Nearly 90 yachts are already confirmed to enter this year’s Volvo Cork Week — a noticeable increase on when the event was last held two years ago.

A penultimate day to be remembered for all the best and not so good reasons was the hallmark of the ICRA Nationals Sovereigns Cup sponsored by Cork County Council at Kinsale yesterday.

A marathon end to the ICRA National Championships kept the 115-storng fleet at sea for eight hours yesterday as slightly fresher winds arrived to permit a four-race programme.

The opening race of the Cork Dry Gin Calves Week saw 60 boats compete around the West Cork Islands yesterday in the first of four days of competition organised by Schull Harbour Sailing Club.

There were more high spirits than high winds to set the first day of competitive racing off to a breezy start at Cork Week yesterday as sailors and landlubbers descended on Crosshaven for the biennial event.

Boats have already begun to sail into Crosshaven which this week hosts Cork Week, a biennial event of racing and rollicking that attracts hundreds of sailors worldwide to the Royal Cork Yacht Club.

Millions of euro are expected to be spent by visitors who will arrive in Cork in July to watch what is regarded as one of the world’s premier sailing events.

ROY DISNEY, a son of one of the Walt Disney company founders and a regular visitor on sailing trips to Cork, has died in California.

EVERY two years the sleepy seaside village of Crosshaven comes to bustling life as it prepares to host one of the largest sailing regattas in Europe.

HEAVY fog was a dampener, but it did not affect the final race in the Kevin O’Leary Nissan April League series at Kinsale YC and had no effect on the celebrations by the overall class winners.

OLYMPIC 49er sailor Tom Fitzpatrick (Howth YC) set an Irish record when he won the Allianz Irish Helmsmans’ title in a blistering five race final at Royal North of Ireland Yacht Club on Belfast Lough yesterday.

Royal Cork club mates Mark Mansfield and Killian brought their disappointing Athens campaign to an end today at the Agios Kosmas sailing centre, finishing 15th in the eleventh and final race.

Ireland's Star class competitors, Mark Mansfield and Killian Collins endured another poor day on the Saronic gulf, as in shifting wind conditions, they pulled their keelboat to 17th and ninth in races 7 and 8, remaining last overall of a fleet of seventeen.

The fickle ways of the seasonal Meltemi winds failed to favour Royal Cork duo Mark Mansfield and Killian Collins this afternoon, as a 13th place finish in race 5 saw them down to last overall in the Star fleet.

THE mid-summer interlude in West Cork over for another year, racing is back to full swing along the coast and this weekend will be particularly hectic in Cork Harbour, with the Royal Cork holding its annual two-day At Home Regatta.

KINSALE will benefit to the tune of €2.5 million as the Sovereign’s Cup Regatta gets underway today.

BRITAIN were defeated in their historic first return to the America’s Cup stage in 15 years, as they lost to Team Dennis Conner’s vastly experienced crew on Stars and Stripes in the first showcase race of the 31st America’s Cup series.

DESPITE light and variable winds and early tides, 85 boats raced in the Cove SC John McCarthy Motorpoint annual race from Cobh to Blackrock village on the outskirts of Cork City.

AN IRISH yacht is set to compete for one of sailing's most prestigious prizes later this month in America.