After three coastal and round the cans style races at Volvo Cork Week so far, overall series standings face being upturned as the remaining two days will feature six short races on inshore courses.
The scenic part of the programme culminated on Wednesday with the hallmark Harbour Course over 16.5 nautical miles which began with a massed start off Roche’s Point that required a kilometre-long starting line.
The fleet staged a colourful procession led by the fastest entries northwards and into Cork Harbour for a racing sail past the stepped town of Cobh.
Overall winner
A total of 85 boats took part across all classes while the full reported entry of 120 boats will be in action as one-designs join the programme from Thursday.
Howth’s Johnny Swan on his restored half-tonner Harmony emerged as overall winner of the Harbour Race with a time just 18 minutes behind the much larger Eleuthera, Frank Whelan’s Greystones entry that took line honours.
In the Beaufort Cup series for military and rescue crews, Simon Coveney’s crew on Jedi won the class in the Harbour Race – absent their skipper – and move into second place overall.
