NAUTICAL inspired fashion shoots are a popular feature in glossy magazines. They are usually headed something irritating like "Shop Ahoy" or "Nautical but Nice" and year in, year out feature little jaunty hats and gabardine numbers in navy and white. Any dedicated followers of this fashion would have felt mortifyingly out of step at Ford Cork Week. There is such a thing as yachting fashion, alright but it is extremely casual.
This year all the hip looking people in the tented village at Crosshaven were wearing Oakley sunglasses (£100) and Dubarry sailing shoes. After that it's shorts and the all important T-shirt.
With everyone wearing just about the same casual uniform it would be difficult to tell who really is who if it weren't for the information supplied by the T-shirts. They're usually souvenirs from previous regattas so you can see at a glance if the wearer is a veteran of Fastnet or Cowes or wherever, but more importantly, they tend to have the name of the wearer's boat embroidered on them. This speaks volumes to yachties (one of the more polite names and definitely the most printable one for yachting groupies), whoa can tell at a glance if someone is crewing on a £250,000 boat or a more humble £30,000 model.