So, with the threat of a the reminants of a hurricane dogging the forecast most days, the Worlds proceeded, pretty much withought a hitch... day one and I flew into Cork "International" airport, in shorts and T-shirt, the sun shining and 10 mins later taxi for Clay, James turns up for me... thanks matey, boat rigged, scrutineered and ready to rock 'n roll already...
So, off to accomodation, well that was interesting, it was a quaint old 3 or 4 story house, up the hill a bit from the yacht club, staggering distance down and crawling distance back, the old couple who owned/run the "B&B" were nice enough, we were up tut top floor, through the very small windows there were some nice views of the estuary and then we had to crap in a cupboard..sorry to take you from imaginative views to bog-humour, but it had to be done, yep I think they had converted a small cupboard into a bathroom, bog and sink (and spiders)... so every morning a dump when I got up, fried breakfast and another dump, I felt like Harry-yachty-Potter, but withought the ability to make the boat go bloody fast or do any other kool magic!
So, in true SoulSailor tradition, next up is some social stuff... firstly off to the pub..tea time! Well we went to the Anchor Inn and it was great, traditional pub with fantastic food and Murphys.. I went for the SeaFood Chowder, which was orgasmic, serverd in basically a hollowed loaf of bread and a pint of Murphys, you cant beat that...James had a Cheese Burger, about 4 times as thick as yer usual mcCrapyBurger... also V.nice... then off to the Club... Commodores reception was the usual free alcohol thing..actually no, it wasn't the usual, it was sponsored by Cork Dry Gin, free G&T's handed out by G&T-totty for 2 whole hours -7pm ->9pm (I was counting), no restrictions, drink, glass down, pick new glass up, drink....WOW!! Who knows how many we downed, but I know it was way too much! So fantastic intro into Cork, Crosshaven and the World Champs...
So onto the proper yachting bit.. race 1 of the champs (I missed the practice race flying in).. light to moderate breeze but damned lumpy, takes ages to get out to the "sea" (hour odd+), down the estuary, round the corner, over the sand bar (good fun!) and out into the unknown! Luckily most of the time this was timed with tides, so that helped a little... So, Sean Craig and Michelle Rowley got the 1st bullett of the World, Jeff Dyer and Cooky gor 2nd and the Indians, SanjeevSingh Chavha & Neeraj Sharma were 3rd, we managed 16th which wasnt too bad...special mention to Phil & Katrina with a 4th in that one...
So, i'm not gonna bore you all with a rundown of all the socials, mainly 'cus I cant remember what the hell happened.. Murphys, G&T's Caileys (spelt wrong I know) - BTW me and Karen Taylor won the dancing competition one night, how mads that??!??
But I will offer to you the secret of my survival that week...
- Wake Up, slightly hungover
- Groan
- Dump
- Breakfast - Orange Juice, fry-up, coffee and 1 cup only of Johnny's tea (he was quite protective of it!)
- Dump
- Yacht Club
- Rig Boat
- Dump
- Put damp sailing kit on..groan again...
- Launch and treck out to race course admiring the beautiful irish scenery and playing with the tides
- Race... 1 or 2 races @ the PROs descretion
- Back in with the tide (hopefully)
- Bugger about in the estuary 'cus 4 the whole week they couldnt work out a good way of gettin us up the one slip in a controlled manner :-(
- Pack boat up
- Shower
- Cover on boat 'cus its afternoon and it'll rain very soon
- Get 1 pint of Murphys each (helm &Crew)
- Order SeaFood Chowder (& cheese and ham toastie for crew)
- Sunnies on, sit out infron of the club overlooking the estuary sipping Murphys waiting for food
- Eat food, sigh contentedly
- Back to digs
- 1 hour power nap
- Back to club or pub for food (eat seafood & drink lots of water and Murphys - not together)
- Back to yacht club for social - enjoy as much as possible
- Ring family, have bizzare conversation with 1.5 year old, talk about toys & telly with 4.5 year old and conversation about sailing, work and how much buggers the kids have been with wife..
- Drink 3-4 pints of Murphys
- Finish of with some G&T's
- Struggle back up the bloody hill to bed
- Pass out
- Repeat until sent home on a plane with Salty, Pete Rowley and the Frys (motley crew or what!)
Race 2, same sort of wind, (same day), Jeff and Cooky won, Nick and Sheena were 2nd,
Naresh Yadav & G L Yadav were 3rd... we were 20th, but still laying inside the top 20 which was our aim...
Day 2
Race 3 and 4 - slightly more breeze around 15knots 2 trapezoidal course. Nick & Sheena won, Jeremy and Salty were 2nd, Jeff & Cooky were 3rd... we managed a bloody good 10th..happy with that and it meant we got a keeper prize nice and early in the series... top prize too for the race places.. a picture of a few Ents going out of the estuary.. nice... then we got a 33rd..bummer
Day 3
Light Breezes and only one race...
Race 5, first our very own Phill Kirk and James Askew.. nice one boyz... 2nd, Nick & Sheena, 3rd Sean & Michelle... we only managed a 30th, we seemed to be in decline :-(
Day 4
Races 6 & 7 - plenty of beeze out in the open ocan...fun... Nick got a 1st and a 6th, Jeff 3rd and 2nd, SanjeevSingh 8th and a 1st, we continued our consistantly not good enuff run with a 32nd and 33rd... I'm not gonna mention that the race office screwed up and published results with Jeff being black-flagged from one of the races today and hence Nick Craig had won the Worlds..only to find..luckily? before being thrown in or drinking too much they found that the race office had fcuked up..this shouldnt happen at a worlds, but i'm not gonna mention it....
Last Day
It blew...26 knots++, we sailed inside, in relatively flat seas off Cuskinny. Early into the race Nick was far enough infront of Jeff for Jeff to decide to take an early shower, his 2nd place overall was secured.... the rest of us battled on with some awesome reaches and plenty of hairy-arsed-scary camera shots if anyone had been out there with a camera.... we were doing alright, in the teens mid way through the race, finishing in this kinda position would boost us back up the table to 2o/21/22 place overall which would have been acceptable....But....
So, there we were sledging down the 1st reach happily, as we approach the gybe mark a big-bugger-breeze hit the gybe mark (probably on purpose) a few of the leading pack went for a last day re-vitalising swim in Irish water... me thinks, well, we need this position... we need to keep the blue flappy bits above the white solid bit... "James we're not gybing.." came my call, better to be safe than sorry... James dis-agreed... I dis-agreed, I then re-decided to gybe based on his "thoughts", it didn't go smoothly, the bow thought, they're indecisive, i'm not, it took over and flappy bit hit the water... James up on centreboard..
So, I hurl expletives up at him from wallowing in water position, he hurls expletives at me from standing up in a blow on wooden sticky-out bit, boat comes upright, re-iterate expletives said by each other and then go quiet.... decie (both in a snotty mood) that we cant improve on our position now (big pack of boats past us while we were upside down), so we retire and sail the long lonely fast reach back to Crosshaven.... Jame shits boat repeatedly and more expletives... I'm hanging on to tiller extension and mainsheet so am just banging boat with fists mentally (and more mental expletives)... lull comes, Ant hits boat with a free hand... James & Ant grunt at each other and "agree" it was all a mistake etc etc etc etc etc... not gonna go into blame mode or any crap like that.. what happened happened, it cost us 3 or 4 places overall, but shit happens...
Lesson learnt... I've got the stick-thing in my hand that makes the boat change direction... I do what the hell I like...
So thats the sailing done.... proze giving night was the usual affair, food, drink...too much drink... prizes....drink... oh yeh its throw world-champ-in-water-o'clock.... half a dozen of us grabbed Nick Craig, he was stripped of his dignity and most of his clothes and then we dragged him kicking (bloody hard) and grumbling down the yacht club out onto a pontoon and
Well thats about it.... do you like how I didint mention the International Jury... no mention of them scrutinising obsessively everyone, no mention of them wrongly acussing Youngy of missing out a mark, no mention of them lobbing a load of people on the first day... lecturing us about rule 54 that evening and re-setting the "lobbing tally" that night... nope, not gonna mention any of that....
So my top whatever number of things about the Worlds '04 too finish off with...
- Hospitality was fabulous
- Meals at the yacht club were expensive
- SeaFood Chowder at the Anchor is Divine
- Dedre (landlady) at the Anchor is fantastic, loves dogs, runs a top pub and we (me and' Gez) thank her for her hospitality...
- Murphys in Ireland is great, in UK its not soo good
- SeaFood Chowder has too be eaten by everyone.... Anchor or yacht club
- G&T sponsored events are better than anything
- Thanks for the Indians, US, Spain etc etc for making this truly international
- UK Ent sailors ain't lost that loving feeling
- Nick Craigs arse didn't come out in the photo's when we chucked him in...
- Crosshaven is beautiful
- The racing was fantastic.... 1hr 10 mins most races...
- Power naps are the way forwards
- The Moonduster has great (but scrary) singers.... true Irish craic...
- The map at the Royal Cork Yacht club has a place called knockaphuka on it :-)
- Murphys takes ages to pour but its worth the wait...
- Everyone was in a happy place
So me and james ended up in 26th, not as good as we wanted...at al, but hey thats life, and thats sailing..
Top 30 Results:
1st Nick Craig & Sheena Craig
2nd Jeff Dyer & Simon Cook
3rd Aashim Mongia & Amit Arvind
4th SanjeevSingh Chavha & Neeraj Sharma
5th Roy Van Maanen & Neil Van Maanen
6th Jonathan Lye & Karl Lye
7th Sean Craig & Michelle Rowley
8th Naresh Yadav & G L Yadav
9th Jeremy Stephens & Richard Sault
10th Phil Bevan & Catrina Bevan
11th Ger Dempsey & Dave Sweeney
12th Timothy Goodbody & Amy Swan
13th Stephen O'Driscoll & John O'Driscoll
14th Nick Jackson & Alex Halliwell
15th Marty Cuppage & Chris Nolan
16th Shane MacCarthy & Pete Rowley
17th Barry Moss & Julie Moore
18th Jon Woodward & Katie Dolling
19th Peter Lawson & Dennis Swain
20th Ann Jackson & Alan Skeens
21st Jane Scutt & Nick Scutt
22nd Jack Banks & Joe Banks
23rd Phil Kirk & James Askew
24th Keith Whitfield & Hugh Sims-Wiliams
25th Roy Barker & Minnie Lucey
26th Ant & James
27th Tim Vick & Adam Loveday
28th Euan Dunn & Fi Foulkes
29th Stephen Lee & Mandy Griffith
30th Ges Brown & Craig Wheatley
So I know I've missed stuff, if its important email me and i'll add it... anyway thats it... next posts must be the audio ones and a selection of images from the Nats and the Worlds.. when they arrive, enjoy them... we thank you all for making this two weeks, well heaven and hell for all the right reasons!
Keep Soulsailing....
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