Peter Webster's Hustler 25 'Thistle' was first home in last night's White Sail Division of Royal Cork's Union Chandlery June league.

Cork Harbour racing last night started an hour after low water. Winds were north–westerly averaging 12 knots with a few surprise gusts.

The fleet was somewhat depleted for the  June League, because a number of the boats were competing in Kinsale for the Sovereign's Cup.

In Class three first place went to John and Fiona Murphy's Impala 28 'Fast Buck', in Class 2 it was Kieran and Liz O'Brien's MG335
'Magnet' and in Class 1 it was Mary O'Keefe's X332 'Tux'.

 

 

The 14,620 dwt US-based training-ship Empire State made a return call to the Port of Cork last night for a four-day stay, writes Jehan Ashmore.

At over 172m long the cruiser-sterned vessel with a port of registry of New York, moored at the Cobh Cruise Terminal which was recently visited by another US training ship, State of Maine (click HERE).

The veteran vessel now in her sixth decade of service and is the also the sixth training-ship to carry the name 'Empire State' for the State University of New York (SUNY) Maritime College.

Empire State was laid down as SS Oregon at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, Newport News, Virginia. She was launched in 1961 for the States Steamship Company and delivered a year later for service in the Pacific trades. For further information about the vessel's interim career before she was converted for her current role click HERE.

Despite her conversion she still presents a distinctive profile with the superstructure positioned amidships between the cargo-holds.

Prior to the Empire State's arrival the French cruiseship Le Diamant departed Cobh for an overnight passage to Dublin, where last year the Empire State made a port of call.

The next cruise-caller to Cobh is the 296-passenger Silver Cloud which is scheduled to dock on Monday evening.

'Once you have buy-in from the local community you are more than half-way along the way' was the summing up of one of the key themes of the Cork Harbour Summer School by Capt. Pat Farnan, Harbour Master and Deputy CEO, Port of Cork. The example of Aghada was cited where the local Save Aghada Pier group raised awareness and funds locally in a two-year campaign to upgrade their underused and deteriorating pier. Their efforts led to the Port of Cork and Cork County Council co-operating with them in a €350,000 upgrade of their pier which will see it developed this season as a new destination for visiting boats in the lower harbour.

Minister for the Marine Simon Coveney, in his address to the participants, emphasised the importance of the maritime sector and his determination to oversee a major growth in added value for the fishing industry.

The very successful Summer School on Friday 10th June on the theme 'Recreation in a Working Port'  saw 8 speakers address an audience of 60+ representatives from a wide range of interests on topics ranging from the history and heritage of the harbour, its potential for  recreation and its presence in art an imagination . Key speakers included Louis Duffy of Cork County Council, who presented the Council's hot off the press Cork Harbour Study, Arend Lambrechtsen from the Netherlands, Jim Murphy of the Passage West & Monkstown Harbour Users' Group, Clare Wright of CAAN, who outlined the exemplary programme for development of canoe trails in Northern Ireland, Josephine O'Driscoll of Failte Ireland and Ryan Howard of SECAD, the Leader group which covers the harbour area. Session chairmen were Cathal O'Mahony of UCC's Coastal and Marine Research Centre (CMRC), who set Cork Harbour in its place in the world, Cork City Council's Damien O'Mahony and Tom MacSweeney who led the question and answer session. The event concluded with Seamus Harrington reading his poem Blind Harbour.

Pádraig Ó Duinnín outlined the journey undertaken by Meitheal Mara in arriving at the promotion of their first Summer School. The event was organised by Marina Sheehan of Meitheal Mara in the splendid boardroom of the Port of Cork overlooking their new city-centre marina.

Day Two of the ICRA National Championships: Today there were faces scorched by the sun and wind, the sun shone and the wind kept blowing, the showers came and went, and the wind kept blowing writes Claire Bateman. DAY TWO ICRA PHOTOS HERE.

Classes Zero, One and Two sailed off the Harp Mark under Race Officer Richard Leonard. Classes Three, Four and Whitesail sailed at the mouth of the harbour where they enjoyed slightly flatter water than the other fleets. Speaking with Denis Kiely the handicapping guru he said conditions could only be described as heavy with North Westerly winds steady at 20 knots and gusting to 30 knots although Cian Gallagher from Ruthless, Conor Ronan's Corby 26 in Division 2, described how they were registering gusts of 37 knots.

Inevitably some damage was to result the two casualties were Denis Hewitt's Raptor who lost her mast on the second run of the second race without any apparent cause and David Scott's EOS that limped home without any visible signs of a boom as it had been damaged at the gooseneck. Fortunately, as Fintan Cairns said of Raptor's mast loss there were no injuries and that was what mattered.

In Class Three Quarter Ton the ding dong battle continues. In the second race today the Kenefick/O'Brien Tiger finished three seconds ahead of Eamonn Rohan's Anchor Challenge with Jamie McDowell's Blackfun following in third and leaving the scoring at the top with overall points of 5 and two 14s. Ian Travers helming Anchor Challenge described how in the first race of the day a squall hit them rounding the weather mark resulting in a Chinese gybe and they knew the game was over for that race. Here may I take the opportunity to be devil's advocate and say it will be interesting to see how much local knowledge is involved in this battle between Tiger and Anchor Challenge when the two meet again during the Sovereign's Cup at Kinsale next week.

In the Non Spinnaker class Billy Duane described the sailing as fantastic but John Downing in Samba's two bullets had turned things around a bit today. Racing is incredibly close in this class with Conor O'Donovan's Xtension leading on 5 points followed by Samba, the wily Clive Doherty's Phaeton, and Tom MacNeice's Minx 111 with Billy Duane's Expression on 9 points. It was fascinating to watch the O'Donovan crew studying the results and working out every possible computation that could result tomorrow.

It was good to meet John Twomey again sailing Shilleagh in Class Three. He was bringing me up to speed on his preparations for the IFDS Worlds in Weymouth next week and this event is also a qualifier for the 2012 paralympics. The heavy conditions were taking their toll as he was sailing short handed on the rail due to the unavoidable absence of one of the crew members. His crew members are Ian Costelloe and Anthony all of KYC. They are using the ICRA Championships and the Sovereign's Cup as work ups for Weymouth and we all wish them the very best of luck.. Last time round in 2008 there were seven spots available for the Paralympic Team and they just missed out by coming eighth so here's hoping they make it this time round.

Racing continues tomorrow when the competition will intensify even more.

Reports of gear damage, high winds and big seas. It wouldn't be Cork sailing without it!  Bob Bateman's pics from today's ICRA Nationals in Cork Harbour are here.

Anthony O'Leary's Ker 39 has got off to the perfect start in today's ICRA National Championships taking a double win in the top class of the 65-boat event at Crosshaven. Second to Antix is the Corby 37, Impetuous skippered by Richard Fildes. Third is Conor Phelan's Jump Juice, another Ker design from the host club, Royal Cork.

Winds from the North West freshened during the day.

Full IRC results and photos below.

The 17-boat  IRC class one division is lead by J109s with Pat Kelly's Howth entry Storm leading local sistership Jelly Baby (Ian Nagle) by four points after two races. Third is Dublin Bay's Aztec III, an A35 design sailed by Peter Beamish of the Royal Irish Yacht Club.

In class two, West coast champion Disaray, a Dehler 34 from Foynes Yacht Club and skippered by Simon McGibney has worked out a one point advantage over Brian Goggin's Allure, a Corby 25 from Kinsale. Full IRC results below:

IRC ZERO

Series Place	Sail No	E	Boat	Type of Boat	Owner	Club	Handicap	Series Points	Race 1	Race 2
1	IRL3939	E	Antix	Ker 39	Anthony O'Leary	RCYC	1.129	2	1	1
2	GBR7737R		Impetuous	Corby 37	Richard Fildes	SCYC	1.091	5	2	3
3	IRL2007	E	Jump Juice	Ker	Conor Phelan	RCYC	1.105	7	5	2
4	IRL2003	E	Gloves Off	Corby 38	Kieran Twomey	RCYC	1.115	8	3	5
5	IRL9852	E	Crazy Horse	Mills 36	Chambers/Reilly	HYC	1.085	8	4	4
6	IRL1281	E	Aquelina/W	J122	James & Sheila Tyrrell	Arklow SC	1.083	18	9	9
6	IRL7111		WoW/W	J111	George Sisk	RIYC/RCYC		18	9	9
6	IRL36000		Roxy 6/W	Corby 36	Robert Davies	RCYC		18	9	9

IRC ONE

Series Place	Sail No	E	Boat	Type of Boat	Owner	Club	Handicap	Series Points	Race 1	Race 2
1	IRL1141	E	Storm	J109	Pat Kelly	RSC/HYC	1.019	3	1	2
2	IRL9609	E	Jelly Baby	J109	Ian Nagle & Paul O'Malley	RCYC	1.029	7	2	5
3	IRL29832	E	Aztec	A35	Peter Beamish	RIYC	1.034	8	7	1
4	IRL13500	E	D-tox	X-35	Donal O'Leary	RCYC	1.048	8	5	3
5	IRL811	E	Raptor	MILLS 30CR	Denis Hewitt	RIYC	1.025	8	4	4
6	IRL17200	E	Antix Beag	1720 (modified)	Robert O'Leary	RCYC	1.005	11	3	8
7	IRL6695	E	Eos	X362 Sport	David Scott	KYC	1.022	18	6	12
8	IRL3709	E	Axiom	X37	Michael O'Neill	RIYC	1.035	19	13	6
9	IRL6021	E	Ellida	X332	Ria Lyden	RCYC	0.986	19	10	9
10	IRL8109	E	Jetstream	J109	Peter Redden	RIYC	1.028	20	9	11
11	IRL892	E	Tux	X332	Mary O'Keeffe	RCYC	0.981	21	11	10
12	IRL3323	E	Dexterity	X332	Alan McEneff (Team Foynes)	Foynes YC	0.984	24	12	12
13	IRL8991	E	Exhale	X362 Sport	Derry Good	RCYC	1.025	26	8	18
14	IRL7290	E	Felix	X332	Michael & Gretta Wallace	RCYC	0.981	27	14	13
15	IRL2382	E	Xerxes/W	IMX38	LD O'Neill	RIYC	1.046	36	18	18
15	IRL3307	E	Rockabill IV/W	Corby33	Paul O'Higgins	RIYC/NYC	1.044	36	18	18
15	IRL9834	E	True Pennance	Projection 35	Colman Garvey/Martin Darrer	RCYC	1.022	36	18	18

IRC TWO

Series Place	Sail No	E	Boat	Type of Boat	Owner	Club	Handicap	Series Points	Race 1	Race 2
1	IRL487	E	Disaray	Dehler 34 Optima 101	Raymond McGibney	Foynes YC	0.929	5	3	2
2	IRL2506	E	Allure	Corby 25	Brian Goggin	Kinsale YC	0.936	6	2	4
3	GBR7525R	E	Thundebird	Corby 25	Denis Coleman	RCYC	0.941	7	4	3
4	IRL16859	E	Bad Company	Sunfast 32	Desmond / Ivers / Deasy	RCYC	0.939	8	7	1
5	IRL2525	E	Yanks $ ffrancs	Corby 25	Vincent O'Shea	RCYC	0.936	8	1	7
6	IRL7495	E	Maximus	X302	Paddy Kyne	HYC/WHSC	0.930	13	8	5
7	IRL26026	E	Ruthless	Corby 26	Conor Ronan	Sligo YC	0.953	15	6	9
8	GBR9896	E	Magnet	MG335	Kieran & Liz O'Brien	RCYC	0.944	16	5	11
9	IRL2010	E	Alpaca	First 31.7	Paul & Deirdre Tingle	RCYC	0.957	19	11	8
10	IRL9732	E	Wicked	Sunfast 32	Mark Mendel	RCYC	0.940	19	9	10
11	IRL3492	E	Big Deal	Dehler	Derek Dillon	Foynes YC	0.925	22	10	12
12	IRL1022	E	Aramis	Contessa 33	Pat Vaughan	RCYC	0.929	25	12	13
13	IRL4170	E	Slack Alice	GK Westerley	Shane Statham	WHSC	0.951	26	20	6
14	IRL6676	E	Y-Knot	First 32s5	Barrett/Conlon	RCYC	0.933	33	13	20
15	IRL222		Zoom/W	Dehler DB1	Nicola & Stuart Harris	WHSC		40	20	20
15	IRL1649	E	Caesium	Beneteau 31.7	Shaun & Kathy Doran	Ballyholme YC	0.951	40	20	20
15	IRL1972	E	No Excuse/W	X302	Ted Crosbie	RCYC	0.931	40	20	20
15	IRL2706	E	Kodachi	Corby 27	Denis Ellis	Cove SC	0.959	40	20	20
15	IRL8094	E	King One/W	Half Tonner	Dave Cullen	Howth YC	0.951	40	20	20

IRC THREE

Series Place	Sail No	E	Boat	Type of Boat	Owner	Club	Handicap	Series Points	Race 1	Race 2	Race 3
1	IRL999999	E	Tiger	Quarter ton	Neil& george Kenefick/James O brien	RCYC	0.902	3	1	1	1
2	IRL3087	E	Anchor Challenge	Quarter ton	Eamonn Rohan	KYC	0.912	8	3	2	3
3	NZL3311	E	Blackfun	Quarter Ton	Jamie McDowell	Royal Port Nicholson YC	0.908	9	2	3	4
4	IRL1771	E	Shillelagh	Blazer 23 (Kirby)	John Twomey	KYC	0.868	13	4	7	2
5	IRL9600	E	Impacunious	Hunter Impala	Edward Rice	RCYC	0.888	16	6	5	5
6	GRB1479R		Flashheart	Quarter Ton	Mike Webb & Tom Bailey	King Queen YC	0.893	18	5	6	7
7	IRL78	E	No-Gnomes	Nicholson 33Mod	Leonard Donnery	RCYC	0.910	20	7	4	9
8	IRL9538	E	Running Wild	Hunter Impala OOD	Sullivan Brothers	RCYC	0.890	25	11	8	6
9	IRL9564	E	Whyte Knight	Impala OOD	Fergus Coughlan	Cove SC	0.890	26	9	9	8
10	IRL4794	E	Junebug	J24	Sarah Hyde/Annette Foley	RCYC	0.889	28	8	10	10
11	IRL9591	E	Prometheus	Impala OOD	Paul Murray	RCYC	0.888	33	10	12	11
12	IRL9577	E	Bedlam	Impala	David Doyle	Cove Sailing Club	0.890	39	12	11	16
13	I8709		Cri-Cri/W	Jezequel 116	Paul Colton	RIYC	0.905	48	16	16	16
13	IRL400	E	Jaguar/W	J24	Gary Fort	Tralee Bay SC	0.889	48	16	16	16
13	IRL4206	E	Powder Monkey/W	Sigma 33	Liam Lynch	Tralee Bay SC	0.909	48	16	16	16

IRC FOUR

Series Place	Sail No	E	Boat	Type of Boat	Owner	Club	Handicap	Series Points	Race 1	Race 2	Race 3
1	GBR9625R	E	Sundancer	Dynamo 25	Alan Mulcahy	KYC	0.841	4	2	1	1
2	172	E	Granny Knot	Westerley GK24	Michael Sexton	KYC	0.830	5	1	2	2
3	IRL7156	E	Gaelic Kiwi	GK 24FR	Kevin O'Connor	Cove SC	0.854	12	4	4	4

ECHO and White Sail results to follow

Classes Zero, One and Two have completed one race in the first day's racing of the ICRA National Championships in Crosshaven writes Claire Bateman. The White Sails division have also completed one race. Classes three and four were completing their second race at lunch time. In the Quarter Ton Class, at the first rounding of the gybe mark in race two, local boat Tiger was first around followed by Anchor Challenge and the New Zealand Black Fun. Wind strength was 5 knots N.W. (not the forecasted gale) and competitors were contending with a heavy swell. More later.

There were concentrated faces last night in Cork Harbour where the Royal Cork fleet had a windy evening of racing in the Union Chandlery June League.

Brian Heffernan's Dufour 365 Aisling was first in the in White Sail division. Class 3 went to Jimmy Nyhan and Maritta Buwalda in their Quarter Tonner Outrigger. Class 2 winners were Paul and Deirdre Tingle's First 31.7 "Alpaca" and in Class one the honours went to Robert O'Leary in his modified 1720 Antix Beag.

Concentration this morning now turns to the first race of the ICRA National Championships being held in Crosshaven.

The wind was southwesterly at about 20 knots gusting to 30. Race officers set an excellent course (No.70). It was a clean start at the top of the tide, with a beat to the cage.

Those that kept to the south made the right call. It was then a run to No.7 where we gybed and headed for No.13 Some were brave enough to carry spinnakers with some interesting results both good and not so good. A number of Irish Naval ships at anchor off Spike Island.

After No.13 the fleet had a fetch back to No.9 and then a beat back to Cage. With the tide now ebbing it paid to go down the middle. We rounded Cage once again with a run back to No.7 more spinnakers up this time. After rounding No.7 the fleet had a nice beat home.

Fastnet Line which runs the Cork-Swansea port route on the Celtic Sea, is assisting the charity MarineLife to monitor cetaceans, writes Jehan Ashmore.

The work of MarineLife is to survey the population trends and track the movements of dolphins, whales, porpoises and other wildlife. The research is undertaken onboard Fastnet Line's Julia (1981/21,699grt) and access to the ferry is provided free-of-charge to the wildlife-based charity.

During the months of July and August the ferry's schedule will allow for further opportunities to conduct daylight sightings of marine-life which is to be posted on MarineLife and Fastnet Line websites.

Adrian Shephard, Chairman of MarineLife Trustees, said: "The route from Swansea to Cork crosses a range of marine habitats and we hope it will generate many sightings of cetaceans and seabirds, including two important species we monitor, the white-beaked dolphin and the balearic shearwater".

In addition monitors recently observed fin whales, the second largest whale on the planet. Such sightings provide vital information and this will contribute to a better understanding of the distribution of cetaceans and other marine life in the Celtic Sea. To read more www.marine-life.org.uk

The first of four summertime surveys is to take place on 10 July. Overall the research by MarineLife is part of a larger project which also involves the use of other ferries operating in the Irish Sea and those serving on UK continental routes.

The 1,500 passenger / 325 car-carrying Julia sails year-round six times a week between September to June and from next month and during August the vessel will provide eight sailings per week. For fares and sailings schedules contact www.fastnetline.com

The Cork-berthed replica HMS Bounty, the purpose built movie prop tallship used in the 1962 MGM studies film release of 'Mutiny and the Bounty' starring Marlon Brando, will be open to visitors from tomorrow, writes Jehan Ashmore.

The famous tall ship is to open to the public between (11am-6pm) and these times also apply to the Saturday and Sunday. Tours on board the Bounty are self-guided with crew assistance. Admission charges are €10 for adults and children €5, children under four years go free.

The Bounty is berthed at Albert Quay which faces opposite the Cork City Marina on the south quays of the city-centre.

The public can explore her "tween" deck 8' foot ceilings, this made it easier for the film crew and their equipment to access.

As a result, Bounty has been hired by filmcrews for the making of 'Treasure Island', 'Yellowbeard', 'Sponge Bob, Square Pants, the Movie' and 'Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Man's Chest'. In addition to commercial movies, Bounty has also been the stage for many documentaries.

To compare the differences between the replica and the original 18th century built 'Bounty' click HERE.