Cork versus Cowes

You pays your money and you takes your choice - Ed Gorman sizes up the two rivals

It's been another year when we've had a Ford Cork Week and a Skandia Life Cowes Week - the two biggest recreational regattas in the British Isles and two of the biggest in the world. They compliment each other in many ways but also rival each other, so what's the score between them?

Stuart Quarrie, the director of the Cowes Combined Clubs, remarked before this year's jamboree on the Solent that, in his view, comparisons between Cowes Week and Cork Week are invidious. They are, he suggested, two different events, each with its own strengths and weaknesses.

Quarrie is right. But what is also clear is that trail-blazing by Cork Week has directly impacted its older, at times, complacent relation and forced it to get its act together. All to the good of the thousands of yachtsmen
and women who choose to race at Cowes.

No surprise then that this was one of the best Cowes Weeks in recent years. Spring tides running at three knots could have caused mayhem but, with the exception of the last day which was lost to light winds, conditions were
more or less ideal through the week. That included one full-on day when the breeze blew at 25-30 knots producing some exciting racing.

Noticeable among the bar chat was far less grumbling about course-setting than is usual. Noticeable too was the enjoyment many crews derived from the two days of committee boat starts - in force for only the second year at Cowes and instituted partly in response to the greater variety of courses pioneered at Cork - though many would have preferred windward/leewards on those days.

On the racing side it was a more than competent display, with race officers making full use of the new flexibility in the sailing instructions - for example, switching the direction of the start line when appropriate - to give good racing for most of the 874 crews on most days.

Enjoyable as it was on the water, Cowes still has a long way to go on the shoreside. Who can say a week in Cowes is really a pleasure and that Cowes yet deserves its status as the capital of British yachting? Improvements have been made to the marina, but the main bar still feels more like a cross between a car park and a farmyard than a place to enjoy a drink and dance. Security in these areas was oppressive and, after complaints from the locals, the music was not loud enough for many people's tastes.

Elsewhere, the restaurants are expensive for what you get - one I went to made no secret of the fact that it was charging "Cowes Week prices" - but the food was distinctly unimpressive. In Cowes you have to fight for everything - an expensive drink in a plastic glass for example - and by the end of it you feel punch drunk. Some of the problems are unavoidable in an old Victorian town swamped with thousands of yachtsmen and tourists, but there is still a long way to go.

In contrast, the organisers of Cork Week demonstrated again this year that they have grasped that these regattas must offer a complete package, with excellent racing complimented by an enjoyable experience ashore. It's much easier when you are starting from a clean sheet of paper - the reclaimed strip on the banks of the Owenabue - but at Cork there are dining rooms to eat in and the regatta is not afflicted by the social divisiveness which will always characterise Cowes.

Good as it was ashore, Cork Week let itself down this year on the racing side - a major disaster with the results system. It seems this was insufficiently tested before the event, and was found to be incapable of producing accurate overall positions. This was an embarrassment for the organisers who pride themselves on attention to detail. In this area Cowes Week scored highly with an excellent, fast and accurate service.

There were grumbles about the way the eligibility rule banning professionals from certain classes was implemented at Cork, this is something which Cowes does not attempt. And there was understandable disgruntlement among 1720 owners who had a day-off midweek which seemed quite unnecessary. This however, was a matter for the class association, not the regatta itself.

With two-thirds of the 620 boats coming from England, Cork Week is a big commitment in time and money for many owners, so expectations are high when people get there. But - results service disasters aside - the organisers are meeting the challenge and no doubt in two years time all those crews who beat into a northwesterly to get there, and then bashed their brains out into an easterly on the way back, will be ready for another trip to Crosshaven. As one owner who has seen it all over the years put it, "It was the best regatta ever - honestly."

A good year for Cowes, another good year for Cork. The former scoring highly on the water but struggling ashore - the latter doing well in both departments. One reason why Cork is fun is because it happens only once every two years and it lasts only five days - so the tempo is up. Am I alone in thinking that Cowes Week drags on a bit and would be better with at least one day lopped off?