A group of Munster rugby supporters were preparing to sail their yacht across the Irish Sea last night to cheer on their heroes in the Heineken European Cup final in Cardiff on Saturday.
With a gale warning in force, the crew of Windhover was planning to leave the Royal Cork Yacht Club (RCYC) in Crosshaven at around 11pm last night, and sail along the coast as far as Dunmore East, Co Waterford, where they plan to shelter for most of today.
Rear admiral cruising with the RCYC and main organiser of the trip, Tony Mahon, said the idea was to ride out the storm today in Dunmore East, before departing on the final leg of the 220-nautical mile trip to Cardiff late tonight.
"The idea came when a few of us were in Kinsale at the May weekend and one guy, Pat Lyons, asked if we had a spare ticket.
"I said I had and Pat said 'That's great - all I need now is transport and accommodation' and Adrian Power said 'but we already have those'.
"So we got out the charts and started looking at the feasibility of it and we reckoned we could do it.
"There's a good 28 hours sailing for us in it and we're not going to take any risks - if the weather is too bad we'll just call it off - but we're going to give it a good shot if we can at all."
Windhover is owned by Adrian Power who will skipper the yacht.
Joining himself and Tony on board are fellow rugby fans Pat Lyons, Brian Curtis, Pat Murray, all from Cork city, who between them have plenty of sailing experience in the Atlantic and elsewhere.
The group, who will have five Munster flags flying on the front of the 49ft yacht, expect to get into Cardiff at around lunch-hour on Friday.
There they will moor at Penarth Marina, from where they will be able to catch a water taxi for the 15-minute journey to the Millennium Stadium.
