Displaying items by tag: Royal Cork Yacht Club
Lough Ree Yacht Club Pair Lead Mirror Euros at Royal Cork
After five races, Caolan Croasdell and Alexander Farrell from Lough Ree Yacht Club lead the 2016 Mirror European at Royal Cork Yacht Club after five races.
The 19–boat event concludes tomorrow. Results here. Bob Bateman's photo gallery is below.
Enda O’Riordan, Royal Cork Yacht Club
The ‘Real Admiral’ of The RCYC Has Died – The description in the announcement sent to Royal Cork Yacht Club members said it all. Enda O’Riordan was known to everyone who crossed the threshold of the RCYC in Crosshaven, from members to visitors from around Ireland and overseas. Her father, Ned, worked in the club bar in the 1960s and Enda continued the family tradition in the early 1970s, helping her mother who also worked in the club.
Described as ‘the ‘font of all knowledge’ about the club, curator and seller of club merchandise, provider of the legendary ‘Tripe-and-Drisheen’ for the Stag night supper of which her recipe was a secret known to few, she made her mark on every aspect of club life. When reporting on RCYC activities, I was sold a club jumper to suit the purpose. It was at least one size too large, but “wash it and it might shrink to fit.” I wasn’t sure what the manufacturers would think of that exhortation but, like all club members, I knew that Enda knew what was good for me!
Kindness to young sailors, looking after visiting sailors, “so many stories can be told and the void she has left can never be filled,” the RCYC says, “She will be remembered with the greatest affection by colleagues past and present - and Flag Officers that she controlled, whether they knew it or not.”
Rear Admiral and Chairman of Volvo Cork Week, Kieran O’Connell, described her death as “a day of sadness as we remember a true club friend and a member in more ways than we could imagine.”
Enda died in Marymount Hospice in Cork after a short illness.
Tom MacSweeney
Afloat.ie’s W M Nixon won’t divulge when he first sailed into Cork Harbour, but he claims to have taken part in an early version of Cork Week as long ago as 1970. And he also claims that, at the Week of 1992, when ashore he never went beyond the RCYC’s Regatta Compound. He was overnighting aboard his boat which was a competitor, and after racing the whole sailing world and all facilities were to be found right there in the compound. There was no need to go any further. Here, he casts an eye over Volvo Cork Week 2016, and reflects on the extraordinary story of the hosting club.
There was a time when most histories of sailing were based on the idea that yachting as we know it didn’t really begin until 1815, when the final defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo provided peaceful seas off Europe to allow recreational sailing to develop into what ultimately became many forms, involving boats and rigs of all types.
It’s a process which continues today. But while the change in circumstances in 1815 was undoubtedly a major force in accelerating the development of the sport, anyone in Cork will be only too happy to tell you that by the time of Waterloo, the Water Club of the Harbour of Cork had been in existence for all of 95 years.
And up Athlone way, they’ll determinedly assert that Lough Ree YC came into being in some form or other in 1770, so it was looking at 45 years by the time of Waterloo. But on Lough Ree, you could be reasonably confident that your day’s sailing wouldn’t be spoilt with an attack by French privateers. Yet the Privateer threat was a fact of life in the seas off Cork in the turbulent times as the 1700s drew to a close, and the cheekier ones even came right into Cork Harbour itself.
Nevertheless although the 1720-founded Water Club had a tenuous-enough existence at times, as soon as peace broke out it reasserted itself, a notable instance being in 1802 after the Peace of Amiens, and again in 1806 when the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 had greatly reduced the French threat at sea.
With each revival, names of “Old Members” would be added to the lists of new people who wished to keep the club going. And though there may have been times when Annual General Meetings weren’t held – a requirement for any club’s continuing validity today – the old Water Club always seems to have been part of the warp and weft of the great fabric of Cork Harbour, where they’d a much more relaxed attitude to the necessity for an AGM in the dim and distant past.
It became the Royal Cork Yacht Club in 1830 when sailing was being re-structured at national level, and it was always enumerated as Club No 1 in the official listings, even if the Royal Yacht Squadron tended to be listed above it. Yet if you were at the opening party of Volvo Cork Week at the Royal Cork in Crosshaven last Sunday evening, you could have been forgiven for thinking that this was a happening being organised by the newest club on the block.
The fact is the Royal Cork is not merely ageless – it is eternally young. In this era of outdoor festivals, at events like Sunday’s opening party they showed themselves ahead of the curve in having world-standard sound systems which provide a welcome and easily-audible intimacy for speakers, enabling them to put through an informative programme of crisp speeches in comfortable time as the party buzz built steadily among the gathered multitude, whose friendly attention was duly rewarded by the arrival of a sunny evening.
The atmosphere was of one great big happy family gathering. And if this seemed to be a family with many members holding high military rank with decorations to match, it’s because the occasion was taken to launch the Beaufort Cup in all its official glory, and there were more naval and other military attaches present than you’ll see at many a National Day parade.
But far from parading military might, the Beaufort Cup is all about comradely sailing competition, providing sport afloat for people who normally look on being at sea in a very different light. And it was not just between people in the armed forces, but between agencies of all kinds – life-saving, fisheries supervision, port inspection or whatever – where I suppose the only common denominator is that at some stage the people involved might wear a uniform.
The trophy commemorates Meath-born Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort (1774-1857) whose achievements in hydrography and marine science were many. The idea of commemorating him in this way certainly captured the Volvo Cork Week imagination, with people readily making their boats available to agency crews who did not have access to craft of their own.
The spirit of it all was exemplified by the first boat and crew to the Fastnet Rock in the Beaufort’s long opening race. It was Conor Doyle of Kinsale’s X442 Freya, crewed by the Police Service of Northern Ireland. And then the overall winner of this special Fastnet race on corrected time was John Maybury of Dun Laoghaire’s champion J/109 Joker 2, sailed by an Irish Defence Forces crew skippered by Commandant Barry Byrne.
Barry Byrne and his crew on Joker 2 continued their success through the week as the varied fleet was put through a programme of equal variety, and it was singularly ironic that Class 0 in the Combined Fleets Harbour Race for the Hugh Coveney Trophy – surely the ultimate combination of a sailing come-all-ye and a festival of local knowledge – should be won by Eric de Turckheim’s A13 Teasing Machine, which is rightly recognised as one of the greatest offshore racers currently active on the planet, but arguably not a boat the smart money would have backed to win her class in a crowded race in the winding waters of Cork Harbour.
And as for the alleged benefits of local knowledge, perhaps the Cork sailors were being just too clever in using their supposed experience in the weird ways of the tides and winds within this historic natural harbour, for the overall winner of the Harbour Race was Charlie Frieze’s Mills 36 Prime Suspect from Scotland, which made a good start in clear air, and continued to build on it.
In a sense, it was a double victory, as the breeze freshening towards the end naturally favoured the smaller boats over those already finished, despite Tony Langley’s TP52 Gladiator having zapped round the course in less than two hours. But although Prime Suspect was clearly mid-fleet in size, she put in such a neat showing she stayed ahead of Quarter Tonners and the like to take the prize.
In fact, the view that smaller boats would be favoured by the freshening breeze doesn’t really stand up to examination, as second overall was taken by Richard Matthews’ new H39 Oystercatcher XXXI, a notably handsome boat in a very distinctive shade of blue. And as for assertions that an excess of local knowledge can sometimes be a drawback, Oystercatcher XXXI proved otherwise, as her crew included Eddie English who probably knows more of the sailing ways and wiles of Cork Harbour than anyone else on the planet.
Third slot overall went to John Swan’s Half Tonner Harmony from Howth, continuing her dominance of Class 3 where she’d already logged six bullets in eight races by the time they took on the points-free harbour melee.
Whether sailing for fun in the Harbour Race, or competing with a real edge for points gains in races included in the European IRC Championship, there can be absolutely no doubt that this Volvo Cork Week is all about high-pitched racing, and as such is light years away from the Admiral Sailing in formation which was at the core of the sea-going activities of the Water Club in its early days.
Or is it? At mid-week I’d a very amiable discussion with Royal Cork YC archivist Dermot Burns as to whether or not the original Club of 1720 included racing in its activities. He reckons a form of competitive sailing - beyond that of showing your ability to maintain station relative to the Admiral while moving along in formation - is suggested in the Sailing Orders which were re-published in 1765 after the club had gone through one of its regenerations in 1760, though it does involve assuming that the Orders of 1765 reflected the original orders of 1720.
The many orders are un-numbered, but down around what would be number 17 we find:
“WHEN the Admiral will have the whole Fleet to Chace, he will hoist Dutch colours under his Flag, and fire a Gun from each Quarter; if a single boat, he will hoist a Pendant, and fire as many guns from the side as the Boat is distanced from him. WHEN he would have the Chace given over, he will hawl in his Flag and fire a Gun”.
Dermot’s very reasonable contention is that “Chace” is in the same sense as Steeplechasing for horses, and that these are straightforward orders for either fleet races or a match race, the start simply being made by piling on the speed from whatever position you’re in when the Admiral gives his signals.
It’s a long way from today’s precisely-laid committee boat starting lines. And it boggles the mind to think of your average modern crew trying to decide what Mr Big means when he starts firing guns from every quarter and sending all manner of flags aloft. But it’s part of the joy of studying the long history of the Royal Cork Yacht Club that such gems for interpretation come our way.
And who knows, but with further tangential study it may still be possible to find out who actually won those earliest races. For though we soon find notices of a up-coming races of the Water Club being advertised in the local press, accounts of what actually happened, if they appear at all, can be confused in the extreme as the reporter is often too giddy with listing the names of the great and the good who are present, and how fashionable the gathering is, to give us the hard facts of yacht race results.
Meanwhile, Dermot was also able to put me right on the notice advertising the forthcoming Water Club Race of 1787 as entitling the winner to an Anchor. Far from being a complex right to decide where the fleet should anchor, the word is that an Anchor is a substantial measure of brandy. I should have known that.
Some histories can evoke happy memories combined with entertaining and friendly debates among friends. Such is the story of the Royal Cork Yacht Club. And with the prospect of the RCYC 300th Anniversary in 2020 coming steadily down the line, the good news is that there was across-the-board political representation at a very high level at the Crosshaven events on Sunday July 10th. So much so, indeed, that it’s reasonable to expect that whatever government is in power in 2020, there’ll be proper official support for the celebration of this unique Tricentenary for an ever-young club which could only have been founded in Ireland, and only in Cork at that.
Cork Week 2016 Harbour Race – Photo Gallery
Volvo Cork Week's Harbour Race highlight for the combined 100–boat fleet took place today.
Bob Bateman captured the action for Afloat.ie in the gallery below:
There were separate IRC and ECHO handicap divisions
Awareness of Cork Harbour’s long and colourful history of sailing has become so widespread and generally acknowledged that there’s a risk that the Irish and global sailing community will take it all for granted. Equally, the wonderful natural harbour of Cork, intertwining so peacefully and naturally with the handsome countryside about it, is such a constant in life that the ready opportunities it offers for sailing and boating of all sorts may not be getting used to their full potential. Volvo Cork Week 2016 – which gets under way this weekend – is primarily about sailboats up to the top international level going out racing. But the organisers are well aware of what a special opportunity this major regatta provides to re-energise the long-established links between Cork Harbour’s sea and land with the communities within their interaction, and they have planned accordingly. W M Nixon takes up the story.
For the very sea-minded community of Crosshaven, Volvo Cork Week 2016 is going to be an event in tandem. Naturally the headlines will be grabbed by the results of each day’s racing, which goes into full-ahead mode on Monday and continues through Friday. But while the boats are at sea, Crosshaven finds itself a different role as a bustling village which will be providing a variety of entertainment and attractions ashore.
In fact, so keen is the village to get on with this side of things that they’re gearing up for it this morning, with Volvo Family Day getting started at noon in the area around Crosshaven Village Square. There really is something for everyone of every age, with the Volvo Classic Car Display in town for that essential element of big boys’ toys to inspect. And there are tickets on sale to win a new Volvo V40, for which the draw will be at 4.0pm. But meanwhile, in addition to a host of entertainments for kids of all ages, there’s an intriguing twist to the ongoing programme with livewire TV personality Dermot Bannon of “Room to Improve” live in the Village Square Marquee at 2.00pm for a Q & A session which, let’s face it, could go in any direction when there’s a lively weekend audience.
Through the week, while the focus will be increasingly on the Royal Cork YC’s large and often music-filled compound where it will all culminate with the prize-giving and fireworks display on the Friday night, another part of the harbour will be involved on Tuesday when teams competing for the Beaufort Cup (of which more anon) will be hosted at a black-tie Gala Dinner at the Naval Base in Haulbowline.
In fact, so well-filled is the shoreside programme that you wonder how chairman Kieran O’Connell and his team in the Volvo Cork Week 2016 Organising Committee found the time to create such a varied programme afloat. But they’ve done that too, with the waterborne areas in the overall care of Race Director Donal McClement, whose experience of regattas both in Cork and at other major international venues is surely unrivalled.
In addition to the trophies which have become synonymous with Volvo Cork Week (their incredible ages in many cases reflecting Cork Harbour’s unrivalled sailing history), this year’s Week, in addition to a strong emphasis on the ISA’s Try Sailing initiative, will include two new events, the European IRC Championship and the Beaufort Cup.
The Beaufort Cup is a stroke of inspirational genius, as it’s an international series within a series for maritime agencies, the military and marine emergency services of all kinds. Although one of the overseas competitors for the Beaufort Cup – The Royal Engineers Yacht Club from the UK – has been actively involved with ocean racing virtually since the first Fastnet Race of 1925, not all the maritime agencies have boats of their own such as the REYC’s J/109 Trojan of Upnor. But owners from home and abroad have volunteered to have their boat’s crew include personnel of whom at least 50% are involved in the maritime and emergency sphere, and thus we find that there are fourteen very competitive boats with noted owner-skippers such as John Maybury with the J/109 Joker 2, Frank Doyle with the A 35 Endgame, Simon Coveney with sister-ship Another Adventure, Tom Roche of Kinsale with the Salona 45 Meridien, and Conor Doyle with the X442 Freya, who are eligible for the Beaufort competition.
The Beaufort Cup is named in honour of Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort (1774-1857), the hydrographer and meteorologist who invented, among other things, the Beaufort Scales for measuring sea and wind conditions. He was born in Navan in County Meath, and it is many years now since the then Chairman of An Taisce’s Meath Branch, one Michael Boyd, unveiled a memorial in honour of Admiral Beaufort in the heart of Navan.
Royal Ocean Racing Club. Having taken an excellent third overall in IRC with the First 44.7 Lisa in the recent Volvo Round Ireland Race, he will be in new territory in Volvo Cork Week, as he’ll be racing for the first time with a JPK 10.80, in this instance the French-numbered Audrey.
These days, Michael Boyd is best known as Commodore of theThe JPK 10.80s will be one of the special points of interest in Volvo Cork Week, as three are racing, the other two being Dream Pearls from France (Eric Mordret and Arnaud Delamara), which has been among the front-runners in this year’s RORC programme, and Paul O’Higgins’ Rockabill VI from the Royal Irish YC, which had her moments of glory towards the top of the leaderboard in the Round Ireland, but never fully recovered from being one of the handful of boats which got hung up in a local calm at Inishtrahull for three dreadful hours.
In the open competition for the European IRC Championship, many boats are forces to be reckoned with, and it should be remembered that in the same regatta in 2014, Michael Boyd and Niall Dowling with the Grand Soleil 43 Quokka ended up being top boat overall despite being up against the likes of the Ker 40 Catapult, which has since become Anthony O’Leary’s Antix.
Inevitably, though, the focus will be on the glamour girls of Class 0, where an epic battle is lining up with overtones of the Commodores Cup 2014, when Antix in her former existence as Catapult was often head-to-head with French Skipper Eric de Turckheim’s A13 Teasing Machine. The Machine – having since covered herself in glory in events as diverse as the Rolex Sydney Hobart and this year’s Volvo Round Ireland - has been on the hard in Crosshaven getting TLC in recent days (they kept her keel shape hidden, though the twin rudders were much in evidence), so it will be battle royal with Antix and Sir Richard Matthews’ new H39 Oystercatcher XXXI.
But complete newness is no guarantee of success, and another favoured boat, rating at the bottom end of Class O, has to be Conor Phelan’s Ker 36.7 Jump Juice (RCYC), which may be of 2006 vintage, but she just keeps on winning.
As ever, there’s a goodly turnout of J/109s – nine of them this time round – and after her brief but successful existence as Dave Cullen’s Euro Car Parks to win Class 3 in the Volvo Round Ireland, Pat Kelly’s Storm is her old self again, complete with the abiding honour of having been an ICRA Boat of the Year in times past, and she’ll be fresh and ready for battle with noted J/109 newbies Tim & Richard Goodbody (RIYC) with White Mischief.
For those who like a taste of open water while returning to a very hospitable port each evening, there’s a Coastal Division in two classes where participants include the likes of Sheila & James Tyrrell’s J/112E Aquelina, and two of the leading Dun Laoghaire boats, George Sisk’s Farr 42 WOW and Chris & Patanne Smith’s J/122 Aurelia in Class 1, while Class 2 has strong west coast participation with Derek & Conor Dillon’s Dehler Nova Big Deal from Foynes, and Martin Breen’s Dehler 37 Port of Galway.
The fleet is so diverse that simply seeing the results emerging is going to give a fascinating overview of the contemporary cruiser-racer and offshore scene, and when it’s set in the context of Cork, you get all sorts of added dimensions brought to us through the extraordinary sailing history of this remarkable place.
Volvo Cork Week as we know it today as a biennial festival was established in 1978 when the late Archie O’Leary was Admiral of the Royal Cork YC, but there had been other weeks or at least four day regattas before that, a notable one being in 1970 when the Royal Cork was celebrating its Quarter Millennium.
Inevitably, with the Tricentenary in 2020 coming down the line, significant events in Cork sailing history are being high-lighted and re-examined, and one special “first” which Organising Chairman Kieran O’Connell hopes to mark by a re-enactment is possibly one of the first offshore races held anywhere in the world, from Dublin Bay to Cork Harbour in July 1860.
It was inspired by the then Admiral of the Royal Cork, Thomas G French. Following a week of regattas at what was then Kingstown, he put up a prize of 15 guineas or something similar, and sixteen boats raced to Cork Harbour, though few of them got under way with the urgency shown by Rambler 88 and Teasing Machine at the start of the Round Ireland Race three weeks ago.
However, it’s the finish which will be a matter for discussion at tomorrow night’s opening ceremony for the sailing side of Volvo Cork Week 2016. According to Kieran O’Connell’s report, the winner in 1860 was Cooper Penrose’s 90-ton schooner Kingfisher in a race without any handicaps being applied.
That may indeed be the report which appeared in some of the newspapers of the day, as Kingfisher was first past Roche’s Point at daybreak to enter Cork Harbour. Yet the later detailed report in Hunt’s Yachting Magazine in the following weeks made the claim that the yachts were in fact racing to a finish line well up the harbour, off the Royal Cork clubhouse at Cobh. In struggling up the harbour in light airs, the noted amateur helmsman Henry O’Bryen, sailing Sir John Arnott’s 39-ton cutter Sybil, outsailed both the big Kingfisher and the 80-ton cutter Peri (J W Cannon) to snatch the lead at the finish, the finish times being 0520 (Sybil), 0523 (Peri) and 0525 (Kingfisher).
If boats racing from Dun Laoghaire to Cork manage times as close as that, they’ll have had a fine race of it, and it will be further encouragement to the Royal Cork to persist in this new-fangled sport of yacht racing, For, as has been frequently pointed out, racing played no role whatever in the early years of the Water Club of the Harbour of Cork from its foundation in 1720. The fleet’s function was to show that it could sail in close and disciplined formation like a naval squadron, and that provided them with enough excitement for the day – if anyone wanted a race, they could send their crews off in the gig for a rowing race, and the yachtsmen could wager on the results.
Thus it seems that the vulgarity of racing yachts in Cork Harbour was kept at bay until the 1780s, but quite when in the 1780s we don’t know. The earliest known mention of a race in connection with the Water Club come from July 1787 when a notice in the Cork Hibernian Chronicle of July 23rd stated that on Thursday July 26th “the Yachts of the Harbour of Cork are to sail from Roches Tower, exactly at eight o’clock in the morning, to go round Cable Island from thence to the Blockhouse at Hawlbowling (sic). The first yacht past the Blockhouse shall be deemed the winner, and the owner is entitled to the Anchor”.
The way this is stated seems to suggest that, by this time, races by the Water Club were nothing new in Cork Harbour sailing. As to what “entitled to the Anchor” precisely means, that muddies the water still further. The Anchor could have been a trophy of some kind. But on the other hand, “entitled to the Anchor” might have meant that after the finish, the winner could anchor wherever he wished in the harbour, with the rest of the fleet obliged to anchor near him in formation. As most of the yachts were kept moored off their owner’s houses, it would have been a matter of prestige to have the fleet come to your personal anchorage.
All of which reminds us that history, whether of sailing or whatever, should be registered as a controlled substance, to be administered by qualified medical staff in white coats in a clinical environment…
Volvo Cork Week 2016. Entries as of the 28th of June. Entries: 105
Sail No | Boat | Type of Boat | Owner | Class Entered | Handicap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
GBR7005R | Trojan of Upnor | J109 | REYC | Beaufort Cup | TBC |
GBR8588R | Jungle Drum | J88 | Stuart Southwick | Beaufort Cup | 1.035 |
IRL1206 | Joker 2 | J109 | John Maybury | Beaufort Cup | 1.015 |
IRL2067 | Justus | J109 | Dan Buckley | Beaufort Cup | TBC |
IRL3209 | Endgame | A35 | Frank Doyle | Beaufort Cup | 1.026 |
IRL3511 | Another Adventure | A35 | Simon Coveney | Beaufort Cup | 1.032 |
IRL4076 | Meridian | Salona 45 | Thomas W Roche | Beaufort Cup | 1.120 |
IRL4477 | Freya | X442 | Conor Doyle | Beaufort Cup | 1.090 |
IRL9834 | True Penance | Projection 35 | Martin Darer Colman Garvey | Beaufort Cup | 1.018 |
IRL9876 | Coast Guard | Benneteau 36 | Conor McNally, John McLoughlin | Beaufort Cup | 0.880 |
IRL?? | Exhale | X43 | Diarmuid & Hilda Good | Beaufort Cup | 1.079 |
IRLMIT | Marine Institute | Marine Institute | Beaufort Cup | TBC | |
IRLPOG | Port Of Galway | Port of Galway | Beaufort Cup | TBC | |
IRL2820 | Y'Dream | Beneteau First 36.7 | Sean Riordan | Beaufort Cup | 1.003 |
FR38757 | Teasing Machine | A13 | Eric De Turckiem | Class 0 | 1.169 |
GBR4321 | Oystercatcher XXX1 | H39 | Sir Richard Matthews | Class 0 | 1.136 |
GBR8833R | Dark Angel | Dubois 37 | Tony Ackland | Class 0 | 1.098 |
GBR11152L | Gladiator | TP52 | Tom Wilson | Class 0 | 1.393 |
IRL708 | Antix | Ker 40 | Anthony O Leary | Class 0 | 1.215 |
IRL2007 | Jump Juice | Ker 37 | Conor Phelan | Class 0 | 1.104 |
FRA13220 | Trilogy 2 | One off Peterson 46 | Jean Gabriel Samzun | Class 1 | 1.059 |
FRA38418 | Audrey | JPK 10.80 | Michael Boyd | Class 1 | 1.045 |
FRA43645 | Dream Pearls | JPK 10.80 | Eric Mordret & Arnaud Delamare | Class 1 | 1.045 |
GBR1385L | X Beat II | Beneteau 40.7 | Andrew O'Sullivan/Peter Pope/Lain Wright | Class 1 | 1.054 |
GBR4031R | SAILPLANE | Beneteau First 40 | Adrain McCarroll | Class 1 | 1.083 |
GBR4041R | Forty Licks | First 40 | Jay Colville | Class 1 | 1.083 |
GBR5991T | Prime Suspect | Mills 36 | Charlie Frize | Class 1 | 1.067 |
GBR6638R | Alice | Mumm 36 | Simon Henning | Class 1 | 1.075 |
GBR8038R | Roxstar | XP 38 | Murray Findlay | Class 1 | 1.084 |
GBR9380R | Forward Thinking | Reflex 38 | Stephen Nicholls | Class 1 | 1.053 |
IRL7386 | Lynx Clipper | Reflex 38 | John Spottiswood | Class 1 | 1.049 |
IRL10800 | Rockabill VI | JPK 10.80 | Paul O'Higgins | Class 1 | 1.046 |
GBR37N | Antilope | Grand Soleil 37 | Willem Wester | Class 2 | 1.033 |
GBR3135L | Jumbuck | J109 | John Allison | Class 2 | 1.014 |
IRL1111 | Team Stampede | Benneteau 36.7 | Tony Purkiss | Class 2 | 1.017 |
IRL1242R | White Mischief | J109 | Timothy & Richard Goodbody | Class 2 | 1.012 |
IRL3061 | Fools Gold | A35 | Robert McConnell | Class 2 | 1.022 |
IRL7991 | Jigamaree | J109 | Ronan Harris | Class 2 | 1.014 |
IRL9494 | NowWhat | DIBOIS 33 | Barry Heskin & Jim Grealish | Class 2 | 1.018 |
IRL9609 | Jellybaby | J109 | Ian Nagle | Class 2 | 1.026 |
IRL29832 | Jump n'Shout | A35 | James Crockatt | Class 2 | 1.028 |
IRL33000 | w1Da Dulcibella | w1Da 33 OOD | Rory Staunton | Class 2 | 1.020 |
IRL35221 | Alpaca | X34 | Paul & Deirdre Tingle | Class 2 | 0.998 |
IRL44444 | Magic Touch | First 34,7 | Steve Hayes | Class 2 | 1.004 |
NED10922 | vrijgezeilig | J109 | Michel Hiesweiller | Class 2 | 1.009 |
IRL1141 | Storm | J109 | Pat Kelly | Class 2 | 1.014 |
FRA29340 | CAVOK | JPK960 | Patrick Farcy | Class 3 | 0.985 |
GBR1039 | Aurora | Contessa 33 | Oscar Chess | Class 3 | 0.927 |
GBR3663 | Mischief of Mersea | Carter 36 | Martin Sykes | Class 3 | 0.935 |
GBR4860T | Skyhunter | J35 | Ronan Fenton | Class 3 | 0.974 |
GBR9653R | DayDream | X332 | Stephen Cutford | Class 3 | 0.980 |
IRL1078 | Jostler | J92 | Patrick Beckett | Class 3 | 0.965 |
IRL1295 | Lisador | Dehler 36 | Henry Hogg | Class 3 | 0.969 |
IRL1484 | Harmony | Half Tonner | John Swan | Class 3 | 0.948 |
IRL6021 | Ellida | X332 | Ria Lyden | Class 3 | 0.981 |
IRL16859 | Bad Company | Sunfast 32 | Desmond Deasy Ivors | Class 3 | 0.934 |
GBR4264 | Afrita | Sigma 33 | Andrew & Cheissie Laming | Class 4 | 0.912 |
IRL0000 | Animal | Formula 28 | Gerard O Sullivan | Class 4 | 0.912 |
IRL78 | No-Gnomes | Nich 1/2 ton | Leonard Donnery | Class 4 | 0.907 |
IRL680 | Ireland's Eye Kilcullen | J24 | Cillian Dickson | Class 4 | 0.887 |
IRL3087 | Anchor Challenge | Farr Quarter Tonner | Paul Gibbons | Class 4 | 0.917 |
IRL4506 | SeaHawk | Sigma 33 | Clem & Wendy McElligott | Class 4 | 0.913 |
IRL5098 | YaGottaWanna | J24 | Dave Lane & Sinead Enright | Class 4 | 0.886 |
IRL6564 | Monkey Business | Formula 28 MOD | Bill McConnell | Class 4 | 0.910 |
IRL7071 | Out Rigger | 707 MOD | Jimmy Nyhan | Club Regatta Fleet | 0.903 |
IRL1359 | WishBone | Holman31 | Joanne McKenna | Club Regatta Fleet | 0.822 |
IRL3612 | Sweet Dreams | Sun Odyssey 36i | Batt & Helen O Leary | Club Regatta Fleet | TBC |
GBR7797T | Foxtrot | Beneteau 36.7 | Hilary Davies | Coastal Class 1 | 1,010 |
GBR8911R | Ulula | Bermudian Sloop | Nick Ogden | Coastal Class 1 | 1.098 |
IRL1301 | Kayachtic | Hanse 400 | Mike Walker | Coastal Class 1 | TBC |
IRL1477 | Saxon Senator | X37 | Eric & Wan Waterman | Coastal Class 1 | 1.035 |
IRL1507 | Aquelina | J-112E | Sheila & James Tyrrell | Coastal Class 1 | 1.060 |
IRL3207 | Aris | Bermudan Sloop | Wolfgang Kallenberg | Coastal Class 1 | 0.997 |
IRL4208 | WoW | Farr42 | George Sisk | Coastal Class 1 | 1.123 |
IRL35950 | Aurelia | J122 | Chris & Patanne Power Smith | Coastal Class 1 | 1.077 |
GBR380 | Rioja | J80 | Dominic Baxter & Ernie Dillon | Coastal Class 2 | 0.953 |
GBR606 | Jedi | J80 | Fergus Coughlan | Coastal Class 2 | 0.958 |
GBR1317 | Violet Flame | Benneteau 31.7 | David Wilkins | Coastal Class 2 | TBC |
GBR4183 | Poppy | Contention 33 | John Roberts | Coastal Class 2 | 0.902 |
IRL816 | Serifa | Saler 40 | Rory Fitzpatrick | Coastal Class 2 | 0.910 |
IRL1975 | Tambourine | Thomas One Off | Kieran Collins | Coastal Class 2 | 0.878 |
IRL3492 | Big Deal | Dehler Nova | Derek Dillon | Coastal Class 2 | 0.934 |
IRL5687 | Port of Galway | Dehler 37 CR | Martin Breen | Coastal Class 2 | 0.952 |
IRL9992 | Split Point | Dufour 34 | Seamus Gilroy | Coastal Class 2 | 0.956 |
GBR1983C | Wildebeest 4 | Brenta 24 | Derek Buchanan | Mixed Sports | 0.960 |
IRL1771 | Cosmic | 1720 | Brian Jones | Mixed Sports | 1.022 |
IRL1772 | Heroes & Villains | 1720 | Gary Rhodes | Mixed Sports | 1.022 |
IRL1804 | Aquatack | 1720 | Denis Murphy | Mixed Sports | 1.021 |
IRL2500 | Elder Lemon | 1720 | Robert Dix | Mixed Sports | 1.013 |
GBR1786Y | Thistle | Husler 25.5 | Peter Webster | Non Spinnaker | 0.803 |
IRL408 | Julia B | She 33 | Bill O Mahony | Non Spinnaker | 0.854 |
IRL733 | Thalia | Sigma 400 | Aubrey Leggett | Non Spinnaker | 1.028 |
IRL1033 | Loch Greine | Hanse 311 | Tom/Declan/Donal O Mahony | Non Spinnaker | 0.916 |
IRL1523 | Speedy Gonzales | 26 | Mark Reardon | Non Spinnaker | TBC |
IRL1528 | Beau Reve | Beneteau First 30 | Paddy McNamee | Non Spinnaker | TBC |
IRL2382 | Xerxes | IMX38 | Dan O Neill | Non Spinnaker | 1.024 |
IRL3276 | Roaring Forties | Beneteau First 35s5 | Clodagh O Donavan | Non Spinnaker | 0.983 |
IRL4004 | Objection! | Sun Odyssey 35 | Kevin Murray | Non Spinnaker | 0.955 |
IRL4434 | Minx 111 | Sigma 33 | Tom McNeice | Non Spinnaker | 0.892 |
IRL7006Y | Ashanta | Thompson T31 | Richard O'Halloran | Non Spinnaker | 0.832 |
IRL7212 | Phaeton | Clive Doherty | Non Spinnaker | 0.830 | |
IRL9515 | Bonanza | Hunter Impala | Judy McGrath | Non Spinnaker | 0.890 |
IRL1750 | RCYC 2 | 1720 | Richard Hayes | Try Sailing Challenge | 1.022 |
IRL1760 | RCYC1/NYC | 1720 | Helen Cooney | Try Sailing Challenge | 1.022 |
IRL1768 | RCYC3 | 1720 | Voxpro | Try Sailing Challenge | 1.022 |
Ex–Royal Cork Vintage Yacht Thalia is Saturday's Oldest Round the Island Race Competitor
The oldest boat competing in this year's Race is almost certain to be Thalia (Sail #11). Built in 1888, she was one of the last yachts by George Wanhill of Poole who was boatbuilding from the 1850s onwards.
In the 1890s Thalia was raced from the Royal Cork Yacht Club, returning to the south coast of England in 1918. After a more recent stint in the Caribbean, she was bought by David Aisher in 2010, and returned to England for a refit at the Elephant Boatyard in Hamble where a new mast was fitted with new standing and running rigging and sails. She was also re ballasted, rewired and replumbed.
David's Thalia won't easily be mistaken for another Thalia racing again this year; a Hanse 385 built in 2012. She is owned by Andrew Banks and there are five members of the family on board ranging from his 91 year-old father Ken down to his two sons aged 21 and 19.
A veritable powerhouse of racing experience and RTI know-how is the seemingly invincible Jock Wishart who describes himself as "Adventurer/America's Cup/Past Holder Round the World Powered Record/Rowed to North Pole/Winner Queens Cup Thames A- Raters". His 2015 JPK 10.80 boat Shaitan is entered for the Commodores Cup as part of the Celtic Team as well as for this year's RTI.
Jock has recruited some serious sailing talent including Thomas Lundquist as Helmsman, a Finn Gold Cup Winner & Olympic Gold Medallist, plus Julian Smith, co-Helm and the 2014 National Finn Champion; Andy Sinclair, Trimmer and Red Bull Youth America's Cup helmsman; Jamie Joel, rigger, instructor etcetera and then these three musketeers, Ruaridh Wright, Peter Cameron and Angus Grey Stephens, all three of whom are Scottish Student Sailing Champions.
Girls for Sail have entered two boats this year with all-female crews, many of whom have never raced before - and in some cases, have never even sailed before. Hot Stuff, a Beneteau 40.7 and Diamonds are Forever, an Elan 37 are competing. Celebrating their 16th Round the Island Race this year and with two all-female boat crews entered, Girls for Sail are hoping to encourage even more women to get involved with this wonderful Race.
Their youngest crew member is 18 and they will be joined by ladies of all ages and levels of experience. The most recent apprentice, Georgi, is training towards her RYA Yachtmaster Offshore ahead of starting a career in the sailing industry.
Claire Bateman RIP
The death yesterday of Claire Bateman of Cork has deprived the world of Irish sailing and her own community of one of the kindest, most decent, obliging and quietly yet infectiously enthusiastic people, someone who put far more into our sport and the world of boats than she took from it.
Boats and the people around them were one of Claire Bateman’s great personal interests and pleasures, and her many contributions to Afloat.ie were always inspiring to receive. Yet somehow she also found the time to be a whole-hearted wife, mother, grandmother, and partnership supporter of her husband Robert in his uniquely dedicated and gifted approach to photography of all kinds, particularly on the water.
Claire gallantly took on the task of providing the words to go with the pictures, and became so adept at recording the Cork Harbour scene afloat that her narratives became every bit as important as Robert’s evocative photography. They were a marvellous team, and Claire’s generosity of spirit in giving freely of her time and talents way over and above any call of duty did much to tell the broader world what was going on in Cork sailing, thereby contributing greatly to the expansion of boating in all its forms.
Claire was Chair of the Irish Sailing Association's (ISA) Southern Branch for a five year period where her organisation of the annual meeting in Murphy Brewery at Ladyswell was a sailing highlight of the winter months. Claire also served as a member of the ISA's Olympic committee that selected the sailing team for the 1992 Barcelona OIympics.
The unique joint giving of their talents for the greater good of sailing saw Robert and Claire Bateman being made Honorary Members of the Royal Cork Yacht Club, a tangible and very well-earned recognition of the extremely high regard in which they have been held by the sailing community for many years.
Our heartfelt thoughts are with Claire’s husband Robert, her sons Robin and Roger and their wives Marcia and Ada, their families of eight grandchildren, and Claire’s many friends. We share their profound grief in a very personal loss.
WMN
There will be at least eight Irish registered yachts in a fleet of up to 1,599 when Britain's annual Round the Island Race, a one-day yacht race around the Isle of Wight in just over two weeks time. The spectacle event, to be held on July 2, is of the largest yacht races in the world and the fourth largest participation sporting event in the UK after the London Marathon and the Great North and South Runs.
From Royal Cork Yacht Club, Wan Waterman will compete in his X37 Saxon Sonata. Another Cork Harbour boat, Ben Daly's Quarter Tonner, Cobh Pirate, currently in Cowes at the Quarter Ton Cup, is also entered.
Four Irish Cork Harbour 1720 designs are also entered but all are UK based but one; entry 'Pivotal' bears the sail number IRL1725.
Paul Colton's Cri–Cri from the Royal Irish was the Class three progressive ECHO winner at the recent ICRA National Championships in Howth
A return visitor to the Solent is Dublin Bay quarter tonner Cri–Cri, Paul Colton's Royal Irish YC entry, that bears an Italian sail number, is making its fourth appearance in the Round the Island Race.
Among other Irish entries on the massive list are a Hunter Impala, Trudi and an X50, Touché.
Check out the entries here
Royal Cork Yacht Club Second in 2K Team Racing Anzio
Over 3 days and no less than 42 races it was all down to the last match between the Dutch and their great rivals from Royal Cork. It was one of those starts that one wants to forget, but the Dutch clearly down, gambled on banging the corners to great effect. Back in the action at the windward mark the four boats were all within a boat length then it all started to unravel for Cork.
2K Team Racing is two on two team racing, in keelboats, without spinnakers.
Twin penalties for Smit (NED) and Kingston(IRL) saw the game balanced. then Cudmore(IRL) collected a penalty for tacking too close... the Dutch are in the lead... a final Irish penalty and it is all over...as the Dutch move into their tried and tested tight defence mode for the final run to the finish.
Host team Rome had had a hard regatta, losing to a rookie British team from the Royal Thames and to the young Italians from 3CV sailing as Banana 2....but the final honours were to go to them as then outplayed the Dutch to the closest of finishes in the final match....but all too late for the podium.
1st Dutch Match and Team Race Association (NED)
2nd Royal Cork Yacht Club (IRL)
3rd Royal Thames Yacht Club (GBR)
The 2K Tour now moves to another Italian Yachting paradise in Gaeta.
The Rome 2K was hosted by the Platu 25 Class and the Reale Circolo Canottiere Tevere Remo at the club's Anzio base.
Archie O'Leary 1929–2016
In a well-lived life in Cork in which he was exuberantly involved in several sports and long active in a pioneering role in business, he was known to everyone as Archie O’Leary. Yet properly speaking he was Arthur O’Leary, sharing his name with the historic and heroic figure of Art O’Leary (1746-1773). But this modern Arthur O’Leary, who has now gone from among us at the age of 86, was of more than enough significance to merit his own distinctive name.
It was as Archie O’Leary that he played rugby for Ireland, rising through the ranks of Cork Con (where he was Captain) and Munster, to win three caps in the national side in 1952. It was Mr & Mrs Archie O’Leary who became well known in racing circles, their most famous and successful horse being Florida Pearl. And it was as Archie O’Leary that he served as Admiral of the Royal Cork Yacht Club from 1977 to 1980, crowning a very long sailing career which was to continue until the1990s, when he changed his perspective afloat by moving into a Nelson 42 powercruiser, the kind of motoryacht which was designed with senior sailing people in mind.
His energies afloat and on the sports field were matched by his energy in business – in 1961 he founded the O’Leary Insurance Group which today, under the Chairmanship of his son Anthony, has expanded to become an all-Ireland force in the industry. The strength of family values within the O’Leary clan is also reflected by the fact that Anthony took on the demanding role of Admiral RCYC at a young age in 2000, just twenty years after his father had headed the club. And Anthony has of course carved his own distinctive and successful career in sailing (he’s currently the Irish Champion Helmsman), while his own sons in turn – Archie’s grandsons – include Olympic sailor Peter, Student World Sailing Champion Nicholas, and Irish Student Champion Robert.
Archie O’Leary, Admiral RCYC 1977 to 1980
Today, we honour the memory of the Patriarch of this remarkable family of sailing high achievers, for Archie O’Leary was an extremely successful owner-skipper in his own right. Like many of Cork sailing’s racing aristocracy, his first proper taste of the sport was with the National 18s. But by the early 1970s he found that offshore racers best suited his tastes, and he campaigned an S&S 34 for a couple of seasons, starting to build up friendships at home and abroad which well withstood the test of time.
By late 1973, the new blossoming of Cork sailing was becoming very apparent, and while the most active campaigner Hugh Coveney went for the peak challenge of the International One Ton Cup with the state-of-the-art one-off Ron Holland-designed, George & Killian Bushe-built 36ft Golden Apple, Archie O’Leary took a different tack by commissioning a new though standard Carter 37 from the board of Dick Carter. Carter had burst upon the scene in 1965 when his innovative 34-footer Rabbit won the Fastnet Race overall, and had subsequently won the One Ton Worlds with the Dutch-American owned Tina in 1966, Optimist of Germany in 1967 and 1968, and the Italian entry Ydra in 1973.
From today’s perspective, it is difficult to grasp the scale and enthusiasm of the One Ton Worlds at Torquay in 1974. Here were more than forty red hot boats around the 36ft mark from all over the world, and all competing absolutely level, sailed in many instances by Olympic-standard crews. Many were expensive purpose-built one-offs, yet there was also a small but significant group of production boats, tuned to the One Ton rating, which were expected to be little more than cannon fodder in a field of this standard.
The first Irish Mist of 1974 was a standard Carter 37, and she was clear winner of the Production Boat prize at the One Ton Worlds that year
But Archie O’Leary’s standard Carter 37 Irish Mist was definitely not cannon fodder. With the young Anthony O’Leary now very much an active member of his father’s crew, Irish Mist was at the races, and then some. She won the Production Boat prize by a very clear margin, and placed tenth overall with an entire host of extremely hot one-offs astern of her.
As his sailing career progressed and developed, Archie O’Leary was to win many other major prizes, both offshore and on the championship circuit. But in later life there was no trophy he cherished more than the fine cup he’d been given in perpetuity for that Production Boat win at Torquay, for he reckoned that was purer sport than the competition he was soon to experience at the very sharpest end of international sailing.
Yet the pace was now inevitably set, and for 1975 the O’Learys commissioned a one-off Ron Holland Two Tonner, the 40ft Irish Mist II, built at Rochestown by George and Killian Bushe. This superboat really did have all the bells and whistles, complete with a Bergstrom Ridder hyper-light mast. She lived up to all her billings, winning the 1975 RORC Channel Race as a member of the Irish Admirals Cup team, in addition to many other podium places, while the following year she was overall winner of the RORC Irish Sea Race and was also top boat in the biggest regatta in Ireland that year, ISORA Week 1976 at Cork.
In the mid-1970s, the Irish Sea Offshore Racing Association was at its most numerous, and if they brought their Race Week to some venue, it guaranteed big turnouts. But ISORA had at least half a dozen and more locations to choose between – they mightn’t be back for another ten years. However, by this stage Archie O’Leary was rising through the officer ranks in the Royal Cork, and by the time he became Admiral in 1977, he’d realized that a more regular regatta week was essential for the good health of Crosshaven, and he’d plans in shape for what would become Cork Week, run on a biennial basis with the first one in 1978.
To make it all happen, he drew on firm friendships made through his years of active campaigning on the RORC and Celtic Sea programmes, and thus people like Chris Dunning from the Solent and Rob Davies from South Wales could be relied on to beat the drum for their friend Archie and his regatta in Cork, and this was to be the start of something big.
But in the best Cork traditions, while working busily in the administration of the rapidly-expanding Royal Cork YC, Admiral O’Leary continued as a very active sailor, moving on from the timber-built Irish Mist II to the glassfibre Swan 39 Irish Mist III, the production version of the fabulously successful Ron Holland-designed Regardless, and from there he went on to a Lightwave 395.
Although he was best noted for his national and international achievements, Archie O’Leary was never happier than when involved in the notably high standard of club racing against old friends at Crosshaven, when the finest traditions of the world’s oldest yacht club are given a contemporary twist.
In fact for decades – with his actively sailing family spreading onto three generations – Archie O’Leary was the very expression of the Cork sailing spirit. And even when he’d reduced the pace by changing to the Nelson powercruiser, his taste for a spot of sport afloat was undiminished. My most abiding recent memory of Archie O’Leary was of a time one Spring some years ago when his beloved Cork Constitution Rugby Club (of which he was President in 1973-74) had won through to the Irish club final, to be played at Lansdowne Road in Dublin. Archie noted that the weather pattern was settling down nicely, so he suggested to his regular shipmates that they should go in style to Dublin with the powercruiser, and use her as a houseboat for the weekend of the match.
Then as the weekend approached, a wondrous and unseasonal calm settled over all Ireland. So what did the O’Leary crew do? They came to Dublin from the north. Bound for the rugby match, they left Cork heading west, streaked up the Atlantic seaboard, roared along the north coast, zoomed down the Irish Sea to take in the match, and then went on home by sea as though this was all part of a normal weekend away for rugby fans. That was how Archie O’Leary approached life. Our heartfelt condolences go to his family and very many friends.
WMN