Sean Langman’s superbly-restored 1932-vintage 30ft Sydney Harbour Ranger Class gaff cutter Maluka finally put the Fastnet Rock astern at 9:00 hrs this morning (Wednesday), and now her crew - including the legendary Gordon Maguire - are making the best of things and then some, despite the unpleasant weather, by having her marching down the road to the Bishop Rock at a busy 7 knots and better.

It all seems a world way away from the beautiful early-summer conditions of late May, when the big lift-ship bringing the two recently-acquired Patrol Vessels acquired from the New Zealand Navy for Ireland’s Naval Service came into Cork Harbour. For after the two biggies had been craned into their new home waters, it emerged that the lift-ship had acquired a stowaway, as there on deck was the tiny Maluka, probably asking “Are we nearly there yet?”

Rigged and ready to go – Maluka feeling at home in Crosshaven in late May’s perfect weather. She sails under the colours of the Port Huron Sailing Club in Tasmania in honour of the gold-standard Huon pine from which she is constructed. Photo: Neil Kenefick

STOWAWAY TO IRELAND?

It turned out that just as Sean Langan had fallen on his feet by hearing about the convenient one-way passage to Europe for his beloved boat, so Maluka hit the sweet spot by making Crosshaven her temporary home. When Sean and Gordon spent a week there as Maluka arrived, so many rallied round to help prepare her that they’d time for other commitments, and Neil Kenefick was able to organise a waterborne outing or two with high-speed powerboats, across to Cobh to put the world to rights with Edddie English at the old Royal Cork HQ, or round to Kinsale for a feast of fruits de mer - as one does.

Gordon Maguire and Eddie English in serious discussion (we can guess the topic) at the old Royal Cork YC building in Cobh. Photo: Neil Kenefick

REMEMBERING TONY FARRELLY AND CRYSTAL CLEAR

But it turns out that, in classic Fastnet style, there are those who dispute that Maluki is the smallest boat ever to have done the Fastnet Race. For instance, there were quite a few Ron Holland-designed and volumetrically much smaller 30ft Shamrock Half Tonners which completed the course in times past, a regular being Tony Farrelly from County Cavan who received a round of applause when his Crystal Clear came into Plymouth’s Millbay Dock after completing the exceptionally rough 1985 race.

However, way before that there was a County Down doctor called Davy Park who had graduated from building and racing successful Enterprises into building his own mini-offshore racers, starting with a van de Stadt-designed Yachting World “Builder-her-Yourself” Chieftain, which was either 18ft LOA or maybe 23ft – either way, she was as small a boat as either of us wished to compete in the Ailsa Craig Race, even if we did get there in the end.

Whipping up an appetite – seaborne at speed on the way to Kinsale are Neil Kenefick, Gordon Maguire, Sean Langman and Crosshaven 1720 sailor Padraig Byrne

The hard life of a sailor bold…Neil Kenefick, Gordon Maguire and Sean Langman in Kinsale after the local reputation for superb seafood seems to have stood up to scrutiny

DAVY PARK CHANCES HIS ARM

He then went on to complete a Mike Henderson-designed Spinner Class 27-footer from a fibreglass hull, and as she had the RORC’s minimum waterline length of 24ft, he decided to chance his arm with a Fastnet Race entry, and got away with it. But as he and his navigator Kevin MacLaverty came round the breakwater at Plymouth to finish, they were asked to keep out of the way as the alickadoos at the lighthouse needed the space to finish the racers.

Thus all hell broke loose when they found out that this tiny pale blue boat had herself just raced round the Rock, despite being very obviously not 30ft long. Yet they allowed Davy’s quite good overall placing to stand, although the 30ft rule has been fairly strictly imposed ever since. But fortunately it allows the wonderful Maluka in – if only just – to provide entertainment for those of us who’ll root for the oddballs every time around.

She may be the most unusual boat in the 50th Fastnet Race, but the highly individual Maluka is no slouch in a breeze