Cove Sailing Club's 2020 Cobh to Blackrock Race will start earlier than normal this Saturday due to Cork Harbour tide times. A first gun at 1130 will see two separate starts for a combined fleet of 36 sailing cruisers (numbers restricted due to COVID) race on the flood off Cobh up to Blackrock Castle.

There is little doubting Kieran Dorgan's mastery of this race with wins for his yacht, the First 36.7 Altair, in both 2016 and 2018. It means he is the helmsman to watch even though this year there will be some interesting challenges to the Cobh Commodore. Form boat Denis and Annamarie Murphy's Nieulargo, a Grand Soleil 40, is also entered in Class One IRC Spinnaker division. The Murphy's have been big offshore this season winning both SCORA's Fastnet 450 and Kinsale's Fastnet Race but navigating the back eddies off Monkstown may yet be a different matter. 

Nieulargo (Grand Soleil 40) IRL2129, Denis & Annamarie Murphy

Both Kieran Collins, Olson 30, Coracle and Ronan Downing's Half Tonner, Miss Whiplash are also entered in this crack nine boat division.

Coracle (Olson 30) 1883 Kieran Collins

Miss Whiplash (Half Tonner) GBR5435R Ronan Downing

Two separate starts are planned for the 2020 race with IRC spinnaker divisions going first.

Although the race is sailed on a flood tide boats still go aground if they stray too far from the channel, so local knowledge for navigating this course is a prerequisite for success.

Don't Dilly Dally (Etchells) 952 Michael McCann

IRC Two

IRC Two has just four boats competing and based on results from August club leagues, it is hard to ignore the threat of Michael McCann's well-sailed Etchells 22, Don't Dilly Dally. In a division that also contains the double Round Ireland Race winner Cavatina, A Granada 38, there will be no quarter given especially if Denis Byrne's Trapper 250, Cracker is sporting its new larger roached mainsail.

Jap (Cork Harbour One Design) C4 Clayton Love

White Sails

The biggest division in the 10-km race is the 23-boat white sail ECHO division where pride of place will surely go to the immaculately restored Jap racing on a generous handicap of .795. As Afloat previously reported Jap is now a special Royal Cork project boat and the 1897-built boat will be sailing past her shipyard of origin when she passes Carriagaloe going upriver this Saturday.

Ré Eile (Moody 31) IRL731 Damian Ahern

Prince of Tides (Grand Soleil 37B) IRL14544 Frank Caul

The Howth crew of Ben Duncan, Brian Moran and Rick Morris on ‘Sharkbait’ are this year’s SB3 Eastern Champions after the six-race series ended on home waters with the local boat tying on points with Cork visitor ‘Sibelius’ (Kieran Dorgan) but taking the title on countback, having two bullets to the rival’s one. Overall results table here.

Brian Carlin SB3 photos from the event on the Afloat Gallery

Consistency was the name of the game, with ‘Sharkbait’ never out of the top four and ‘Sibelius’ notching three third places, a second and a 5^th. Both crews are heading to Torbay in mid-May for the SB3 Worlds so this was a useful work-out, especially in difficult conditions. The north-easterly winds were fresher but steadier than on the first day but the swell was significantly greater, making life tougher on crews and equipment. 

That only five points after discards separated the top five boats overall speaks volumes for the intensity of the competition at the head of the 30-boat fleet. These five dominated proceedings to such an extent that the difference in points after discards between fifth and sixth overall was a massive 26 points.

After leading overnight by a slender margin, ‘Sharkbait’ got off to a dream start to the second day with a bullet ahead of’Flutter’ (Andrew Algeo) and Dorgan in the fourth race of the series. Fourth-placed Peter Kennedy of RNIYC in ‘Ridgefence.com’ was making amends for his OCS on the Saturday by following up that result with a win in the penultimate race, with ‘Flutter’ again second.  Sean Craig’s ‘Yeti’ was third while Duncan and Dorgan filled 4^th and 5^th respectively.

Dorgan left his best to last, winning the final race from Kennedy, Craig and Duncan in that order, a result that set up the tie after discards. In the race for the rest of the fleet, three northern boats filled the sixth to eighth places overall while Shane Murphy’s ‘Dinghy Supplies’ in 9^th was the next best placed Howth entry.

SB3 Eastern Championships – overall results

1. Sharkbait (Duncan/Moran/Morris) HYC     12 points
2. Sibelius (K.Dorgan) CSC       12 points
3. Flutter (A.Algeo) RStGYC  14 points
4. Ridgefence.com (P.Kennedy) RNIYC – 15 points
5. Yeti (S.Craig) RStGYC) – 17 points