Blogs

The Zest is Back in Irish Sailing

7th December 2018 Dublin Bay

Maybe it’s the fact that the days start to get longer again in only a fortnight, but there’s mood of rising optimism in Irish sailing these days writes W M Nixon. There’s an almost measurable buzz in the air which…

Irish South Coast Offshore Sailors Elect First Lady Commodore

5th December 2018 SCORA

Hello and welcome to my weekly Podcast …. Tom MacSweeney here …. “I intend to promote sailing in general and also to promote coastal offshore racing.” That was the declaration of Johanna Murphy from the Great Island Sailing Club in…

Could it be one of the Blaskets? Or maybe a southern island of the Outer Hebrides? Not so. This is the Big One – Cape Horn on a good day. It was 94 years ago this Sunday that Conor O’Brien of Limerick achieved the remarkable “first” of crossing the Southern Ocean directly from New Zealand and rounding Cape Horn with his 42ft Baltimore-built ketch Saoirse

Irish Sailors, the Golden Globe & Cape Horn After 94 Years

1st December 2018 W M Nixon

On most coastlines in the world, you’ll invariably hear of some challenging nearby headland being referred to as “the local Cape Horn” writes W M Nixon No other promontory worldwide has the same global image. It tells us much about…

The Lady Min once was a “thorn in the side” of the renowned Cork Harbour yacht racing aficionados

Lady Min Restoration: The Attraction of Boats in the Life of a Family

28th November 2018 Cork Harbour

Hello and welcome to my weekly Podcast …. Tom MacSweeney here …. There is a great lot to be said about the pride of a family in a boat and there is nothing wrong with being old when age is…

After a few days with the Ilen in Limerick’s Ted Russell Dock, you get used to the ever-present yet always-changing metallic mini-mountains

Historic Ketch Ilen’s Helmsmen Get Top Class Instruction Among Limerick’s Metallic Moving Mountains

23rd November 2018 W M Nixon

Down Limerick way, somebody is probably already putting together an appropriate song about how the historic sail trading ketch Ilen was saved from the scrapyard through a heroic decade-long restoration programme by Limerick’s Ilen Project, only to spend her first…

RCYC Vice Admral Colin Morehead with younger sailors Robyn Lynch and Tom McGrath, the winner of the Under 25 Sailor of the Year at last week's prizegiving

Racing Cruisers Need Younger Sailors

21st November 2018 Tom MacSweeney

Hello and welcome to my weekly Podcast …. Tom MacSweeney here ….Getting more younger sailors into cruiser classes is vital to ensure the future of racing these yachts. From meeting with and talking to club officers around the country, it…

Ireland’s Tom Dolan in his Figaro 2 Smurfit Kappa, turning to windward along the north coast of Spain during the Portosin-St Gilles leg of the 2018 Solitaire URGO Figaro – he was first rookie in this stage. Although the versatile Figaro 2 is being replaced by the foiling Figaro 3 for the Golden Jubilee Figaro Series next year, the introduction of a new offshore racing event in the 2024 Olympics could give the Figaro 2 a fresh lease of life

How Will an Irish Olympic Two-Person Offshore Campaign for France 2024 take shape?

16th November 2018 W M Nixon

A woman. A man. Three days and two nights together at sea. Racing in a cramped 30ft boat. Under 24-hour surveillance. It sounds like the latest pitch for a Reality TV show. Arguably, it is. But it’s also the new…

RCYC's second race of its winter league for Cruisers in Cork Harbour

Winter Sailing Tests Experience & Ability

14th November 2018 Tom MacSweeney

Hello and welcome to my weekly Podcast …. Tom MacSweeney here …. As Winter approaches and onshore activity at clubs begins to focus on annual meetings, conversation topics, I find, seem to focus on perennial issues about the state of…

Never happier than when at sea - Donal Lynch in 1998, aboard the Swan 55 Rambler.

Donal Lynch 1937-2018

9th November 2018 W M Nixon

Donal Lynch’s remarkable life was a series of successful and interconnecting phases writes W M Nixon. His engaging presence is now gone from among us at the age of 81, and he is very much missed. Yet so much of…

Cork Harbour racing in this month's Royal Cork Winter league

Cork Harbour Yacht Clubs Decide to Continue Combining

8th November 2018 Cork Harbour

Hello and welcome to my weekly Podcast ….Tom MacSweeney here…. The three Cork Harbour yacht clubs – the Royal Cork at Crosshaven, Monkstown Bay and Great Island Sailing Clubs – have decided that the format of a combined clubs racing…

Beaufort Cup racing in Volvo Cork Week. Commandant Barry Byrne’s success with racing John Maybury’s J/109 Joker 2 in this series, and in the Round Ireland Race earlier in July, was one of 2018’s many remarkable achievements

2018’s Sailors of the Month - The Human Face of Exceptional Irish Sailing Achievements

3rd November 2018 W M Nixon

As we begin to contemplate a 24th year for the Afloat.ie/Irish Sailing “Sailors of the Month” assessments in 2019, it’s time and more for a look back to the people and the achievements which defined our top performers in and…

Ballinacurra historian Ursula O'mahony presents the first Bransfield Memento to Nena Creenan

The Legendary Mariners Of Ballinacurra

31st October 2018 Tom MacSweeney

Hello and welcome to my weekly Podcast ….Tom MacSweeney here …. Creenan’s hostelry in Ballinacurra village, close to the town of Midleton in East Cork is a hallowed place in the annals of sailing. On its walls hang photographs and…

Summer sailing as it should be….Jump Juice from Cork in the lead at the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta, which will be the biggest event in Irish waters in 2019

Ireland’s Sailing Prospects for 2019 – Constantly Changing to Stay The Same

26th October 2018 W M Nixon

“For everything to stay the same, everything must change….” It’s an enduring and profound thought from the classic Italian novel The Leopard. And it applies to Irish sailing at least much as it does to most other aspects of Irish…

First-Ever National Maritime Plan Should Not Be Ignored

24th October 2018 Tom MacSweeney

Hello and welcome to my weekly Podcast …. Tom MacSweeney here …. The marine sector is about to be planned for the first time. This is the development of Ireland’s first national marine spatial plan, about which a public consultation…

Cool performer. Niall Dowling’s Ker 43 Baraka GP at Wicklow Head at the start of the Volvo Round Ireland Race 2018. Despite being well down the overall rankings off the coast of Mayo, a tactically brilliant second half saw her emerge as line honours victor and overall winner

2018 – An Irish Sailing Year Like No Other

20th October 2018 W M Nixon

Anyone who claims to comprehend every nuance of Ireland’s sailing story during 2018 is living in a state of happy delusion writes W M Nixon. For sure, much that happened followed the set path of the annual programme at home…

Lough Ree Yacht Club Commodore, Garrett Leech

Not One But The Two Oldest Yacht Clubs in The World are Irish

17th October 2018 Tom MacSweeney

Hello and welcome to my weekly Podcast …. Tom MacSweeney here …. That the Royal Cork at Crosshaven is the oldest yacht club in the world is well-known, even if there are some elements who have challenged, though unsuccessfully, that…