If you don’t like the weather at Volvo Cork Week – wait a minute.
A mixture of clear blue skies and blankets of clouds made for highly changeable conditions for the first day of Volvo Cork Week. Thankfully the warm sunshine won the day, providing light air racing in beautiful Cork Harbour and the Celtic Sea. The teams returned to the dock with colour in their cheeks, a glint in the eye, and a thirst for the refreshments at the Royal Cork Yacht Club.
Racing kicked off with an early start for the 17 teams racing in The Beaufort Cup, which set off on a 150-mile offshore race from Cork Harbour, bound for the Fastnet Rock and back to the finish. After a fly-by from the Irish Air Force, the Baltimore RNLI team, skippered by Andrew Algeo, and the Irish Defence Force team, led by Barry Byrne, got away to a great start with the duo leading the fleet past the iconic town of Cobh. However, it was Simon Coveney’s Irish Defence Force team that led out of Cork Harbour and away along the south coast of Ireland. The fleet will be on the wind for the first night, and expected to make the Fastnet Rock in the early hours of Tuesday 17th July.
The Volvo Cork Week Armada were out in action off Weaver’s Point for an inshore race with a top mark in the picturesque Ringabella Bay. A light breeze from the southwest, and a building tide, made for a tricky start.
In IRC One, Frank Whelan’s Grand Soleil 44 Eleuthera (Greystones Sailing Club) got the best start to lead the fleet on the beat along the shore. However, on the return to Weaver’s Point the breeze started to fade and the lower IRC rated boats made up their time. Jay Colville’s First 40 Forty Licks (East Down YC) won the race in IRC One by just 26 seconds on corrected time from Jonathan Anderson’s J/122 El Gran Senor (Clyde Cruising Club). Performance Yacht Charter’s Grand Soleil 43 Jua Kali (RORC) was third.
“Never give up, that’s the motto on Forty Licks.” commented Jay Colville. “We didn’t make too many mistakes today, and we are good at spotting the new breeze. We came from behind with the wind, but we are very happy because we sailed well. This is my sixth Cork Week in total, and the last three Volvo Cork Week’s on the go. We keep coming back because it is a lovely place to sail and it is competitive, recently at regattas we have had loads of seconds, so we would love to win this one.”
In IRC Three, Kieran Collins Olson 30 Coracle IV (Royal Cork YC) won by a handsome margin from Paul & Deirdre Tingle’s X-34 Alpaca (Royal Cork YC). John Swan’s Half Tonner Harmony (Howth YC) was third.
Kieran Collins was racing with his two sons, Mel who was driving and Killian who was trimming and calling the shots, well some of the time. “With the three of us on board there was plenty of shouting and roaring!” smiled Killian. “We got a good start judging the line well, and we had a good beat. The defining moment of the race was a transition zone at Camden Fort. A lot of the boats went in to cheat the tide, but having raced here a fair bit, we went to the Fort Carlisle side, which had more foul tide but also more breeze.”
Congratulations to all of today’s class winners including: Dunlop & Cox’s Mojito (Pwllheli SC), Denis Byrne’s Cracker, Ronan Stack’s Supergroove (Arklow SC), Broadhead, Collins & Stuart’s Persistance (Royal Irish YC), Donal and O’Mahony’s Loch Greine (Royal Cork YC), and Patrick Doherty’s Tailte (NSYS & RCYC).
Volvo Cork Week continues tomorrow Tuesday 17th July with racing from 1100 inside and outside of Cork Harbour. For all the stories, pictures and videos from Volvo Cork Week like our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/VolvoCorkWeek/
For race documents, results and event guides: www.corkweek.ie