Leading racing yachts to grace Cork Week

TWO of the biggest and most recognisable racing yachts in the world, Pyewacket and Morning Glory, will form part of an expected 500 yacht fleet for this year’s Cork Week regatta, which takes place from July 10 to 16.

And, to provide an added frisson of competition between these two magnificent yachts during the course of the regatta, local sailors Donal McClement and Mark Mansfield will crew on either boat, lending their undoubted local knowledge to the expertise already on board.

McClement will be on board Roy Disney’s Pyewacket while Olympics-bound Mansfield will be aboard German industrialist Hasso Plattner’s Morning Glory.

The chairman of the regatta’s race committee, Eddie English, said at the Cork Week launch last night that the participation of the two yachts was indicative of the popularity of the event worldwide and were part of the reason why several thousand sailors and hundreds of yachts made the journey to Cork Harbour every two years, bringing a huge economic boost to the area with them.

“Part of the reason why Cork Week is such a huge draw for sailors worldwide is that it caters for the Corinthian yachtsman as much as the professional, with specific classes being run for the amateurs as well as the full-time crews.

“The world’s other major regattas are in Antigua and in Germany, but even they do not draw the sort of numbers and create the sort of spectacle which Cork Week does,” he said.

A who’s-who of world yachting will be in Cork for the event, for which the Irish Examiner is the media partner, and included among them will be Robin Aisher, who will helm local yacht Antix, which this year has already won the Irish IRC Nationals and the Bell Lawrie Scottish Series.

Eamon Crosbie’s successful Ker 32 Voodoo Chile will also be competing, as will Colm Barrington’s new Ker 39 Flying Glove.

Entries are coming in thick and fast for the regatta and, according to Eddie English, a big attraction for the yachtsmen is the five different courses which will be sailed.

“There are three separate courses outside the harbour, one coastal course and one other inside the harbour which starts at Weavers Point and should be a massive spectacle for anyone who wants to come along and watch from any of the harbour’s natural vantage points,” he said.

Despite the loss of Ford as title sponsors for the event, the organising club, the Royal Cork Yacht Club, have secured a number of other sponsors for the event, including Fáilte Ireland, Miller beer, Dubarry Shoes, Mumm Champagne and the Irish Examiner. And both the club Admiral Peter Crowley and James McGrath, chairman of the organising committee, believe the 2004 event will be one of the most spectacular ever seen in Cork Harbour.