Tim Powell, regular crew on Cristabella and skipper on Ran, talked to Louay Habib about the plans for Rán in the coming months.  “Cork Week is always a fantastic regatta with interesting and varied courses plus the great Irish hospitality to boot and 2008 was no exception. Our plan at present is to race in Antigua Race Week then onto the Newport Bermuda race from there we intend to do Cork Week.

Rán is a good all-round boat and we are looking forward to seeing how she performs on the wide variety of courses that we will experience in Cork. As we know the modified TP52’s are very competitive under IRC so we shall have to looking over our shoulders a lot. It’s a credit to IRC that last year the regatta came down to the final race on such different courses and we would not expect it to be different this year.”

Whilst other maxis are expected, the signs are that as many as five IRC modified TP52’s will gather at CORK WEEK.

Zennström’s previous boat was narrowly beaten at Cork Week in 2008, now called Pace and owned by Johnny Vincent, the Judel Vrolijk designed flyer will be doing in battle at Cork Week 2010. From the United States, Austin Fragomen’s Interlodge will be highly fancied. Nigel Passmore’s Plymouth crew on Apollo will be there to add to there stunning performance in last year’s Rolex Fastnet and the gathering of TP52’s may tempt Charles Dunstone’s Rio to make the trip across the Irish Sea. The British Keelboat Academy’s TP52, John Merricks II is concentrating on an offshore programme but is firmly available for charter with or without a crack crew of young talented sailors.

Cork Week 2010 is set to have a spectacular big boat class but part of the reason for their attendance is the fantastic atmosphere offered by the Royal Cork Yacht Club. The announcement of a complimentary welcome on Monday night has been well received by the sailors heading to Crosshaven this July.

Tim Powell photo courtesy Louay Habib