Sunshine and fun marks the start of Cork Week

WHEN Lynn Hannegan and her fellow crew members aboard Pi Squared arrived for Cork Week yesterday, they came prepared to face the worst elements of Irish weather — not the 27°C heat that bathed Crosshaven in sunshine yesterday.

This will be the first time the American sailor has raced here but from trips to these shores before, she knew quite how inhospitable even this country’s summers can be.

“We didn’t expect all this good weather. We brought brollies and thermal underwear because we’re used to Irish weather being awful,” she said.

However, the more seasoned participants in Europe’s largest regatta to be organised by a single club, were aware of the biannual phenomenon.

When Cork Week — sponsored by The Irish Examiner — comes around every two years, the sun always manages to shine.

Preparations for this event began 18 months ago, according to the chairman of the infrastructure for the event, Jim Lyons.

“The competitors started arriving two weeks ago,” he said. “Many people dropped off their boats, went off to work and arrived back yesterday.”

Many of the 5,000 sailors who will crew the 400 vessels racing around the Cork coastline over the next five days gathered for a drink and a chat yesterday in the maze of tents which have been erected along the marina in Crosshaven.

They mingled with the thousands of landlubbers who had converged on the village west of Cork city to catch a glimpse of the impressive vessels berthed just a few metres away from where they supped a drink.

Standing out among the sleek hulls was the looming presence of New Zealand Supermaxi, Maximus, the world’s most technologically advanced yacht and the largest boat ever to race in Irish waters.

One child sat astride his father’s shoulders turning the man’s neck with his legs as he repeatedly asked: “Where’s Maximus?”

However, as it was Family Day, most of the children were busy having their faces painted as pirates or slamming themselves against the walls of a bouncy castle.

While the racing over the next five days will be keenly fought, thousands of people will converge on Crosshaven for the amazing social scene which develops among the tents each year. Those who can’t find what they are looking for in the racing enclosure can go into one of Crosshaven’s bars which are already reporting a roaring trade.