WM Nixon
William M Nixon has been writing about sailing in Ireland for many years in print and online, and his work has appeared internationally in magazines and books. His own experience ranges from club sailing to international offshore events, and he has cruised extensively under sail, often in his own boats which have ranged in size from an 11ft dinghy to a 35ft cruiser-racer. He has also been involved in the administration of several sailing organisations.
With strong easterlies sweeping the East Pier, Howth 17 Class Captain Dave O'Shea has postponed this evening's 125th Anniversary race until early Saturday afternoon; other terms and conditions still apply...
Day Two: Meath maestro Tom Dolan's Figaro 3 Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan came past the Blasket Islands northward bound at noon today (Thursday) on his clockwise Round Ireland Solo Record Challenge, making excellent progressin a brisk easterly wind that should carry him…
Noted marine climate expert and weather router, Chris Tibbs has commented that the Round Ireland Ireland Record poses one of the most intriguing yet manageable sailing challenges on earth. And it's particularly so when you're doing it in a mono-hull…
Howth 17s' Quasquicentennial Race On Thursday May 4th Hits The Publicity Button
2nd May 2023 Howth 17
Just get one good strange and distinctive word in your publicity material, and the news will spread like wildfire. Howth 17 Class Captain Dave O'Shea has discovered that the word for 125th Anniversary is Quasquicentennial, and he posted it this…
It’s an idea whose time first came back in 1884, and yet Dublin Bay Sailing Club remains as timely a concept as it ever was. Its official 2023 Opening Day is at Dun Laoghaire today, Saturday, April 29th, even though…
Poolbeg & Baltimore: Ireland’s Classics And Tradboats Have Demanding Choices In Making Best Use Of 2023 Programme
27th April 2023 Historic Boats
Ten years ago, when the Old Gaffers Association’s Dublin visit was a highlight of their Golden Jubilee Cruise-in-Company, it was a very crowded and festive series of events based around Poolbeg Yacht & Boat Club in late May 2013 that…
Len Sheil – “Skipper” to his many friends for as long as anyone can remember – was the very embodiment of Dun Laoghaire sailing with a cruising emphasis, as his father Commander Richard Sheil RNR, was Harbour Master of the…
University College Dublin are the First Irish Team to Win British University Opens in 53 Years
22nd April 2023 W M Nixon
It’s beginning to look as though University College Dublin is a sailing university with a work and studies problem. As the pressure builds in all departments ashore and afloat, they’re piling on the pace in the team and match racing…
University College Dublin Sailing Reaches Fresh International Heights Of Success
19th April 2023 Team Racing
With the Irish sailing community still getting used to the fact that University College Dublin Sailing Club opened its 2023 season with a first-ever overall victory for an Irish team at the high-powered Top Gun Series at Oxford, there were…
For most folk sailing in Ireland, Lough Ree is absolutely the plumb centre of it all. Thus it’s stretching it a bit to have it as the venue for the SB20 Northerns 2023, even if the popular mid-Ireland club sees…
Ireland's World-girdling Saoirse Is Re-born - All Welcome At Thursday's Skibbereen Launching Of Photo-Book Of The Magical Process
18th April 2023 Conor O'Brien
Anyone who doesn't respond at several emotional levels to the atmosphere in an ancient boat-building shed when a traditional wooden boat is being re-created in the time-honoured style can only be soul-dead. And when the boat in question is Conor…
The continuing vitality of Irish yacht clubs competing at the Youth Sailing National Championships at Howth Yacht Club is reflected in the fact that some club acronyms overlap, consequently in previous reports of the Topper racing, we had Cormac Byrne…
Dunne Deal for Optimists Despite Shape-Shifting With Extra Discard at Youth Sailing Nationals in Howth
16th April 2023 Optimist
The concluding day's one extra race at the Investwise Youth Sailing National Championships at Howth Yacht Club, slotted in between the morning's sunlit near-calm and the mid-afternoons varying attempts at fog, provided some key classes with an additional discard to…
Youth Sailing Nationals at Howth: Day 3 Sees Sunny Calm Give Way To Brisk But Greying Sou'easter
15th April 2023 Youth Sailing
With several local weather systems working themselves into lathers of various combinations, it seems that Howth in April for the four-day Investwise Youth Sailing Nationals can either provide sunshine but little wind, or a rising sou'easter but with eventually thickening grey…
Mixed Winds And Mixed Fortunes At Youth Sailing Nationals Day 2 At Howth Yacht Club
14th April 2023 Youth Sailing
Some placings waxed and waned, occasionally quite spectacularly, in Day 2's racing in the Investwise Youth Sailing Nationals at Howth, as wind and weather struggled to stabilise themselves after the theatrically unsettled conditions experienced earlier in the week. Nevertheless, in…
The best news for Ireland thus far in this developing sailing season of 2023 is that, at last weekend’s 400-boat four-day Spi Ouest Easter Regatta at La Trinite in Southern Brittany, Meath’s own Tom Dolan won the hyper-keen Figaro 3…
Youth Sailing Nationals At Howth Get Two Races Between Morning Gale And Sunset Calm
13th April 2023 Youth Sailing
The first day of racing in the big-fleet Investwise Youth Sailing Nationals at Howth Yacht Club saw the Race Team get in two good races in the sweet spot between the morning's near gale that was the last of Storm…
Youth Sailing Nationals Move In On Howth With 168 Boats As Storm Antoni Moves Out
13th April 2023 Howth YC
Storm Antoni has been making quite a lot of noise and bother all over Ireland in recent days, but now he has moved east just in time for the Investwise Youth Sailing Nationals 2023 to move in on Howth from…
Good Friday Agreement’s 25th Anniversary Coincides With Howth 17s’ Epic Centenary Sail Home from Carrickfergus Through Irish Sea
11th April 2023 Howth 17
The events in Ireland this week with President Joe Biden and others marking the 25th Anniversary of the signing of Good Friday Agreement in Belfast on 10th April 1998 are a reminder that, at exactly the same time just a…
Recipe for a great day of celebration: Put together a well-earned praise-fest in which the lead speaker is a senior Government Minister and sailing enthusiast of the calibre of Simon Coveney TD. Add in a lively attendance of 270-plus that…
