Calves Week 2017 Regatta kicked off today in West Cork and Bob Bateman captured the action for Afloat.ie in the photo gallery below.
The opening day started out clear and bright with a light northerly wind, forcing OD Niall Prendeville to lay his start line off the Calve Islands with a windward mark off the entrance to Schull harbour. The fickle wind caused problems for most classes with a period of rain adding to the misery at times .However as the front passed through the fleet of close to sixty boats finished in Schull harbour in glorious sunshine with a freshening breeze.
Class 0/1 had the longest course of the day; taking in three rounding’s of the Calves; however a protest over a mark on the course resulted in their presentation being put on hold, pending a protest hearing.
In class two IRC, the Royal Cork's “ Bad Company” revelled in the variable conditions to take first place ahead of Flor O Riordans “ 3 Cheers”, while the Echo trophy went to Fergus Coughlan’s” Jedi “ahead of Derry Nash in Catalpa.
Class three proved very fruitful for” Musketeer” from Cove Sailing Club, who won both divisions ahead of Dan Donovan’s “ Second Count “ in IRC and local Schull boat “ Sally In Stiches” sailed by the Dwyer family in echo.
Local Schull boats again dominated class 4, with the Murphy family in “Shelly D” taking prime position in both IRC and echo ahead of Kinsale's Richard Hanley sailing” Saoirse” in IRC and Simon Nelson's” Witchcraft” in echo.
The top three in White sail 1 were similar in both IRC and Echo with Denis Murphy’s “Nieulargo” taking top place ahead of Sean O Riordan in” Y Dream” and Aiden Heffernans” Indulgence”, while White sail 2 saw the prizes go to local Schull boats, with Andrew Mackey's “Lornadrew” winning ahead of Peter Moorhead's “Giggles” and Tralee Sailing Club's Paul Taylor in “ Sea Psalm”.
