Ford Racing sweeps home to take inaugural Round the Island title
The event arose out of a conversation last winter between then admiral Anthony O’Leary and honorary sailing secretary Kevin O’Sullivan during which the Round the Isle of Wright all-in race was discussed.
They came up with the idea of running a similar event in Cork Harbour using Spike Island and Ted Crosbie later got the Irish Examiner to sponsor a perpetual trophy.
The interest last weekend was considerable, with 21 cruisers and 32 dinghies taking part with the course from Cage with Spike to port and finish at Currabinny.
There were two start lines, with a separation zone for dinghies and cruisers, and the winner finished in under 40 minutes, with an extra hour to have all times recorded.
The start was really spectacular, with the cruisers and three dinghies setting spinnakers as all 53 boats broad-reached toward the eastern end of Spike, a fast passage with the last of the flood. In the end, Ford Racing took the race, with Tom Dwyer’s National 18 Das Boot second and the Crosbies third on Excuse Me.
The July Mid-Week League kicked off at the Royal Cork with no surprise as the McCarthy Brothers on Checkmate won IRC and Aidan Heffernan’s Argus took Echo.
Kinsale held their annual Marine Motors All-In Race and the fleet of 27 enjoyed ideal sailing conditions.
There was a new start line at Lower Cove and with the fleet beating to the windward mark at Spit, passing Charlesfort in full colour, bound for the Centre Point mar, the McCarthy’s MacMagic II led the way and took victory. The Carrolls on Highland Dancer battled all the way and finished second by just a few seconds. Jim McEvoy on Bunbury was third.
Kinsale’s July Weekend League also started with X-Dream winning Class One IRC and Echo and Padraig O’Donovan’s Chameleon beating Clem McElligott’s Sea Hawk in Class Two IRC and Echo. In Class Three Mike Sexton’s Granny Knot won both handicaps each time from Alan Bateman’s Pathfinder.
Baltimore SC had it’s first all-in cruiser race with a new form, handicaps worked on the Baltimore Echo system.
The fleet ranged from Drascombes to a Sweden Yacht 45, but victory went to Don Flynn’s Seal 22, with Reggis O’Keeffe’s Ruffian second.
A few miles further west the Schull Harbour SC raced for their Keeper Kettle Trophy in for-once pleasant weather with a moderate south west wind.
The lead constantly changed in a tacking duel on the lend windward leg to Goat Island.
Line honours went to Gay Hogan’s Karu Keria but George Dwyer’s Mulberry took the race on handicap, Michael Murphy’s Shelly D second.
Revelin Minihane of Schull Community College SC won the Connacht Laser 4.7 championships at Mullmughmore by virtue of four wins and a second in the 1.7 class.
He won the Ulster Championships in June at both senior and junior level and has now headed for Canada. There he will compete in the World Junior and Senior Radial Championships on Lake Ontario before coming home for the Nationals and Europeans in August. Also in the team on Lake Ontario are Frederick Cudmore, George Kingston and Jenny Murray from RCYC.
Peter O’Leary RCYC was third in the Standards at Mullaghmore and now heads for Denmark with Andrew Lane for the championships there. Off to Holland for the 4.7 worlds are Katie Dolan, Jared Dolan, Catherine Hillard and Gavin Owens.
The PricewaterhouseCoopers Dragon East Coast Championships will be hosted by the National YC this weekend over three days. Competition will be hot as crews battle for places in next year’s Europeans to be held at Kinsale. National champion Andrew Craig will be hell-bent on a good result as he builds towards the worlds in Tasmania next January.
But defending champions Neil Hegarty, Peter Bowring and David Williams are in form. Ward Woods and Robin Hennessy travel from Spain to compete but all expect tough challenges from Kinsale’s Olaf Sorenson, Cameron Good, Pat Murphy and John Tait as they chase European qualification points.
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