Joker 2 has last laugh in Beaufort Cup

David Branigan

The wide grins on every crew member from bow to stern were easy to spot as Joker 2 approached the Beaufort Cup finishing-line for the Fastnet Race off Roche’s Point yesterday morning.

Having lagged behind the race leaders since starting 25 hours earlier, Commandant Barry Byrne’s crew shot from fourth to first in the closing stage of the race from the Old Head of Kinsale to Cork Harbour.

As the main Volvo Cork Week fleet was starting its second Coastal Race of the series, Joker 2 played an ace card and produced a performance that was almost identical to that of 2016.

At no point did we ever let our heads go down and think we weren’t in the race,” said Byrne. “It was a close-fought race all the way to the rock. We always knew we’d have a chance in the light-stuff in the dark coming back, as we did two years ago.

Their first place also denied victory to Simon Coveney’s chartered Jedi. Having led the fleet for 20 hours, a decision to head inshore at the Old Head and duck the ebb-tide for the finishing-line proved fatal to their hopes and the leader dropped from first to third.

Joker 2 had opted to head offshore in search of breeze and was followed by Youen Jacob’s Joggernaut, sailing for Baltimore RNLI.

The lifeboat crew was rewarded with second place in the 130-mile race, which Jacob later described as a “perfect result”.

It was frustrating, but enjoyable,” said Coveney after coming ashore in Crosshaven. “We made a mistake, basically. Ourselves and Joker were neck and neck and we decided to split, because when we were together they were quite quick. We went in and they went out, and that was it, basically; they got breeze and we didn’t.”The Fastnet Race counts for double-points, as does Friday’s finale.

In 2016, Jacob’s crew placed fourth in the overnight race and ended the series a close second to Byrne’s Defence Forces team that lifted the inaugural trophy. If history repeats itself, Jacob hopes he can gain an advantage over the coming days of inshore racing and secure the €10,000 charity purse for the RNLI.

However, it was Byrne’s day and the close finish echoed the nip-and-tuck race that denied most crews all but minimal sleep.

Meanwhile, as J109s have proven to be the weapon of choice for the Beaufort Cup boats — eight of the 16 crews have selected this boat type and the first three finishers were J109s — while the 36-footer is also popular in the main Volvo Cork Week, where it is holding the podium in IRC Class Two.

Perhaps reflecting their regular participation in coastal racing in the Irish Sea Offshore Racing Association, Peter Dunlop and Vicky Cox’s J109 Mojito leads Class 2, overall, after two coastal races south of Cork Harbour since Monday, with first and second places scored.

Those results make the Welsh boat the most consistent of the 11-boat class and possibly an early contender for the overall Volvo Cork Week trophy.

Among the biggest boats of Class One — Jay Colville’s East Down entry of Forty Licks — lost the class lead to El Gran Senor, skippered by Jonathan Anderson of the Clyde Cruising Club, but only on tie-break, as the leading pair look set to match-race the remainder of the week to win the class.

In Class Three, the revamped half-tonner Miss Whiplash, owned by Ronan and John Downing of the Royal Cork Yacht Club, has a narrow lead over Howth’s Johnny Swan on Harmony, thanks to a win yesterday.

However, with two third places for the Dublin boat so far and a fourth for the Crosshaven crew on Monday, the series could yet be a race where consistency secures overall victory.

The same goes for Kieran Collins’s Coracle IV, also sailing for the RCYC, who won Monday’s race, but placed sixth yesterday and holds third overall in the class by a point.

All the IRC boats competing this week have sailed the Coastal course style, but one group has opted to use the course type for the entire event in a class of its own and Denis Hewitt’s Raptor, from the Royal Irish YC in Dun Laoghaire, holds the lead in this 14-entry class.

Raptor’s crew includes several Cruiser-Racer veterans, notably Irish Cruiser Racing Association founders Fintan Cairns, Nobby Reilly, plus Barry Rose for good measure providing the local knowledge expertise.