Sailing on Saturday with WM Nixon
New Life For Ireland’s Ancient Local Classes As Top Sailors Learn to Value Neighbourhood Sport
16th September 2023 W M Nixon
They’ve been part of our sailing furniture for so long that you could be forgiven for thinking Ireland’s historic local classes might just quietly fade away through being barely noticed. But you’d be very much mistaken. 2023 has been a…
Monday.com ICRA Nats 2023 At Howth Are A Modern Take On A Time-Honoured Tradition
8th September 2023 W M Nixon
When the three-day Irish Cruiser-Racing Association monday.com-sponsored annual National Championship gets underway today (Friday) at Howth, it will be the combination of a modern innovation in Irish sailing, which is barely twenty years old, and a local regatta tradition of…
Yesterday (Friday), Afloat.ie listed eight of our “Sailor of the Month” awards for August 2023. As most involved either double-handed teams or helmsmen representing more numerous crews, in total, the achievements mentioned highlighted the successful sailing performance of 22 people…
Ireland’s Tom Dolan And Figaro Fleet Start 54th Annual Solo Contest Towards Kinsale on Sunday
26th August 2023 W M Nixon
The Solitaire du Figaro has been a significant feature of the European sailing scene for 54 years now, and today it is well established as La Solitaire du Figaro Paprec, supported by the 1985-founded French re-cycling and green energy conglomerate.…
J Boats Riding High Towards First J Cup Ireland In Dublin Bay In A Week’s Time
19th August 2023 W M Nixon
The international J Boat fleet, with its many variants, fills a special role in world sailing, with an underlying sense of family permeating this attractive no-nonsense craft. For it all of course, stems from the initial creative introduction – explosion,…
Although the announcement that Howth Yacht Club had become the latest MG Motor “Sailing Club of the Year 2023” was made at the beginning of the year following outstanding achievements at home and abroad by the club and its members…
Sailing In Ireland: Good Weather Is Now Just Around The Corner – But Which Corner?
5th August 2023 W M Nixon
Down Kerry way where the weather is often for adults only, they say that when Noah came bobbing along in his crowded Ark across the boundless wastes of flood water, the first sign of any land-indicating feature with life that…
Golden Jubilee Of Ireland’s Fastnet Race Gull Salver Sees Lucky Dog Play Key Role In Nieulargo Win
29th July 2023 W M Nixon
It was the dog what done it. A hound of mysterious powers has changed family fortunes for a Crosshaven sailing clan. The Murphy-Fegan family’s Grand Soleil 40 Nieulargo, the Royal Cork Yacht Club Vice Admiral’s Cleopatra-style gilded barge, so to…
Ireland’s Fastnet Rock Could Become Only Remaining Feature Of Original Fastnet Race Course
22nd July 2023 W M Nixon
Sometimes we need to remind ourselves that prediction can be a dodgy business as it involves the future. And when that future is reckoned to include – as it does for today (Saturday’s) Fastnet Race start in the Solent –…
50th Fastnet Race on Saturday July 22nd 2023 Will Remind Us Of Vintage Racer Brynoth’s Unique Success In Golden Jubilee Race
15th July 2023 W M Nixon
It is arguably the greatest on-water fleet organisation in world sailing. In a week’s time, the 450 or so boats in the 50th staging of the 695-mile Rolex Fastnet Race will be sent on their way from Cowes in a…
Some decidedly rugged racing yesterday (Friday), though with rapidly improving conditions, managed brilliantly to pull the wind-battered VDLR-23 back into line. But there’s no doubting the fact that it is all being achieved with weather that is a little bit…
A week of maritime-related festivity is underway today (Saturday) as Coastival gets going in Dun Laoghaire, with the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta from next Thursday through to Sunday contributing mightily to a peak of dynamic interaction between town entertainment and…
Kinsale’s Simply Blue Sovereign’s Cup Regatta Can Sparkle As Sailing Stars Shine
24th June 2023 W M Nixon
Although Friday’s racing was cancelled in the face of heavy winds and the strong possibility of fog in a notably unstable weather phase, it has otherwise been Camelot in Kinsale for the Simple Blue Sovereigns Cup 2023. Any serious rain…
Conor O'Brien’s Saoirse Departure Centenary Underlines Dun Laoghaire’s Central Role
17th June 2023 W M Nixon
A hundred years ago next Tuesday, June 20th, Conor O'Brien (1880-1952) of Foynes took his departure with some fanfare aboard his 42ft Saoirse from the harbour her skipper preferred to call Dunleary, though most of its citizens saw it as…
Volvo Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race 2023 – An Entire Saga Of Sailing In Just Twenty-Six Hours
9th June 2023 Dun Laoghaire Dingle
It was that noted offshore yachtsman and rail travel enthusiast Vladimir Ilyich Lenin who observed that ten years can go past with no significant history occurring at all, and then suddenly ten years of hectic history can happen in just…
Volvo Dun Laoghaire-Dingle Race Will Celebrate 30th Anniversary With Record Fleet
3rd June 2023 W M Nixon
There’s more than a few of us around who well remember the launching of the new 280 nautical miles Dun Laoghaire to Dingle race by the ideas-filled duo of Martin Crotty and Peter Cullen of the National Yacht Club. It…
