The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away……With this weekend’s staging of the Keelboat All-Ireland Championship in the J/80s provided by the Irish National Sailing School at the Royal Irish YC in Dun Laoghaire following hot on the heels of the Dinghies’ All-Ireland in National 18s at Royal Cork a week ago, we’ve an opportunity to savour a situation where Irish sailors seemed to be amassing silverware on an industrial scale at home and abroad.
And in open competition, too. It may well be that the USP of the GAA is that an Irish team always wins, but as it happens last weekend Ireland’s sailors were taking the prize in the open Endeavour Trophy in England as well as the Crosshaven title, which was lifted by GP14 (and many other boats) ace Ger Owen, with Ross Killian as his Number One.
BATEMAN/LOUGHTON WELL IN FRAME
Certainly B14 World Champion Chris Bateman of Cork Harbour, crewed by Lucy Loughton, were well in the frame in England in the big-wind Endeavour Trophy in Melges 15s at Burnham-on-Crouch, with 30 boats racing.
Top team – Lucy Loughton and Chris Bateman of Cork Harbour after winning the B14 Worlds in Australia
And Ballyholme YC ex-Pat Mike Sims and Rob Gullan of the 505s were tops at Burnham, with second prize going to Osprey Class Champions Matt Burge & Christian Burrell while the Bateman/Loughton team stay firmly in third.
Celebrating victory at the 2025 Endeavour Trophy – winners Ballyholme's Michael Sims & Rob Gullan (505) with Edwin Buckley (Race Officer)
Last weekend’s Endeavour Trophy at Burnham-on-Crouch was the launch-pad for the Melges 15 in England, and Osprey sailors Matt Burge and Christian Burrell took to the new boat in successful style. Photo: Endeavour Trophy
HAPPY OSPREY MEMORIES
Much and all as the powers-that-be try to take out the individuality of different boat types in a contest like this, those of us who became happily acquainted with the Ian Proctor-designed Osprey quite far back in the previous Millennium will have our spirits lifted by this success for the champions from such a classic in the 64th Endeavour Trophy.
What goes round, comes round. The 17ft 6ins Osprey was designed by Ian Proctor in 1950 as a contender for the two-man dinghy place in the 1952 Olympics, but the nod went to the Flying Dutchman, which was basically several acres of ludicrously-over-lapping genoa with boat attached.
The Osprey by contrast was the essence of sweet simplicity, and she proved her quality in 1951 when “Tiny” Mitchell, the enormous Commodore of the Royal Corinthian YC in Burnham-on-Crouch on the Thames Estuary, took on a bit of empire-building by setting up a second base in Cowes and organising a race round the Isle of Wight for dinghies in celebration of the Festival of Britain in 1951.
One of the sweetest boats afloat – the Ian Proctor-designed 17ft 6ins Osprey was overall winner of the 1951 Round Isle of Wight dinghy race from a fleet of 200 boats.
It was crazy, but they got away with it, and the Osprey – sailed by Ian Proctor, John Oakley and Cliff Norbury – won overall from a fleet of 200 boats including some very serious heavy metal. And since then, the class has found a happy niche with discerning sailors who appreciate sensible quality rather than overbred pretension.
As for the other characters in this ongoing drama, the Royal Corinthian YC with its soul in Burnham-on-Crouch often seemed to be over-reaching things by having a second base in Cowes, and the building there – Castlerock – is now the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s Cowes base.
TURBULENT HISTORY
Meanwhile, for anyone disturbed by something as historic as the Endeavour Trophy (which was won by Malahide’s Robin Hennessy and Robert Michael in 1968) being sullied by any recent controversy, well - you can rest easy. The entire business – glorious silver trophy and all – emerged from a distinct unpleasantness way back in 1934, and it was in the America’s Cup too.
Endeavour I is now restored and in American ownership, with fully-powered sail control systems taking over from the brutal manual labor of the 1930s. Photo: J Class
Thomas Sopwith’s Charles E Nicholson-designed Endeavour looked to be a very potent challenger. But as the season progressed, her crew went on strike for better wages. It was unbelievable, yet neither side would budge. But a London-resident American-born sailing fanatic called Beecher Moore (1908-1996) came up with a crew of the very best amateurs, mostly drawn from his home club of the Royal Corinthian YC in Burnham-on-Crouch, and Endeavour almost won on the only occasion when the British challenger had an American passport-holder in the crew.
As the years passed, this memory of an HR fiasco at the highest level had been fading until 1961, when Beecher Moore put up the Endeavour Trophy on a format similar to Irish sailing’s Helmsman’s Champion, which had been running since 1946.
EXACT SILVER MODEL
But where the Irish trophy is a necessarily robust silver salver, the Endeavour Trophy is an enormous and exact silver model of the J Class Endeavour, a delicate piece of work that never leaves Burnham-on-Crouch, where it is a very eloquent reminder of Beecher Moore and his amateurs of 1934.
The Endeavour Trophy in its permanent home port of Burnham-on-Crouch with Ed Maggs’ “modern classic” gaff ketch Betty Alan – now based in southwest Ireland – sailing in the background. Photo: Endeavour Trophy
And while Ireland led with the concept of a Helmsman’s Challenge, it was the Endeavour people who were first – last year – to divide the dinghies from the keelboats. This is now being done here too, and the emergence of two top lists of talents serves to emphasise what a pool of talent the country can draw on:
Keelboat Champions' Cup
- Squib Mícheál Súilleabháin, Kinsale YC
- 1720 Ross McDonald, Howth YC
- Puppeteer David Johnston, Howth YC
- SB20 Michael O'Connor, Royal St George YC
- IMRA Tom Higgins, Royal St George YC
- ICRA Patrick Boardman, Rush SC
- J80 Austin Kenny, Royal Irish YC
- ICRA Nicole Hemeryck, National YC
- Sigma 33 Stephen Mullaney, Howth YC
- IMRA Emily Riordan, Royal St George YC
- J24 Cillian Dickson, Lough Ree YC
- ITRA Fionn Lyden, Baltimore SC
FLYING FAVOURITES
Obviously, the name of Howth’s Ross McDonald leaps out as one who has been piling on the prizes at home and abroad in a variety of classes, whereas Cillian Dickson of Lough Ree has had huge national and international success exclusively with the J/24 Hard Case and – even more than most top helms – he makes a point of it being a team effort.
Ross and Aoife McDonald have moved beyond silver into the gold
And a J/80 at 26ft is of sufficient size for the mid-boat squad to be the key to success. So this list of helms is only half the story – we’ll get a better picture when we see who is with whom.
LACK OF WIND
But that’s assuming there’s enough wind to get a result. After last weekend’s wind excesses, a High Pressure area of 1032-plus seems to have decided that Ireland this weekend is the ideal place for a leisurely late season holiday. The wind looks like being very thin spread. We will hope. We shall see.
Just give us the breeze….J/80s providing great sport at the Irish Universities Championship. Photo: Annraoi Blaney
