New sailing sponsor unveiled for Cork Week

ACC BANK were yesterday unveiled as sponsors of Cork Week, Ireland’s largest International Sailing Regatta at Royal Cork Yacht Club Crosshaven (July 12-18).

Speaking at London Boat Show, Eddie Kingston, ACCBank General Manager for strategy, said: “We have identified sailing as an excellent fit with our brand and of keen interest to our customers. We wish to associate our sponsorships with local events that have an international dimension, mirroring our organisation as a local player with global reach through our parent company, Rabobank.”

Hugh Mockler, Admiral, Royal Cork Yacht Club, and Mike McCarthy, Vice Admiral, RCYC were present at yesterday’s announcement.

Admiral Mockler commented: “We are confident that the 2008 ACCBank Cork Week will be the biggest event in the history of the regatta.”

The attractiveness of this regatta, since it’s inception in 1998 is the location of Crosshaven that allows a number of courses, six for 2008, to be sailed in the mag-nificent area with its inner and outer harbour.

There is no sailing divide at this event and sailors from family cruisers are quite likely to find themselves in the company of crew members from Americas Cup winner Alinghi or Rosebud, IRC B winner of the 2007 Sydney/Hobart race.

With the exception of the one design fleets, all the yachts experience each of the courses, adding challenge and excitement to the racing.

This year the coastal race will be replaced with a slalom with the emphasis on off wind legs and placing a premium on crew work.

2008 will see the arrival of the fastest growing fleet in Britain and Ireland, namely the Castro designed SB3, a three-person lifting keel boat.

Entries in the class are expected to top the 70 mark. Also coming will be a number of the exciting J109s with many familiar faces from the Sigma Class having transferred to these boats. This class is expected to hold its British Nationals during the event.

Competing for the Carroll Challenge Cup will be members of the TP52 Class including Colm Barrington’s Flash Glove, a Judel Vrolijk design, with another welcome return visitor Benny Kelly from Britain, in his Judel Vrolijk-designed Panthera. The Carroll Trophy was presented to the Royal Cork Yacht Club in 1858 and was a coveted prize in races during the 1850s and 1860s. The decision to award it to the prestigious TP52 Class is sure to attract interest in this growing fleet and it is hoped to see 10 of these magnificent boats, each requiring 15 crew members, at the event.

Other exciting entries received include Dan Myers of the USA in his recently launched Judel Vrolijk- designed Numbers, which will be accompanied by her mother ship, the 170ft schooner Meteor. To provide competition for Numbers will be the arrival of the new STP65 Moneypenny, currently in build and the 90ft Rambler, ex-Alfa Romeo, that smashed the Middle Sea and Transatlantic records in 2006.

Members of the French Commodores Cup team will be competing as will a large fleet of the very fast Farr 45s, the X-35 class who are considering holding their British Nationals during the week and the Gentleman’s Class that could possibly be the biggest IRC Class next season.

Another change to take place will be that Industry Group three sailors will be permitted to sail in the Corporate Class, further opening up the regatta to those who had previously been excluded and who did not fit into Class Super Zero or Zero. This class will also serve the Sunsail Charterers.