As darkness fell and the lights came on at the RCYC Marina on Friday night I was a happy man. We had sailed our first club evening race in Cork Harbour the UK Sailmakers Ireland League, without any hassle. We were relaxing in the club. Everything had worked after the weeks of preparation in Castlepoint Boatyard in Crosshaven. It had been a good evening as SCRIBBLER was back on the water, in her natural environment.
Sunday morning was our second race, this time in the North Sails Ireland League. While the rest of the country seemed to be revelling in unaccustomed sunshine, it was foggy across Cork Harbour, but after a half-hour postponement the fog cleared and we were racing again out of Crosshaven, with our Sigma 33 performing nicely in White Sail, the class which I helped get going several years ago with the late Jim Donegan.
Fog bank in Cork Harbour
It encourages more people to be able to race their boats, with less crew and this weekend encouragement into sailing will be a big feature of events in Cork Harbour.
A New Cork Harbour Sailing League
At Cobh on Friday night the new club in the harbour, Great Island, will launch its programme for the season, which will highlight a new Cork Harbour League. On Sunday the renowned Rankins will return to the water with a special sailing welcome and on Saturday and Sunday, young sailors in the Topper Class will be competing in their Southern Championships.
"On Sunday the renowned Rankins will return to the water with a special sailing welcome"
There is no doubt that owners of Rankin dinghies love sailing and take huge pride in their boats. I have recorded since last year the restoration and development of these boats over the past few seasons, with their huge connection to Cobh where, this Sunday, they will meet at Whitepoint Slip for their first event of the season. The name of the Rankin dinghies is revered in Cork Harbour and particularly in the harbourside town of Cobh
One of the sailors who has spearheaded the revival, Conor English from Crosshaven, says that this “is an especially exciting event.” His partner in the project has been Maurice Kidney in Cobh.
The reason that Sunday will be a special occasion is that “it will welcome Johnny Horgan’s beautifully-restored Rankin, Freedom V, one of the original boats built by Eric Rankin and will see the three-only cold-moulded Rankins sailing together for the first time.”
The Rankins plan to have their boats in the water for 1 p.m. on Sunday and then sail across the harbour to Spike Island, returning to the Cobh Town Hall Clock slipway for 4 p.m. where the boats will be on display for the public to see.
Great Island Sailing Club
Great Island Sailing Club was formed this year to ensure the continuance of sailing at Cobh, following difficulties which arose in Cove Sailing Club as it attempted to build a marina at Whitepoint. Its calendar includes the new Cork Harbour League, to be raced each Friday night in June under its burgee, continuing on Saturdays in July, run by Monkstown Bay Sailing Club and in August from the RCYC at Crosshaven on Fridays, concluding at the end of that month.
This combined sailing between the three harbour clubs was initially suggested last year.
Johanna Murphy, Commodore of Great Island SC hopes that “all clubs in the harbour sailing together will encourage people to get out sailing” and that by each club running a league each, there will be 20/25 boats out in the harbour at one time.
The success of this approach will depend upon how members in the individual clubs support this joint effort.
The Royal Cork at Crosshaven has the biggest club fleet of Topper dinghies in Ireland, with close to 30 of these solo-sailor boats, popular with young sailors. This weekend, Saturday and Sunday, the Topper Southern Championships will be raced at Crosshaven. The 11-foot Topper was designed by the renowned Ian Proctor and recognised as a world sailing class. RCYC members will hope to do well in the
Championships in their own waters this weekend.
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