The Royal Cork Yacht Club cancelled its regular Thursday night league racing this week and called members to a meeting instead to discuss an incident between some boats in the racing fleet on the previous week’s Thursday and a tanker entering the harbour.
The Admiral of the RCYC at Crosshaven, Kieran O’Connell, said the action decided upon by the Executive Committee of the club was taken to ensure that the message of safety in racing was clearly understood by all involved and that Skippers of yachts must realise that they are ultimately responsible for their decisions during racing.
Admiral of the RCYC at Crosshaven, Kieran O’Connell Photo: Bob Bateman
There was a big turn-out at the meeting which heard from Cork Harbour Master, Capt. Paul O’Regan and Cork Pilot Tony Mulcahy, who was on the tanker, how tugs accompanying the vessel were used to assist it in reducing speed after several warning sounds made by the tanker when it neared the fleet, which was spread across the shipping channel were not responded to.
A photo from a social media post dated May 19th showing yachts, a ship and an accompanying tug in Cork Harbour Photo: via Facebook
A new system for race control is being agreed by the club with the Port of Cork.
Admiral of the RCYC, Kieran O’Connell, is my Podcast guest this week discussing the incident and the lessons to be learned from it for racing crews and skippers.
Listen to the Podcast below.
