`Show me something that's so up-market that a suit and tie is out of place and I'll show you the Ford Cork Week," chortles the sailing regatta chairman, Clayton Love. Midway through the week he was rubbing his face ruefully and insisting his main concerns were hosepipes and loos, but when pressed, he did admit this was certainly the biggest and hopefully, the best Ford Cork Week ever, even if getting visitors to dress really casual is an abiding problem.
With over 600 boats and an estimated 6,000 sailors, Crosshaven was awash with big names from the sailing world as well as yachting groupies and the local hoi polloi. Eddie Nolan, managing director of Ford in Cork, kicked off the week with just a little touch of Corkonian chauvinism. The prize for the winner of the high-falutin' O Class is a brand new car and Eddie didn't mind admitting that he wanted the only Cork boat - Denis Doyle's Moonduster - to win it. Denis, who hardly looks half his 78 years, looked suitably pleased.
The O Class is the race for the big boys. Tony Mullins, the owner of Barlo Plastics is racing a boat called, guess what, Barlo Plastics with the world class Irish sailor Harold Cudmore at the helm and the other Irish entrant is Colm Barrington, ex-GPA executive who resides on Dalkey's Sorrento Terrace and who recently won the round Ireland race.
Overseas big spenders included Sir Geoffrey Mulcahy, chairman of the Kingfisher Group which includes companies such as Woolworths and Comet; UK property developer, Richard Loftus; Piet Vroom, Dutch owner of Livestock Express who was racing Tonnerre de Sar; Adam Gosling, whose family business was LCP parking in England and who was one of the early casualties of the tournament when his boat Yes displayed a cracked mast before the racing even began.
When the sailing stops the socialising begins, though more than one person remarked that the Crosshaven regatta is known for its serious sailing rather than its on-board socialising. Still, there was a huge crowd in the tented village with its five bars each afternoon - the small cocktail palace set up by the Cork champagne importers, the Bubble Brothers (aka Billy Forrester and Rory Morrish) was doing especially well. On Tuesday, there was a small note of formality when Ford held a corporate dinner in the Royal Cork Yacht Club in Crosshaven (allegedly the oldest club in the world). Again, Eddie Nolan was making the speeches although the admiral of the yacht club, Kevin Lane, also said a few words. Eddie laughed that the Ford Cork Week brought together two of his three great passions - motoring and sailing - and as for the third, "Well, I'd just like to draw your attention to the fact that Cork is home to the biggest expanding recreational drug as well." He was referring of course to Pfizer, which manufactures components of Viagra.
Other guests at this dinner included Richard Burrows, managing director of Irish Distillers and his wife Sherril Burrows; Michael Mortell, president of UCC and his wife Pat, and Chief Supt Adrian Culligan and his wife Nuala.