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 he saw was a tiny little steep island with someone on top of it. It was a Kerryman reclining on the peak of the otherwise immersed Carrauntoohill which - for the information of our friends outside Ireland – has the distinction of being our highest mountain, even if it would barely count as a foothill in the Himalayas.
Be that as it may, the skipper of the Ark felt obliged to pass a comment about the endless rain as he went by, and got the classic Kerry put-down for his troubles: “Och, ’tis only a shower”.
AUGUST’S CHANGE OF MOOD
Yet while changing perceptions may be affected by the weather of the moment or the fact of local pride over-riding reality, in sailing in Ireland, we still find it difficult to feel a sense of enthusiastic anticipation for many good things still to come once the first ten days of August are astern. Indeed, the great Tom Crosbie, philosopher-sailor of Cork, was wont to observe; “No gentleman would dream of having his yacht west of the Old Head of Kinsale after August 15th”.
“No gentleman would dream of having his yacht west of the Old Head of Kinsale after the 15th August”. Tom Doyle’s classic Int. 8 Metre If racing at Schull Regatta in early August 1960. First sailed in 1884, Schull Regatta has now expanded to become Calves Week.
Up north in my own nursery waters of Belfast Lough, back in the day there wasn’t really a totally-sheltered all-tides-accessible place to moor or berth a boat anywhere other than in the Port of Belfast itself. Thus there was a feeling of the shutters starting to come down after the end of July, as August was reputedly a no-go weatherwise for the regular cruising ground of the West Coast of Scotland, and some insurance companies eventually refused to provide cover for moorings in the Lough after August’s end.
The perils of a Belfast Lough “anchorage” in September 1936. The 20-ton ketch Morna was normally moored towards the head of the lough at Cultra, but as the only slipway capable of hauling her was at Bangor Shipyard on Ballyholme Bay, she’d been left down-lough the previous evening in anticipation of hauling in the morning. An unforecast northeast gale decided otherwise, and with it threatening to freshen again as the tide made, Bertie Slater of Bangor Shipyard made the courageous yet very right decision to strip Morna of everything removable, and then drill large holes in her garboards so that she’d fill with the rising tide, instead of re-floating and being bashed to bits. When the calm finally came after the storm, he sealed the holes, floated her off and into the slipway cradle, and restored her through the winter such that (below in Bangor Marina) she still thrives. Photo below by W M Nixon
SOUTH TO SUMMER AND SUN
Yet although our own boats of the O’Brien Kennedy-designed 26ft National Swallow Class were long since laid up back home, from time to time at the end of September we’d send a squad southward to Itchenor on England’s south coast to team-race against the longer-season local Swallow Class on Chichester Harbour. And down there - by Belfast Lough standards - it would still be summer, with astonishingly bright sunlight.
Swallow Class racing at Itchenor on Chichester Harbour, where summer lingered long after it had become Autumn on Belfast Lough. These delightful 26-footers were designed by O’Brien Kennedy working for Thorneycroft’s, and became the two-man boat at the 1948 Olympics at Torquay, with Alf Delany and Hugh Allen racing the boat for Ireland within days of first setting sight on her. The class on Belfast Lough ended brutally when the Great Northeast Gale of August 1976 demolished more than half of the boats moored in Ballyholme Bay, including all the remaining Swallows
Today, with the steady spread of marinas, we realise that while the Autumn may usually bring the sharper gales in the north and west, in between there’s plenty of good sailing still to be had on a sea which is at its warmest for the year. Thus you can tell exactly when a particular club first got its marina into action with the introduction date of its Autumn League.
ROYAL CORK’S MARINA GOLDEN JUBILEE
In Crosshaven with the Royal Cork, it was 1974, so there’s a Golden Jubilee coming down the line there next year. And in Howth, it was 1982, which saw the Marina and Autumn League’s 40th anniversary being quietly celebrated last year as the club emerged into full life post-pandemic.
The Royal Cork Yacht Club complex as it is today. Somewhere in there is the original Walcon marina of 1974, which will see its Golden Jubilee next year. Photo: Robert Bateman
But although more boats now have access to snug year-round shelter to change our perceptions of when the season begins and ends, and how late in the summer and into the early Autumn bases in far-flung places still make sense, the fact is that an exceptionally adverse period of weather like every least minute of July 2023 increasingly dominates our feelings. And this weekend won’t help, for although yesterday (Friday) saw a glimmer of summery weather, today (Saturday) is going to be utterly foul, with Ireland being crossed by a low pressure area so clearly defined that it looks like a page from a meteorology text-book.
SCORA RACE POSTPONEMENT IS RIGHT DECISION
Thus SCORA Commodore Daragh Connolly’s decision to postpone today’s Kinsale-Baltimore race for 24 hours makes good sense. But the problem is that when punctually-moving low pressure areas get over land, their time-keeping often goes to pot. And the continuing of correct behaviour by this particular low is of special interest, as there’s just a possibility that it – in concert with the next one – will be introducing the long-anticipated improvement in the weather which might begin to hint of itself tomorrow (Sunday).
APPROACHING FRONTS MAY HAVE BACKS
Don’t be expecting a heat-wave or deeply-settled conditions, but at least there may be the occasional ridge day or two struggling to assert its presence – in other words, the fronts may actually have backs. And the events which may most benefit from the more benign pattern will be Calves Week in Schull from Tuesday onwards for four days. Then, after a short but sharp re-opening of the taps, things may well be summery for much of Cruinnui na mBad on its 43rd anniversary of the traditional boat festival at Kinvara on Galway Bay next weekend from 11th to 13th August.
Calves Week in Schull can provide multiple sailing experiences in one day, as it moves from sheltered in-harbour starts……….Photo: Thomas Newman
….to the inevitable racing round the Fastnet Rock. Photo: Robert Bateman
ACTION IN CONNEMARA AND GALWAY BAY
All it will need is a better feeling to the weather to get the juices flowing, as the swing of the seasons and the traditional work patterns dictate that August is the time for ancient neighbourhood regattas along the West Coast. So although the Galway Hookers reckon the height of their season is being involved with the traditional July 16th pilgrimage and boat race programme to Mac Dara’s Island off south Connemara, in fact it’s probably more accurate to think of it as the grand opening ceremony with the peak of the racing still to come.
Utterly timeless – Galway Hookers racing to remind us of their role as symbols of the west
Either way, you take the weather as it comes, and simply hope for the best. In the year of Howth marina’s opening, we took our handy little 30-footer round Ireland anti-clockwise, and initially for the final fortnight of July, had weather so perfect along the north coast and down the western seaboard that we arrived at Skellig Michael under gentle spinnaker sailing. It was like regatta time out there, with cruising yachts taking it in turns in going alongside the little landing place (this was way back in the pre-visitor control era) to leave off crewmembers keen to scale the peaks of this extraordinary place.
Skellig Michael on a brisk day, with the seas breaking on the Washerwoman Rock in the foreground. Once upon a time on an exceptionally quiet day in 1982, cruising boats were able to take it in turns to land crewmen at the landing place on the main rock’s east side
BALTIMORE TRADITIONS
Yet when we got to Baltimore for the real regatta time two or three days later, the good weather was gone. It was raining steadily. Yet you can’t get ahead of them with weather or anything else down there. It had been exactly the same at my first time at Baltimore Regatta. But when I presumed to comment on it then, I got the brusque response: “You silly man. Don’t you know it always rains at Baltimore Regatta?”
