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Cork enjoys twice the va va Vroon

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

By David Branigan

Dutch entry Tonnerre de Breskens, owned by Piet Vroon, continued its foray into Irish waters this week by opening class zero at Cork Week with two emphatic race wins.

Local class favourite Anthony O’Leary, on Antix, placed outside the top three in the nine-boat class after scoring two sixth places.

At 46 feet overall, Tonerre is jointly the largest boat in the 101-boat regatta as the exotic super-maxis of the super zero class are absent this year.

In place of Antix as the boat to beat, or at least chief home challenger, Kieran Twomey’s Corby 38 Gloves Off scored a third and a second place yesterday leaving it second overall.

In class one, boasting one of the largest turn-outs of the regatta with 16 boats, the revised class handicap bands that resulted in Antix moving into a class zero packed with bigger boats means that Richard Fildes’ Impetuous from Wales has a freer hand compared to its last contest at the Irish national championships in Howth six weeks ago.

With local professional sailor Maurice ‘Prof’ O’Connell racing on board as tactician once again, the visiting boat scored two race wins yesterday and leads from Richard Goransson’s Inga from Sweden, another Corby design that counts four veterans of last week’s Volvo Ocean race on the crew.

Donal O’Leary’s D-Tox also opened Cork Week with a single race win as the local sailor topped class two, where sailing was curtailed by a failing breeze late in the afternoon

The J109 fleet is also sailing it’s championship within this fleet and John Hall’s Something Else from the National Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire tops this fleet just ahead of clubmate, Dermot Baker’s Jalapeno.

This class features the largest fleet of the series with 26 entries, although a number of late cancellations, including Paul O’Higgins’ Rockabill V, has reduced the field.

Royal Cork YC’s Admiral Peter Deasy won the 16-strong class three, where the quarter-tonners and boats down to around 25 feet in length overall are gathered and are mostly local entries.

Dermot Foley’s Anchor Challenge placed second in the single race of the day, though of all the nine classes in the regatta this fleet should be expected to provide some of the closest racing and these standings are certain to shift during the week.

The class that celebrated the founding of the RCYC was also in action again in Cork Week, albeit in reduced numbers since its heyday more than a decade ago.

The 1720 Sportsboat class featured six boats yesterday marking a resurgence of interest.

“America’s Cup sailors and Olympians were racing these boats 10 years ago when we had 60 boats competing,” said Dave Hassett from Dark Side. “But even with six boats we’re still getting the same close racing as we had back then.”

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