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Displaying items by tag: Royal Cork Yacht Club

The vintage and immaculately restored Cork Harbour One Design 'Jap' was back on home waters today, at the marina at Royal Cork Yacht Club in celebration of Cork300.

Prior to launching the historic 1895-built boat was trailed to Crosshaven and stored on her trailer at Crosshaven Boatyard, drawing many admiring glances.

As Afloat's Tom MacSweeney reported in March, C4, Jap, after many years based on the South Coast of England, has been donated by her owner to the Royal Cork YC and will be sailing in Cork this season.

Photos prior to Jap's launch below by Bob Bateman

Cork Harbour One Design 'Jap'

Jap, Cork Harbour One Design

Cork Harbour One Design Jap

Jap Cork Harbour One Design

Published in Cork300

A light air race brought proceedings to a close on the water in Cork Harbour yesterday at the Royal Cork Yacht Club's Horgan's Quay Cork Autumn Series writes Bob Bateman.

Denis Murphy's Grand Soleil 40 Nieulargo topped a six-boat Class Zero fleet. Conor Phelan's Ker 37 Jump Juice was second. 

In eight boat Class One IRC, there was big change at the top after the final race as Kinsale's Elan 333 Artful Dodger (Finbarr O'Regan) lost out to the Jones family J109 Jelly Baby who took the overall prize. Third was Paul Tingle's Alpaca.

Denis Byrne's Trapper T250 Cracker from Royal Cork Yacht Club who was on the same 11 points going into the final race as the Cove Sailing Club Sonar, No Half Measures skippered by Ewan O'Keeffe had it all to do in the final race to take the lead. Byrne took the advantage and won eight boat class two IRC. O'Keeffe was second and third was Ian Hickey's Cavatina. 

Prizegiving photos by Bob Bateman are below and race action photos from this month's league are in one handy link here. Full results are here.

 DSC2473A packed clubhouse for the Autumn Series prizegiving

 DSC2473RCYC Admiral Pat Farnan DSC2473Rear Admiral Keelboats Kieran O'Connell DSC2473Aidan Heffernan, Indulgence, 3rd WS1 Echo DSC2473Harry Ellis, Mazu, 2nd WS1 Echo DSC2473Mike McCarthy, Jolastan,1st WS1 DSC2473Denis Ellis, Mazu, 1st WS1 IRC DSC2473Harry Durcan, T Bone, 1720 2nd

 DSC2473Anthony O’Leary, Antix,1720 1st DSC2473Ewan O’Keefe, Spi 2 Echo and Spi2 Irc winner

 DSC2473Denis Byrne, Cracker, Spi2 IRC and Echo 2nd
 DSC2473Paul Tingle, Alpaca, Spi 1 Echo

 DSC2473Mary Jones, 3rd IRC Spi 1

 DSC2473James Fegan who received Prize on behalf of Denis and Annamarie Murphy Nieulargo 1st IRC and echo DSC2473Conor O’Donovan Memorial trophy, 1st in both IRC and Echo, Kieran O’Brien, Magnet DSC2473Vinny O’Shea memorial Trophy Presentation was by Darragh Connelly on behalf of family and was accepted by Michael McCann.Denis and Annamarie Murphy are in Japan

Published in Royal Cork YC
Tagged under

Conor Phelan's Jump Juice established a firm grip on Abersoch Keelboat Week yesterday, winning both races in very light airs. The Royal Cork YC Ker 37 was on fire in IRC 1, winning race six by over a minute and race seven by a whopping 24 minutes.

Two races are scheduled this morning in a medium air forecast for the final day. Fingers are crossed for a repeat of Jump Juice's 2015 victory, says mainsheet trimmer/crew boss Maurice O'Connell.

See results here.

Published in Offshore

Ireland's Trading Ketch Ilen

The Ilen is the last of Ireland’s traditional wooden sailing ships.

Designed by Limerick man Conor O’Brien and built in Baltimore in 1926, she was delivered by Munster men to the Falkland Islands where she served valiantly for seventy years, enduring and enjoying the Roaring Forties, the Furious Fifties, and Screaming Sixties.

Returned now to Ireland and given a new breath of life, Ilen may be described as the last of Ireland’s timber-built ocean-going sailing ships, yet at a mere 56ft, it is capable of visiting most of the small harbours of Ireland.

Wooden Sailing Ship Ilen FAQs

The Ilen is the last of Ireland’s traditional wooden sailing ships.

The Ilen was designed by Conor O’Brien, the first Irish man to circumnavigate the world.

Ilen is named for the West Cork River which flows to the sea at Baltimore, her home port.

The Ilen was built by Baltimore Sea Fisheries School, West Cork in 1926. Tom Moynihan was foreman.

Ilen's wood construction is of oak ribs and planks of larch.

As-built initially, she is 56 feet in length overall with a beam of 14 feet and a displacement of 45 tonnes.

Conor O’Brien set sail in August 1926 with two Cadogan cousins from Cape Clear in West Cork, arriving at Port Stanley in January 1927 and handed it over to the new owners.

The Ilen was delivered to the Falkland Islands Company, in exchange for £1,500.

Ilen served for over 70 years as a cargo ship and a ferry in the Falkland Islands, enduring and enjoying the Roaring Forties, the Furious Fifties, and Screaming Sixties. She stayed in service until the early 1990s.

Limerick sailor Gary McMahon and his team located Ilen. MacMahon started looking for her in 1996 and went out to the Falklands and struck a deal with the owner to bring her back to Ireland.

After a lifetime of hard work in the Falklands, Ilen required a ground-up rebuild.

A Russian cargo ship transported her back on a 12,000-mile trip from the Southern Oceans to Dublin. The Ilen was discharged at the Port of Dublin 1997, after an absence from Ireland of 70 years.

It was a collaboration between the Ilen Project in Limerick and Hegarty’s Boatyard in Old Court, near Skibbereen. Much of the heavy lifting, of frames, planking, deadwood & backbone, knees, floors, shelves and stringers, deck beams, and carlins, was done in Hegarty’s. The generally lighter work of preparing sole, bulkheads, deck‐houses fixed furniture, fixtures & fittings, deck fittings, machinery, systems, tanks, spar making and rigging is being done at the Ilen boat building school in Limerick.

Ten years. The boat was much the worse for wear when it returned to West Cork in May 1998, and it remained dormant for ten years before the start of a decade-long restoration.

Ilen now serves as a community floating classroom and cargo vessel – visiting 23 ports in 2019 and making a transatlantic crossing to Greenland as part of a relationship-building project to link youth in Limerick City with youth in Nuuk, west Greenland.

At a mere 56ft, Ilen is capable of visiting most of the small harbours of Ireland.

©Afloat 2020