Peter Dunlop's former ISORA champion J109 Mojito leads Volvo Cork Week's 21-boat IRC coastal class after the first race of the series. 

Second is Paul & Deirdre Tingle's X-yacht Alpaca.

Round Ireland race rivalries from June are renewed for third and fourth places with the Howth Yacht Club Grand Soleil 40 Samatom of Robert Rendell leading Michael O'Donnell's J121 Darkwood. 

Cork Week coastal class after one race sailed

1 Mojito Peter Dunlop GBR 9047R PSC 
2 Alpaca Paul & Deirdre Tingle IRL 36502 Royal Cork YC 
3 Darkwood Michael O'Donnell 

Results below

Bruce Huber's JND39 Xanaboo from the Royal Yacht Squadron is competing in the IRC Coastal class Photo: Rick Tomlinson

 12/7/22 - This article was modifed to reflect an update in the official results from Cork Week organisers

Sam Laidlaw’s Quarter Tonner BLT from the Royal Yacht Squadron dominated IRC Three of Volvo Cork Week Regatta today, scoring three straight bullets.

Marcus Ryan’s Irish youth team racing J/24 HeadCase (that won overall in the UK at the weekend) scored three podium race results to end the day in second place in the 22 boat class.

Dorgan, Marshall & Losty’s Quarter Tonner Illegal from Cove Sailing Club finished Day One in third.

“We haven’t sailed Cork Week since we did it on Farr 52 Bob 12 years ago,” commented BLT’s helm Sam Laidlaw. “We have come back because it’s such a great place and with 300 years of history, everybody should be here. Today was a bit light for us, we would prefer more wind, but we will see.”

Class 3 IRC Class after three sailed

1st BLT Fauroux Quarter Ton Sam Laidlaw FRA 8051 Royal Yacht Squadron
2nd HeadCase J24 Marcus Ryan 4247 HYC/MSC/LRYC/BYC
3rd Illegal Quater Ton Farr Dorgan/Marshall/Losty IRL1751

Results here

16 teams in Cork Week IRC Two raced on a laid course in Ringabella Bay, three J/109s swapped the lead during the three races on Day One.

Barry Cunningham’s Royal Irish YC team racing Chimaera won a hotly contested first race by just nine seconds.

Pat Kelly’s Storm with a team from Howth YC/Rush SC rose to the challenge winning Race Two.

John Maybury’s Joker 2 from the Royal Irish won Race Three by just 17 seconds. Joker 2’s consistent results (3,2,1) were rewarded with first in class after three races. Chimaera is second and Storm in third.

IRC Two after three races sailed

1st Joker 2 J109 John Maybury IRL1206 RIYC
2nd  Chimaera J109 Barry Cunningham IRL 2160 Royal Irish Yacht Club
3rd  IRC Storm J109 Pat Kelly IRL 1141 Howth YC/Rush SC

Results here

Louise Makin & Chris Jones’ J/111 Journeymaker 11 from the Royal Southern YC won today’s first Volvo Cork Week race in IRC One by just under a minute from Team Knight Build racing J/112 Happy Daize from the RORC.

Jonathan Anderson’s J/122 El Gran Senor from the Clyde Cruising Club made it a full J Boats podium finishing third in the 16-boat fleet.

This is Journeymaker’s first-ever Cork Week, and the 2021 J/111 UK National Champion, loved racing on the Cork Harbour Course today.

“I would say it was a very good first day in unfamiliar waters,” commented Journeymaker’s navigator, Louise Makin. “We made some really good decisions; the crew work was excellent and the atmosphere on the boat was terrific. The harbour is a fabulous place to race, and we have been blessed with great weather. We have a top Irish sailor on board; Laura Dillon and we worked really well together today.”

Cork Week Top Three IRC One after one race: 

1st JourneyMaker 11 J111 Louise Makin GBR 7751R Royal Southern YC 1.094 1.0 1.0 1.0
2nd Happy Daize J112E Knight Build Ltd GBR 748R RORC 1.051 2.0 2.0 2.0
3rd El Gran Senor J 122 E Jonathan Anderson GBR 4822R CCC 1.090 3.0

Results here

Current 1720 European champions Robbie English, Aoife & Ross McDonald from Royal Cork YC / Howth YC lead after the firsthree races sailed at Volvo Cork Week.

Despite the balmy air temperature, RCYC's own sportsboat class’s return was marked by dense fog on the windward-leeward course about a mile outside Cork Harbour.

The mist soon cleared, revealing 44 1720s going at it, guns and blazes.

44 1720s are racing at Volvo Cork Week Photo: Rick Tomlinson

There were three highly contested windward-leeward races between Roches Point and Ringabella Bay. An outstanding performance from Rope Dock Atara gives the team from Royal Cork and Howth a whopping 11-point lead after three races. Padraig Byrne & Donny Wilson’s Zing from the Royal Cork is second and Tom, Neil & Paul Hegarty’s efolioaccounts from Baltimore won the first race but finished in third at the end of Day one.

Ross McDonald, Robbie & Aoife English, and Killian Collins racing 1720 Rope Dock Atara. Photo: Rick Tomlinson

“We are delighted with a 2-1-1 today, “commented Rope Dock Atara’s helm Ross McDonald. “Our aim was to keep the race results in single digits, as I believe this will be a high-scoring regatta, so to get off to a flyer is fantastic. We got one good start, one okay, and also one that we had to get out of jail. In this fleet, especially in light air, it is all about getting the fresh air and the wheels on.”

efolioaccounts.com Tom, Neil and Paul Hegarty from Baltimore SC lies third overall Photo: Rick Tomlonson

1720 Top three after three races 

1st Rope Dock Atara Robbie English, Aoife & Ross McDonald Royal Cork YC / Howth YC
2nd 1720 ZING Padraig Byrne & Donny Wilson 1792 Royal Cork YC
3rd 1720 efolioaccounts.com Tom, Neil and Paul Hegarty 1724 Baltimore SC

Results here

The first race of Cork Week 2022 got underway this morning (Monday, July 11) in light airs and slack water from the Naval base at Haulbowline in Cork Harbour.

Royal Cork Race Officer Clem McElligott positioned at the base's Signal Turret briefed Beaufort Cup competitors by VHF radio on their course to the Fastnet Rock and back in some decidedly light air conditions. 

The Beaufort Cup fleet prepare to start the Fastnet Rock Race Photo: Bob Bateman

The US Marines team on the First 40.7 Escapado get the media treatment Photo: Bob Bateman

The Beaufort Cup is the International Inter-Service Sailing Regatta, being hosted by the Royal Cork Yacht Club and supported by the Irish Defence Forces.

Ross Deasy and Clem McElligott get the Beaufort Cup fleet started Photo: Bob Bateman

A specially commissioned Perpetual Trophy in honour of Sir Francis Beaufort, creator of the Beaufort Scale, will be presented to the overall winner at the end of this week's series of races.

(Above and below) Beaufort Cup Starting flags are hoisted Photos: Bob Bateman

The fleet crossed a start line between Haulbowline and the Whitepoint shoreline at Cobh. 

The competition has seven entries from the British army (x2), Irish defence forces (x2), a Royal Navy team, an RNLI crew and a team of US Marines.

• Indulgence, Dehler 36, Aidan Heffernan, IRL 2805, Defence Forces Ireland
• Bayonet, Beneteau First 36.7, Darren Szymanski, GBR 1975L, British Army
• Trojan, J109, Helen Stamp, GBR 7005R, British Army
• Jolly Jak Tar, J109, David Warwick, GBR 8541R, Royal Navy
• Nieulargo, Grand Soleil 40 B+C, Denis & Annamarie Murphy, IRL 2129, Crosshaven RNLI
• Escapado, First 40.7, Germaine Williams, GBR 1321L, US Marines
• Meridian, Salona 45, Tom Roche, IRL 4076, Defence Forces Ireland

Denis & Annamarie Murphy's Nieulargo, a Grand Soleil 40 B+C is racing with a Crosshaven RNLI crew Photo: Bob Bateman

Tom Roche's Meridian a Salona 45 is sailing with a Defence Forces Ireland crew Photo: Afloat

The fleet will leave the rock to port and return to Cork Harbour via Daunt Rock. 

Lt Commander Grace Fanning , Captain of LE Roisin escorted the six-boat fleet to the Cork harbour mouth at Roches Point.

Above and below: The Navy vessel LE Roisin escorted the Beaufort Cup fleet out of Cork Harbour on the race to the Fastnet Rock and back Photo: Bob Bateman

Cork Week's Ross Deasy with Beaufort Cup Race Officer Wendy McElligott, Captain Ken Minehane and Race Officer Clem McElligott at the Naval Base's signal turret for the first race of the Beaufort Cup to the Fastnet Rock Photo: Bob Bateman

Volvo Cork Week kicked off with a fun-filled Family Day on Sunday that was preceded by an official opening by Royal Cork Yacht Club Admiral Kieran O'Connell and Taoiseach Micheál Martin TD, and Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney TD.

The regatta takes place in Crosshaven from 11-15 July.

According to Afloat's WM Nixon, one of the reasons people are coming from far and wide - in addition to many ports nearer the venue - is because the international sailing community was very impressed by the dignified, exemplary and innovative way in which the Royal Cork Yacht Club under Admiral Colin Morehead dealt with the seemingly total setback of not being able to stage their long-planned Tricentenary in 2020

After a four-year hiatus, guests eventually gather for Cork Week 2022 and RCYC's tricentenary celebrations Photo: Bob Bateman

There was fun and adventure for families across the whole village of Crosshaven, from the Royal Cork Yacht Club to Camden Fort Meagher and everywhere in between, including the famous Pipers Fun Fair and boat trips from Hugh Coveney Pier on the Cailin Or.

Cork Week enjoys events both on and off the water events, as they celebrate the tricentenary of the oldest yacht club in the world after events were cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic Photo: Bob Bateman

This year's emphasis is on sustainability with coastal walks, competitions, games, and a new coastal market in the Marquee at the Yacht Club. A children's workshop with Marine Scientist and Volvo Car Ireland Brand Ambassador Finn van der Aar also took place, and RedFM will broadcast live from the event.

The biennial Cork Week regatta draws spectators from far and near, and the atmosphere in Crosshaven, home of the Royal Cork Yacht Club Photo: Bob Bateman

As Afloat previously reported, the fleet is in. This morning (Monday, July 11th), the action on the water gets underway for the event that incorporates three championship events - the 1720 European Championships, which will include 47 1720 boats that were designed in Cork, the Irish Cruiser Racing Association (ICRA) National Championships and the Dragons South Coast Championships – in addition to the renowned Beaufort Cup for international uniformed service personnel, which encompasses a race around the Fastnet Rock and back to Cork.

Royal Cork Yacht Club will host a Classic Yacht Regatta for the first time this year as part of Cork Week. It promises to be a fantastic viewing spectacle with some famous classic racing yachts on display  Photo: Bob Bateman

Classics at Crosshaven: Cork Harbour one designs Jap and Elsie alongside the just restored Lady Min, and coming up river is the 1919 Erin Photo: Bob Bateman

The 37-foot classic yacht French yacht Persephone on her berth at Crosshaven Photo: Bob Bateman

At least one competing boat only arrived at the Crosshaven venue this morning, having had success in the UK at the weekend.

There will be a Ladies' Day charity lunch in aid of the Crosshaven RNLI on Wednesday, July 13th, with Volvo brand ambassadors Amy Huberman and Brendan Courtney, which is a total sell-out.

Anna-Marie Fagan, Vice-Admiral of the Royal Cork Yacht Club and Co-Chair of Volvo Cork Week and David Thomas, Managing director of Volvo Car Ireland

Anna-Marie Fagan, Vice-Admiral of the Royal Cork Yacht Club and Co-Chair of Volvo Cork Week, said, "I'm looking forward to welcoming sailors from around the world back to the stunning Cork Harbour. It will be an exceptional week of sailing, and we have a fantastic family day planned for everyone in Cork to enjoy. We have a packed schedule on and off the water".

After a four-year hiatus, it took a long time coming, but now the fleet has arrived, and there is great excitement in Cork Harbour for Monday's first races of Cork Week 2022 Regatta for a fleet of almost 200 boats.

This weekend, on the eve of Cork Week 22, Crosshaven and Royal Cork Yacht Club was buzzing with pre-race activity as visiting sailors arrived for the week of racing running from Monday, July 11 to 15.

Competing boats have been arriving for some time, some of the first sailing in at the end of June after the conclusion of the ISORA and SCORA recreation of the Dun Laoghaire to Cork K2Q races. 

Royal Cork Marina is a hive of activity on the eve of Cork Week 2022. Photo: Bob Bateman

The special prize of the Prince of Wales 300th Anniversary Trophy will be awarded at Monday's prizegiving to the winning boat from the Falmouth feeder race.

Visitor Pata Negra on her Crosshaven berth; she is the biggest boat in Cork Week's IRC Zero Photo: Bob Bateman

Three main fleets comprise Cork Week 22, and the biggest of these is the ICRA Irish Cruiser Racer championships.

Anthony O'Leary's red-hulled Cape 31 is ready to race. This is the Cape 31's first Irish tour, and IRC Zero will have the addition of the new one-design on their race course. Photo: Bob Bateman

The international fleet is approaching nearly 200 boats and racing under IRC and ECHO rules; the Irish ICRA National Championships will be competed for as part of the week as Afloat previewed here.

On Monday, the IRC 0, Cape 31, and IRC 1 will race on the Harbour course. IRC 2 will run on a laid course, as will the 1720 sportsboats. There will also be coastal courses for the non-spinnaker and classics, and the Beaufort Cup fleet will race to the Fastnet Rock and back. See the event schedule below.

The legendary Imp returns to the water for a pre-Cork Week regatta tune-up Photo: Bob Bateman

A resurgent 1720 class will celebrate its 30th anniversary with a large fleet of 47 boats.

The 47-boat 1720 fleet is an integral part of Cork Week celebrations Photo: Bob Bateman

It is undoubtedly a varied fleet, and the latest high-end keelboat tech will be on display with the Cape 31s and some early vintage craft such as the club's own Cork Harbour One Designs.

The flags are flying in Crosshaven for Cork Week 2022 Photo: Bob Bateman

With the most modern and the oldest craft racing over a wide range of Cork Harbour courses, It's all shaping up to be a fitting 300th tribute to Royal Cork Yacht Club and its regatta week that has its own origins as far back as July 1970 as Afloat's WM Nixon relates here.

It may seem a bit odd to talk about Volvo Cork Week 2022, which gets going this weekend, as being “the exuberant expression of the spirit of Cork sailing”, when any detailed study of the hugely-varied entry list eloquently affirms the global interest which this “especially special” event is attracting. But the fact is that part of the reason people are coming from far and wide - in addition to many ports nearer the venue - is because the international sailing community was very impressed by the dignified, exemplary and innovative way in which the Royal Cork Yacht Club under Admiral Colin Morehead dealt with the seemingly total setback of not being able to stage their long-planned Tricentenary in 2020. The supportive feeling is such that with some semblance of normality being restored, there is a real desire to show profound appreciation for Tricentenary+Two.

Since the lockdowns, the RCYC – now with Kieran O’Connell as Admiral - has been among the national and international leaders in heading the slow emergence from the pandemic, in the full and responsible awareness that we’re not out of the woods yet. Post-pandemic, it seems there’s a significant cohort of people in all sports who have become distinctly picky in making their personal programme decisions, and organisers of other sailing events have shared the awareness that the long-term weather forecasts may play the final role in determining whether or not to contemplate taking part.

The home place. Royal Cork YC at Crosshaven successfully balances its international role with being an integral part of its local community. Photo: Robert Bateman

This may seem a weak-minded approach to those who still live by the “We’ll go, come hell or high water” attitude of previous generations. But people today running major clubs and their top events have to live in the real world, and in the circumstances it seems to this observer that a healthily-varied entry list of 200 craft comprised exclusively of keelboat classes is very good going in the circumstances of 2022.

And with any luck, summer is at last arriving to greet them, even if too much good weather poses the problem of calm. It’s one demanding sport for sure, this crazy little sailing game of ours….. Yet for 302 years now, the Royal Cork Yacht Club in its various manifestations has adapted to altering circumstances by changing in order to stay the same.

Unique heritage. One of the two Peter Monamy 1738 paintings of the fleet manoeuvres of the founding Water Club of the Harbour of Cork. Courtesy RCYC

Despite its grand status, there has always been this genuine element of the local club about it. It may be a local club whose trophy cabinet has regatta silverware dating back to 1825 and beyond, it may be a club whose art collection includes two maritime masterpieces of its fleet sailing from 1738 by the highly-regarded Peter Monamy, and it may be a yacht club whose very name elicits international recognition in every corner of the sailing world. Yet at its home port of Crosshaven, the Royal Cork, in its slightly eccentric and healthily organic headquarters, is very much an integral part of the community.

But while being community-based, the club has never been reluctant to send forth international racing challengers, so much so that for many years it had the habit of giving any returning winner a nine gun salute as she sailed past the club battery. For although there used to be an impression that racing played no role in early club activity, in fact a detailed study of the monumental club history (published 2005) reveals that a form of racing – preferably with a significant purse of money involved – was part of club activity from at least 1765.

Britannia arriving into Cork Harbour for the 1896 RCYC Regatta with her topmast housed for offshore sailing. Photo courtesy RCYC

Thus if RCYC boats were also going abroad for competitive sport, it naturally followed that they were keen to extend the hand of friendship for visiting racing boats, and last weekend a pioneering race from Dublin Bay to Cork Harbour in 1860 was re-sailed as the K2Q – the Kingstown to Queenstown.

Back in 1860, the hope was that the boats coming to Cork would have a few days of local racing, as they’d just completed a week of racing in Dublin Bay, but energy was running out. Nevertheless Royal Cork events were part of the established regatta circuit by the 1890s, and as this poster from 1898 reveals, the idea of “the weekend” being event-friendly was still in its infancy. The regatta was staged on a Monday and Tuesday in late July, and in those less programmed times, plenty of members of the public could take the train out from Cork city to watch the racing from the Cobh
waterfront.

In the less formally time-structured 1890s, it was perfectly acceptable to stage the Annual Regatta on a Monday and Tuesday. Photo courtesy RCYC

But with other sports and interests challenging for people’s leisure time, and with the scheduled working week becoming increasingly mainstream, the idea that sailing expected a spectator element receded, and personal participation became the priority.

Thus it was the growth of offshore racing which led to Cork Week as we know it now. Through the 1950s and 1960s, the number of RORC races and suchlike finishing in Cork increased, and when the plans for celebrating the RCYC Quarter Millennium in 1969-70 were taking shape, with 1970 in particular providing a whole slew of Cork-finishing races, it was suggested again – as it had been in 1860 – that once they were in Cork, the visiting boats might enjoy a few days of racing.

FIRST CORK WEEK IN 1970

In fact, the take-up for that first modest Cork Week on July 1970 was only about thirty boats, because pure offshore racing was still seen as the supreme sport. But after the Irish Sea Offshore Racing Association came into being in 1972, a biennial Race Week became part of their programme, and in 1976 they brought it to Cork with considerable numbers.

Not surprisingly, their hosts said this is ridiculous, we should be organizing this ourselves, and in 1978 under RCYC Admiral Archie O’Leary, the first Cork Week in its recognisably modern form was staged.

Having done quite a few since that first tentative one in 1970 in three different boats ranging from 35ft to 50ft, I’m inevitably of that cohort which reckons the glory days were in some nonexistent golden era in the remote past. That’s the way it is, and I’ve no doubt that many racing from Crosshaven next week will reckon this is the greatest Cork Week ever.

(Above and below) The One and Only – the legendary Imp returns to the water on Thursday this week. Photo: Des Corbett

Photo: Barry Hayes

Certainly, the stage is being set with the one and only George Radley adding to the excitement of the countdown by launching the completely re-furbished Ron Holland-designed 39ft masterpiece Imp of 1977 vintage, in order to have her first sail in years as recently as yesterday. This is all in a very rapid countdown towards readiness for charter for Volvo Cork Week by two knights of the realm from the Royal Yacht Squadron, heavy hitters who also happen to be taipans of Hong Kong.

ICRA CHAMPIONSHIP A CENTRAL FEATURE

The successful J/109 Mojito will be racing for Pwllheli SC

Nearer home, the J/109 Mojito from Wales (Vicky Cox & Peter Dunlop) has got herself to Crosshaven by winning the K2Q, but in her class in Volvo Cork Week she’ll be up against the current miracle boat, Mike & Richie Evans’ J/99 Snapshot from Howth for titles including the big one, the ICRA Championship. Snapshot won last year’s Sovereigns at Cork when just out of the wrappers, and then this year in their first tilt at an offshore major, the brothers placed second overall - by just five minutes – in the tough SSE Renewables Round Ireland Race from Wicklow, an achievement which included taking this slip of a racer successfully through the boat-breaking 40 knots-plus headwinds and maelstrom of seas out beyond the Skelligs and the Blaskets.

“The Born-Again Boats” - 1720s at full chat in Cork Harbour. Photo: Robert Bateman

It’s a matter of real regret that John Minnis’s champion A35 Final Call II can’t make it after serious rig damage in the recent Bangor Town Regatta, but in any case perhaps the real story is in the large turnout of Sportsboat 1720s, celebrating their 30th Anniversary at their birthplace. With competition at this level and all within a very manageable financial proposition, it’s being suggested that the 1720 has taken thirty years to become an overnight success. That completely overlooks their turnout of 60 boats for their Euros in Cork Week 2000, but with the way the world is in 2022, history is being reinvented every week.

This gives a small idea of what a fleet of 40-plus 1720s will look like – there are 26 boats in this image. Photo: Robert Bateman

And history is also being revered with the introduction of a diverse Classics Division, in which the star turn is the 1971 Sparkman & Stephens-designed Opposition, ex-Morning Cloud, surely one of the most attractive boats ever built, and defying her 51 years with lasting elegance.

The Sparkman & Stephens-designed Opposition – seen here in 1971 as Morning Cloud – is still looking superb at 51 years.

Full entry list here

Cockle Island is a small club in the village of Groomsport on Belfast Lough and members there will be rooting for one of their own who is racing the only Northern entry in this year’s Cork Week, Shaun Douglas in his Beneteau 40.7 Game Changer. The bigger nearby Ballyholme Yacht Club will be following Douglas too for he is also a member there.

Had John Minnis’s Archambault 35 not sustained rig damage during Bangor Town Regatta forcing his withdrawal, there would have been another Northern boat.

Shaun’s crew includes John Conor, Hayley Simms, Colin and Deidre Coffey, Lucy Marten, Garth Maxwell, Reggie Harris and Michael Ennis, several of whom are Cork first-timers, and they are all looking forward to this big gathering. Shaun himself has competed in Cork Week many times, the last being about 15 years ago in a 1720 sportsboat when he won the Irish Nationals.

Game Changers’ last big event was Bangor Town Regatta in June where they were 3rd in Class 2 and they also won Royal Ulster’s Copeland Islands race in May. Last year Game Changer took top prize in the inaugural Royal Ulster to Strangford Lough Race.

Game Changer is on the way to Cork at the moment. Shaun says “We are really looking forward to taking part in the Royal Cork’s 300 celebrations and competing in a really competitive fifteen-strong Class 1 fleet”.