Sun, sea, music — and finally, the wind

WHEN the going gets tough, the tough get going but when the going gets easy, there’s nowhere to go.

It was a bit like that for a while at Cork Week yesterday as Crosshaven basked in Mediterranean-style weather.

Balmy days are all very well but when there is hardly a puff of wind in sight, expensive boats are becalmed and fidgety sailors have to kick their heels waiting for the wind to pick up.

For once, they envied the strollers, hawkers and gawkers who enjoyed the shade provided by the tented village erected for this biennial celebration of seafaring.

The wind finally decided to behave and the first race of the day got under way an hour-and-a-half late.

“Better late than never, boy,” waved an enthusiastic veteran local sailor as he and his crew sped away under a clear blue sky.

On shore, the chattering classes were all talk about J90, Bizz Nizz and Azzzuro Rio. These sounded like a line-up of boats waiting for the starting gun. But, no, they were very much land-based bands playing in the canvas bars that provide sustenance for seafarers and party-goers alike.

With more than 600 boats from 12 countries here, and most costing a multiple of tens of thousands, the assembled flotilla is reckoned to be worth over €100 million in total and it is a majestic sight indeed to view them in full sail from the heights of Camden.

Not all the excitement is offshore, though. There is plenty to do for landlubbers whose only connection with boats is sitting in the sunshine with a cool beer, watching the world sail by.

One of those helping to make that happen is Pat O’Leary, an experienced sailor and veteran of Cork Week. This year, though, his feet are firmly on the ground, running his Wok ‘N Roll restaurant on wheels to feed the hungry sailors as they arrive ashore after racing.

“I’m doing it mostly for the craic,” he says, but you get the impression he wouldn’t mind being on the waves for a day or two.

What makes Cork Week so attractive is a heady mixture of bumpers-style racing at sea and frenzied fun ashore. The massive tented village in Crosshaven plays host to 5,000 competitors and almost 100,000 spectators. That means serious sailing by day and serious partying at night.

With four restaurants and 10 bars, there are plenty of opportunities for over-indulging. The champagne tent offers bottles at €70 a pop or up to €350 for the seriously indulgent.

Nightly entertainment highlights include Lightning Strikes, Abbadelicious, Royal Flush, Blue Moose, Menace and Who’s Eddies in the Miller Bar.

Line up in the Fastnet Bar includes Jazzinatria, Bizz Nizz, Bowen Brothers and Mindbenders, the resident band all the way from Derry. The Beamish Irish Bar showcases home grown talent like Dublin City Ramblers, Molly Maguires, Rackish Paddies, Christy Moore Tribute, Roy Buckley and The Celts. Other acts on site include High Voltage, B.Serious, Fergus O’ Reilly and Big in Japan.

One not-so-young and not-so-serious sailor was still nursing a sore head yesterday afternoon that even a trip around the harbour couldn’t cure.

“I’ll have to go for a bit of a kip for an hour or so,” he moaned. “Otherwise I won’t be up to another night of it.”

He even had a theory as to why Cork Week only comes around every two years. “At my age, it takes me that long to recover.”