Calves Week exceeds its entry cap of 70 boats ahead of return to full format

With less than four days to the opening ceremony for the highlight of the West Cork sailing season, the annual Calves Week has already exceeded its entry cap of 70 boats as it returns to full format in the post-Covid era.

Drawing entries from around the region but also from the West and East coasts, the organisers at Schull Harbour Sailing Club (SHSC) find themselves with a method that attracts purist sailors with an authentic formula that extends beyond straightforward racing.

Set over four days, the CD Environmental sponsored series adapts its programme to the prevailing weather conditions and, given the summer of 2023 so far its just as well as the forecast is so wildly unpredictable.

SHSC commodore Mark Murphy reckons that there hasn’t been a weekend recently without near-gale force winds, though their club racing schedule was still completed.

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Next week’s four-day regatta is provisionally set to start with the highlight of the event and the race from Schull around the famous Fastnet lighthouse.

“We normally schedule the Fastnet Race for the Tuesday but we keep it movable in case the weather isn’t favourable – we want to give it the best chance possible of happening,” he told The Irish Times. “Out around the Fastnet is a big pull for people – it’s a racecourse in itself.”

That unique route, on a far smaller scale than last week’s epic 595 nautical-mile event from Cowes to Cherbourg via “the lonely rock” typifies why Calves Week is such a draw for such a widely varied fleet that ranges from hotshot Class Zero boats to local family racers.

“The two big things (that draw people to Calves Week) are the sailing area around Roaring Water Bay – boats from Dublin usually sail, around the cans, only – we have courses in and around the islands, around the Skeams and Calves as well as laid courses,” explains Murphy.

Tweaking the format without losing the essence of the event is down to Flor O’Riordan as organising committee chair along with the hugely experienced principal race officer Alan Crosbie running the racing afloat.

This year will have a new addition to the tried and tested format – at the suggestion of the bigger Class Zero boats – which is a laid windward mark at the entrance to Crookhaven Harbour.

From the starting-line off Schull, the fleet will have a first upwind leg of six nautical miles, short-tacking up Long Island channel before their turn downwind which should make a nice spectacle for watchers at Toormore and Goleen.

But a unique shoreside aspect of this event is that the host club doesn’t have an actual clubhouse apart from a boatyard base.

“The whole town of Schull is our club and we spread out around the whole area,” said Murphy. “It’s like a festival and we reach everywhere.”

Schull is already known to up and coming Olympic sailors as a spiritual home of sorts with regular training camps based there. Schull Community College has also for decades made Sailing part of its PE curriculum so the sport is fully integrated in the area.

Murphy’s father Michael was one of the founding members of the club back in 1977, a few years before the first Cavles Week began and he himself has done almost every event on their family boat, the Shelly D which is a veteran of every event.

For the final few days before the first gun, all eyes will be on the weather but also on the horizon as the delivery trips to West Cork are under way in earnest.

“They’re coming from Bantry Bay, Kerry, Foynes, Garrykennedy and all over the East coast – it’s an (average) 14 hour hop for some, but longer for others,” said Murphy. “We have our regulars but there’s a few newcomers so a nice mix.”

And weather gods permitting, the islets of Long Island Bay nestled between Cape Clear and the mainland will be awash with sails for the coming week.