Harbour Master Sailing Challenge March 2019 to September 2023

HM 246. The three Cs.... Cork, Cobh and Crosshaven.

Paul O'Regan, HM of Cork, is a large character and it is no surprise that he is the President of the International Harbour Masters Association. With 300 members, including 270 HMs from over 80 countries Paul is well connected. The range of subjects shared by HMs when they meet is extensive. Paul gave me a couple of examples: How harbours will adapt to the use of Autonomous Craft (ships with no crew) and the controlling the dangers associated with electric vehicles as cargo.

Paul started out fishing with his father from Castletownbere, but I imagine he found fishing rather restrictive and he moved to Hong Kong to serve his apprenticeship as a Merchant Navy cadet with the Orient Overseas Container Line, which sounds rather exotic. With experience on Offshore Anchor Handlers and then a Captain with Irish Ferries he returned home to Cork to train as a pilot for three years. When the first vacancy for Deputy HM in 17 years occurred (Cork is clearly a popular place to work) Paul won it and rose to be HM in 2013.

As well as HM, the job is Chief Operating Officer of a Euro 40M business - of a harbour similar in size to two of the other largest natural harbours in the world, Sydney and Halifax. He oversees 3,000 ship movements, 10M tonnes of cargo and six different port facilities. His team extends to 120 people, one of whom, Kieran, collected me in a harbour rib and whizzed me up to meet Paul in Cobh (pronounced Cove). Here the imposing St Colman's Cathedral looms over all vessels transiting through Cork harbour, the most famous one of course being The Titanic, on its final port of call.

The harbour is so large that it took me a few days to explore the full extent of it, from Crosshaven near the entrance, which houses the oldest yacht club in the world - The Royal Cork Yacht Club established in 1720 - all the way up to the city centre pontoons. There we were met by the cheery crew of Cork City Missing Persons Search and Recovery boat, who sadly told us they are kept rather busy with people falling into the River Lee. We gave them a donation.

Paul has taken part in his own personal rescues. Once when meeting his bank manager in the same café where we were drinking our coffee, a man fell off the quay and Paul had to pull him out in his suit. Another time, when on his pilot boat, he came across a member of one of the four families still allowed to catch salmon in drift nets who had fallen into the water was holding onto a navigation mark. Paul rescued the man and in doing so not only ran his pilot boat aground but ended up giving the man his HM's jacket which contained his wallet, ID and keys. Somewhile later there was a call from the ambulance station to the HMs office saying "we have the Harbour Master in our ambulance". Not so, and the jacket was reunited with a relieved Paul. Of course like so many stories in Ireland, for full effect you need to hear it from the horse's mouth!

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