Although talk that sailing numbers are down is a persistent theme in 2010, Cork Week has always attracted the big boats and Crosshaven organisers say this year is no exception. The Super Zero Class is expected to be a competition between seven magnificent hi-tech flyers. The turboed TP52, Pace was at Cork Week 2008 and since Johnny Vincent took charge, the British based crew has been in cracking form; impressing at the RORC Easter Challenge and the Vice Admiral's Cup. From the East Coast of the USA, Austin Fragomen has brought over Interlodge, the ultra-modern TP52 designed by Judel Vrojlik has been optimized for IRC and should match Pace, for pace. Several other TP52s are racing including Silver Surfer, debuting and Cork Week with an international line-up.

Richard Matthews Humphreys 42, Oystercatcher XXVI scooped up the class trophy for IRC Zero in 2008 and was a contender for boat of the week. Matthews has shipped the boat over from the Caribbean after a very competitive season. Amongst the well drilled crew is Crosshaven's own, Eddie English. Anthony O'Leary's Ker 39, Antix is in great form, winning class at the ICRA Nationals in May. However, IRC Zero is brimming with talent. Piet Vroon's Ker 46Tonnerre de Breskens is Crosshaven bound. Dave Dwyer's Mills 39, Marinerscove.ie is a proven winning race boat and Bernard Gouy's Ker 39, Inis Mor is over from France along with Jac Pelletier's Landmark 43, Qualiconsult. To be honest, this is probably the most competitive class at Cork Week and the bookies would have this one going to the wire.

Heart of the action: The Crosshaven venue for next month's Cork Week. Photo: Bob Bateman

Cork Week plays host to the J/109 Europeans and 17 one designs are entered with many from the UK. Racing is bound to be tight and expect some raised voices with crews hiking hard, jostling for position, especially at mark roundings. In a no discard series, consistency is at an optimum and it is almost impossible to pick out the favourites but of the UK boats, Robin Taunt's Jibe has a wealth of experience and Brian Morton's Juke Box was well placed in 2008. Of the Irish entries, Ian Nagle and Paul O'Malley's Jelly Baby had an excellent ICRA Nationals in Dublin and John Maybury's Joker II was the top Irish J/109 at Cork Week 2008.

Paul Kirwan's Sigma 38, Errislannan was one of the early entries. In 2008 they won the Sigma 38 Europeans at Cork Week and they are back to defend their title. From bow to stern, Errislannan is very much a family boat and they are up against some top opposition from the UK. The Sigma 38 Europeans is once again staged at Cork Week 2010.

A host of Corby Yachts are entered prompting Cowes designer, John Corby to put up some champagne prizes. Corby designed yachts competing include; Robert Davies, brand new Corby 36, Roxy 6 which will be representing Ireland in the forthcoming Rolex Commodores' Cup. In all over a dozen boats are expected to be racing at Cork Week, tuning up for the country versus country, pro-am event in August.

Cork Week attracts a huge variety of boats from all over the world and whilst the Gentleman's Class may not have the high tech gear and elite sailors competing. The seamanship in the class is very apparent. National Yacht Club member, Philip Dilworth, will be racing Grand Soleil 42, Orna. A previous class winner of the Dun Laoghaire to Dingle race, 2008 Cork Week winner and class winner at the recent ICRA Nationals, Orna is obviously well sailed.

Of course sailors go to Cork Week to compete but also they come from far and wide to have fun and enjoy the occasion. Like a great party, taking a spin on the dance floor is an excellent way to end the evening!

Crosshaven throws on quite a pageant and the local community really gets involved which gives the regatta a great atmosphere, the 'tented village' is buzzing with life. Many other regattas do not have the evening activities all in one place, Cork Week does and the 'session' to be had is more memorable by the fact that everybody is there; you keep bumping into people and having just one more.

There are a variety of tents to suit but one of the great concepts for Cork Week is the abundance of music, something that visitors really enjoy. Screaming your head off to Bon Jovi or sing along to a ballad with your mates or loved one, are truly memorable moments.

Royal Cork yacht Cavatina (Eric Lisson), twice overall winners of the Round Ireland race is going round again in a bid top be the the first boat to win Ireland's classic offshore race three times. The news is one of a handful developments as the fleet gathers in Wicklow for the start at 12 noon on Sunday.

Paddy and John Loden sailing Psipsina were the winners of the RORC 'Morgan Cup' race to Cherbourg last week-end start as favourites on Sunday in the Round Ireland Yacht Race Double-handed division, a ten boat section of the 37-boat fleet.

With just 5 days to the off, it looks like the 2010 Conway Media Round Ireland Yacht Race will have an impressive total of 37 yachts participating in the country’s premier off-shore race.25 per cent of entrants this year are returning contestants hoping to make history on this milestone occasion.  With boats from France, Netherlands, UK as well as from all coasts of Ireland already signed up.  Race organiser Denis Noonan, running his 6th event, is confident this promises to be an interesting race.

“Cavatina has appeared to try and get that elusive third win and failing that, we are guaranteed a new name on the trophy, as they are the only previous winning boat entered.”

Skipper Eric Lisson (standing and thumbs in air) with the Royal Cork crew of Cavatina, twice overall winners of the Round Ireland race. The Cavatina crew will be competing again on Sunday. Photo: David O'Brien

Two of the favourites for the Round Ireland title topped out the RORC IRC overall listings last weekend at the Morgan Cup an overnighter to Cherbourg. The winning boat, Psipsina, was a double-handed entry sailed by Paddy Cronin and John Loden. They pipped Piet Vroon's Tonnerre de Breskens III for the overall trophy by just over two minutes on corrected time.

The largest boat entered is Celtic Spirit of Fastnet, a sturdy 72’ Cruiser/Racer which has been to the Antarctic in the recent past. Just behind them we have a real flying machine, Pride of  Rosslare Europort , an IMOCA 60, which will be expected to take line honours.

Local Wicklow boats are  Irish Popcorn  Pride of Wicklow, Noonan Boats Oystercatcher, both flying the WSC burgee and James Tyrrells latest Aqualina from Arklow.

The major focus of attention will be on Daft.ie with Mick Liddy and blind sailor Mark Pollock on board their two-hander.

Sailing Schools are also featuring with double entries from both Sailing West, Dun Laoghaire, Sailing Logic from the Hamble and a single boat from Conwy Yachting in N Wales. 

 Armchair spectators can follow the Conway Media Round Ireland Yacht Race on the Tracking system, supplied by RORC, through the race website www.roundirelandyachtrace.ie <http://www.roundirelandyachtrace.ie/> 

The Round Ireland is the longest race in the Royal Ocean Racing Club calendar. The first race took place in 1980 with only thirteen boats. Since then, held biannually, the fleet has grown steadily, and in the order of 40 yachts are expected to participate this year. The final date for acceptance of entrants to the 2010 Conway Media Round Ireland Yacht Race is this Thursday 17th June 2010

Wicklow businesses are hoping to follow the Galway example with the Volvo Ocean Race and build on the opportunity of hosting such a prestigious sporting event.  The Volvo Ocean Race stopped off in Galway for two weeks last summer and injected in the region of €50 million into the local economy.  Furthermore, the festivities surrounding the event attracted over  600 ,000 visitors from both abroad and other regions of Ireland. 

Wicklow has launched a gala Sailfest in the hope that the 30th anniversary of the Conway Media Round Ireland Yacht Race will have a similar positive impact on the area.

The local business community is fully on board.  Indeed the 2010 Round Ireland was without a sponsor up until recently with the previous arrangement – BMW – not renewing.  Local businessman Roy Conway, has now stepped in and taken up the mantle of title sponsor for both the 2010 Round Ireland Race and the Sailfest. 

Roy Conway already has a great affinity with the Race, having previously participated on a number of occasions. He is delighted to be in a position to be able to support the Race and the town

The Sailfest will see free open-air concerts from the American Drifters, Heathers, Luan Parle, Mo Hat Mo Gheansai as well as an extensive array of events for children including water sports, aeroplane, Drift Car displays and Bowling tournaments.  One of the major highlights is the Midsummer Mardi Gras ball at Wicklow’s Historic Gaol on Saturday 19th of June.  www.roundirelandsailfest.com

More on the Round Ireland Yacht Race:

Round Ireland Yacht Race 2010 Review

Round Ireland Yacht Race, Ireland's top offshore fixture

Royal Cork Boats were well represented today (Sun) at Glandore Harbour Yacht Club At Home writes Claire Bateman. Mediterranean conditions prevailed with sun, wind and sparkling blue water. When conditions such as existed today prevail this is a little piece of paradise tucked away in West Cork surrounded by glorious scenery. It was apt that they were rewarded with these conditions for the celebration of their 25th anniversary. The mouth of the harbour is marked by the Adam and Eve Islands and the cruisers had a start south east of this point using Neil Prendeville's Mary P as committee boat and a race officer team that included event organiser Cormac O'Carroll. The 16 knot breeze outside the harbour was from the south west, while inside the harbour there was a lighter breeze that one would guess was more from the north west and this was where the Squibs were sailing their two day championship.

The club is a hive of activity in furthering its amenities and they are very actively raising funds for a new club house. They had a raffle for a new car on offer today to further this project. Also they had a novel event of a Pig Roast-Barbeque with great music by the Roaring Forties and were looking forward to a great night of entertainment.

Royal Cork holds its Irish Examiner Round the Island Race this Sunday, with three different courses for boats of different speed.  Warning gun for all classes is 12.55pm.

The courses are as follows:

Optimists, RS Fevas, Taz - Spike Island(P).
Lasers, 420s, 29ers – Spit Lighthouse(P), Spike Island(P).
National 18s and White Sail Cruisers - No 18(P), No 20(P), Spike Island(P).
49ers, Multihulls, Cruisers 1, 2, and 3 - No 18(P), No 20(P), No 15(P), Spike Island(P).

Cork Week has published provisional class bands for July's regatta. So far there are seven entries in IRC super zero, 15 in class IRC zero, 17 in IRC one, 14 in IRC two, 21 in IRC 3, 19 in IRC four, 18 in IRC five, 18 in IRC 6 and 36 entries in white sails, sports boats and J109s. To find out who has entered for Cork Week 2010 this year, use the links below to check out each class.

Cork Harbour saw the start of the feeder race to Dun Laoghaire for the Liebherr ICRA Nationals last Friday writes Claire Bateman. This race was mandatory for yachts wishing to compete in the Commodore's Cup to be held in the Solent in August and also served as a qualifier for any yacht wishing to compete in the Round Ireland Race from Wicklow in June. 

This was the first opportunity the Irish team of Anthony O'Leary's Antix, David Dwyer's Marinerscove.ie and Andrew Creighton's Roxy 6 have had to sail together as Roxy, the yacht to fill the Class Three slot, only arrived in Cork Harbour fresh from the Dale-Nelson Yard in Wales two weeks ago.

Start photographs here.

Conditions on Friday night as the yachts came to the start line were magnificent.  The harbour was resplendent bathed in brilliant sunlight with yachts from the Friday night Whitesail league flying everywhere in the 12-15knot NNW wind. The feeder race start saw the competitiors beat in the harbour to No.10 buoy where spinnakers were hoisted and they then ran back out the harbour creating a magnificent spectacle as they wove their way through the Whitesail Fleet.

Racing continued throughout the night and most of Saturday with the wind lightening and becoming fluky ranging from 8 to 16 knots providing excellent experience for the crews on the Commodore's Cup yachts. In fact Marinerscove lost out when sailing into a windless area under Wicklow Head and retired at that point but speaking with Dwyer after racing he said that it was nonetheless a wonderful training opportunity with the constant almost hourly sail changes required.

ICRA Offshore Trophy Race:
1.  Antix       Anthony O'Leary
2.  Roxy 6      Rob Davies/Andrew Creighton
3.  Gloves Off  Kieran Twomey
4.  D-Tox       Donal O'Leary

The waiting is over for ICRA members writes Claire Bateman and this is the last sailing reminder for anyone still wishing to take part in the feeder race from Cork to Dun Laoghaire on Friday next. This promises to be a challenging and exciting race and will feature three Irish Commodores’ Cup yachts from the Royal Cork Yacht Club, Anthony O'Leary in his Ker 39 Antix, Dave Dwyer in his Mills 39 Marinerscove.ie and Andrew Creighton in Roxy 6, the new Corby 36.  This will be Roxy's first competitive outing and there will be much interest in this latest addition to the fleet.  Entry for this race is mandatory for any boat wishing to compete in the Commodores' Cup.

As entry for the feeder race does not close until 18.30hrs. on Friday, 14th May at the Royal Cork Club Race Office, it is not known yet which boats will sail and which will travel by road. What can be confirmed is Donal O'Leary of RCYC will be sailing his well known D-tox and Schull Harbour Commodore, Morgan O'Donovan in Loco will be using the feeder as a qualifier for his entry to the Round Ireland Race in June.

First gun will be at 19.55 hrs at Weavers Point on Friday and the start line will be a laid line between a committee boat (Adrielle) and an adjacent mark in the harbour.  The finish line will be between the lighthouses on the East and West Piers at the entrance to Dun Laoghaire Harbour.  Yachts will record their own finish times together with the names and approximate times of boats immediately ahead and astern, if possible.  Time limit for the race will be 12.00 hrs on Sunday, May 16th.

The Davies/Creighton Corby 36 has made a very welcome appearance on the marina at the Royal Cork Yacht Club writes Claire Bateman.  She was recently completed at the Dale-Nelson Yard in Wales. She is built of strip cedar and is a close clone of Quokka 7.

Roxy 6 is expected to sail for an Irish team from Royal Cork Yacht Club. She will be the Class Three representative in the biennial Rolex Commodores’ Cup, an intense seven day racing programme that will take place on the testing waters in and around the Solent from  August  15th to  21st, 2010.  Class Two will be represented by David Dwyer’s Marinerscove.ie, recent winner of Class Zero at the  Kinsale Spring Series.  Class One is to be represented by Anthony O’Leary, now the new owner  of Antix, a boat he chartered from Colm Barrington in 2008 that was the top scoring boat in its class at the 2008 Commodores’ Cup event.

The Class Bands are as follows:

Class One    1.110 to 1.230

Class Two    1.075 to 1.119

Class Three  1.025 to 1.074

Ireland is entitled to send up to four teams of three boats but currently there is no word of any other team emerging.

The programme for the team is as follows: They will compete in the feeder race from the Royal Cork on May 14th to the Liebherr ICRA Nationals that will take place in Dun  Laoghaire from May 21st to 23rd.  Antix and Roxy 6 will compete at the Scottish Series from May 28th to 31st. Marinerscove.ie will not compete at this event.  The full team will regroup for the British IRC National Championships at Cowes from June 25th to 27th at which event Dave Dwyer in Marinerscove.ie will defend his title.  This Championship is mandatory for the British Commodores’ Cup teams to compete in.  After this its back to Royal Cork  for Cork Week from July 10th to 16th. It is hoped the French and British teams will also compete at Cork Week.  Finally they will head for the big one, the Commodores’ Cup in August, an event that we have just missed out on for the last two occasions and have some unfinished business we hopefully can settle this time round.

Just as Kinsale's Spring league ends the McWilliam Sailmakers May League takes place at the Royal Cork Yacht Club (RCYC), Crosshaven, County Cork starting next Friday. All the details are here:

1          RULES

1.1       The Regatta will be sailed under the current RRS (2009 – 2012), the ISA prescriptions, the IRC Rules, part 1, 2 and 3, the ECHO handicapping System, Class rules where applicable, by this Notice of Race and by the General Conditions and Sailing Instructions of the Royal Cork Yacht Club (RCYC) except as amended by this program. Amendments to this program and RCYC General Sailing Instructions will be posted on the RCYC notice board.

1.2       IRC Crew limitation shall not apply. 

2          ELIGIBILITY AND ENTRY

2.1       A completed signed Race Entry Declaration 2010 and current valid ECHO and /or IRC certificates must be submitted before 18:00hrs on Friday 7^th May 2010 in order for a boat to be eligible for a result. Boats that have not submitted a valid Race Entry Declaration and Certificate(s) may not be given a result.

2.2       Classes will be divided on the basis of their IRC TCF and the anticipated Class Divisions are as follows:

Class                          Rule type Parameters                 Class Flag

1          IRC/ECHO    TCF 0.980 and above              Numeral Pennant 1

2          IRC/ECHO    TCF 0.920 to 0.979.                Numeral Pennant 2

3          IRC/ECHO    TCF 0.919 and below.             Numeral Pennant 3

White   IRC/ECHO    No Spinnakers, Gennakers        White Pennant

Sail                            Spinnaker poles, or

Whisker Poles

2.3       Results will only be issued to boats that have valid sail numbers clearly legible on both sides of its mainsail.

3          CLASSIFICATION

3.1       Entries must comply with ISAF Special Regulations Governing Offshore Racing for Category 4 Races.

3.2       Entries in all classes are required to fly the correct pennant. Any boat not flying the correct pennant may not be scored.

3.3       The OA reserves the right to combine Classes if the number of entries does not justify separate Classes.

3.4       Boats shall show their correct Sail Numbers. Permission to race using any other Sail Number must be sought from the Race Office prior to going afloat. Any boat not showing its correct Sail Numbers may not be scored.

3.5       The Race Committee reserve the right to place any boat in any Class they deem appropriate.

4          SCHEDULE

4.1       Dates of Racing:                                   First Gun each day:

Friday May 7^th 2010                            1850

Sunday May 9^th 2010                          1155

Sunday May 9^th 2010                          as soon as possible after the finish of Race 2

Thursday May 13^th 2010                     1850

Thursday May 20^th 2010                     1850

Thursday May 27^th 2010                     1850

4.2       6 races are scheduled.

5          SAILING INSTRUCTIONS

The event will be sailed under the General Sailing Instructions of the RCYC.

6          VENUE

The League will be hosted by the RCYC and will be sailed in the waters of Cork Harbour and its approaches.

7          SCORING

7.1       The Low Point System of Appendix A will apply, with the following amendments: