There was a certain optimism in the Sailing on Saturday HQ a week ago, with the day looking to improve in a useful way to facilitate the Autumn racing at home, while far away in the South Atlantic Pat Lawless was going well and shaping up to maintain a good second place in the Golden Globe within a hundred miles of leader Damien Guillou, with the rest of the fleet nearly a thousand miles astern.
Then too, the interesting fleet assembled in Malta for the Rolex Middle Sea Race had a useful scattering of Irish sailors throughout its lineup, offering the possibilities of a success we could all share one way or another.
Broadsides From Sailing’s Women
But it didn’t take long for a couple of broadsides to start our Pearl Harbor-style experience of wipeout. Come to think of it, “broadside” is the *mot juste* when you’re being blown out of the water by justifiably indignant women. But they’ll have to wait for a moment, as the sudden exit of Pat Lawless from The Golden Globe with a “Solent” forestay disabled for the second time put the entire Irish sailing community into a state of gloom, and it surely comes top of the agenda.
High point of his Golden Globe Race. Pat Lawless in fine form sailing through the Canaries, when he’d discovered he was in a good second place in the Golden Globe 2026 Photo: GGR
Seventy Years Old
After all, Pat is a gallant 70 years old, and while his Saltrams Saga 36 Silvermines Hydro is a handsome and hefty seagoing yacht, it was reckoned that the race’s half dozen Rustler 36s – of which Damien Guillou’s Solarem is one – have the greater speed potential. Thus for him to be at the races at all was a massive achievement, and we need to think about this failed bit of rigging.
So just what is a Solent forestay? Well, the standard Saga 36 would have a straightforward masthead sloop or cutter rig, with the super-strong forestay from the top of the mast to the stemhead carrying a furling genoa which, for normal cruising purposes, is expected to serve in all conditions.
Pat Lawless’s Saltrams Saga 36 Silvermines Hydro in original condition, with a straightforward masthead cutter rig with the staysail set on a lower forestay which is well inboard.
The rig as developed for Golden Globe racing, with an additional “Solent” headsail close inside the existing main forestay.
Many boats have cruised round the world rigged with no more than this, for of course if they found themselves in light airs dangerously near a coast with a rolling swell knocking the wind out of their heavy all-purpose genoa, they’d expect to use the auxiliary engine to stay out of trouble.
Alternative Of “Solent” Headsail
But for many years now, an alternative has been provided for those who only wish to sail without resorting occasionally to engine, or more likely racing, utilising a secondary forestay close inside the main forestay. And on this added inner forestay is set a multi-range roller furling headsail which is used most of the time. Meanwhile, outside it on what is still thought of as the main forestay can be a furled sail of lighter cloth for use with low wind speeds.
Difficult To Tack Or Gybe
So close together are the two forestays that it is wellnigh impossible to tack or gybe the lighter sail on what was formerly the main forestay. You see this vividly illustrated when the Super Maxis are struggling to finish the Sydney-Hobart race in the often windless Derwent Estuary – they have to expend much energy in rolling in the outer foresail, and then unrolling it, every time they want to change tacks, whether going downwind or up.
But a solo-sailed Golden Globe racer unfurling the outer headsail will do so in the hope of holding that tack for hours or even days. And if the breeze pipes up or they have to do some short tacking, they revert to the sail on the inner forestay. Hence the Solent name – you’re always short-tacking in the Solent.
Silvermines Hydro making speed with the Solent rig set.
Yet the setup is still such that the inner forestay is seen by some as secondary, whereas it actually finds itself in the primary role. If anything, it and its furling gear should be made up of even more rugged pieces of equipment than the already substantial masthead-stemhead forestay setup, but inevitably some boats actually have lighter equipment of a temporary nature on the Solent forestay.
Whether or not this was the case with Silvermines Hydro we don’t know. But what we do know is that during the racing passage from Les Sables d’Olonne to Pat Lawless’s exit point in the South Atlantic between Trinidade island and the Cape of Good Hope. the Solent forestay and its headsail had become the hardest-worked pieces of equipment in the entire boat - so much so that if anything was going to fail, this was going to be it, and so it came to pass.
With 22,000 miles still to race and without the option of the Solent headsail, the Pat Lawless boat was no longer a competitive proposition, and continuing to compete would have been an endless tortured frustration of seeing the rest of the fleet slowly wiping out his lead.
Until his laconic statement of withdrawal, many of us didn’t fully realise just how emotionally we’d become involved with Pat Lawless’s Golden Globe Race of 2026-2027. We were with him all the way, we were looking forward to keeping the more dreary aspects of the Irish winter at bay by transposing ourselves to the decks of Silvermines Hydro as she ran down her easting towards Cape Horn. But for now, there is a void.
Women Of The Round Ireland Race
How many women sailors took part in the first Round Ireland Race from Wicklow in 1980? With 16 entries in a diverse fleet, surely there were some female participants? But it’s now 46 years ago, and memories are dim and written records sketchy.
Yet we need have no doubt that 1986 saw the first all female crew, for they have been quietly celebrating the 40th Anniversary of their achievement this year. But when – two weeks ago - we were celebrating Olympic Silver Medallist Annalise Murphy’s winning of the All Ireland Title in Melges 15s in Dun Laoghaire with a review of Irish female sailing achievement over the years, there was no mention whatever of Round Ireland Race involvement, which deservedly drew a broadside or two. Guilty as charged, m’lud.
Racing Becomes Electra
So let’s hear it for the all-female crew of the Sigma 41 Electra. Sadly, owner/skipper Fiona Taylor from New Zealand is no longer among us, but although one other crew-member was Scottish, beyond that it was all Irish with a northern emphasis, including Joyce Taylor, Fiona Hicks, Anne Hicks, Wendy Moore, Wendy Smith, Heather Brown (now Kennedy), Ann-Marie Bowring and Carolanne Smith.
While they were well-placed at the Fastnet after going off from Wicklow in a nor’easter, conditions went the wrong way for their boat size thereafter, and on the water they finished well down the fleet, astern of the overall leader and eventual winner, Richard Burrows’ Dehler 36 dbs Spirit.
The Swan 37 Bandersnatch (aka Sunshine 101) with her all-women crew before the start of the 1988 Round Ireland race from Wicklow
But the spark had been ignited, and for the 1988 Race there was a prize allocated for all-female crews, with Howth’s Romaine Cagney (as Neville Maguire’s younger sister, she was sailing royalty) taking on the challenge with Ross Courtney’s 1971-vintage Swan 37 Bandersnatch, the crew being Adrienne Jermyn, Geraldine Moran, Elaine Bell, Karen Courtney, Mags Moran and Angela.
The late Robbie Robinson of pirate station Sunshine Radio was very much part of the Howth sailing scene in those days, so his company sponsored the Cagney challenge. And they won the trophy for the simple reason that they were the only all-female crew, as other possible contenders had found the demands of having a boat race ready and a qualified all-female crew to compete was much easier said than done, and there have been only two other all-female crews since in the Round Ireland Race’s long history. But it is intriguing to note that the now-classic Bandersnatch has for many years been owned and sailed by longtime Round Ireland race organiser Kyran O’Grady of Wicklow.
Round Ireland Race organiser Kyran O’Grady of Wicklow with RORC Commodore Deb Fish. Photo: W M Nixon
Superwoman Of Middle Sea Race
However, with the RORC experiencing its first woman Commodore with Deb Fish who has – with Rob Craigie of Bellino – has now won the RORC Annual Points Championship four times on the trot, clearly talented women sailors can outshine many men in the rugged offshore racing game at the top level.
With the Rolex Middle Sea Race 2026 concluding in recent days, it’s a reminder that back in the height of the Covid crisis, Dr Maya Podesta of Malta was the Public Health Specialist who was the medical and epidemic adviser to the Maltese government for Covid regulations, while at the same time being co-skipper of the family’s First 45 Elusive II, defending champion for the up-coming Rolex Middle Sea Race - a race she has now sailed 19 times.
Dr Maya Podesta of Malta, public health specialist and Middle Sea Race 19 times veteran, including two overall wins.
She led the way in devising regulations that made 2020’s race possible, and Elusive II won it overall for the second time. This time round, it has been very much a big boat race, with the lovely Mark Mills 72 Balthasar – winner in 2025 – battling it out all the way round the course with the new Wallyrocket 71 Django 7X, which emerged as winner with Balthasar second overall, one hour astern on corrected time.
Defending champion and 2026 second placed Mills 72 Balthasar tacks clear of the eventually sixth-placed Volvo Open 70 Pace
We’d Irish interest with sailmaker Shane Hughes on line honours winner, the Super-Maxi Black Jack 100, which was fourth overall on IRC with the Carkeek 54 Daguet 5 third on corrected, but then things get bigger again with the Botin 65 Artemis Bleu (James Neville) taking while Johnny Vincent’s Volvo Open 70 Pace – with Tom McWilliam in the crew – was sixth
Sensational Pogo
But then the boat sizes change completely, as the irrepressible Gery Trentesaux with the relatively small scow-bow Courrier Pogo places seventh overall, winning Class 5 while he is at it, and in so doing he places 16 minutes on corrected ahead of the equally irrepressible Podesta family in Elusive II at 8th overall, with which they take first in Class 4, while the third outstanding small boat was the ninth place overall JPK 10.30 Colombre (Massimo Juris & Pietro Luciani, Ital.), winner of Class 6 and the Double-handed Division.
The irrepressible Courrier is as fast in the Mediterranean as she was racing round Ireland back in June.
Jackknife’s Class Second
The sense of Courrier, Elusive and Colombre being out on their own clear of the other smaller boats is reinforced by the fact that ISORA start Sam Hall of Pwllheli racing the modified J/125 Jacknife took second behind the Trentesaux boat in Class 5, but he was four and a half hours down the line on corrected time behind Courrier Pogo, placing 24th overall.
Sutton Dinghy Club In The Mix
In the overall listings, Jackknife was one place and 14 minutes behind veteran skipper Stefan Debattista’s modified IMX 40 Geisha-Medirect, his crew including Sutton Dinghy Club’s David Johnston in a performance that secured them 8th place in class.
The crew of Middle Sea Race ultra-veteran Stefan Debattista’s IMX 40 included David Johnston of Sutton Dinghy Club
Golden Jubilee Competitor
David Law of Strangford Lough, racing the 1976-vintage classic Swan 41 Maje of Strangford under the Royal Irish YC burgee, was celebrating his boat’s 50th anniversary, and seeing what he could do with the boat with the third-lowest rating in the entire fleet. He took 11th in Class 6, neatly between the two other low raters, the Maica Class Mowgli which was sixth in class, and the Elan 333 Buri in 12th.
Another Irish interest was the Bordeaux 60 Expression of London, aboard which Ryan Wilson of Strangford Lough was navigator, but in a race which served up some quite severe weather at times, this was one of the boats that retired.
As for outstanding conclusions from the 2026 Rolex Middle Sea Race, there are many, but once again we are left marvelling at Gery Trentesaux’s ability to get the very best from boat and crew.
Captains of success. The RIYC’s Michael Boyd as Commodore of the RORC with ace competitor Gery Trentesaux.
