SAILING: Cork Week is the setting for a battle of the 'rocketships' - the fastest yachts ever built. David O'Brien sets the scene for today's regatta and talks to the owner of 'Pyewacket', Roy Disney.
If sailing faster than the wind sounds like something out of a Disney fantasy, then that's because it once was. And now, as Roy Disney - the 73-year-old nephew of the legendary Walt - prepares to hit the water in Cork today, that fantasy has become reality for the first time in Europe.
Disney has temporarily left boardroom battles behind him to pitch his stunning yacht against the competition around Cork harbour. His 86-foot, space-age boat, Pyewacket, was fast-tracked across the Atlantic on top of a cargo ship directly from Bermuda to be here in time for the first race of Cork Week, the annual Irish regatta with a global reputation for fun and great racing, and one which Disney claims he wouldn't miss for the world.
Depending on how you look at it, the international regatta circuit that has taken him to St Maarten, Tortola, Antigua and Bermuda this year is either a logistical nightmare or a gorgeous extravagance. Whichever it is - and Disney reckons it's a bit of both - it's an infatuation that keeps him burning with enthusiasm. For 50 years he has pursued ever-faster boats and technical excellence.
This year he has come in for international acclaim, not for his company's film work, but in yachting circles, for bringing racing to a new level by creating the Maxi big Z86, a yacht that's capable of sailing faster than the speed of the wind.
Already nicknamed "the rocketship" by jealous competitors, Pyewacket is one of two such designs built to demolish the world's sailing speed records for monohull boats.
And if they're untouchable when it comes to straight-line racing, the new designs are proving equally superior in around-the-buoys events, too. At Antigua Race Week this spring, they left their competition behind in showers of spray and they threaten to repeat that feat at Cork today.
The secret to the success of these high-tech speedsters is a weight-saving, super-strong, carbon fibre construction and radical underwater keel designs.
"Sailing in just 3.5 knots of true wind, we were slipping effortlessly through the water at almost three times that speed during the race to Bermuda. There are not many times when we can't sail faster than the wind," Disney says. "If we get winds of 15 knots, we can sail at 20 knots easily thanks to this design."
All these things come at a price but no one is forthcoming - not even the two billionaire owners - on the total development costs thus far. Ted Heath once said that sailing was like standing in the shower tearing up £5 notes. It's an oft-used quotation but it still draws a giggle from Disney, who adds: "Yeah ... and most of the time it's in the dark too!" According to insiders, sailing campaigns at this cutting-edge level cost up to $5 million a year to run - excluding the capital cost of the boat.
"It's like that saying: 'If you have to ask how much it costs, you can't afford it.' And I can afford it," says Disney. He readily admits that some people ask him if he's mad, to which he replies: "We're all crazy, so why not have some fun? When it stops being fun, then that will be my last race."
Disney reckons that he's now sailing at a level where he can't afford to do it badly. "I need skilled people to crew this yacht," he explains. "When you sail at 27 knots, the loads involved are huge. I need to sign on the bottom line to have it sailed professionally. Otherwise people could get hurt or lost overboard."
Today's race follows Disney's defeat by Hasso Plattner's Morning Glory, Pyewacket's sister ship, in a race from Newport, Rhode Island to Bermuda in the last week of June. Plattner, the CEO of Germany's SAP software empire, took a 30-mile lead on Disney in a race the Hollywood giant previously called his own, and smashed the elapsed time record held by Disney since 2001.
Cork Week therefore represents the first opportunity to avenge this defeat. The host yacht club,Royal Cork, is trying its best to facilitate a pitched battle between the two space-age craft, designing courses that are sure to set the two pitching against one another until the finish line.
"They could have chosen Cowes or Sardinia to unveil this next generation of racing yacht but they didn't," says Donal McClement of the Royal Cork. "They chose Cork and that's a big honour for us." McClement has sailed with Disney in previous Cork Weeks and will sail again as a local tactician this time.
The fact that the world's big guns are coming to Cork is, of course, a compliment to the organisers of the Crosshaven event, but in Disney's case it also has something to do with the fact that he's a member at Royal Cork, and a patron of its junior sailors. He has had a second home in Ireland - in Kilbrittain in west Cork - for the past 15 years, where he spends up to three months of the year with his wife, Patty.
Cork Week is not all about rubbing shoulders with serious money but, having that said, there will be more millionaires on the banks of the Currabinny River between July 10th and 16th than sails in the harbour. Crosshaven will teem with sailors and supporters for a festival of sailing that's more like the Galway Races on water than a regular sailing regatta.
And that's the reason it has become so popular with foreigners, attracting 60-70 per cent of its competitors from overseas. But there's more to the imbalance of locals and visitors than meets the eye. Crosshaven is becoming an expensive place to visit in July, when accommodation is the biggest cost for visiting crews. This has taken the shine off some of the attraction for Irish crews, who resent the four-fold hike in accommodation costs for that week.
Forking out in excess of €3,500 for a nearby house to sleep six to eight for the six nights is more than some can bear. As a result, Irish crews are moving away from the Crosshaven area entirely and going as far a field as Kinsale in search of more reasonably priced digs.
Pyewacket and Morning Glory are two of the most glamorous boats, but the entry list has 499 others, the bulk of which are from the UK. Up to 7,000 competitors will take to the water each morning, bringing an estimated €10 million into the local economy. That may be small beer to the likes of Roy Disney but in sporting terms it's like having the commercial return of an international rugby fixture in an otherwise sleepy fishing village.
Seven bars, three restaurants, 50 bands and 400 performers will be there to entertain competitors from the US, Hong Kong, Australia, France, Germany and Belgium, along with a huge representation from Britain.
On the water, the fleets are split over eight different courses, according to size of boat. Sailors are categorised too, and part of the charm of the race week is that the majority of racing classes prohibit sailing professionals as crew.
Neither Roy's father nor uncle Walt were sailors, yet they always encouraged his sporting passion for diving and swimming as a teenager.
If it sounds somewhat corny to describe Roy's sailing career as a "race into paradise", it's still an accurate description of the movie-maker's 50-year journey from weekend family sailor of the 1950s to globe-trotting regatta racer of the new century.
In the immediate aftermath of the second World War, aged just 16, he flew a prototype aircraft. It was the unrestrained joy of playing tag in the clouds with like-minded Californian surfer kids that gave him a life-long love of freedom and speed, he says. It's more than likely, he concludes, that this translated into a love of the sea, a passion he has been able to share with his wife and four young children on weekend trips.
As his business pressures have increased over the years, the Disney director, listed by Forbes as the 552nd richest man in the world, finds it increasingly difficult to make a complete break from the office. The introduction of the on-board satellite phone has not helped matters.On more than one occasion during Pacific yacht races he has been interrupted - 1,000 miles from land - by the Disney corporation which wants him back for a meeting. "Sorry, you can't have me, I'm half way to Honolulu," he recalls telling executives who were insisting on his return recently.
Roy Disney worked at Mouse Factory for 24 years as a film editor, writer and producer. He left in 1977 but returned seven years later as vice chairman. Credited with rekindling Disney's production of animated films - scoring huge successes with The Lion King and Little Mermaid - he became chairman of the feature animation division.
However, it's not because of his yachting exploits that Disney's profile has risen so dramatically in the past year. He is better known for his bitter and very public battle with Disney chairman and CEO Michael Eisner. On November 30th last year, he resigned from the company, denouncing Eisner for (among other things) the loss of company morale through micro-management, building newer theme parks "on the cheap", and changing the company's public image by "always looking for the quick buck".
Eisner was stripped of his role as chairman by the Disney board in March - and replaced by Northern Ireland peace negotiator George Mitchell - but survived as CEO. It was a half-victory for Roy Disney, and he has vowed to continue the fight. "I'm competitive off the water too, you know," he says.
Sailing provides the breaks he needs from the bruising and protracted battle for the right to control Disney's future, he says.
"Pretty soon you'll be able to read about my success over Eisner," he says, "but in the meantime you might like to have a look at www.savedisney.com." The comment may look innocent enough, but the tone in which it is delivered provides an insight into his gritty determination, both on and off the water.
"The guy who is running the company for us for the past 20 years is trying to get me out and I'm not taking that lying down," he vows.
This week, however, the corporate battle stops for Roy Disney. Satellite phone or no, he'll need to have all hands on deck to fight off the challenge from Morning Glory. If you want to see the technological marvels at first hand, before the circus moves on to Sardinia, head down to Roche's Point and look out over Cork harbour to see an American billionaire sailing faster than the wind. For once in his life, Disney won't be steering a Mickey Mouse operation.
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HOW THE ROCKETSHIPS WORK
Sailing fast is all about converting the wind's energy into boat speed, and these big ocean racers generate more horsepower and speed for their size than any single-hull craft. When the wind blows over 20 knots they leave pursuing powerboats wallowing in their wake. Photographers have to resort to helicopters.
The secret to the success of these high-tech speedsters is their weight-saving, super-strong, carbon fibre construction and their radical underwater design. Gone are the keel and rudder combinations of conventional sailboats where the shape and weight of the keel counteracts the heeling effect of the wind and helps prevent the boat making leeway (slipping sideways).
In place of the keel is a slender strut with a nine-ton ballast bulb at its tip. Swung out (canted) sideways under the boat by a hydraulic ram, the bulb provides extra stability, standing the boat up straighter and making the sails more efficient. The twin rudders, one ahead of the strut and one behind it, perform a double duty. They provide the foil shape and area to minimise leeway while also improving manoeuvrability. Tacking calls for no more than the touch of a button to swing the keel into a new direction.
Roy Disney and Hasso Plattner were fellow competitors in a previous class of lightweight 75-foot ocean racers, and worked together to create the new class.
"To have a bunch of boats where we can go out and actually have boat races instead of designer races seems to me to be a really good idea," Disney said. "That's what I hope for with this project - that it will attract people who want to go racing on the same terms. Not that we all don't like to go a little bit faster than the next guy, but it's a lot more fun when it's a boat race."
10 IRISH MOVERS AND SHAKERS AT CORK WEEK
Eamon Crosbie The Irish class zero champion, Crosbie, from Dún Laoghaire's National Yacht Club, has a growing reputation as a giant killer, after winning last month's BMW Round Ireland race in the second-smallest boat in the fleet. His 32-footer Voodoo Chile, renamed Calyx Voice and Data after a €40,000 sponsorship tie-up, is in Cork looking for more scalps.
Colm Barrington He will be helming the latest in a line of boats that use Glove in their name. Flying Glove follows Gloves Off and Velvet Glove. His 39-footer is Ireland's middle boat in the Commodore's Cup squad, a three-boat team that Barrington, from the Royal Irish YC, will captain.
Mark Mansfield Before Mansfield makes his fourth Olympic appearance in Athens next month in the Star class, he will be showing Hasso Plattner around Cork harbour as a member of the German businessman's tactical afterguard on the Maxi Z86 Morning Glory. The EBS manager is ranked third in the world in the build-up to the games and will sail with clubmate Killian Collins in Athens. Weighing nearly 100 kilos each, they are the heavyweights of the Olympic sailing team.
Anthony O'Leary A former Royal Cork Admiral, O'Leary was this year's winner of the Scottish series sailing his 35-footer Antix, and has been responsible for a revamp of the week's sailing instruction, the rules under which racing for the 500 boats in 18 classes is run. He is also entered in the "1720 sports boat", a class hosting its national championships as part of Cork Week.
Donal McClement One-time Cork Week race director McClement may no longer be running racing, but he is far from sitting shore side. Instead, the yacht broker is acting as navigator for his friend Roy Disney on Pyewacket. Often outspoken, his can-do attitude and passion for Cork sailing has earned him the nickname in yachting circles as the "mouth of the south".
Tim Goodbody Goodbody travels from Dublin to compete in Cork as the only Irishman defending a European title. He won in the home waters of Dún Laoghaire in 2003 and defends his 33-footer crown, together with a five-man crew, when the Sigma class returns to Irish waters this week.
John Twomey Former Kinsale YC Commodore and Athens paralympian John Twomey will use Cork Week as an important try-out of his brand new paralympic games boat, Cool Runnings Too. Accountant Twomey competes with able-bodied sailors in IRC 7 class of Cork Week with crew Seanie McGrath, the trainer of Cork hurlers, and Brian O'Mahony.
James Nixon Belfast orthopaedic surgeon James Nixon, the rear-commodore of the Irish Cruising Club, sailed from Royal Ulster in his yacht, Scilla Verna, for Cork Week this year. The 1965 Helmsman's Championship winner and former dragon sailor will be sailing in a class known affectionately as the gentleman's class, e.g. one that does not use spinnakers.
Simon Coveney New Munster MEP Simon Coveney will miss the first two days of Cork Week because of business in Brussels. Also Fine Gael's marine spokesman, he'll be back in time for race three though, in the class two fleet, in his yacht, Xclamation. He will be competing against his younger brother Andrew and his family sailing on Sapphire.
Jean-Phillipe Chomette Paris-based financier Jean-Phillipe Chomette has become an adopted Irishman just this past month. The Cityjet-backed sailor first saw the Irish coastline during his record-breaking run around Britain and Ireland in May, and promised himself a return trip in his 60-foot yacht, Solune. Although he and his eight-man crew did not have much success in June's Round-Ireland race, he is back again for Cork Week. The La Rochelle-based Solune may yet have another go at the Round Ireland record, which Chomette regards as unfinished business.