Who would have dreamed it that the Royal Cork Yacht Club 1720 sportsboat design would have crossed the Atlantic and be winning in the Caribbean some 26 years later?
Since first launching in Cork Harbour 1993, the enduring demand for Tony Castro's versatile sportsboat is such that a quarter of a century later it is robustly used throughout the UK and Ireland as a sail trainer, a strict one design, an IRC cruiser and a youth academy boat but who knew of the design's Antiguan success too?
For the 52nd edition of this month's Antigua sailing week, 12 teams racing under the flag of Antigua & Barbuda will be racing, including Jules Mitchell's young 1720 crew, all products of Antigua's National Sailing Academy. Last year the team on NSA Spirit won class and are back, hungry to win in 2019! Over 40 young Antiguans in total will be racing this year on a variety of boats as part of the Youth to Keel Boat (Y2K) Programme but it is Cork's own 1720 that is the defending champion.
More on the week here.
The Antiguan 1720 crew is a youthful affair Photo: Paul Wyeth
