The start of the Craic

TheDailySail's Andy Nicholson, sailing on the Farr 45 Babalaas takes a look at the scenery in Cork

With racing starting tomorrow (Monday) the craick is well and truly flowing here in Cork. Firstly the weather report – a good breeze with showers and sunshine, the forecast for the week ahead looks positive with plenty of wind but perhaps not enough of the sunshine. This however is not a problem as I have brought my Dubarry boots back to their homeland and they are more than happy splashing around in the puddles.

Despite it being rather nippy its not being reflected in the choice of attire for the local girls. While we slink around in fleeces the beer tents are teeming with mini skirts and crop tops…


The standard of the burger vans is very high, or rather Advanced.

The main drag here resembles Oxford Street in the January sales and it takes half a day to get from one end to other. This is not just because of the wall to wall oilskins, but (unlike Oxford Street) everyone here knows each other and 20 three minute conversations easily make you late for everything.

If you fancy ditching some of your Euros, The Drag provides plenty of opportunity over and above the burgers and the booze. Most bits and bobs for you boat can be found and if you can’t find the perfect split pin you can always settle for a BBQ Hut – which to my untrained eye looks like a shed with a chimney and a open grill in the centre of the floor. Lovely. But you could be worrying about how to get this home, so how about a nice novelty water feature or a lamppost (below)?



Our accommodation is a little bit of a squeeze at the moment. Seven beds for seven crew was fine until four more crew arrived and we are still awaiting the owner, David Mclean. This has meant that I have taken the option to be a Cub Scout in the back garden, with a nice detached single bedroom dwelling with a sea view. This said we are however just three minutes from the action and that is why we are here after all.

The highlight of todays brief sail was the successful setting of the asymmetric VMG spinnaker – a sail I haven’t clipped on for some years – thanks to another Andy, bowman on Glynn Williams' Wolf for explaining this to me at a quarter past midnight last night in one of the beer tents.

We got a good look at one of the Max Z86s today too. Morning Glory was carving her way around the waters off Cork, with the bangs and groans booming around the harbour as the sheets come off for the bear away. She’s a big boat, but most easily identified by the fleet of RIBS chasing after her.

We’re racing in IRM and have as our biggest boats the Farr 52s of Chernikeef 2 and Bear of Britain. We’ll have some excellent racing in the 45, with four others to joust with. There are also a couple of Farr 40s and some Ker 11.3s and a mixture of others too making up about 20 in our class.

First race on Monday is the harbour race, a start off the entrance to Cork Harbour and then a grand tour of the lovely scenery. The start of the racing craick.