In his latest video update, Royal Cork Yacht Club Admiral Colin Morehead hails the return of keelboat and junior racing at Crosshaven, not to mention the well-earned victory of Nieulargo in the Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race.

This weekend the club is hosting the postponed 29er Nationals among a busy calendar of events that includes the Tricentenary At Home Regatta at the end of August.

Colin confirms that the parade of sail will go ahead on the morning of Saturday 28 August — with attendees including Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney — and he made a special request to club members: “If you have a boat, if it floats, get it in the water and make sure that it’s there.”

Also upcoming is the Cork300 cruise in company along the Wild Atlantic Way from new Saturday 10 July, which still space available for cruisers to join. Find out more on the RCYC website HERE.

And the Royal Cork will join with other Cork Harbour clubs to help the Naval Service celebrate its 75th anniversary in September. More details to come.

In the meantime, outdoor dining is in full swing at the clubhouse and Colin appeals to all to come down to the club and make the most of any fine weather.

More than 120 crews from over 15 nations are expected in Cork Harbour at the Royal Cork Yacht Club when the 2022 5O5 World Championship is hosted in Crosshaven from 1st -13th August 2022.

This will be the fourth time the club will have hosted the 505 World Championships, having welcomed visiting crews previously in 1959, 1964 and 1982. 

Founded in 1720, the Royal Cork Yacht Club is the oldest yacht club in the world and the 505 World Championships will form part of the club’s continued Tricentenary celebrations.

The 505 has been established and racing around the world for over 60 years. However, combined with that rich history and past success the Class continues to surprise and remains one of the most successful two-person sailing choice in the world.

Once one of the most popular dinghy classes in Ireland, there was a gathering of 505 sailors at the National Yacht Club on Dublin Bay in 2019 where the fiftieth anniversary of the staging of the European Championships was remembered.

The class is still raced at Monkstown Bay Sailing Club in Cork Harbour both on a one design and PY basis.

Home of the 505 Worlds - the picturesque village of Crosshaven in Cork is home to the Royal Cork Yacht Club, the oldest yacht club in the world Photo: Bob Bateman

Royal Cork says next year's event is likely to draw the world’s top sailors and past Olympians such as Howie Hamlin (Multiple World Champion in 18ft skiffs, 14 ft skiffs, 5o5s), Mike Martin and Adam Lowry (US Yachtsmen Of The Year 2020), Boris Herrmann (5th 2020/2021 Vendee Globe) and Ian Pinnell (multiple dinghy World Champion). 

(Above and below) Local 505 dinghy racing in Cork Harbour Photos: Bob Bateman

Other notable events in Royal Cork's celebrations include the hosting of the Topper World Championships in July 2021 and the biennial, world-renowned, Cork Week which will take place in July 2022. Colin Morehead, Admiral of the Royal Cork Yacht Club, commented, “we are proud that such a prestigious regatta will return to Cork. Our priority is to make this an unforgettable regatta for the sailors and fans, leaving a lasting legacy on dinghy sailing in the club and country.”

The 60-year-old design of the 505 has proven to be timeless, with continued innovation and use of the most modern materials ensuring the 505 class remains one of the best dinghy racing fleets in the world. Image courtesy of 505 International Class/Christophe Favreau

Alex Barry, Event Chairman and 505 sailor

Alex Barry, Event Chairman and 505 sailor, commented, “it’s a privilege for us to be bringing the world’s best sailors to Cork. The event is already generating interest throughout the Irish sailing scene and the local fleet is beginning to build. With many members having sailed in the previous editions of the event in Cork, it’s a great opportunity for sailors young and old to come to Cork and be involved. The 1982 event was the springboard for our own Mark Mansfield who went on to represent Ireland four times in the Olympics, this event will inspire sailors of all abilities throughout the country.”

There are three Royal Cork Yacht Clubs. One is the globally-recognised historic institution which is directly descended from the Water Club of the Harbour of Cork founded three hundred years ago, the oldest yacht club in the world. The second is a remarkably successful competitive sports organisation which produces sailing and offshore racing athletes to Olympic standard. And the third is a friendly neighbourhood sailing club in a charmingly extended clubhouse, a club which is integral to its community of Crosshaven, and a quietly important part of the everyday life of its ordinary sailing members, while at the same time being the flagship expression of the Harbour of Cork in its recreational mode.

The second element in the Royal Cork’s makeup is its creation of world-class sailors, as seen here in 1977 as the Ron Holland 44 Big Apple (Clayton Love, Hugh Coveney & Ray Fielding RCYC) slices her way to success in the Solent in the Admiral's Cup with Johnny McWilliam on the helm, Harold Cudmore beside him, and Killian Bushe and Ron Holland among those on the rail. Although built by the Irish-born Joyce Brothers in Southampton, Big Apple was designed in Crosshaven, and her McWilliam sails were made there too. Photo courtesy John McWilliam

This year, the globally-recognised historic institution was naturally taking world centre stage as the focal point of a major international celebration of its seniority in our sport. But as that has been largely cancelled in a timely, mature and exemplary response to the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus, the other steady, rocklike and ever vital third version of the Royal Cork has emerged, gallant and unbowed, to continue the Club’s time-honoured role of serving its own people and place, playing the key role in providing the people, the boats and the enthusiasm for Crosshaven sailing to resume in a carefully-planned way at an area level.

The club and its antecedent organisations may have had several homes over the centuries. But ever since the Royal Munster Yacht Club moved from its up-harbour Monkstown base to quietly take over the new premises of the Cork Motor-Boat Club at Crosshaven in 1923, a location has developed where sailors of all levels and ages – from young absolute beginners to seasoned international campaigners – can get in their sport from a base which is secluded from the many other busy activities of this magnificent harbour, yet at the same time provides speedy and convenient access to the great sheltered stretch of water and the open sea off it, with fine coastal cruising areas within easy reach.

Clayton Love Jnr led the amalgamation of the Royal Cork YC and the Royal Munster YC in 1967 to create today’s international sailing hub at Crosshaven

The centralisation at Crosshaven became complete with the amalgamation – led by Clayton Love Jnr - of the Royal Munster at Crosshaven and the more senior Royal Cork from Cobh, in 1967 at Crosshaven in time for a two year Quarter Millennial Celebration in 1969-70. And while the more recent development of new marina and berthing facilities all round Cork Harbour have seen additional organisations moving into the mainstream of sailing provision, the Royal Cork at Crosshaven continues to be in a league of its own in the breadth of its activities, influence and leadership role.

It is something which Irish sailing at large tends to take for granted as being the way things in Cork harbour - and particularly Crosshaven - have always been within living memory. So it can be salutary to hear the views of perceptive visitors when they first discover the vibrant Crosshaven mixture of international sailing centre and down-home community-focused training and sailing centre.

Crosshaven – the ideal location for the creation of an international sailing hub with a solidly home-based maritime community

Once such was world sailing pioneer Robin Knox-Johnston, who first became acquainted with the Crosshaven scene when it was a stopover on a five-stage two-handed Round Britain and Ireland Race. Having done several such events involving a number of ports in different countries, he was accustomed to the fleet in which he was racing being the complete focus of attention in each visited port.

But while Crosshaven was tops in warmth of welcome and efficiency during their 2-3 day stopover there, his abiding impression is of a second parallel club which burst into life each morning as shoals of RCYC junior sailors in a variety of classes from Optimists upwards went afloat in waves of sail for a day’s training and racing. The young crews did take in the wonder of the fleet of internationally-renowned ocean-racing specials which were visiting their club. Yet they were equally determined to get out and get sailing themselves regardless of the sailing Gods in port, and that was what particularly impressed Robin Knox-Johnston.

This flurry of the junior trainees going afloat each weekday summer morning is of course repeated at many clubs throughout Ireland. But it is the Royal Cork’s comprehensively organic and evolving waterfront along the Owenboy River which gives the many aspects of a classically healthy sailing club such a special dynamic, with a natural interaction between the different levels of interest and ages of those involved.

It is this easy continuation and interaction between the generations and the different levels and types of sailing and boating interest which gives the Royal Cork a formidable core strength. That strength has withstood whatever adverse events have come the club’s way over three centuries, and provided it with the inner confidence to face the demands which the Tricentenary would pose.

Colin Morehead, 42nd Admiral of the Royal Cork YC, at last weekend’s gathering in the harbour which clearly declared that despite the current international limitations, the Tricentenary of the RCYC is being celebrated with enthusiasm. Photo: Robert Bateman

For although Cork Harbour and the socio-economic circumstances around it in 1720 were ideal for the highly-innovative creation of the world’s first yacht club, the times have moved on. Other places have found that their own success enabled them to move sailing development ahead, and there has been an undoubted tendency for the centre of gravity of the international sailing scene to move away from sometimes wet and windy islands off the northwest coast of Europe, towards places with a warmer and more reliable climate.

Yet despite that, while it may have been through thin times, the spirit of sailing never went from Cork, and as the sport in its modern form developed through the 1900s, the Water Club evolved into the Royal Cork Yacht Club, acknowledged in its ultimate seniority by organisations as venerable and distinguished as the Royal Yacht Squadron and the New York Yacht Club, and gallantly sailing on among the clubs of the world as “neither the biggest nor the wealthiest, but simply the oldest and the best”.

“Simple the oldest and the best….” RCYC core members head for the “Admirals Chace” in Cork Harbour last weekend to mark the start of the Tricentenary Celebrations. Photo: Robert Bateman

Basically always a family affair – Richard Leonard’s very fully-crewed Bolero Class Bandit at the Chace represents several generations of Crosshaven sailing. Photo: Robert Bateman

Thus as the countdown of five years and more to its Tricentenary in 2020 took shape, the RCYC faced its year in the global sailing spotlight with quiet confidence and thorough planning. The way that other leading international clubs responded favourably, supportively and co-operatively to its proposals augured well for a very special year indeed, and with Colin Morehead installed as the 42nd Admiral at the AGM on January 21st 2020, everything was settling into place as planned.

And then came COVID-19. It took some time for some major administrators and indeed for many governments to grasp the totality of what was happening as the pandemic spread. But the Royal Cork Yacht Club gave both the sailing community and the world at large a clear example in its precise response. Just two months after its anticipation-filled AGM in January, on March 27th the RCYC confirmed that as indicated on March 15th, all events in June and July relating to the Tricentenary – which included some very major international events in July – were cancelled.

Socially distanced and a family bubble – for many participants, the Admirals Chace was the first tentative step afloat in the new COVID world. Photo: Robert Bateman

In business administration, they say that any decision - even a wrong decision - is better than no decision at all. But there were many who reckoned the RCYC, through its senior officer board of Admiral Colin Morehead and Vice Admiral Kieran O’Connell (Chairman of the pillar event, Volvo Cork Week) were being hasty. Yet they were proven right twice over both in making a timely decision, and in making what has proven to be absolutely the right decision.

The fact that the Royal Cork took this momentous step, this highest of high-profile decisions so soon, made it much easier for other sailing clubs and organisations to follow suit. And as the rightness of what was an extremely painful but very necessary decision at the time becomes ever more apparent, the Royal Cork’s unique local, national and international positions makes its emergence from the Lockdown of greater relevance than other clubs.

For although clubs and organisations more inherently nimble than the Crosshaven club may have seemed to pioneer the lockdown exit in a speedier fashion, the RCYC’s status as a role model is unrivalled, and any action it takes in these extraordinary circumstances has to be carefully considered.

Thus it’s reassuring to know that as soon as the clampdown had been imposed, the club’s decision-makers were closely monitoring developments, with the Admiral setting the tone with his clear belief that whatever happens, 2020 is still the Tricentenary year - you simply cannot postpone such a thing - and it is their clear duty to do their very best for whatever visitor-involving events that might still possible in August and September.

RCYC Vice Admiral Kieran O’Connell. Photo: Robert Bateman

But meanwhile, as local Lockdowns ease, their first duty is to their own members and the gradual restoration of the RCYC programme of junior training and club events, particularly club racing, and this has been under way at a quietly-accelerating socially-distance conscious pace since June 9th, with the pace accelerating at the end of June such that as of this weekend the club has already staged seven races for adult classes, while the juniors have had less formal contests as part of their curriculum.

The calm competently managerial style of Colin Morehead has been at the heart of it all, and when we remember that he had spent three years and more in detail planning of the Tricentenary before becoming Admiral on January 21st this year, it’s clear that here is a strong and able character capable of a heroically philosophical approach to a major setback, yet the description of him as “stoical” seems somewhat inappropriate, for he has accepted and dealt with the change in the RCYC’s plans with a good-humoured attitude which has helped to cheer up everyone.

The famous 17-ton cutter Gull in Cork Harbour. Her owner-skipper Harry Donegan was Colin Morehead’s great grandfather

But then, Colin Morehead is Cork sailing blueblood through and through, and calmness in the face of sailing administration adversity is bred into him. His grandfather married Alice Donegan, daughter of the quintessential Cork sailing polymath Harry Donegan (1870-1940) of the legendary inaugural Fastnet Race veteran Gull, while the Morehead's themselves were a long-established sailing family. Colin’s father Robert raised his family in a Lee-side house in Blackrock where boats were never far away, while summer holidays with the grandparents in Currabinny meant total involvement with the Crosshaven sailing scene, in Mirror dinghies, a Laser later, and crewing in his father’s Sadler 25 Blue Jay, those he raced against including one Robert Bateman, racing the David Thomas Quarter Tonner Robin, which became Irish Quarter Ton National Champion (ECHO) before her owner-skipper started to devote all his time afloat to sailing photography.

As for young Colin Morehead, in the summer after leaving school he spent three months Solent-based as a crewman on the mighty former J Class Velsheda, which in those distant days of the 1980s was a long way from the immaculately restored classic she is today. Her then-owner was Terry Brabant, a Southampton scrap-metal merchant who was gallantly obsessed with getting the long-decommissioned Velsheda sailing again, and the result was mixed - to say the least - but she was definitely fully-rigged, and a colossal sailing challenge.

The 1933 J-Class Velsheda as she is today – a classic. When Colin Morehead crewed on her in 1985, her restoration was of a decidedly more primitive quality.

Yet Colin Morehead emerged unscathed and toughened from an experience with left him with some extraordinary memories, and he went on to work with AIB in a number of posts which took him to Dublin for several years – he crewed with Harry Byrne at Howth in the successful Club Shamrock Rapparee and with a colleague who had a GRP Folkboat based in Dun Laoghaire - and he’d a period with the bank in the Channel Isles where he met his future wife, Irene McEvoy from Clare, and they now have two children, Robert (16) and Katie (11) – while he kept up his sailing with crewing on a Contessa 32. Then after the mandatory stint with the AIB outpost in the Isle of Man, he found his way back to AIB in Cork around the turn of the Century (he now manages the Cobh Branch) and made a gentle return to Crosshaven sailing by buying George Bushe’s last boat, a GRP Seamaster 23 to which the great yacht-builder had added many super-useful extras, making an already good little boat very good indeed…

But the boom times were rolling, like everyone else he up-graded – in Colin Morehead’s case to a Bavaria 33 – and found himself Captain of the Whitesails Class. It was now that the Royal Cork became fully aware of his infectious and effective enthusiasm, which saw him introducing all sorts of imaginative handicap systems which gave everyone a chance. This was soon resulting in unprecedented regular turnouts of more than thirty boats, and an annual prize-giving dinner which filled the club with just this one class alone, for everyone picked up a gong of some sort or other.

But then came 2008 and the economic crash, and everyone had to pause for breath. Boat-less for a while, as the first green shoots appeared Colin Morehead got himself a little Orkney motor-boat just to get afloat. But he craved sailing, and as his “Recession Buster” he traded across to the 1991-vintage First 210 Bene Bebe. She was meant to be a stop-gap sailing cruiser, but as anyone who has sailed this long-lived Beneteau marque in one of its many manifestations will know, this is one big-hearted little boat, and for a Cork harbour enthusiasts she meets all your needs, so he still has her and is well content.

The perfect small performance cruiser for Cork Harbour – Colin Morehead racing his immaculate 29-year-old First 210 Bene Bebe past Roche’s Point. Photo: Robert Bateman

But his imaginative work with the White Sails Class had been noted, and he was asked by RCYC Admiral Pat Lyons to take on the Royal Cork’s implementation of the of the Irish Sailing Association’s Try Sailing initiative, which he did with such success that for 2016 he was the recipient of the ISA President’s Award. Yet by the time he received that at the ceremony in Dublin in February 2017, he was already well-drawn into chairing the RCYC Cork300 Committee, and plans for 2020 with many international ramifications were well in place with considerable detail and commitment when he became RCYC Vice Admiral in 2018, on line to become Admiral for the Tricentenary in 2020 with its huge and complex international and national programme centred around Crosshaven.

For the rest of us, the sheer random destructiveness of the pandemic in this year of all years in the Royal Cork Yacht Club is still almost impossible to grasp, yet for those right at the eye of the storm, an almost preternatural calm seems to have taken over. They’ve led the way in accepting that the international aspect of the celebration simply won’t take place - for it’s something that just can’t be postponed for a year or even two years - and almost immediately they’ve re-focused on the core of the club with the clear message that the Tricentenary is still very much being celebrated, there’ll be major events such as the Optimist Nationals and the Laser Nationals in August, and in the meantime, all energies are being devoted to getting the club racing and home events programme running smoothly with numbers steadily building up as people adjust to the new circumstances.

Getting back in the groove. The National 18s had three races at Crosshaven on Wednesday, with Fifty Shades scoring best with 2,1 & 2. Photo: Alex Barry

Thus as of today (Saturday) the Royal Cork at Crosshaven has already completed the Admirals Chace in Cork Harbour last Saturday, and eight significant club racing days and evenings too, while the junior programme has been under way in controlled form since June 9th.

Naturally, it was all being done in a tentative sort of way initially, but Wednesday and Thursday of this week have clearly crossed a threshold, with Wednesday seeing the National 18s racing with relish in three contests, albeit in grey conditions so of course the winners on a scorecard of 2,1,2 was 50 Shades, sailed by Nick Walsh, Eddie Rice and Rob Brownlow.

Suddenly, it was great sailing on Thursday night, after many days of cloud and rain and calm, and the mood changed completely Photo Robert Bateman

As for Thursday, for a while, it looked like an evening of calm air ghosting as the fleet went out. But a brisk a brisk and sunny nor’westerly swept in, and suddenly everyone found they were sailing again without a care in the world other than the immediate concerns and demands of boat racing, with Bob Bateman’s photos saying it all.

Michael McCann’s Etchells 22 was the overall winner on Thursday night. Photo: Robert Bateman

The White Sail fleets were at it last night, both at Crosshaven and across the harbour at Cobh, so club sailing is rapidly getting up to speed in Cork Harbour. And there is indeed a Royal Cork Yacht Club Tricentenary Celebration under way, even if tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon will see a brief occasion of some formality at Crosshaven to send up the signals at RCYC that Volvo Cork Week 2020 is cancelled.

At the beginning of this week, that such an event was scheduled to take place at all seemed a matter of some solemnity. But since then, we’ve had the sheer joy of sailing re-assert itself in Cork Harbour. Life very much goes on, albeit in a modified form such that we conclude with a video issued by the RCYC on Thursday and fronted by Admiral Colin Morehead himself, guiding us through the new ways of using that much-loved clubhouse.

Royal Cork Yacht Club Admiral Colin Morehead has recorded a special video message for club members upon the wider return to sailing in phase two of Ireland’s roadmap to recovery from coronavirus.

Giving thanks to members or their patience and support in adhering to both club and Government guidelines, the admiral welcomed the return of staff to the club this week to get things back up and running.

As previously reported on Afloat.ie, among their roles this week was to celebrate the retention of the club's Blue Flag – one of 10 marinas nationwide to hold the distinction this year.

Junior sailing is under way once again, and keelboat fun events will resume from tomorrow, Sunday 14 June.

Youth sailing will also be to the fore in August with the Optimist Nationals, while the Laser Nationals are also still scheduled to take place that month.

The Tricentenary At Home will now be a three-day regatta, Morehead says, from Friday 28 to Sunday 30 August, including a big flotilla commencing in the Cobh Roads on the afternoon of Saturday 29 August.

It’s also hoped the weekend will see the opening of a special exhibition on the Royal Cork Yacht Club’s history at the Sirius Arts Centre in Cobh — which occupies the Royal Cork’s previous clubhouse.

Subsequent Cork300 events include the All Ireland Sailing Championships, the Sutton Book and the Irish Team Racing Nationals.

And the Autumn League is set to take on a greater significance as the largest keelboat event on the South Coast this year.

The latest updates from the Royal Cork are included in its regular email newsletter. If you do not currently receive this, send your details to [email protected]

His Serene Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco, president of Yacht Club de Monaco, hosted a special event last weekend (19 October) for organisers of Cork 300 to show his support for the upcoming events series taking place in Cork in 2020.

The Royal Cork Yacht Club, which is the oldest yacht club in the world, will celebrate its 300th anniversary with an exciting series of events on and off the water across Cork harbour next summer, looking back at the origins of where sailing began.

The historic celebrations will shine a light on the heritage of sailing and will serve as a significant milestone for the sailing community worldwide.

Yacht Club de Monaco, which is the only club in the world twinned with the Royal Cork Yacht Club, will help promote the Cork300 event series both within Monaco and internationally. It will also participate in a number of events in Cork next year.

The club is also advising Cork300 organisers on exciting events like the International Powerboat Festival, which will mark the 117th anniversary to the day of the world’s first inter-nation powerboat event, which was organised by the British Automobile Club and hosted by the Royal Cork Yacht Club in 1903.

As part of this challenge, a modern fleet of endurance offshore racing boats will compete for the honour of being crowned UIM Offshore Marathon World Champion as they race out from Cork and around the iconic Fastnet Rock before returning to Crosshaven.

HSH Prince Albert II is a champion of environmental issues and is very much involved in the Monaco Solar & Energy Boat Challenge as it fosters technological advances in marine engineering.

The Cork300 team are working closely with the Yacht Club de Monaco to ensure the Cork event honours the past, present and future of powerboating and are exploring ways in which some of the winning teams from the 2020 edition of the Monaco Solar & Energy Boat Challenge can participate in Cork300.

Sailors from Monaco are also expected to attend the Royal Cork Fleet Review and Parade of Sail in Cobh, which will take place on Sunday 12 July, and will participate in a Wild Atlantic Way cruise along the West Coast of Cork and Kerry, also in July.

Many Yacht Club de Monaco sailors will also stay on for the famous Volvo Cork Week and the three championship weeks in August.

Commenting at the launch event in Monaco, HSH Prince Albert II said: “Yacht Club de Monaco is thrilled with our close relationship with the Royal Cork Yacht Club, our twinning, and this wonderful occasion that will further celebrate our relationship.

“There will be a strong representation from Monaco for Cork300, and I will also do my best to attend. I would like to congratulate Royal Cork on your amazing history and the great history of your club. We are absolutely and wholeheartedly thrilled to be part of the celebrations for Cork300.”

Colin Morehead, chairman of Cork300, said: “It was a huge honour to receive such a wonderful endorsement for Cork300 from HSH Prince Albert II. Yacht Club de Monaco feel that this is a unique moment in history for the sailing community internationally and they very much want to be part of Cork300 and help us promote it internationally.”

Both clubs share the same values centred around preserving maritime heritage and naval etiquette, while looking ahead to a greener future for yachting, which is the main purpose of the Monaco Solar & Energy Boat Challenge.

Sailing communities throughout Europe and as far as Australia, Hong Kong and San Francisco have already confirmed that they will attend the Cork300 events which will see no less than three European and four national championships decided. For more see www.cork300.com