Optimist Trials Start Well for Royal Cork Sailors

The first weekend of the Optimist Trials was held over last weekend in Crosshaven. Five Royal Cork Sailors are in the top 10 after three days of excellent sailing in Cuskinny and the Curlane Bank.

For a number of years the club has had the largest representation in the 70 strong invited fleet and this year was no different with 17 RCYC squad sailors racing. The squad and their coaches Stefano Cherin and George Kenefick had been presented with red racing vests after registration on Thursday and this helped viewers and coaches to follow the action on the water.

The trials commenced on Friday with 15-20 knots of an easterly breeze giving ideal sailing conditions in Cuskinny. The first race was won by Peter McCann of the Royal Cork with Colm O’Regan of Kinsale taking the gun in the next two races. Seafra Guilfoyle started the regatta with a third place and followed this up with two further top ten results in this very competitive 62 boat fleet.

A Slightly lighter 12-15 knot easterly greeted the sailors for the second day of sailing on Saturday. The first race was won by Aodh Kennedy of Kinsale, the second by Xander Morrison of Howth and the third by Peter McCann.  John Durcan (RCYC) started to show some fine form with two third place finishes and Patrick Crosbie (RCYC) finished second in the last race to bring him right into contention.

Conditions changed significantly on Sunday. A light and variable southerly took some time to fill in and the race area was moved to the Curlane Bank. Peter McCann continued his fine run with another race win. The second and final race of the day was won by Sandy Aplin of the Royal St George followed by John Durcan.

The overall results, with half the trials programme completed shows the following:

Other Royal Cork squad results were:

The complete results can be found here.

The trials continue in Lough Ree Yacht Club with the second and final weekend over the May Bank Holiday from 2^nd-4^th May. At the end of the regatta teams will be selected for the European Championship in Slovenia, the French National Championship and UK National Championships.

The first weekend of the trials was a tremendous success both on and off the water. Philip Cowman from Wexford Harbour BTC was the principal race officer. He received a tremendous amount of support from Royal Cork members whose children have already graduated from the Optimist fleet, notably Richard Leonard, Fred Cudmore, Kevin Lane, Sally O’Leary and Tommy Dwyer.

Rory Fitzpatrick kindly provided the race committee with the use of “Serifa” which gave the race officer the ideal platform to run excellent racing.

Thanks also to on-the-water observers who kindly gave of their time notably Anthony & Robert O’Leary, John Godkin, John McCann, Denis Cudmore, Fredrick Cudmore, Peter O’Donovan, Colin Barry, Robbie O’Sullivan, Nick Walsh, Ronan Kineally and John Crotty.

Mark Whitaker co-ordinated the entire event from the Royal Cork perspective with particular assistance from event Safety Officer Darren O’Keeffe and Club Sailing Coordinator Mark Ring.

Many other members assisted with registration, rescue, mark laying, beach master and other duties and while too numerous to mention great thanks is due to all.