Dun Laoghaire sailing has been on a hectic upward trajectory in recent days and weeks. Such is the pace, in fact, that it's just as well there are four very capable harbourside clubs to share the effort, and absorb the impact. And last weekend's four-day staging of the RORC IRC Euros from the Royal Irish YC was the climax of an exceptional keelboat-hosting period for the club, a boat-racing test from which the 1831-founded RIYC's organisation, both afloat and ashore, emerged with flying colours
The club's designated sailing management group – chaired by former Flag Officer Patrick Burke with the hugely experienced and versatile RIYC Sailing Manager Mark McGibney ensuring that it all goes according to plan – surely deserve time to relax this weekend. And so, if anything, the focus will be next door on the Royal St George YC, where the new Melges 15 two-person dinghy is taking another well-planned step up the "acceptance ladder" of sailing in Ireland with a Try Sailing a Melges 15 event on Sunday
ONE DESIGN CHAMPIONSHIPS
In addition this weekend, while all clubs are busy with the "routine" Dublin Bay SC Saturday programme, which concludes on Saturday September 28th though evening racing is now finished for 2024, there's a broader focus for One Design events, with upwards of twenty boats lined up for the SB20 2024 Nationals today & tomorrow. The defending champions are Michael O'Connor, Davy Taylor and Ben O'Donoghue of the host club – they sailed Ted to victory at Lough Ree YC in September last year.
The SB20 revels in open water sailing
Further along the waterfront, the National YC are staging the Flying Fifteens East Coast title to round out a couple of years in which the class's all-Ireland status has been neatly and firmly underlined. 2023 saw the new Flying Fifteen group in Connemara flexing their muscles by hosting a championship at Kilkieran, and then two of their number, Niall & Ronan O'Briain, took their F/F on a long northeasterly overland journey to Whitehead on County Antrim's northern side of the mouth of Belfast Lough, and the Connacht men made their journey very well worthwhile by returning to the far west from County Antrim YC with the title.
In 2024 the Nationals were staged at Dunmore East with Waterford Harbour SC, and that "dinghy championship polymath" Shane McCarthy of Greystones and the National YC, crewed by Hugh McNally, were on tops at the end. But this weekend, with the East Coasts at the National, there's another chance for a tilt at the McCarthy-McNally hegemony.
Irish F/F Champions Shane McCarthy and Hugh McNally on their way to the title at Dunmore East. Photo: WHSC
WHAT'S SO SPECIAL ABOUT THE MELGES 15?
Tomorrow (Sunday's) Open Day on the Melges 15 at The George is part of the carefully-planned strategy that John Sheehy has put together to develop a class around a boat that he researched as best meeting his needs, and he's sure that there are many dinghy sailors in a similar position.
The apparently straightforward appearance of the Melges 15 disguises some sophisticated boat concepts
The son of multi-talented sailor Oliver Sheehy, who shone in dinghies and then keelboats alike, John was much in the news a dozen or so years ago in dinghy sailing, mainly as an ace team racer. But like many others in this hyper-hectic age, when he settled down to be married and help raise a family, the early stages were so demanding that sailing in any form was put on the back burner.
WHEN "TODDLER TIDE" RECEDES
For those currently in the midst of such a situation, the good news is that after some years, the dominant effect of the "toddler tide" begins to recede, you can (just about) get your eyes above the parapet, and stray little thoughts about life outside begin to coalesce into an interest in going sailing again - albeit just a little bit - at one's home port.
It's a compliment to the Water Wags that John was so impressed with the excellent but compact and guaranteed sport that they provide within Dun Laoghaire Harbour that he was seriously interested in that line of thought, even if the custodianship of a cherished classic – and possibly even an antique classic – was a very challenging level of involvement.
John and Katie Sheehy went on to take second overall in the 2024 Irish Melges 15 Nationals Photo: Afloat
The Lockdown provided the answer. It caused his reading of every aspect of sailing online to increase, and in Sailing of America's selection of their "Boat of the Year 2022" in December 2021 with the Melges 15, John Sheehy found what he wanted – "a pathway boat for junior sailors and an adult racing platform that brings a deep cockpit, high stability, and an ease of handling"
JOHN SHEEHY'S CONCLUSIONS
"I had been looking for a class which could provide great local racing in a new modern design which was fast, strictly one design and easily accessible across ages & weights. I wanted a boat where I would be able to race with old college friends, take my kids out for a sail, go for a blast on windy days and, importantly, race against teams of all shapes and sizes. With little free time, everything had to be easy and accessible and running costs needed to be low.
The M15 won Sailing boat of the year in 2022 and has been Melges' best-selling design. With nearly 900 boats already built, they have quickly established strong fleets wherever they have been established. Hitting close to 20 knots in a double-handed dinghy with big fleets seemed fun!
After contacting US friends who have sailed the boat as well as Irish college sailors who sailed the boats on J1s, I was determined to find out more. A call to Melges put me on to Eddie Cox, who is in charge of the M15. He explained the concept of the boat; how they were looking to make a fast fun boat for everyone, deliberately keeping it simple to reduce costs but to also make the boat easier to sail.
They themselves were caught out by the demand, with their European builder having to ship boats across the Atlantic to reduce delivery times for their US order book. M15s are built in the US (Zenda, Wisconsin) and Portugal (Porto)
Dream becomes reality – the 2024 Melges 15 Irish Nationals at Howth. Photo: Afloat.ie
While reaching out to my sailing friends, it became clear that many others were looking for a boat like the M15. I got a commitment for eight boats. Encouragingly, there was a great mix of orders - the cruiser racer sailor who wishes to sail a dinghy with his kids, the Laser/ILCA sailors who want to blast around with a buddy, the ex-college team racers, the returning dinghy sailors and so on.
With deposits down before anyone of us had ever seen or touched the boat, I thought it best to travel to see the boat in Boot Germany in January 2023. To my great relief the boat looked great, was bigger than I expected and clearly had a clean comfortable uncluttered cockpit. The GNAV and one string spinnaker system really added to the sense of space".
INSPIRING NAME
Multi-functional. The Melges 15 brings that and more. It is minimal maintenance if reasonably cared for, and in the Irish climate context, that is a very real plus. It is excitingly but controllably fast. And it comes garlanded with all sort of links. The very name "Melges" inspires our more senior sailors with visions of the fantastic Melges Class A scows racing in America's mid-west back in the day.
And the fact that it is a creation of the brains trust that is the Reichel/Pugh design group in San Diego is a reminder that back in January this year, in analysing the results of the Sydney-Hobart Race 2023 in which Reichel/Pugh designs covered themselves in glory, we heard from Jim Pugh and the picaresque tale of how he moved from a boyhood near Liverpool to life as an increasingly sea-minded youth in Lymington.
ATLANTIC VOYAGING
That led on to a voyage to South Africa in the van de Stadt Ocean 70 Ocean Spirit for Peter Blake and the Capetown-Rio Race, going on eventually to a stint with the Doug Peterson design studio which led on to himself and John Reichel setting up Reichel/Pugh in California in 1983.
The young Jim Pugh helming Ocean Spirit in mid-ocean with Peter Blake on the stern. Photo courtesy Jim Pugh
The fact that all this experience is concentrated with the Melges touch into the Melges 15 is fascinating in itself. And the intense world of Ireland's dinghy classes is, well, so utterly intense, that in looking for a completely new boat that will attract by being both fresh and effective, a leap out of Europe into the Melges 15 may be just what's needed.
Certainly the nascent class's first Irish Nationals experienced good photogenic sport. This was a month ago on August 24-25 in Howth, where Cormac Farrelly is the Main Man on Melges 15s. The latest Howth batch had only just arrived and been unwrapped, but they were soon set up and ready to go, and the sun obligingly shone on the first day at least.
NAMES ATOP A LENGTHENING LEADERBOARD
Daragh O'Connor & Teddy Byrne of Howth won overall, John Sheehy crewed by his niece Katie (RStGYC) were second, and Mike Evans of Howth, crewed by his son Andrew, took third. We'd be prepared to make a modest wager to the fact that, in thirty or so years time, these names will be cherished as heading the steadily lengthening and ever-more-important list of winners and top placers in the Irish Melges 15 National Championship.
Making history. Teddy Byrne (left) and Daragh Connor with HYC Commodore Neil Murphy after winning the first Irish Melges 15 Nationals. Photo: Melges Ireland
