Time was when a disagreement arose about some ancient disputed event between people from England and those from Ireland, you could only expect two conclusions from the heat of the argument. Firstly, if our friends from across the water were into history and cerain of their certain view in it, then it was “heritage” that was being discussed. And secondly, they dismissed the usually almost contrary Irish view as being “wallowing in the past”.

But times change. Until fairly recently, our history was big and often gloomy. It filled a huge screen within the rear wall of Ireland’s Room of Life. But in today’s crazily turbo-charged nation, it’s the view ahead and the visions thereof that matter. Past events and facts are now no more than rapidly-receding dots in the rearview mirrors.

The Royal Cork Yacht Club’s comprehensive clubhouse/marina complex at Crosshaven may house an organisation of historic and direct descent from 1720, but in modern Ireland the primary question is how well is it living its best life in 2026? Photo: Robert Bateman

This is the case in sailing as in many other aspects of modern Irish life. Having written three books about various supposedly significant narratives in the Irish sailing and maritime story, I’ve come to the conclusion that most of the Flag Officers and others who commission these works do so mainly in order to make their period as Commodore something special.

They seldom read the complete book, despite it being the product of blood, toil, tears and sweat. On the contrary, they apparently evaluate it by weight, and by the number of photos, illustrations and boat plans used, plus the number of times they’re mentioned in the index. For history, as Henry Ford - that noted son of Ballnascarthy in West Cork - opined, is bunk.

Remembered in his birthplace. The Henry Ford Memorial in Ballynascarthy, less than an hour’s drive westward from Crosshaven.

REMARKABLE HISTORIC RE-ENACTMENT

Yet on this Saturday morning, we are in the midst of what has be one of the most remarkable historical enactments in any sphere of Irish life. But far from being some hopeless battle which resulted in the slaughter and subsequent annual mourning of Ireland’s finest, what we’re re-living is the Dublin Bay to Cork Harbour Race of July 1860, possibly the first offshore race anywhere in the world that took the participants from one port to another, along a significant distance – 160 miles – that involved much navigation and technically savvy.

It is of course basically a feeder race for Cork Week, which gets going full blast on Monday July 6th. Thus it’s biennial, and in 2024 it was won by the Shanahan family’s J/109 Ruth (National YC). Ruth had been in the lead for considerable periods earlier in the race, but had slipped somewhat only to find extra speed approaching the entrance to Cork Harbour with a breeze that swept her to the in-entrance finish line and the overall IRC win.

In terms of flukiness of sailing areas, this was course was an improvement on 1860, when the very-varied 16-boat fleet (racing boat-for-boat) was required to finish at Cobh off the then-new headquarters of the 1720-founded Royal Cork YC. That fine 1854-completed pavilion is now the Sirius Arts Centre, while the itinerant but long-lived Royal Cork is today housed in Crosshaven, having amalgamated by takeover in 1967 with the Royal Munster YC which, in turn, had been the cuckoo in the nest in 1923 in the newly-built HQ of Cork Motorboat Club in Crosshaven, the 1872-founded Royal Munster having been formerly based up-harbour at Monkstown. It’s a simple as that.

The Shanahan family’s J/109 Ruth (National YC) is defending champion in the K2Q. Photo: Afloat.ie

Be that as it may, in 1860 there was the usual dose of headwinds getting to Cork Harbour from Dublin Bay in the new race, but the professional skippers commanding most of the competing boats had realised this was a career-advancement opportunity, and were driving their motley craft as hard as they’d go.

DRIVEN HARDEST

The 48-ton schooner Wildflower (S Little) from Wexford was being driven hardest of all and leading in the early stages. But one of the owner’s guests, having staggered to the saloon companionway in order to be copiously seasick over the lee deck, was horrified by the sheer volume of white water rushing past within the lee bulwarks, and while temporarily recovered he insisted to the owner that the Wildflower was being driven to destruction. The owner then instructed the skipper that from then on, the foot had to be eased up on the pedal, and the boat was to be sailed without the lee deck immersed.

The skipper furiously did as he was told. But as he later told that great recorder of Cork sailing life, Harry Donegan who was involved in 1925 in the first Fastnet (getting third) and in co-founding the RORC, as he later co-founded the Irish Cruising Club in 1929, the frustrated skipper took little interest in the remainder of Wildflower’s race to Cork, and she finished as an also-ran.

Cork Harbour looking north from the entrance, with Roches Point right foreground, and Cobh at middle

NOTED AMATEUR SKIPPER

Up ahead, however, the professional skippers had enough to think about, as for a while the lead was taken by retail king Sir John Arnott’s 39-ton cutter Sybil, of special interest as she was being raced by the noted Cork Harbour amateur Henry O’Bryen.

As it happened, O’Bryen had a boat of his own which could have done the race had she come up for the week of racing in Dublin Bay that preceded this pioneering passage race.

But in being given charge of Sybil and told to sail her just as hard as he could, O’Bryen was provided with a challenge so attractive that he personally helmed the boat the whole way, sustained by some of the extraordinary food and potions that Victorians saw in the same way as Red Bull is regarded in our time.

90-TON SCHOONER LEADS AT ROCHE’S POINT

But despite all this, Sybil was no longer in the lead entering Cork Harbour. Cooper Penrose’s 90-ton schooner Kingfisher was ahead past Roche’s Point in the first of the new daylight, closely followed by J W Cannon’s 80-ton cutter Peri which soon took the lead, beating in light airs up towards Cobh. But by the Spit Light, O’Bryen in the little Sybil had got ahead only to be becalmed in the short leg from the Spit to the finish, and it seems that it was only sheer telepathic O’Bryen willpower that had Sybil gliding on to the finish line for first as Peri approached with a new breeze, the basic timings at the club finish having Sybil at 0520, Peri at 0523, and Kingfisher at 0525.

The Royal Cork Yacht Club’s 1854-completed clubhouse in Cobh, now the Sirius Art Centre. In previous times, including its period as the 1720-founded Water Club of the Harbour of Cork, its base was on Haulbowline Island and then on Spike Island.

POPULAR ADMIRAL

With the fleet in, the octogenarian Admiral of the Royal Cork - the hugely popular Tom French - hoped to get a Regatta Week going in Cork Harbour. But the fleet that had raced from Dublin Bay felt they’d done enough. They were whacked. Yet they were happily coming to the realisation that they had just taken part in something of real historical significance, so a few days of R & R was what was need.

Thus when the K2Q was sailed again in 1861 and 1862, there was no question of attempting to stage a post-race Regatta Week, and as there was an economic downturn in the 1860s, the K2Q course wasn’t sailed again until 1888.

And with the Round Ireland Race from Wicklow finished barely a week ago, those skippers and crews who finished that especially demanding staging of the biennial circuit special deserve much credit. We happen to have these before-and-after photos of legendary skipper Gery Trentesaux with Figaro Solitaire winner Tom Dolan and the crew in the very successful Round Ireland Racer Courrier Pogo, and though their Round Ireland Race was a great success, that tough cookie Tom Dolan was clear in his mind that he was looking forward to an immediate week and more of rest.

Before: Courrier Pogo’s crew at the Royal Irish YC before the Round Ireland 26 are (left to right) Axel Trehin, Antoine Carpentier, Gery Trentesaux and Tom Dolan. Photo: Facebook

After: Courrier Pogo’s crew at Wicklow Sailing Club after their successful Round Ireland Race 2026 are (left to right) Axel Trehin, Antoine Carpentier, skipper Gery Trentesaux with cup, Race Director Kyran O’Grady, and Tom Dolan. Photo: Facebook

WELL DONE TO THOSE WHO GO AGAIN

So all power to those who still have it in them to be doing this ISORA/SCORA race to Cork, the entry list is:

Defending champion Ruth (Tom Shanahan, NYC) is there, as are 2026 Round Ireland veterans Aurelia (Chris Power Smith) Pata Negra (Andrew & Sam Hall, Pwllheli SC) and El Syd (Frank Whelan, Greystones. At the time of writing, the forecasts indicate a High building from the south, which should mean good weather for those looking at it from a landsman’s point of view, but sailors will know that a big High to the south invariably means a beat to Cork.

CORK WEEK NEW CONCEPT

Back in 1969-70 when the Royal Cork was celebrating its Quarter Millennium, races from major centres finishing at Cork Harbour were a cornerstone of the programme. 1969 saw a Transatlantic Race which saw Huey Long’s 83ft Britton Chance-designed ketch Ondine win on one handicap system, while Ted Turner’s extraordinarily “offshored” 12Metre American Eagle won under the other.

This was followed by a huge multi-club Cruise-in-Company to West Cork, then in 1970 there was a Clyde Cruising Club/Royal Ulster YC Race from Bangor to Cork, and a Northwest Offshore Association (predecessor of ISORA) race from Holyhead, won by the Sisk brothers in Sarnia, their still-novel Alpha 36 variant of the Sparkman & Stephens-designed Swan 36.

There was an attempt to stage a Cork Week in 1970 with the huge fleet these races brought to Cork, but it only attracted about 30 boat to stay on, though those that did had a fine old time and some great racing. Yet later in 1970 the RORC put the offshore racing emphasis back in prominence, and had a Cowes-Cork RORC Race followed by a Cork-Brest RORC event.

ETHELLS 22s IN STRENGTH

But soon ISORA was in being and thriving mightily, and a biennial ISORA Week rose rapidly in the popularity stakes, so much so that it brought a mighty fleet to Cork in 1976. But with the inevitable questions of just who was in charge with so many organisations involved, there was a certain amount of confusion, and in 1980 Royal Cork Admiral Archie O’Leary clarified the picture by instigating Cork Week pure and simple, a biennial classic that at its height was threatening Cowes Week for numbers participating.

Things have now settled down to a more reasonable level, with 111 boats entered for next week’s regatta, and a star in-regatta highlight being the European Championship of the Etchells 22, a genius boat whose elegant hulls were last in Cork in serious numbers 36 years ago.

While they may be an elite class, the Etchells 22s can have their moments. Photo: Etchells International

BEAUFORT CUP TOP OF THE BILL

But top of the bill for many is the Beaufort Cup for inter-services competition, which two years ago was won by out-going Minister for Defence and local TD Simon Coveney with a crew representative of the Defence Forces, racing the J/109 Artful Dodjer recruited from Kinsale - a boat that is back in the Beaufort hunt again this year.

Simon Coveney on the J/109 helm, on their way to winning the Beaufort Cup 2024. Photo: Cork Week

With the current 44th Royal Cork Admiral Denis Byrne being a former Commodore of the Irish Cruiser Racing Association, naturally the ICRA Nationals 2026 are also integral to the programme, while the self-contained nature of the Royal Cork’s clubhouse/marina complex does mean that one can live a very complete sporting/socializing life without going out the front gates.

Admiral Denis Byrne of the Royal Cork Yacht Club. An enthusiastic performance cruiser sailor, he is a former Commodore of the Irish Cruiser Racing Association. Photo: Robert Bateman

Thus it was that one year with our very well-found Contessa 35 cruiser-racer, arriving at Cork shortly after completing a reasonably successful Round Ireland Race we found we’d been allocated a handy but relativey secluded marina berth for peaceful living on board, while a modest amount of socializing soon topped up our crew numbers, which already included two very able seamen who were also excellent cooks.

They took themselves off into the village to top up stores with Mr Kidney the Butcher and Mr Green the Grocer, an excellent dinner each evening on board promptly at 20:30hrs was their only rule, and when my Mother-in-Law’s daughter arrived as planned on the Friday evening, presenting my security pass to go out the gate to sort her car-parking problems produced the information that I hadn’t gone out of the compound for the entire week.