each given a 'length' and yacht designers had almost free rein to work the hull shapes and measurements to achieve the best speed for that nominal length.

The Ton Rules produced cranky and tender boats without actual downwind speed. Measurement points created weird, almost square hull shapes with longish overhangs.

They were challenging to sail optimally and lost value very quickly as any new wrinkle (e.g. 'bustles') to take advantage of the rule made older boats very quickly uncompetitive.

Although its heyday was 30 years ago, the boat class continues to make its presence felt by holding its own in terms of popularity against some fern race fleets.