Anthony O'Leary and his Royal Cork crew are sixth overall at New York Yacht Club's Invitational Cup. The first race of the day was won by RCYC, which O'Leary unfortunately followed with back-to-back double-digit finishes. They stand sixth overall with 49 points. There are some excellent aerial shots of Royal Cork very well positioned off the line in the above vid.

A day of intense racing on Rhode Island Sound marked the mid-point of the 2015 Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup. The south-south west breeze filled in early in the day, which allowed three races to be sailed in 8-10 knots by the international fleet. Like the standard of excellence established by Rolex, the competition has exceeded the expectations of the competitors.

Yesterday's subsequent races were both won by Australia's Middle Harbour Yacht Club, which bumped them up in the standings from eighth yesterday, to now second overall with 40 points. Returning to the top of the leaderboard is London's Royal Thames Yacht Club which consistently finished in the top-five. They have an eight-point cushion over Middle Harbour Yacht Club.

The racing was intense according to Brad Dellenbaugh, New York Yacht Club's Director of Sailing. "If you missed getting off the line and got forced to the wrong direction on the first beat, you spent the rest of the race trying to catch up. Occasionally one side or the other of the course was favored, but not the same side all the time."

Racing resumes Friday with the winning team determined at the conclusion of racing on Saturday, September 19.

Royal Cork helmsman and Afloat Sailor of the Year Anthony O'Leary has assembled his crew for this week's Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup based on their performance on his winning Ker 40, Antix. A previous 5-8-4 record at this event indicates that while the Irish team infrequently sails one-design boats of the size of the Swan 42s used for the Invitational Cup, they are strong competitors within reach of the prize.

The first race is scheduled for 1100 each day starting tomorrow. Racing is scheduled to take place on Narragansett Bay, north of Gould Island, or on Rhode Island Sound, south of Brenton Point Park. The racing location will be picked each morning. The regatta is hosted out of the New York Yacht Club at Harbour Court.

It is a testament to the ideals of Corinthian competition, and the camaraderie associated with the sport that for the fourth edition of the Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup, six of the 17 entered yacht club teams will be welcomed back as four-time veterans of this highly-regarded event, including O'Leary's Irish team.

Hailing from all corners of the globe, the returning teams - Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club, the Japan Sailing Federation, Real Club Nautico de Barcelona (ESP), the Royal Yacht Squadron (GBR) and the two-time defending champion, the Royal Canadian Yacht Club - are drawn by the intensity of the on-the-water competition which is enhanced by notable social events held at Harbour Court, New York Yacht Club's iconic clubhouse overlooking Newport harbour.

The 2015 Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup welcomes competitors from the following yachts clubs: the Royal Yacht Squadron (GBR), Japan Sailing Federation (JPN), Real Club Nautico de Barcelona (ESP), Royal Canadian Yacht Club (CAN), Royal Cork Yacht Club (IRL), Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club (HKG), Royal Thames Yacht Club (GBR), Yacht Club Argentino (ARG), Yacht Club Italiano (ITA), Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club (AUS), Royal Swedish Yacht Club (SWE), Eastern Yacht Club (USA), Itchenor Sailing Club (GBR), Middle Harbour Yacht Club (USA), Newport Harbour Yacht Club (USA), Seattle Yacht Club (USA) and New York Yacht Club (USA).

#royalcork – The Royal Cork Yacht Club has twinned with Yacht Club de Monaco (YCM)  and a reception to mark the occasion was held in YCM on Sunday, June 28th at 17.30 hours writes Claire Bateman. YCM have reciprocal arrangements with fifty one clubs worldwide but only have Twinning Agreements with fifteen. Royal Cork Yacht Club is the only yacht club in Ireland or the U.K. to have such a Twinning Agreement and is the first club to have been invited to Twin with YCM since 2006.

Royal Cork Yacht Club General Manager, Gavin Deane, travelled to Monaco to attend the lavish reception in the newly built yacht club (opened June, 2014), hosted by His Serene Highness Prince Albert II, President YCM. The reception had a dual purpose, to celebrate the Twinning with the Royal Cork Yacht Club and to host new members to the club. The reception was attended by 1500 people and was followed by a dinner for 200 invited guests.

Gavin met with HSH Prince Albert II, President YCM, Bernard d'Alessandri, General Secretary/Director YCM and the Club's Board Committee at a private reception in the Club. HSH Prince Albert II and Gavin Deane signed the Twinning Agreement, exchanged framed Club burgees, Club history books and Club ties.

Outline of agreement: "The two Clubs base the agreement upon a reciprocal engagement to mutually support and promote the Clubs' Sporting Programmes and Social Events. Members of the two Clubs shall benefit from the Structures and Services offered by each Club in conformity with agreed regulations".

The relationship between the Clubs has flourished over the past five to six years as Royal Cork Yacht Club sends an Optimist team to race at an event in Monaco every January.

Other RCYC members that joined Gavin at the event were Eddie Jordan (F1 fame) and Harry Gibbings (originally from Cork), both of whom reside in Monaco and are overseas members of Royal Cork Yacht Club.

HSH Prince Albert II, President YCM, recently became a member of the Royal Cork Yacht Club, and when General Manager Gavin was introduced to him he proudly produced his Royal Cork Membership card from his pocket.

Speaking with Gavin as he very eloquently described his visit to Monaco, one could almost feel as if one were there and it certainly seemed to live up to all the wonderful tales one hears about the Principality . He described the beautiful azure sea and the marinas filled with exotic and wonderful craft of all types and sizes and the beauty of the architecture and buildings, and the friendliness of the people. The temperature was some 30 degrees and all in all appeared to be a dream location.

The twinning of the two yacht clubs brings our relationship with Monaco even closer. Monaco is held in very high esteem by the Irish people and particularly through the deep affection felt for the late HSH Princess Grace of Monaco, wife of the late Prince Rainier of Monaco. They brought their family to visit Ireland and and Princess Grace also made other visits here. She was very interested in and proud of her Irish ancestry and was greatly admired by the Irish people for her charm and beauty.

#j109 – It's all smiles after the first day of the UK J/109 National Championship, with Ian Nagle's team from the Royal Cork Yacht Club scoring two bullets on J/109 Jelly Baby. "We had a great start in the first race, which put us in a good shape but we had a shocking start in the second and had to fight back from a very poor position, Nagle said.

The Cork Harbour boat, returns to Irish waters for the ICRA Nationals in Kinsale later this month, and has already tasted UK success this season lifting the vice–Admiral's Cup in Cowes in May.

The core of the Jelly Baby team has been together since they started racing the J/109 in 2008 and that experience means that they have built up a lot of knowledge about how to sail fast.  'I have to admit our boat speed was very good today. This has been a very encouraging start and we hope to build on that tomorrow', Nagle said.

#national18 –  There's great excitement around Cork Harbour this week with the delivery of the first four of the completely new Phil Morrison-designed National 18s to join the established fleet at Monkstown Bay SC.

In the near future, other boats will be arriving to make their debut as Crosshaven with the Royal Cork YC, as well as further augmenting the Monkstown group. By the time the class's big British and Irish Championship is staged at Royal Cork from July 26th to 31st, the necessary critical mass of the new boats should have been achieved to provide top quality racing. But there will of course also be special provisions made to ensure that boats of older types (the restricted class has been in existence since 1938) are continuing to get worthwhile sport.

The development of this newest and very exciting National 18 has been largely powered by the Cork Harbour National 18ft Class Association, and National 18 sailors in Britain have been particularly impressed by the way that the Royal Cork YC invested funds to help this community effort towards a brighter future from resources within the class association.

This weekend will see the four new boats getting their rigs tuned with some trial sailing planned, but we'll be very surprised indeed if there isn't a test race or two down Monkstown way on Saturday and Sunday.

These boats will take a bit of getting used to, but there's no doubting the excitement in the air...

Big smiles greet Colin Chapman's new Ultra Design National 18 one of the first eight National 18's new design to arrive at the Royal Cork Yacht Club for the 2015 season.

L. to R. Royal Cork Admiral Pat Lyons, Dom Long, President National 18 Class, Rear Admiral Dinghies, Celine McGrath and owner Colin Chapman. Picture Robert Bateman.

#2K – Eight teams from Italy, The Netherlands, Germany, Great Britain and Ireland gathered at the Reale Club Tevere Remo, Rome for the first 2K tour event of 2015. Two days of intense round robin racing saw a three way tie break at the top between Cork, YYCS and Spinnaker.

The final day on Sunday started with rain and no wind but PRO Constanzo Villa managed to get in 4 of the critical race to complete the round robin. The final saw last year's runner up Royal Cork face YCCS. It was the Italians who emerged as winners in a sun drenched final.

Final Results
1st Yacht Club Costa Smeralda
2nd Royal Cork
3rd Spinnaker
4th Dutch Match and Team Racing Association
5th Rome Racing Team
6th Royal Thames
7th Serpentine racing
8th Bavaria Yacht Club

#national18 – Since being introduced to the public at the RYA Suzuki Dinghy Show in March of this year, the first of the new Phil Morrison designed National 18s has been undergoing sailing trials and completing the required EU stability tests. From the moment she hit the water for her inaugural sail at Brightlingsea it was clear that the boat was something special, say her promoters.

Afloat.ie covered recent developments in the class here when WM Nixon concluded the National 18s were taking dinghy racing onto a new plane.

British Olympian Rob White, whose company White Formula builds the boats, was among the first to helm her and couldn't keep the grin off his face. "She's seriously slippery," said Rob immediately after sailing "she feels really responsive and accelerates instantly in even the lightest puffs."

As well as impressing with her sailing performance the new National 18 also passed her EU RCD stability tests with flying colours. Named Hurricane after the very first ever National 18 launched in 1938, she is now on the South coast and has so far been seen in Lymington, Keyhaven and Poole Harbour. First impressions have been very favourable, and she has turned heads both in the dinghy park and on the water.

Production is in full swing on the dozen boats already on order. The next batch of four will go to Cork in June to start the Irish fleet with further boats following shortly thereafter.

A programme of test sails is currently being set up and further details of how members of the press and those interested in sailing the boat, including the more than 40 people who signed up at the Dinghy Show, can get involved will be published shortly.

Looking ahead, there will a National 18 English Championship at Bosham during the weekend of 4th and 5th July 2015. This will be followed by the British and Irish Championship, hosted by the Royal Cork Yacht Club from to 26th to 31st July, where 12 of the new boats will be competing alongside some 30 GRP Proctor 18s, and a fleet of wooden classics.

Current orders for new boats will keep builders White Formula busy through until late summer.

#royalcork - It's only May and already Royal Cork Yacht Club claimed a second UK keelboat title yesterday when Ian Nagle and his J109 crew on Jelly Baby won the Vice Admirals Cup in Cowes. The Crosshaven campaign finished on 12 points with their nearest rival on 27, with five wins out of nine races. Hammering the UK fleet in their own back yard is no easy feat and it is a second such victory for  Munster sailors already this season, the first being Anthony O'Leary's Easter victory at the same venue.

Nagle's Jelly Baby boat will remain in the UK till June for the J Cup before returning to compete in Sovereign Cup in Kinsale.

The Vice Admirals Cup is now firmly established as one the Solent's premier keelboat events, a mix of one-design and IRC racing. In recent years it is has been chosen by the RYA as one of the selection events for the British teams in the Commodores' Cup.

In Cowes, Jelly Baby put the final stamp on their already impressive lead by adding a third followed by a win to secure first place overall. Whilst the victor was a foregone conclusion the same could not be said of the remaining podium positions with just four points separating Robert Stiles' "Diamond Jem", Paul Griffiths' "Jagerbomb", the RNSA's "Jolly Jack Tar", Tony Dickin's "Jubilee" and David Rolfe's "Shadowfax" overnight. The tension was palpable as the boats came to the line and it was nip and tuck from start to finish of race eight. "Shadowfax" took her first race victory of the series and was followed across the line by "Jagerbomb", "Jelly Baby", "Jubilee", "Diamond Jem" and then "Jolly Jack Tar". A quick recalculation of the points revealed that "Jagerbomb" now lay second on 23 points, "Shadowfax" and "Jolly Jack Tar" were both on 26 points and "Jubliee" and "Diamond Jem" both had 27 points. Right from the final warning flag the boats were jockeying for position and there was plenty of place changing on every leg of the course. At the line "Shadowfax" crossed second behind "Jelly Baby", "Jubilee" was third and "Jagerbomb" fourth. "Jolly Jack Tar" could only manage an eighth, their worst result of the series, and "Diamond Jem" was ninth. Overall that meant that "Jagerbomb" took second place overall by a single point from "Shadowfax" with "Jubilee" fourth, "Jolly Jack Tar" fifth and "Diamond Jem" sixth.

Having travelled all the way from Cork to compete in this year's Vice Admiral's Cup regatta "Jelly Baby's" owner Ian Nagle said he was "Pleasantly surprised." with their success.

"We've done pretty well in Ireland, we've won a couple of ICRA Nationals in 2012 and 2014 and we won the Irish J/109 Nationals last year, but this is our first time out of Ireland. We've come from Cork and are staying to do the J-Cup as well. We genuinely didn't know how we would fare against the English boats. There are no J/109s in Cork so we weren't sure how we were going to do, but I think after race 3 we felt might be on the pace. We were very happy with the race management. That kind of fast turn around was great, its lovely to race and start again quickly, that's what its all about really. He [Rob] did a great job as there was so little wind on Friday so to get the three races in that day was magic. We were full of praise for him. After that we're mad for more!"

#royalcork – Four years and seven months may seem an eternity for many people. Yet if you're in the business of planning major club and sporting events, particularly where there's a significant international context, then four years and seven months is but the blinking of an eye. In 2020 - in four years seven months and 22 days to be precise - the Royal Cork Yacht Club will be 300 years old. W M Nixon takes a look at life in and around a very remarkable and undoubtedly unique organisation as it moves steadily towards its special date with destiny.

The world's oldest yacht club is in good health, enjoying a growing membership with an increasing and very distinguished international flavour. And it already has a proven track record in marking significant birthdays. Back in 1969-70, led by Clayton Love Jnr as a visionary and energetic Admiral, the club celebrated its Quarter Millennium with a two year sailfest which included finishing a Transatlantic Race, starting or finishing several other major offshore races, staging several national and international championships, running a race week, and co-ordinating an especially successful Cruise-in-Company by a large fleet from Cork Harbour to Glengarriff on Bantry Bay.

In this galaxy of sailing events, the Royal Cork's traditions of volunteerism and competitive involvement afloat was much in evidence. If Crosshaven sailors weren't running the show afloat and ashore, then they were likely to be competing in it afloat, and almost inevitably featuring in the frame.

So in all, those staging the Quarter Millennium set a standard which their successors planning towards 2020 - which is additionally distorted by being an Olympic year - will find difficult to match. For they'll be doing so in a very changed world in which newly re-born regattas and special events are crowding the national and international calendar, while the undoubted international change of attitude in favour of events in warmer climates means that a sailing club on an island well north in the Atlantic will have to try that much harder to attract the kind of boats and sailors its major and unprecedented anniversary merits.

But far from being fazed by the prospect of what needs to be done for 2020, the Royal Cork YC relishes living life to the full in the here and now. During the past year and more, the Crosshaven club has been led with such enthusiasm and exemplary energy afloat and ashore by Admiral Pat Lyons that at the National Sailing Awards in Dublin in March, it was announced that the Royal Cork was the winner – for the sixth time - of the annual ISA/Mitsubishi Motors "Sailing Club of the Year" trophy, which dates back to 1979 but has been firmly under the wing of Mitsubishi Motors since 1986.

However, although the announcement was made at a national gathering, the essence of the Club of Year accolade is that the winning club and its members should be honoured in their own clubhouse in its own very specific local setting. Which sounds straightforward enough. But when you get into the world of high-powered sailing types and the challenge of trying to get many fast-moving targets into one place at the one time, it makes herding cats seem like a doddle. So it wasn't until this week that a date was finally found on which most of the key players in the Royal Cork scene would be in and around their clubhouse. But it was well worth the effort and the wait – the ceremony provided us with the very purest spirit of Royal Cork.

Crosshaven in high summer. Around Cork Harbour, the interaction between sea and land seems much more comfortable than anywhere else in Ireland. Photo: Robert Bateman

At this week's Club of the Year awards ceremony for the Royal Cork YC were (left to right) W M Nixon, (chairman of the adjudicators), David O'Brien (ISA Board Member), Pat Lyons (Admiral RCYC), Frank Keane (Chairman Mitsubishi Motors), and Billy Riordan (CEO Mitsubishi Motors). Photo: Robert Bateman

Such is the enthusiasm of this remarkable club at its immaculately-maintained and hospitable clubhouse/marina complex in Crosshaven that you'd think they must be one of the newest in the land. But they went at their sailing in 2014 as though it was Tricentenary time already, running a nine-month club sailing programme with an extensive junior training input, and in addition staging the ISAF Women's International Match Racing Worlds in June.

Then in July they hosted a successful Cork Week which – apart from providing great racing for all competitors – showcased the new Irish International Commodore's Cup Team for the first time, an auspicious debut as the team went on to win the Commodore's Cup, with Royal Cork's Anthony O'Leary playing a key role throughout.

Anthony O'Leary also won the British IRC Opens and the Irish Helmsmans Championship, and then for good measure he took the 1720 Nationals as well. Meanwhile, RCYC's Harry Durkan took the junior title, while clubmate Seafra Guilfoyle was garlanded with international success in the Lasers.

Commodore's Cup Team Captain and Afloat.ie Sailor of the Year 2014 Anthony O'Leary with RCYC Admiral Pat Lyons and Frank Keane of Mitsubishi Motors. Photo: Robert Bateman

On the cruising front, it was to be announced in due course that during 2014, the voyaging by Royal Cork YC longtime member Neil Hegarty in his 34ft sloop Shelduck on both sides of the Atlantic, and across it too, had been awarded the premier trophy of the Irish Cruising Club, the Faulkner Cup. As it happens, the skipper of Shelduck was one of the few conspicuous absentees from this week's ceremony, for the very good reason that he's already away cruising in America. But the ICC was well represented by Vice Commodore Dan Cross of Crosshaven, and also by former RCYC Admiral Paddy McGlade, who in 2014 organised the Cruising Club's very successful 85th Anniversary Cruise-in-Company from Crosshaven to Glengarriff with an exemplary lightness of touch.

Neil Hegarty of RCYC bringing his Dufour 34 Shelduck into port at the conclusion of a Transatlantic passage during his award-wnning 2014 cruise.

Part of the Irish Cruising Club's fleet in Glengarriff during the Cruise-in-Company organised by Royal Cork's Paddy McGlade

Odyssey, the prototype of the new National 18 whose development has been largely driven by the Cork Harbour division of the class.

Back home meantime, the Royal Cork's busy and long-established fleet of National 18s played the key role in developing the new National 18 which is currently being launched to popular acclaim, and two of the key figures in what amounts to a remarkable community movement – Dom Long and Tom Dwyer – were enthusing, and quite rightly too, about the new boats in the RCYC at this week's gathering.

At the height of the season, the Royal Cork was one of the clubs leading the movement in putting new life back into the established two-person dinghy classes. And looking to the future this summer, the club's plan to revive Dinghy Week as a four day event in August already shows every sign of success, emphasising the presence of an ongoing sense of the continuity of Cork Harbour sailing, something which in its turn is reinforced by a healthy and dynamic interaction with the community within which this great club is set.

There is no doubt that Cork is different. It interacts with the sea in a much more comfortable way than anywhere else in Ireland, and boats are everywhere about Cork harbour, whether nestling in a mudberth, or lying to a sheltered mooring, or berthed in one of the sparkling new marinas which seem to be springing up in every part of the harbour as the economy gets going again.

As for trying to capture the essence of the Royal Cork, the fact that the Club of the Year trophy adjudication force us to take a still from a moving film – often a very fast-moving film – only serves to emphasise how successful the RCYC is at so many levels.

Thus its exceptional successes in 2014 have now been clarified in proper order and full detail. But already they've moved well into 2015. Cork sailors were very much to the forefront in the recent major Laser event on Lough Erne, with young Nicholas Walsh the pace-setter. And of course the indefatigable Anthony O'Leary is already the Afloat.ie "Sailor of the Month" for April after his clean run of success with the new Ker 40 Antix, ex-Catapult, in the Solent.

Party time in the Royal Cork after the formal presentation ceremony. The trio at right are ICC Vice Commodore Dan Cross and Sally and Anthony O'Leary. In classic Crosshaven style, Dan and Anthony have been friends and neighbours ashore and afloat since childhood. Photo W M Nixon

He finds her a fascinating boat after his more conservative Ker 39, the silver Antix of 2006 vintage. Whereas the older boat was quite docile to steer, as she had twin wheels complete with footbrace pads for the helmsman, the new boat is more like a giant dinghy with a widow-maker of a tiller, and the helmsman having to be hyper-fit to keep himself in place on that very wide cockpit. The word from Skipper O'Leary is that the red Antix is a dream to helm to windward, but steering her on a hairy run can be....well, very hairy indeed.

That such things could be discussed with the man himself was all of a piece with the remarkable mood in the Royal Cork Yacht Club, where the conversation turned with equal ease to the new Cool Route. This is the cruising trail from southwest Ireland to northern Norway which is being developed in Cork Institute of Technology by RCYC member John McAleer with the club very much on board as an international marketing partner.

As to just how this will go, we can only think for now that if they could just somehow bottle the communal can-do spirit of the Royal Cork and then get it to work its magic in all the other prospective ports along the Cool Route, then they really would have a winner. Meanwhile, congratulations to the Royal Cork Yacht Club, ISA/Mitsubishi Motors Sailing Club of the Year for 2015.

A different animal altogether. After the compact and comfortable two-wheel arrangement on the silver veteran Ker 39 Antix , the new tiller-steered Ker 40 Antix may provide a more direct feedback sailing on the wind for helmsman Anthony O'Leary, but hectic downwind sailing can become very hairy indeed.

#royalcork – Last night Royal Cork Yacht Club (RCYC) celebrated its stand out achievement of incredible sailing programmes from high performance events to grass roots initiatives when the Mitsubishi Motors Sailing Club of the Year trophy was brought home to the Crosshaven clubhouse. The award – which was announced in March at the Afloat Sailor of the Year awards in Dublin – was presented to members at a clubhouse party where already early season RCYC achievement from 2015, such as Anthony O'Leary's double success on the Solent, was also toasted.

Afloat's WM Nixon in handing over the Ship's wheel trophy, in a competition that is now 36–years–old, commended Royal Cork organisers of the well-established and highly regarded Volvo Cork Week international racing event, on its adaptation of entry costs and time commitment to make the event more accessible. While the Women's World Match Racing event demonstrated excellent organisation and show cased Ireland and Cork harbour as a desirable World class sailing event destination.

Their members also tasted glory at junior and youth levels with Séafra Guilfoyle's silver medal at the ISAF Youth Worlds in Portugal as one of the standout performances of Irish sailors in 2014. At grass roots RCYC started their ISA Women on the Water Ireland with an entire week of taster sessions in different types of boats at different times of the day, to give local ladies a chance to give a try, then followed up with dedicated coaching for adults to work on their sailing skills.

Their commitment to quality and high standards is second to none and they have a special dedication to fulfilling the needs of their members from organising extra coaching for the keen young members to skippers information nights for the cruising sailors.

There were four nominations for Club of Year and it was a close call between them as each has proven to provide incredible support to Irish sailing in 2014, other nominees were Royal Irish Yacht Club, Baltimore Sailing Club and Galway Bay Sailing Club.

More on this in tomorrow's WM Nixon Sailing on Saturday Blog