A WEST Cork regatta which began without a boat in sight has at last been able to welcome 11 boats, including three tall ships.
Up to 70 other boats which set out from Bristol for the regatta last week were forced to seek shelter from storms in harbours in Ireland and Britain.
The regatta, at Castletownbere, Co Cork, was opened officially on Saturday by Mr Hugh Coveney, Minister of State at the Department of Finance - despite the absence of the flotilla.
Mr Coveney, a former Minister for the Marine and a keen yachtsmen who has sailed for Ireland, went ahead undaunted, describing it as a "wedding without the bride".
However, by yesterday, three tall ships - La Recouvrance, from France, the Irene, from Britain, and the Tangaroa, also from the Britain, had arrived safely at Castletownbere together with eight other yachts. The British sail-training vessel, Royalist, was sheltering at Kinsale, and the Russian tall ship, The Nikolai, was seeing out the storm at Crosshaven in Cork.
The Matthew, a replica of the vessel on which the Bristol explorer, John Cabot, discovered Newfoundland in 1496, was also on its way to west Cork, with a BBC crew on board. The vessels are expected in Castletownbere later this week. Yesterday, another regatta participant, the French yacht Marlin, was towed into Ballycotton by the Ballycotton lifeboat after running out of fuel 12 miles out of Cork Harbour.
Some 80 boats set out from Bristol on Tuesday and Wednesday last to take part in the Atlantic Rendezvous - a race organised to celebrate Cabot's discovery of Newfoundland. The Castletownbere leg of the race - from west Cork to France - is scheduled to depart next weekend: the fleet had aimed to assemble in the town last weekend as part of the Bantry 96 Festival, which is commemorating the failed attempt by Wolfe Tone 200 years ago to land a fleet Bantry Bay.
Because of rough weather, the flotilla was scattered, with as many as 50 taking shelter in Southampton.
Yesterday, Mr John Harrington, a member of the Castletownbere organising committee, said it was not yet certain how many boats would arrive in the town during the week, but it was hoped at least 20 would make it safely to the port.