K2Q Day Two (Saturday) 1830 hrs - The sea breeze in Cork works by its own rules, but it doesn't necessarily suit the home fleet when it does so. In closing our earlier update on the Dublin Bay to Cork Harbour at mid-afternoon, we suggested that if the breeze came late, it would suit smaller boats like Mark Thompson's J/97 Jac Y Do and others. But at that stage, the Shanahan family in their J/109 Ruth seemed to have lost themselves in their own very calm spot at Ballycotton, having previously been in the overall lead.
Not a bit of it. By 16:10 hrs, Ruth was very much back in business, tramping along on course in a private breeze and pushing up towards 6 knots at times to make for the finish with only the briefest tack necessary to get her round Power Head, and aimed up to finish at 17:52 hrs.
RUTH IS SITTING PRETTY
This has her sitting pretty at first place every which way – IRC Overall winner, and first in Class 2. To do so, she pips second placed Jac Y Don by 8 minutes and 28 seconds, while third and fourth also go to the smaller ones, the Mat 1010 Elixir (Ryan Wilson), and the JPK 10.80 Coquine (Alan Hannon). In fact, the best of the biggies, the J/122 Mojito, doesn't chime into the leaderboard until 6th overall, ahead of local star Imp at 7th.
Mark Thomspon's J/97 Jac y do from North Wales Photo: Afloat
Alan Hannon's JPK 10.80 Coquine Photo: Afloat
We suggested in an earlier update that the weather pattern might eventually suit the smaller boats. Yet these days in the Irish offshore fleets, a J/109 is well up towards the top end of "little 'uns" size range – indeed, she's really mid-sized.
Ryan Wilson's Mat 1010 Elixir Photo: Afloat
But with Liam Shanahan Senr, the patriarch of this remarkable clan, going much-lamented from among us last year at a great age, this really is a very satisfactory conclusion to the latest staging of a classic offshore race, which was first sailed 164 years ago.
The preliminary K2Q prizegiving at Royal Cork Yacht Club (RCYC) saw Tom Shanahan and the crew of Ruth from the National Yacht Club presented with the K2Q Trophy after their 18-second win over the J97 Jac y Do. The Ruth crew are congratulated by Royal Cork Admiral Annamarie Fegan (left), SCORA Commodore Daragh Connolly (second from left) and ISORA Commodore Peter Ryan pictured presenting the trophy to Shanahan. The official prizegiving will be held at the ISORA dinner in the National Yacht Club on the 2nd of November when the RCYC Admiral Fegan will present the original trophy and the “fifteen-pound” cheque to the winners.
K2Q 2024 Results
Track Chart below
