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 from all over the country.
There are those who would say that as we have been running these listings since 1996, you’d think that by now, we would have learned how to make the ruthless surgical cuts necessary to reduce it down to just one award.
But as International Yachting Historians Association Chairman Hal Sisk has persuasively asserted, Ireland invented and introduced much of what is now the accepted practice in sailing worldwide, both in racing and cruising. So, in doing the “Sailor of the Month” awards in our own, perhaps quirky way, we’re following in a fine old Irish sailing tradition of innovation and making it up as we go along.
Enduring innovation. With a class history dating back to 1887, the Dublin Bay Water Wags know a thing or two about how regular sailing can be managed despite adverse Irish weather. However, they aren’t finished yet in 2023 – for September’s Equinoctial Weekend, they’ll be experimenting with a class expedition for racing on the northerly Shannon lake of Lough Key
Thus in 27 years of assessing the “Sailor of the Month” title, we’ve learned that crude analysis to result in just one monthly title-holder simply doesn’t work for a country of such varied sailing, sailing that takes place in widely differing locations, in multiple boat types, and in an often challenging weather environment.
AUGUST 2023 “BEST IRISH SAILING MONTH EVER”
And this time round, special circumstances prevail. Despite some of the most disagreeable August weather seen in many decades, it’s not unreasonable to assert that August 2023 has been one of the best-ever months for Irish sailing achievement, both at home and abroad.
A highlight of August in any Irish sailing year is the annual Calves Week out of Schull, and it went cheerfully ahead in 2023 through a mixture of good sailing breezes between fog and gales. Photo: Robert Bateman
At home, it could be argued that the real heroes of the Irish sailing scene have been the Race Officer teams who have endured often abominable conditions to put through viable championship programmes which have gone well beyond the meagre most basic claim of “We got a result”.
ORGANISING HEROES
Doubtless, those top organisers and race officers will be awarded with the “Sailors of the Month (Services to Sailing)” accolade before the year is out. But right now, as we face into a September which may briefly enjoy an Indian summer for a few days before reverting to type as the ultra-disturbed conditions currently plaguing the western Atlantic work their way east, though hopefully in a very diluted form, we can only look back in wonder at all that was seen and done in August.
Celebrating 120 years. Even if there’s a cloudscape which would not look out of place on a November day, the 18ft Belfast Lough Waverley Class OD Ivanhoe sails out at Whiterock on Strangford Lough in August to commemorate the class’s founding in 1903. Although now based with Strangford Lough YC, the Waverleys originated in Belfast Lough where Ivanhoe was owned for decades by the Henshaw brothers of Whitehead in County Antrim. They not only won many races with her, but somehow cruised this gallant little craft up the West Coast of Scotland as far as Skye. Photo: Brian Dawson
On all coastlines and on the lakes, sailors doggedly sailed on, and we have recorded their doings on Afloat.ie. It may well be that the numbers turning out for the more local and sociable events have not matched the crowds which suddenly appear in prolonged periods of good weather, but the fact is that the self-selecting groups toughing it out together create a special camaraderie which is something to be cherished.
GOOD WEATHER BRINGS OVER-CROWDED PRIZE-GIVINGS
Indeed, there are those who would argue that setting a quite conservative upper number for participation greatly improves the calibre of the racing and the quality of the après sailing. Certainly, there was a time when things were getting out of hand. A story which we know to be absolutely true concerns the peak number years of the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta.
At the hyper-crowded prize-giving, two noted sailors of a classic boat had collected the handful of trophies they knew they had won together in the four days of intensive racing and socialising. So, having battled through the crowds going there-and-back to the podium, they’d retreated exhausted to their car and were about to head gratefully home for peace and quiet when they heard the decidedly powerful PA system come loud and clear over the clubhouse with the final announcement that they’d won the secretly-decided “Boat of the Regatta” trophy.
A civilized level of turnout. The IDRA 14s racing their annual National Championship on Lough Ree a week ago, under a sky very typical of August’s hyper-changeable weather. Leading this group are Jim Lambkin and Wendy Rudd of Sutton DC in Error (No 1), originally built in 1946-47 for Irish Dinghy Racing Association Founding President Douglas Heard. Photo: Rachel Doogue
Politeness dictated that they re-access the awards stage through a semi-secret rat-run known only to a few along the side of the clubhouse in order to accept this final honour. But really, you do begin to wonder when an event has become so crowded and demanding that the concluding ceremony becomes a chore rather than a celebration.
OUR SPREAD-OUT FLEETS
Nowadays, however, it could be argued the situation has changed to lower turnouts being the new normal, thanks to a significant number of Irish boats being based in other European centres, which we find congenial. Northwest Spain, the Balearics and Croatia could all stage an “Irish only” regatta if they so wished. But while cruising rallies are organised in these places from time to time, it is the peacefulness, the change of scene and climate, and the lack of social and sailing competitive imperatives that provide a significant part of the attraction.
The Mad Irish are in town, and in the Baltic too – the weather-defiant spirit of Irish sailing in August 2023 is well expressed by Ben O’Shaughnessy of Cork and Ethan Spain of Dun Laoghaire celebrating their winning of Gold in the 29er Europeans in Sweden at Stockholm Photo: Sailing Pics
PLACING IT IN CONTEXT BACK HOME
Yet at all times, however exotic the location and however glorious or otherwise the weather may be, it all ends up being locally referenced to the folks back in Ireland, ideally through the local paper. Thus, when Michael Boyd – originally of Dun Laoghaire but long since of Meath – won his first Round Ireland Race with the J/35 Big Ears in 1996, the full power of the Navan-based Meath Chronicle was turned on, and he acquired some useful standing with his neighbours as a result of the headline: Lobinstown Man Wins Round Ireland Boat Race.
And more recently, the Anglo-Celt of Cavan got in on the rising Tom Dolan bandwagon with the headline: Moynalty Man Wins French Sailing Race. Now, this was arguably a bit of readership imperialism by the Cavan paper, as Tom’s ancestral place of Moynalty – noted for its steam threshing festival - is actually in the far north of Meath.
That said, he and his late father started sailing on Lough Ramor in Cavan with a Miracle Class dinghy bought second-hand online. Thus, we expect that the latest Dolan achievement of first place in the Caen in Normandy to Kinsale first leg of the Figaro Solo Paprec 2023 will result in claims and counter-claims between printworks in Navan and Cavan. It’s all grist to the circulation mill.
“Moynalty Man Gets Podium Place In Boat Race From France To Ireland” - all papers please copy
