Fine and settled. So runs the forecast for the earlier part of this mammoth week of yacht racing on Cork Harbour. Not too settled, hopefully, if yesterday's conditions are anything to go by. With Crosshaven packed to capacity, catering for well over 600 boats, a sizeable chunk of the fleet opted to indulge in some practise, local knowledge, sail testing and a plain old yacht around the place, light airs notwithstanding.

Keenest of the all the classes were the two Sigma divisions. The 38-footers embarked on an overnight offshore race and gradually disappeared towards the horizon after their start yesterday morning. Their smaller counterparts, Sigma 33 footers, numbering 55 in total, had a practice race around Cork Harbour.

With barely a couple of knots of breeze and a fortunately-timed slack tide, the fleet descended on the Weaver's Point starting line and went for a spinnaker start. Soon after, the wind picked up and threatened to hold steady for a short while before dropping for most of the day.

Ben Richards and Michael Ewart-Smith, second placed in last year's UK National Championships, took line honours only to later discover they were disqualified for a premature start. This meant the first race win of Ford Cork Week 2000 went to Debbie and Kevin Aitken's The White Tub, just ahead of David Turner's Phoenix.

Dublin Bay arch-rivals, David Palmer on Princess Jalina and Tim Goodbody on White Mischief, duelled once more, though the light conditions forced a time-limit penalty on the latter, who was not listed in the results. Fortunately, yesterday's racing was only a practice session and the fleet reverts to windward/leeward courses for the coming five days.

Also afloat were a host of contenders across the classes. While most of the professionally crewed yachts were active from early morning, the bulk of the fleet gradually emerged from lunchtime onwards. Saturday evening's pre-event party had a capacity crowd of almost 15,000 and the "rest day" was well-timed and welcome.

Harold Cudmore's team on Barlo Plastics made a relatively short appearance off Roche's Point while preparing for the start of his defence of his 1998 Class Zero victory. While many of his team have returned for a second time, this year his boat is Richard Matthews' 41-footer, designed by John Corby. It replaces Roy Dickson's Howth-based Cracklin' Rosie.

Another focus class for the event will be the 1720 Sportsboats, where Mark Mansfield is defending his European Championship title against some stiff opposition. With the Sydney 2000 Olympics less than two months away, the Cork yachtsman is treating this event purely as a break and faces a tough task in switching from his Star to a 1720. He has not sailed competitively in the boat once this year.

Nevertheless, with a bronze medal from the Star World Championships 10 weeks ago still fresh in everyone's memory, Mansfield will certainly feature as a fleet yardstick in the first few days of racing.

Meanwhile, the eligibility issue continues to be a feature of the event.

Throughout the day yesterday, the organisers were requesting a number of well-known sailors to meet with the official Eligibility Committee to discuss their status. One of the earliest casualties was well-known sailmaker Philip Watson from Howth, who will not now be competing in the week.

Racing in Ford Cork Week starts this morning for most classes and continues until Friday.