05 Jul Cobh @ Home 2011

Cove SC hosted the first of Cork’s historic ‘at home’ regattas last Sunday.  As with June’s Marlogue Trophy, a strong fleet of 11 Cove SC boats was joined on the startline by four Royal Cork YC boats and the mixed fleet enjoyed a highly competitive regatta in what can only be described as ‘Champagne Sailing’ conditions.  Yanks and Franks, Outrigger, Lady T and Indulgence represented Royal Cork YC, on this occasion.  Their presence was greatly appreciated by all those interested in maintaining the history and tradition of sailing in the harbour.

Race Officers, Paul Kenny and John O’Regan set a tight start line at number 13, off Cuskinny and took advantage of the gradually filling Southerly / South-westerly breeze to send the fleet on a good beat to number 8, off Currabinny.  The fleet then turned and ran back to number 11 before embarking on a series of short East-West reaches off Aghada, and finishing at EF1.

There was some incident on the start line.  Jay and Away on Business were caught far too high of the line, spectacularly missing the start sequence and eventually starting some 5 minutes behind the fleet.  The aggressively starting Sonar, on the other hand, appeared to time her run to perfection, only to be ruled OCS by the race officers aboard Samuel J.  All other boats got cleanly away. Tactics off the line came down to straight choice between wind and tide.  The fleet started on starboard but soon split in two, some choosing to stay on starboard and make the most of the out-flowing tide up the left hand side of the beat, others tacking onto port in search of potentially greater pressure from the slowly filling south-westerly breeze, on the Spit Bank.  Yanks and Franks, Outrigger and Bedlam led the fleet around the weather mark and remained at the head of the fleet throughout.  Finbarr Dorgan’s Sonar sailed extremely well to recover from her start-line error and join the leading group in the latter stages of the race.

Yanks and Franks placed first in class two (IRC), while Sonar placed first in Class three (IRC).  Indulgence took the hotly contested ‘White Sail’ division.  Eddie English’s Holy Grounder recovered from a penalty turn at EF2 to take second in this division.  Robert Keating’s Serendipity sailed consistently to place third. A particularly pleasing aspect of this regatta was the fact that all four Royal Cork YC boats accompanied the Cove SC fleet back to their East Ferry base and all crews enjoyed a sunny prize-giving ceremony at the idyllic Marlogue Inn.