SAILING: Cork Week ended yesterday as the 5,000 competitors basked under the ideal conditions that produced the Boat of the Week plus winners across all 19 classes. The Royal Cork Yacht Club organisers basked, too, in the warmth of the tributes paid to the best organised event, both afloat and ashore.
Yesterday's short programme was designed to end early to allow visiting crews time to prepare for their passages home or to their next competition port. Obligingly, the weather complied and up to 18 knots from the south ended the five-day series on a high.
Close racing was the order of the week in every class, bar a few, and it was from this elite bunch that Colm Barrington's Magic Glove emerged as Boat of the Week thanks to his perfect score of six wins in Class Zero.
But it was throughout the fleet that the best competition was to be found, and the week ending on a knife-edge is what many sailors will remember as the hallmark of Cork Week that emphasises quality of racing above all other considerations.
Take Class Two, where Anthony O'Leary's brother-in-law Robin Aisher took the helm of Antix, the reigning Irish IRC champion, and continued the boat's pedigree sailing as Yeomantix, in keeping with his family traditions, and led this 30-boat class all week to win Best Cork Boat.
The O'Leary family was busy elsewhere in the regatta too. Though safely secured after Thursday's racing, Peter O'Leary's Antix 2 won the 1720 Sportsboats after a fifth place yesterday, while his brother Nicholas, on Lemon, defeated Charles Swingland's Dark Side to take second overall in another close-fought series.
Upsetting the running-order in Class Five IRC, Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club entry Dick Dastardly took the overall win, deposing Barry and David Rose's Obsession after the visitors scored a win yesterday.
There was disappointment too for Andrew Allen and Colm Monahan on No Naked Flames in the J109 after their week-long lead ended after a final-race win for Fiona and Malcolm Thorpe's King Louie.
There was no such over-turn in Class Four IRC, when Tom Brennan's Corby 29-footer Respect led to the finish and held Fixation and Blue Berret Pi to their pre-final second and third places.
Among the Laser SB3 Sportsboats, the anticipated match-race between class-leader Ian Southworth and the all-female Team McLaren led by Christina Summerhayes failed to emerge after a decisive final race.
A poor start for the women was transformed by blistering upwind speed and "Southie" never got close save for a brief encounter on the first leg.
The giant and exotic of Class Super Zero produced few surprises, though a bullet on the final race for Ger O'Rourke's Chieftain will have been some comfort in accepting second place to Benny Kelly's first generation Transpac 52-footer. The Limerick yacht's winning streak ended at Cork Week, having had class wins at every event from Sydney to Cowes in the last eight months.
