Thirteen Class 1 dinghies sailed the penultimate day of league racing at Monkstown Bay Sailing Club in Cork Harbour.

Racing for the season will conclude this Saturday, with prizegiving afterwards in the clubhouse.

Dinghies are the club’s only racing boats and, despite the varying weather patterns this season, there has been strong support. For many sailors, dinghies are the introduction to the sport, so are a vital step into sailing and, often, lead to a lifetime in the sport.

With final league racing scheduled for this Saturday, the Class 1fleet is led by the 505 crew of Ewen Barry, Charles Dwyer, John Coakley on 5 points, seven clear of second-placed Laser sailor, Brendan Dwyer on 12. Veteran Laser sailor, Davy O’Connell, who has been a monthly winner during the season, is third on 21 points.

In Class 2 the leader is Olin Bateman, sailing a Laser 4.7 and looking the certain overall winner on 5 points, well clear of second-placed Ethel Bateman in another Laser 4.7 on 25. Third is the RS Feva XL of Isobelle Clarke Waterman and Conor Donald Kelly on 56 points.

Measurement and registration is underway at the Royal Cork Yacht Club in Crosshaven today (Weds) and tomorrow (Thursday) for the 505 World Championships, in which racing gets underway on Monday.

This is the fourth time the Championships will be held at the RCYC.

“80 boats, now fully carbon, have travelled from across the globe to compete,” say the RCYC organisers.

12 Irish boats are entered, including three Barry brothers under the Royal Cork & Monkstown Bay burgees; Peter Scannell and John Dunlea who currently live on the East Coast of the US but return to Cork for the event; Monkstown Bay Commodore Sandy Rimmington teams up with John Downey and an unmissable name on the list is Denis O’Sullivan with crew Jan Van Der Puil. The Irish fleet will be under pressure to beat Harold Cudmore and Chris Bruen’s podium finish in the 1969 Worlds in Argentina.

The entry list is a who’s who of World Sailing; Luke Payne of Australia joins us fresh from the Sail GP event in the UK, multiple World Champions and Rolex Yachtsmen of the year Mike Martin and Adam Lowry are here along with fierce rivals and fellow multiple World Champions Mike Holt and Rob Woelful, all round sailing legend Howie Hamlin has come from California, Olympic medallist Caleb Paine teams up with Olympian and Melges 24 World Champion Stu McNay from the USA.

There will be pre-Worlds sailing on Friday and Saturday.

The Championships will be raced on Monday and Tuesday, there is a Lay Day on Wednesday and racing will continue on Friday and conclude on Saturday of next week.

The launch of the long-awaited 5o5 Book telling the story of the 5o5 and how it has come to dominate the performance dinghy scene will finally be launched at the World Championship in Cork.

2022 is already shaping up to be a great year for the 5o5 Class, for after being forced by Covid to cancel their last two World Championships, scheduled for Sweden and Bermuda, the good news is that this event will return to Cork, in Southern Ireland next August.

As Afloat reported previously, this will be the fourth time that the Royal Cork Yacht Club will have hosted this prestigious event, with 1959, 1964 and the 1982 World Championships being regarded as classics, held across a wide range of conditions.

With the Royal Cork being acknowledged as the world's oldest yacht club, it is fitting that mid-championship next year that they will be hosting the launch of the long-awaited book telling the story of the 5o5, and how it has come to dominate the performance dinghy scene.

There is a very good saying that warns readers to 'not judge a book by its cover' but this is one occasion when the cover itself will have a big part to play, as it will lead the reader into the detailed narrative set out in the book. There are lots of fantastic pictures of FiveOs out there, as the boat has always been very photogenic, but for the book cover something special will be needed.

Luckily, Christophe Favreau, the famous international marine photographer has long enjoyed a close association with the 5o5 Class, and over the years has captured the best of the action at events around the world. Now, as the book moves towards being launched, Christophe has generously donated a selection of some of his iconic photos, one of which will be selected on the book cover.

The 12 cover shots to be posted starting December 25.

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