Among those enjoying Cork Week for the first time yesterday was BBC journalist and election results wizard, Peter Snow, who had sailed with his son, Dan, on board their 43-ft yacht, Cerulean, from Buckler's Hard in Hampshire to be at the Crosshaven regatta.
"We just arrived as part of a two-week holiday before we return to Britain in August for the start of a new series we've just completed for BBC 2 called Battlefields of Britain," said Mr Snow, who said that he was born in Dublin and went to school in Donnybrook as a young boy.
"We went back as far as Queen Boudicca but we also visited the Boyne for the series . . . We're very much looking forward to enjoying the sailing here at Crosshaven over the next few days."
But sailing was never intended for days like yesterday. It was really calm out there on the sea. Too calm. Even the bar staff ashore could vouch for it, with one young bar tender having both the time and the calm to build a house of cards from beer mats and not a puff of wind to blow it over.
Oliver Bond, of Hammockology, was setting up his stall with its veritable kaleidoscope of multi-coloured hammocks made from parachute nylon.
He had just come from Garden Heaven in the RDS and so far Cork Week was proving quiet, though he was confident the day would improve.
Evee Rye, from Cowes, was having a similarly quiet day at the nearby Designer sunglasses.co.uk stall with the slate-grey sky creating little demand for the huge selection of Calvin Klein, Guggi and other shades on offer, but she was nonetheless enjoying her first visit to Crosshaven. "It's all about the weather and so far it hasn't been great for us, though we sold some early in the morning before the crews headed out and we'll probably sell some later when the crews come in and sailors want to replace any sunglasses they may have lost overboard."
Cobh man Eddie English - who was on board Flirt off Robert's Head - admitted that the weather, which left Crosshaven Harbour with scarcely a ripple, had made for a frustrating day's sailing, with boats taking almost double the time they would normally take to cover the courses.
"The wind was very light, between four and eight miles an hour. Most of the fleet took up to 3½ hours to cover the 12-mile course. Normally you'd expect to do it in 1½ hours, so we had a lot of frustrated sailors out there waiting for backmarkers to finish the course."
Former Kinsale YC commodore John Twomey, who is using Cork Week as part of his preparation for the Paralympics in Athens in August, was another who fell foul of the poor winds yesterday when his boat, Cool Runnings Too II, was becalmed as it came into harbour.
But at around 5 p.m. the tented village that flanks the Royal Cork Yacht Club in Crosshaven started to come alive, as the flotilla of yachts began to come aside the many pontoons pronging off the jetty and began to disgorge their crews eager for food and drink.
"That was about as enjoyable as a migraine - I might as well have stayed in bed," groused one old sea dog. "It was staggeringly boring," declared another.
