It might sound clichéd at this time of the year but yesterday really was a real case of John Keats poem 'To Autumn'. There was a great sense of 'mists and mellow fruitfulness' in Crosshaven for the second day of the CH Marine Autumn League at Royal Cork Yacht Club writes Bob Bateman.

The foggy morning gave way to a hazy sunshine. Classes one and two sailed outside the Harbour in a six to seven knot breeze with Peter Crowley as duty race officer.

Despite the ebb tide flowing these fleets got in in two good races.

The race officer for, classes three,four and White Sails John Downing gave up his quest for breeze inside the harbour and headed out to sea off Ringabellla Bay and got the fleets away for one race. The ebb tide flowing out of Cork Harbour made it somewhat of a challenge for competitors and a dying breeze on the second spinnaker leg made it even more difficult to get over the finish line but all managed it.

Not so lucky were the white sails as some were outside the limit and were DSQ'D

Altair (K Dorgan/J Losty) leads the biggest fleet of Royal Cork's CH Marine Autumn league writes Bob Bateman. After the first two races of the Cork Harbour league, the Beneteau 36.7 is IRC one division leader on three points from Paul and Deirdre Tingle's X34, Alpaca. Third is the J109 Justus skippered by Dan Buckley.

Results from all divisions are here. 

Racing continues next weekend.

The CH Marine Autumn Series at Royal Cork Yacht Club is rapidly approaching writes Kieran O'Connell. A highlight of the Cork Harbour sailing season the event attracts large numbers of sailors from a wide variety of clubs from around Ireland. Download the event Notice of Race and entry form below.

This year the CH Marine Autumn Series will commence on Sunday, October 2nd with the first two races and will follow with two races Sunday in October finishing on Sunday October 30th. Racing will commence each day at 1055hrs, and will be followed each day by food, music and daily prize giving. Notice of Race and Entry forms downloadable from CH Marine Autumn Series

Over the last few years there has been a great 1720 fleet building for the CH Marine Autumn Series, with 13 boats competing last year. This year is looking like the 1720 class will not disappoint with a large number of early entries.

On the final day of racing the CH Marine Autumn Series dinner and overall prize giving will be held at the club commencing at 19.30hrs. 

Subject to availability, complimentary berthing on swinging moorings or marina berths will be provided to yachts visiting. For berthing arrangements please contact Mark Ring at Royal Cork office +353(0)214831023

Starting this Saturday is CH Marine's Life Jacket Awareness Week. The Cork yacht shop has got special offers, competitions and helpful information all about life jackets & safety equipment. The week kicks off with a visit by the RNLI Lifejacket Safe Check Team to CH Marine's Cork City branch this Saturday from 11.00–16.00 hrs.

Team CH Marine member Micheal O'Suileabhain from Kinsale Yacht Club finished second overall at the Optimist Braassemermeer Easter Regatta in Holland yesterday. According to the IODAI, the series was cut short with the arrival of storm 'Katie'. It meant the series was completed in nine races and the battle for the Easter regatta's giant egg was between Micheal and two Dutch sailors. Just two points separated the top three. An Irish team were competing in the 242–boat fleet drawn from 15 countries.

Sea Kayak Around Ireland is 45–minute documentary that tells the story of two Irish Sea Kayakers who take on their dream journey of circumnavigating their country. Jon Hynes and Sean Cahill's fabulous documentary produced with support from CH Marine, went online yesterday.

CH Marine who took over the official LaserPerformance dealership in the Republic of Ireland in June have been appointed Northern Ireland agents too. The aim, says CH Marine Managing director Nick Bendon, is to increase support for sailors in the region and attract a new wave of sailors into the sport. The new arrangements come into place next month.

Bendon reports an excellent first few months with LaserPerformance in the Republic and the Munster firm looks forward to promoting the same service in Northern Ireland from its Newtownards branch.

CH Marine is a dedicated resource in the marine industry and has demonstrated decades of high level service for their customers. An already established presence in Southern Ireland provides them with the experience to be a strong leader in the Northern Ireland small boat community.

'The Northern Ireland Laser market has been well catered for in the past and we hope to continue the excellent standards, says Bendon. CH Marine has a known reputation for customer service and we are committed to holding comprehensive stocks of boats, sails, spars and parts at our Newtonards depot, to provide the best delivery times and support, he adds.

“CH Marine has been offering the best products, service and insight to customers in Ireland for the past 45 years and was appointed as our Dealer for Southern Ireland earlier this year. We are excited by the prospects of being able to work closer with the sailing community in Northern Ireland in a bid to get more sailors on the water moving forward.” Dan Smithers, Vice President of LaserPerformance.

This is an exciting and positive step forward for the community in Northern Ireland. The talent synergies of LaserPerformance and CH Marine will provide sailors in the region with the best of both worlds in customer service and product selection.

We look forward to advancing the vision for LaserPerformance with CH Marine. Our close working relationship will accelerate the momentum that both brands have built to promote dinghy sailing and the local sailing communities, clubs and programs in Ireland.

LaserPerformance is the world’s largest manufacturer of small sailboats and proudly promotes the sailing community. LaserPerformance boats are designed and built to meet the needs of all sailors. LaserPerformance proudly manufactures many iconic sailboats including: Laser, Sunfish, Laser Pico, and more. As a lifestyle brand, it distributes water sport related products.

Like the Last Supper the best weather was kept for the final day of the CH Marine Autumn League in Cork Harbour writes Claire Bateman. A brisk nor westerly breeze greeted the Royal Cork Yacht Club competitors. As usual, there were three race areas. Whitesail One and Two with Class Four were sailing down off the Eastern Bank and due to the nor westerly nature of the wind the courses were somewhat shorter with a lot of mark rounding .

The 1720s elected to go out an hour early to get an extra race in such was the enthusiasm of the class and they were able to get the full benefit from the direction of the wind by sailing right across the harbour where they were like greyhounds chasing around the course.

Classes One, Two and Three were in the outer harbour again today and they were given the B type course, which is the triangle course, and this gave great racing. R0 Peter Crowley decided that they would not finish in at the grassy today because it was felt the wind could be a bit flukey inside the harbour.

It was a day that one could use the old reliable description of champagne sailing with blue sea and sky, perfect breeze, and a very fitting end to the CH Marine Autumn League.

With six races already sailed at Royal Cork Yacht Club's CH Marine Autumn Series and one discard, there are now four races left to sail in the event writes Claire Bateman. It was a regular autumnal day yesterday, a bit grey in the harbour but at Roche’s Point it was somewhat brighter but with a bit of a lop brought about by a largely E/NE light wind and a flood tide going in the opposite direction. Fleets One, two and three were given a windward/leeward course and at the weather mark in Class One Rob McConnell’s Fools Gold came in on port with Conor Doyle’s Freya arriving on starboard and Fools Gold having exonerated herself then proceeded to go on to win in IRC.

Fools Gold and Freya close in at the weather mark. More photos in Bob Bateman's gallery above.

Paul Tingle's Alpaca leads in Class two

In Class Two IRC Paul Tingle’s Alpaca had two firsts and has a good lead over her two closest rivals, the Crosbie family on No Excuse and the Desmond/Ivers/Deasy Bad Company. For the second race RO Peter Crowley did his usual clever trick of giving the fleet a race and then finishing them off the Grassy.

Celebrations on the Albin Express White Magic

Class Four sailed inside the harbour as did White sail One and Two. Class Four has turned into a cracker (no pun intended)of a battle between Clare competitor Denis Byrne in his Ed Dubois TS 250 and Alan Mulcahy’s Albin Express White Magic. Both had a win today and are joint leaders on seven points each in IRC.Blank Zig Mosaic copy

The 1720 fleet were having their usual exciting racing but with the lighter winds did not produce any unexpected surprises. Denis Murphy’s Aquatack took the three bullets today.

Next Sunday will see the penultimate day of racing for the league with the final day of racing on the following Saturday, October 24th.

Last week may have produced conditions lulling us all into a mood of ‘A Season of Mists and Mellow Fruitfulness’ but today sharply reminded the Royal Cork Yacht Club Autumn League competitors of the march on of the season writes Claire Bateman. To day was a gray day with a bite in the wind that came from the E/SE producing 15/20 knots with occasional gusts into the mid twenties. Skies were dark with occasional shafts of sunlight but none of this deterred the enthusiastic sailors as they set out all geared up for the weather.

Even as your scribe was heading out for the start there was already a 1720 limping home with a broken mast a sure indicator there might be a few more incidents to come and such turned out to be the case. The tales in the club bar afterwards were stories of crew overboard, torn sails, gear damage and protests. One of the Archambauld 35s was seen to be doing something akin to the dance of the seven veils off the Holy Ground at Cobh, fine girl you are!!

While heading out the Owenabue River to the start the harbour looked as if there were no seats left in the house. All racing was inside the harbour today due to the conditions so what we saw first on our port side were the dinghy classes with the Optimists, Toppers and Lasers. Looking ahead one could see the 1720 fleet all on starboard tack as they headed off on their first race of the day and on our starboard side we could see White Sail One and Two and Class Four heading for the Corkbeg mark and looking further in the harbour were Classes One, Two and Three. To complete the picture we had the Irish Lights Vessel Granuaile down off Spike with the Naval Service L.E James Joyce close by and finally to complete the scene a large oil tanker tied up at Whitegate.

All in all it was an extremely busy day for all the willing volunteers who help with the running of the events, the working out of handicaps and all that is necessary for the smooth operation of racing.

There was a short sharp sea as there was an ebb tide going in the opposite direction to the wind making for exhilarating racing if a little uncomfortable for some of the smaller boats at times. A full complement of racing was achieved for the day and so far four races have been held in the CH Marine series and racing will continue next Sunday