Storm Ellen and COVID-19 have combined to bring about the cancellation of this week's Irish Laser National Championships in Cork Harbour, one of the biggest dinghy sailing events of the year. 

Both the AIB Irish Laser National Championships, hosted by the Royal Cork YC, and the Irish Laser 4.7 National Championships hosted by Monkstown Bay SC, have been cancelled according to a statement released from organisers tonight.

As Afloat reported earlier, included in the line up of over 100 competitors due into Cork Harbour on Thursday was Tokyo 2021 representative Annalise Murphy who was set to resume domestic competition in the single-handed class in one of the most hotly contested dinghy battles of the season.

The statement says "Both organising Clubs, along with the Irish Laser Association and Irish Sailing have given careful consideration to both public health guidelines and also the impending Storm Ellen due to hit Ireland on Thursday and Friday"

The statement adds: "Notwithstanding the ability for the event to run behind closed doors under the revised guidelines, the combination of that, the weather alert impacting sailing on Thursday and Friday and the number of people travelling, it was decided to cancel the event in the best interest of competitors, officials and everyone involved".

The Coolmore Race is an old Cork Harbour yacht race that has been brought back to life by Royal Cork Yacht Club after many years.

After a day of torrential rain, the downpour stopped and sadly the wind died with it. After the dinghies were launched they were towed up the Owenabue River to the start at Coolmore Estate.

The 50 competing boats started at the top of the tide and had the benefit of the ebb for a race back to the RCYC clubhouse. However, the course was shortened and the first boat to finish was James Dwyer (Matthews) in a Laser 4.7 but close on his heels came JP Curtin in an Optimist and won the Trophy. 

Coolmore Photo slideshow by Bob Bateman below 

After three races of the Fitzgerald's Menswear sponsored August League at Royal Cork Yacht Club on Sunday, Ronan and John Downing's Half Tonner Miss Whiplash has an overall lead in the IRC spinnaker division for cruiser-racers.

Second overall is the Trapper, Cracker sailed by Denis Byrne. Third overall, and in her first appearance this season was Kieran Collins' Olson 30 Coracle IV who took a win in Sunday's race three.

Kieran Collins' Olson 30 Coracle IV

See results here.

Sean Hanly's HB31, Luas

The winner of the National 18s Dognose trophy sailed on Saturday in Cork Harbour was Shark II skippered by Charles Dwyer.

The one-day event at the Royal Cork Yacht Club marked a welcome return to the water for the three-man dinghy class after the disappointing cancellation of the national championships this month at the same venue.

Dwyer and his crew are continuing their winning form from 2019, having won the Southern Championships in Baltimore, West Cork.

As Afloat reported previously, unfortunately, the class will also miss out this October on its chance to host the All-Ireland Sailing Championships due to the format of the event and COVID restrictions.

See Bob Bateman's slideshow of photos from the 2020 Dognose Trophy below.

After seven races sailed in light and tricky conditions in Cork Harbour, local Optimist dinghy ace Ben O'Shaughnessy of Royal Cork Yacht Club continues to lead the AIB sponsored National Championships overall. 

The 79-main boat fleet sailed again on day three of the championships on the Harbour's Curlane Bank in light winds.

The 14-year-old Crosshaven sailor is now nine points clear of nearest rival Johnny Flynn of Howth Yacht Club. Flynn has a similar cushion on his Dublin clubmate, Rocco Wright, in third place on 29 points. Full results are here

See Bob Bateman's photo slideshow below

Not everyone gets the opportunity to restore a boat built by their grandfather, a gem of a boat whose construction started 70 years ago. But then, not everyone has had a professional seafaring and recreational sailing career to match that of Pat Murphy of Glenbrook on Cork Harbour. His working days at sea in his progression towards becoming a Master Mariner involved some very challenging contracts, while his varied sailing career has included many years at the sharp end of the International Dragon Class.

Slipping sweetly along, leaving scarcely any wake – this is classic sailing at its best. Photo: Robert Bateman

In fact, it's such a fascinating story that we'll be covering it in much greater detail in a proper feature when the evenings have closed in, and the main part of the sailing in this harshly-compressed season has been completed to provide more time and space. But for now, last Sunday provided the opportunity for Robert Bateman to capture some glorious "essence of summer" photos which will be a tonic for everyone during the current spell of decidedly mixed weather in this national mood of anxiety as we deal with the pandemic.

Pinkeen is an Alan Buchanan-designed 23ft Colleen Class, of which three were built for Kinsale in the 1950s, with one of them – Pinkeen for Knolly Stokes of the distinguished Cork city clock-making firm – being built in Kinsale itself by Pat's grandfather, senior boatbuilder John Thuillier. He started the work in 1950, when he was already having a busy year as he was also founding Commodore of Kinsale YC in 1950, but as he happened to be already 80 years old, the boatbuilding was at a quiet pace, and it was 1952 when he had her completed.

Happy man. Having had a maritime career which included some very challenging work in distant places, Pat Murphy is particularly appreciative of the pleasure of restoring and sailing the boat his grandfather built. Photo: Robert Bateman

Over the 68 years since, Pinkeen has been here and there, including a stint in Galway. But Pat Murphy was always drawn to her, and when he bought her in 2005, she was back in Cork Harbour and definitely showing her age. He has done some of the restoration work himself and some heavier tasks have been undertaken on a piecemeal basis by professionals.

But in 2018 he got her to Jim Walsh in his international-standard classic boatbuilding and restoration workshops in Nohaval beside that hidden little inlet on the Cork coast between Crosshaven and Oysterhaven, and after Pinkeen had emerged, gleaming in sublime condition, all that was needed was this year's new suit of sails from UK Sailmakers of Crosshaven – also to recognised international classic practice in cream sailcloth – to make the project and the picture complete.

The result is a little boat which truly glows as she sails sweetly along, bringing joy to an exceptional owner-skipper, and great pleasure to the rest of us in a year when such special pleasures are trebly valuable.

"Leave no trace". The effortless way in which Pinkeen slips cleanly through the water is an example which can be usefully transferred to others areas of activity, while her sweetly-fitting classic-style sails from UK Sailmakers of Crosshaven demonstrate how important it is to get the complete look for the most satisfying and authentic overall result. Photo: Robert Bateman

The complete picture, with a recollection of times past. The elegant new sails from UK Crosshaven Sailmakers include the Colleen Class symbol first promoted in Kinsale in 1952. Photo: Barry Hayes

Ireland's Tokyo 2021 representative Annalise Murphy is set to rejoin the national Laser dinghy racing scene after a seven-year hiatus when she sails next week at the 2020 Laser national championships at Royal Cork Yacht Club.

The Rio Olympic silver medalist makes her return in Cork Harbour, the same venue she last sailed at a nationals in 2013, months before her European title win on her home waters at Dun Laoghaire Harbour.

Murphy is not the only Irish Olympic campaigner competing either as the battle for National honours heats up at Crosshaven from August 20th to 23rd.

As Afloat reported previously, due to COVID-19, the three fleet 2020 championships, one of the biggest dinghy events of the 2020 calendar, will now be split between two venues in the Harbour and be run separately.

The National Yacht Club ace will confront Aoife Hopkins and Eve McMahon, both unsuccessful rivals in the controversially cut-short trial for Tokyo 2021 who will also be competing in a mixed Radial fleet of 60 plus sailors. There is no entry – so far – however for Lough Derg's Aisling Keller, another 2021 trialist and the 2018 Irish champion who secured Ireland's berth for Tokyo.

Murphy's clubmate, Rio rep Finn Lynch, who is still bidding for a Tokyo nomination in the men's class will be in action in the 30-boat standard rig division as are other 2021 trialists Ewan McMahon of Howth and Belfast Lough's Liam Glynn.

The entry list is here

Royal Cork Yacht Club is leaving no stone unturned in its efforts to stage next week's Laser dinghy National Championships, one of the flagship events of its tricentenary celebrations in Cork Harbour.

With the postponement of Phase 4 COVID 19 restrictions, the hosts are not in a position to locate all sailors in the proposed format of three fleets.

In order to ensure that they can hold a safe event, the AIB Sponsored Nationals will, therefore, be split into two events, according to an update from the Laser class.

The position now for the event is that the Radials and Standards will be based in Crosshaven, while 4.7s will be based in Ringaskiddy, where a new slip will give easy access to the lower harbour.

• Standard and Radial Nationals hosted by the RCYC
• Laser 4.7 Nationals hosted by Monkstown Bay Sailing Club (MBSC)

"The 4.7 Nationals are now being hosted by MBSC, an entirely separate event with separate documentation, organisation committees, a separate venue (Paddys Point, Ringaskiddy) and a separate race course",  Royal Cork's Alex Barry told Afloat.

It is expected further details will be available in the next few days. The event starts on August 20th.

Cork based Irish Mainport Holding's Celtic Fergus, a tug stationed on the Shannon Estuary is currently dry-docking in Rushbrooke having departed this day last week bound for the Doyle Shipping Group facility in Cork Harbour, writes Jehan Ashmore.

It was during Monday that the Celtic Fergus was on a flood tide of the estuary when Simon Berrow of the Irish Whale & Dolphin Group (IWDG) captured this great photo of a Bottlenose dolphin bowriding the 24/45t bollard pull tug.

For information on how to identify ceteceans, learn more and join the work and efforts of the IWDG, visit their website here.

The 25m long Celtic Fergus having departed the Shannon Estuary from its base at the Port of Foynes arrived the next day into Cork Harbour, where the former Turkish tug Efesan Port was delivered by a cargoship in 2016.

The tug built in 2014 to Canadian designer Robert Allen was renamed Celtic Fergus and reflagged under the tricolor, the tug join Mainport fleetmates through subsidiary Celtic Tugs located at the mid-western waterway port operated by SFPC.

Celtic Fergus replaced the Celtic Banner to join fleetmates Celtic Rebel built 1984 and Celtic Isle completed two years later. Another pair of tugs but operated by DSG are DSG Alex and DSG Titan are also stationed alongside the site of Cork Dockyard. 

Afloat has observed in recent years the corporate theme by Doyle Shipping group in naming and renaming tugs using the operators company trading name which is abbreviated. This is demonstrated by the Rusbrooke based pair of tugs DSG Alex and DSG Titan on station at Cork Dockyard.

In addition a similar naming scheme also applies to Dublin Port Company, albeit by naming the UK built but French designed pilot cutter as the DPC Tolka which was delivered in December last year.

Excitement is building in the Royal Cork Yacht Club for this week’s AIB Optimist dinghy Nationals 2020 in Cork Harbour.

It will be the first time the Irish Optimist fleet will compete this year due to COVID and participant numbers at the event have been limited by organisers.

The event starts on Thursday but there has already been some pre-championship tuning going on at Crosshaven.

Photo slideshow below by Bob Bateman