Royal Cork Yacht Club’s Anthony O’Leary’s Bronze Medal in the 20-team New York YC International Invitational at Newport, RI in September is an astonishing achievement when we remember that many of the other top-level Corinthian crews had been practising in the new Mark Mills-designed Melges IC 37s throughout the summer. Yet O’Leary and his Crosshaven squad stepped aboard as strangers to the boat with only a few days to go to the start of a very intense series.
However, his legendary speed abilities with the Cork 1720 Sportsboats under asymmetrics proved to be a great strength, but by the time the series concluded he was steadily climbing the ranks with high-level performance across the board, and the Royal Cork YC’s third overall snatched from the final race was testament to skipper and crew alike.
Anthony O’Leary (third from left) with his New York bronze medalist crew – skills he first acquired with Cork 1720 Sportsboats transferred well to the new Irish-designed Melges IRC 37

















































