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A Sigma 33 One Design keelboat racing on Dublin Bay Photo: AfloatA Sigma 33 One Design keelboat racing on Dublin Bay Photo: Afloat

Displaying items by tag: Cork Week

Anthony O'Leary's Antix crew scored a first and a second in the final two races, which gave the RCYC ace the inaugural title on his home waters. 

Six pocket-rocket Cape 31s designed by Wicklow’s Mark Mills, contested the first Cape 31 Irish nationals at Cork Week with teams from Cork, Dublin, Hamble, UK, and the Isle of Man in action.
 
The 2022 Cape 31 Irish National Champion is Royal Cork’s Anthony O’Leary’s racing Antix after scoring a 1-2 on the final day. Antix winning crew: Anthony O’Leary, Peter O’Leary, Ben Field, Rebecca Coles, Peter Greenhalgh, Mark Hassett, and Tommy Murphy. A thrilling battle for runner-up came from two teams from Howth YC. Dave McGuire’s Valkyrie won the last race to take second by a single point from Dan O'Grady’s Aja.

Anthony O'Leary's Antix crewAnthony O'Leary's Antix crew Photo: Rick Tomlinson 

“In 1997 we won the first 1720 National Championships, so in 2022 to win the first Cape 31 Nationals has a special ring to it!” commented Anthony O’Leary. “There is a very high level of competition in the Cape 31s, and it was great fun as well. Every day we go out, we are learning so much. This has been a light airs week and we still have loads to crack in the medium and heavy airs. It is very exciting to be on this learning ladder, and we are having a ball, the boats are spectacular!”

Cape 31 Adrenaline leads at a wing markCape 31 Adrenaline leads at a wing mark Photo: Rick Tomlinson

Published in Cork Week
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Classic yacht Erin did not compete in its class at Royal Cork Yacht Club's Cork Week Regatta on Friday, July 15th.

The classic yacht, owned by RCYC member Terry Birles, is subject to a temporary High Court order, arising out of an action launched this week by French actor and film director Daniel Boon.

The Irish Independent newspaper has more on the story here

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Two wins on Thursday for Cameron Good's Little Fella have given the team from Kinsale Yacht Club a five-point lead in the seven-boat Dragon Class at Cork Week.

After three days of light and complex racing, a sea breeze kicked in on Day Four to spice up the action on the penultimate day.

Peter Bowring's Phantom from the Royal St. George YC is second, just a point ahead of Daniel Murphy's Whisper from the Kinsale YC.

A number of protests are still to be heard so results are provisional.

Racing at Volvo Cork Week concludes on Friday on five race areas, in and outside Cork Harbour, organised by the Royal Cork Yacht Club.

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Cork Week Class IRC Two leader, John Maybury’s J/109 Joker 2 from the Royal Irish YC, scored a seventh in the first race of the day but came fighting back with a win and a second place to all but secure the class title with one more day of racing to come.

Pat Kelly’s J/109 Storm from Rush/Howth YC had a mixed day but came back from two fifth place results to win the last race to stay in second place for the series.

A tightly bunched section of Cork Week's IRC Two divisionA tightly bunched section of Cork Week's IRC Two division Photo: Mary Malone

Barry Cunningham’s J/109 Chimaera from the Royal Irish won the first race of the day and finished the day in third, just a point behind Storm.

Racing at Volvo Cork Week concludes tomorrow on five race areas, in and outside Cork Harbour, organised by the Royal Cork Yacht Club. 

A number of protests are still to be heard, so results are provisional

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By the finish, the number of contenders in the Cork Week Classics on Thursday could be counted on the fingers of one un-mutilated hand, as overall points leader Bilou-Belle, a Dick Carter Tina design from the late 1960s, dropped out in frustration to leave just four boats to make it to the finish line, with Patrick Dorgan in the hyper-vintage Cork Harbour One Design Elsie getting a popular win both on the water and in the CT stakes, while the honour of the Dick Carter contingent from France was maintained by Persephone (Y Lambert) taking second and third went to Terry Birles with Erin.

Patrick Dorgan in the hyper-vintage Cork Harbour One Design ElsiePatrick Dorgan in the hyper-vintage Cork Harbour One Design Elsie Photo: Mary Malone

That useful third, however, is enough to have Erin leading overall on a scoreline of 4,2,4,3 for the week so far.

Terry Birles with ErinTerry Birles with Erin Photo: Bob Bateman

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The big boat IRC Class has a new Cork Week leader, Team Knight Build racing J/112 Happy Daize from the RORC, scored three straight bullets today (Thursday) to shoot up the leaderboard to pole position.

Louise Makin & Chris Jones’ J/111 Journeymaker 11 from the Royal Southern YC drop to second for the series.

Journeymaker II Journeymaker II Photo: Bob Bateman

After three days of light and complex racing, a sea breeze kicked in on Day Four to spice up the action on the penultimate day

Jonathan Anderson’s J/122 El Gran Senor from the Clyde Cruising Club had a good day at the races, to claim third for the series.

Racing was tight in IRC One; El Gran Senor tied for second place in the last race of the day with Shaun Douglas’ Game Changer.

El Gran SenorEl Gran Senor Photo: Mary Malone

Racing at Cork Week concludes tomorrow on five race areas, in and outside Cork Harbour, organised by the Royal Cork Yacht Club. 

A number of protests are still to be heard, so results are provisional.

Published in Cork Week
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Sam Laidlaw’s Quarter Tonner BLT from the Royal Yacht Squadron made it six straight bullets in the first race on Thursday at Cork Week but came fifth in the second, proving that the team from Cowes is human!

BLT was back on track for the last race taking a seventh win and all but securing the class title. Marcus Ryan’s Irish youth team racing J/24 HeadCase moved up to second place having scored two podium race results today.

After three days of light and complex racing, a sea breeze kicked in on Day Four to spice up the action on the penultimate day

Marcus Ryan’s Irish youth team racing J/24 HeadCaseMarcus Ryan’s Irish youth team racing J/24 HeadCase Photo: Bob Bateman

Dorgan, Marshall & Losty’s Quarter Tonner Illegal from Cove Sailing Club, slips to third just two points behind HeadCase.

Quarter Tonner Illegal from Cove Sailing ClubQuarter Tonner Illegal from Cove Sailing Club Photo: Bob Bateman

A number of protests are still to be heard so results are provisional.

Published in Cork Week
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Were it not for Jamie McWilliam’s stratospherically-rated Ker 40 Signal 8 managing to pull a miracle performance out of a frustrating day (Thursday), the results in the 21-strong Cork Week Coastal IRC Class would have been almost a reverse listing of the ratings.

The overall win went to Liam Madden of Foynes YC who got round the course in 4 hours and 6 minutes with his 0.966-rated Dexterity, but corrected into 3 hrs 56mins 22secs to take the win. 

Robert Rendell's Grand Soleil 44 Samatom lies third overall in the Cork Week Coastal ClassRobert Rendell's Grand Soleil 44 Samatom lies third overall in the Cork Week Coastal Class Photo: Bob Bateman

Line honours winner by quite a way on 3hrs 14mins 50secs was Signal 8, and with that correcting to 4:01:59 she was still in the hunt at 5th on CT. But among those ahead of her but previously not up in the spotlight were Dennis O’Sullivan’s Aris from Bantry Bay SC (3rd on CT and rating 0.976), and Peter Hopps & Hilary Cooks’ Sam from London Corinthian SC, rating 0.976 and placing second to Dexterity.

Overall, Signal 8 is now showing ahead on 13 to the 15 of Peter Dunlop’s J/109 Mojito from Pwllheli which has to carry a 6th from today, while Robert Rendell’s Grand Soleil 44 Samatom from Howth slipped back to 8th today, but still lies 3rd overall on 24 accumulated points.

With a number of protests still to be heard, results are provisional. 

Published in Cork Week
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Following its 120 nautical miles Fastnet Race on Monday, the Beaufort Cup fleet for the inter-services sailing competition started their inshore Cork Week racing on Wednesday inside Cork Harbour.

The Crosshaven RNLI team racing Grand Soleil 40 Nieulargo, owned by Annamarie Fagen and Denis Murphy, won today’s race by over four minutes after IRC time correction.

The Royal Navy Team racing J/109 Jolly Jack Tar, skippered by David Warwick was second. Third was the Defence Forces Ireland team skippered by Tom Roche racing Solona 45 Meridian.

Published in Cork Week
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Irish champion Dragon Phantom skippered by Royal St. George's Peter Bowring leads after the first day of racing for Dragons at Volvo Cork Week Regatta.

Dun Laoghaire's Bowring counts a 2,1 in the seven-boat fleet to lead from Kinsale YC's Cameron Good in Little Fella one point behind on four.

The three-man class joined the action on the third day (Wednesday) of Volvo Cork Week and was blessed with sunshine and 8-10 knots of breeze from the north.

The Cape 31 Class and Dragons had windward-leeward races off Roches Point.

Racing at Cork Week continues tomorrow with the penultimate day of racing for the regatta. Five race areas, in and outside Cork Harbour, will be organised by the Royal Cork Yacht Club.

 

Published in Cork Week
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How to sail, sailing clubs and sailing boats plus news on the wide range of sailing events on Irish waters forms the backbone of Afloat's sailing coverage.

We aim to encompass the widest range of activities undertaken on Irish lakes, rivers and coastal waters. This page describes those sailing activites in more detail and provides links and breakdowns of what you can expect from our sailing pages. We aim to bring jargon free reports separated in to popular categories to promote the sport of sailing in Ireland.

The packed 2013 sailing season sees the usual regular summer leagues and there are regular weekly race reports from Dublin Bay Sailing Club, Howth and Cork Harbour on Afloat.ie. This season and last also featured an array of top class events coming to these shores. Each year there is ICRA's Cruiser Nationals starts and every other year the Round Ireland Yacht Race starts and ends in Wicklow and all this action before July. Crosshaven's Cork Week kicks off on in early July every other year. in 2012 Ireland hosted some big international events too,  the ISAF Youth Worlds in Dun Laoghaire and in August the Tall Ships Race sailed into Dublin on its final leg. In that year the Dragon Gold Cup set sail in Kinsale in too.

2013 is also packed with Kinsale hosting the IFDS diabled world sailing championships in Kinsale and the same port is also hosting the Sovereign's Cup. The action moves to the east coast in July with the staging of the country's biggest regatta, the Volvo Dun Laoghaire regatta from July 11.

Our coverage though is not restricted to the Republic of Ireland but encompasses Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the Irish Sea area too. In this section you'll find information on the Irish Sailing Association and Irish sailors. There's sailing reports on regattas, racing, training, cruising, dinghies and keelboat classes, windsurfers, disabled sailing, sailing cruisers, Olympic sailing and Tall Ships sections plus youth sailing, match racing and team racing coverage too.

Sailing Club News

There is a network of over 70 sailing clubs in Ireland and we invite all clubs to submit details of their activities for inclusion in our daily website updates. There are dedicated sections given over to the big Irish clubs such as  the waterfront clubs in Dun Laoghaire; Dublin Bay Sailing Club, the Royal Saint George Yacht Club,  the Royal Irish Yacht Club and the National Yacht Club. In Munster we regularly feature the work of Kinsale Yacht Club and Royal Cork Yacht Club in Crosshaven.  Abroad Irish sailors compete in Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) racing in the UK and this club is covered too. Click here for Afloat's full list of sailing club information. We are keen to increase our coverage on the network of clubs from around the coast so if you would like to send us news and views of a local interest please let us have it by sending an email to [email protected]

Sailing Boats and Classes

Over 20 active dinghy and one design classes race in Irish waters and fleet sizes range from just a dozen or so right up to over 100 boats in the case of some of the biggest classes such as the Laser or Optimist dinghies for national and regional championships. Afloat has dedicated pages for each class: Dragons, Etchells, Fireball, Flying Fifteen, GP14, J24's, J80's, Laser, Sigma 33, RS Sailing, Star, Squibs, TopperMirror, Mermaids, National 18, Optimist, Puppeteers, SB3's, and Wayfarers. For more resources on Irish classes go to our dedicated sailing classes page.

The big boat scene represents up to 60% of the sail boat racing in these waters and Afloat carries updates from the Irish Cruiser Racer Association (ICRA), the body responsible for administering cruiser racing in Ireland and the popular annual ICRA National Championships. In 2010 an Irish team won the RORC Commodore's Cup putting Irish cruiser racing at an all time high. Popular cruiser fleets in Ireland are raced right around the coast but naturally the biggest fleets are in the biggest sailing centres in Cork Harbour and Dublin Bay. Cruisers race from a modest 20 feet or so right up to 50'. Racing is typically divided in to Cruisers Zero, Cruisers One, Cruisers Two, Cruisers Three and Cruisers Four. A current trend over the past few seasons has been the introduction of a White Sail division that is attracting big fleets.

Traditionally sailing in northern Europe and Ireland used to occur only in some months but now thanks to the advent of a network of marinas around the coast (and some would say milder winters) there are a number of popular winter leagues running right over the Christmas and winter periods.

Sailing Events

Punching well above its weight Irish sailing has staged some of the world's top events including the Volvo Ocean Race Galway Stopover, Tall Ships visits as well as dozens of class world and European Championships including the Laser Worlds, the Fireball Worlds in both Dun Laoghaire and Sligo.

Some of these events are no longer pure sailing regattas and have become major public maritime festivals some are the biggest of all public staged events. In the past few seasons Ireland has hosted events such as La Solitaire du Figaro and the ISAF Dublin Bay 2012 Youth Worlds.

There is a lively domestic racing scene for both inshore and offshore sailing. A national sailing calendar of summer fixtures is published annually and it includes old favorites such as Sovereign's Cup, Calves Week, Dun Laoghaire to Dingle, All Ireland Sailing Championships as well as new events with international appeal such as the Round Britain and Ireland Race and the Clipper Round the World Race, both of which have visited Ireland.

The bulk of the work on running events though is carried out by the network of sailing clubs around the coast and this is mostly a voluntary effort by people committed to the sport of sailing. For example Wicklow Sailing Club's Round Ireland yacht race run in association with the Royal Ocean Racing Club has been operating for over 30 years. Similarly the international Cork Week regatta has attracted over 500 boats in past editions and has also been running for over 30 years.  In recent years Dublin Bay has revived its own regatta called Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta and can claim to be the country's biggest event with over 550 boats entered in 2009.

On the international stage Afloat carries news of Irish and UK interest on Olympics 2012, Sydney to Hobart, Volvo Ocean Race, Cowes Week and the Fastnet Race.

We're always aiming to build on our sailing content. We're keen to build on areas such as online guides on learning to sail in Irish sailing schools, navigation and sailing holidays. If you have ideas for our pages we'd love to hear from you. Please email us at [email protected]