SAILING: A good day in several of the 20 classes for Irish boats marked the opening of Ford Cork Week on Cork Harbour yesterday. About 540 crews drawn from around the world are taking part in the five-day series.
Light winds and balmy weather made for tricky racing, though one class that had started on Sunday with an overnight race were disappointed when the course was abandoned due to lack of breeze.
With all yachts eligible for the inaugural overall prize, Eamon Crosbie's Class Five entry Humphrey Go-Kart from the National Yacht Club appears to have made an early declaration for this title with two wins yesterday in a fleet of 42 boats. Martin Reilly's Sligo Yacht Club team on Extreme Reality had a fifth and a third to lie third overall while Howth's Michael Guinan on Phantom lies seventh.
An assortment of glamorous boats populates Class Zero, formerly the feature fleet of this event before the development of the High Performance IRM. It is being led by Paul Winkelmann's Island Fling, a racing Swan 60-footer that scored a first and third on the Olympic course yesterday.
Thunder 2, a 37-footer designed by Wicklow naval architect Mark Mills, is second overall while Colm Barrington's Gloves Off, the usual home favourite re-opened her season following a dismasting at the Scottish Series with a tentative fourth and fifth leaving the Dún Laoghaire skipper fourth overall. Commdore's Cup team-member Roy Dickson on Cracklin' Rosie is sixth overnight.
David O'Connell's Canterbury tops Class Two after a Cork Harbour Race that had to be restarted when the famous Cobh buoy, located off Spike Island and named Ford Ka for this event, appeared to have been stolen overnight.
Two Irish boats established a tidy overall lead in Class Seven, where a second and a first for Brian O'Neill's Howth YC Impala 28-footer Wild Mustard places him in the lead. The Irish Paralympic sailing team from Sydney 2000 had a fourth and a second on Cool Runnings Too, skippered by Kinsale's John Twomey to lie second in this 36-strong class.
In the 1720 Sportsboats, Irish national champion Des Faherty on Aquatack suffered an 11th place in the opening race before recovering to win race two to end the day third overall. "Like about 25 per cent of the class, we started late when we heard a radio message saying there might be a delay waiting for wind," helmsman Maurice "Prof" O'Connell told The Irish Times. "It was our own fault, (by the time we realised) we started about 20 seconds late and were 25th at the first mark before pulling up to 10th at the finish."
John Rickards' visiting Babbalaas leads while Brian Lennon's Hibernian, also from Howth YC, lies fifth in the 33-boat class.
In the Prima 38 Inshore Championships, Simon Brown's White Knuckles 2, the third Irish Commodore's team member took fifth in the Harbour Race after a closely sailed race that saw the Dún Laoghaire boat reach third at times.
Meanwhile, in the showcase IRM High Performance class, Farr 40-footer Too Steamy, helmed by owner Nick Haigh, scored a second and a third to lead the 20-boat class from Round Ireland Race line-honours winner Team Tonic, the Farr 52 owned by Nick Hewson. Third-placed I Site, a Kerr 11.3 owned by Robbie Cameron-Davies with triple Olympic veteran Mark Mansfield on tactics, lies third overnight.
With the exception of the Sportsboats, all other classes will today switch to a different type of course in keeping with Cork Week's system of offering a variety of racing. In keeping with the host country's weather system, a similarly mixed assortment of weather conditions is also predicted although a gradual improvement from today's windier weather by the end of the week is also expected.
