Sailing on Saturday with WM Nixon

The genesis of a successful idea – early days of the RC35 concept in 2018

Has Ireland’s “Clash Of The Sailing Fixtures” Become Part Of The Programme?

28th January 2023 W M Nixon

There are cruiser-racing enthusiasts in Ireland who dream of living in a world of non-stop activity in 2023, making the most of a dedicated traditional schedule in which they swing into action with the Scottish Series - back on Loch…

The Spirit of 2022 – the 44-strong and rapidly reviving 1720 Sportsboat Class celebrated its 30th Anniversary with some great racing at Cork Week, and a “Sailor of the Month” nomination for the winning multi-club crew on Atara

Ireland's Fifty Shades Of Sailing In The Forty Shades Of Green

21st January 2023 W M Nixon

You can tell a lot about someone’s personality through the way in which they react generously – or not – to the fact that for 2022, the Post-Pandemic Year in which Life Afloat With All Its Apres Sailing Ashore Was…

The One and Only….the original 35ft Ruffian slicing her way through the haze, on her way to overall victory in the 1971 Ailsa Craig Race

Fifty Year Of Ireland’s Ruffian 23 Being Celebrated Worldwide in 2023

14th January 2023 W M Nixon

Time was in sailing when the Golden Jubilee of any One Design Class was a matter of extra-special celebration. But it’s now more than fifty years since glassfibre construction became mainstream. Thus instead of fleets dominated by timber boats which…

Howth Yacht Club’s 2022-2024 Commodore Neil Murphy racing his co-owned Puppeteer 22 Yellow Peril in a brisk breeze off the Fingal coast. First sailed in 1978, the Puppeteer 22s are the numerically largest among Howth’s successful location-specific One Design classes, and in 2022 the winner of the Class Championship was Paul and Laura McMahon’s Shiggi-Shiggi

Howth Yacht Club Gets “Sailing Club Of The Year 2023” from MG Motor, “Car of the Year 2023”

7th January 2023 W M Nixon

The selection of Howth Yacht Club as Ireland’s latest MG Motor “Sailing Club of the Year Award” represents a remarkable harmony of achievement between the competition winners and the sponsors, with Howth Yacht Club becoming “Sailing Club of the Year…

A hundred years and still going strong – Peter McCutcheon racing his veteran Shannon OD in one of the class’s special Centenary Regattas, in this case at Lough Derg YC

Sailing In Ireland’s Diversity, Dedication & Continuity Is Shown In Afloat.ie’s Latest “Sailors Of The Month”

31st December 2022 W M Nixon

We reach the end of 2022 with sailing in Ireland in good heart. Weatherwise, it was by no means a perfect season. For sure, there were periods of heatwave, but heatwaves can be bad news for good steady sailing breezes.…

Punching above her weight. The Volvo 70 Willow (Jim Cooney & Samantha Grant) giving the 100ft Super-Maxi Black Jack a hard time of it during this month’s Solas Big Boat Race in Sydney Harbour. Both boats are racing to Hobart, and though the four Super Maxis are expected to be favoured by initial northerlies, if the Volvo 70s can be snapping at their tails, they too can manage to be in the frame

Ireland At Sharp End In All Boat Sizes Racing The Sydney-Hobart

24th December 2022 W M Nixon

If you’re looking for somebody Irish on the biggest fastest boat racing to Hobart from Monday’s traditional start in Sydney Harbour, then you got it – the hugely experienced big boat racer Justin Slattery of Wexford and Cork is on…

Work in progress. The Australian Reichel/Pugh 69 Moneypenny started life as a 65-footer, but charismatic owner Sean Langman and his shore and on-water crew – which now includes multiple Hobart Race winner Gordon Maguire – are constantly tuning and modifying in the countdown to the annual 628-mile Sydney-Hobart Race in nine days time (26th December), when she will start as one of the favourites in the 114-boat fleet

Irish Flavour For Sydney-Hobart Race 2022 Will Be Just The Tonic For Winter Blues

17th December 2022 W M Nixon

With a chest-clogging cold snap of soul-sapping frozen fogs likely to be replaced here this weekend by roof-lifting wet and windy gales, the very thought of sun-dappled Sydney Harbour and its sublime sailing will be a spirit-raiser for yotties throughout…

Big country. The MOD 70 Phaedo 3 (Lloyd Thornburg) flys past Inishtearaght in the Blasket islands during her record-breaking round Ireland circuit in 2016

Ireland’s West Sails To Its Own Wild Tunes Regardless

10th December 2022 W M Nixon

When you sail west past Mizen Head in the deep south, or Malin Head in the far north, you know you’re getting into the real Atlantic territory, where they do things differently afloat and ashore. For although the hundreds of…

Irish sailing as we’d like to think it usually is – the final day of the 505 Worlds off Cork Harbour on 13th August 2022

Irish Race Officers Hosting Four World Sailing Championships In 2022 Deserve Special Praise

3rd December 2022 W M Nixon

With November just ended, today’s assessment at the beginning of December for the latest “Sailors of the Month” listings would normally include at least one of our young sailors who starred to such good effect in the European Sailing Championship…

The start of the 2019 National YC Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race, with eventual overall winner Rockabill VI (JPK 10.80, Paul O’Higgins RIYC) just ahead of Mick Cotter’s 94ft Windfall, which took line honours and established a new course record. The 30th Anniversary D2D starts in Dublin Bay on June 7th 2023

Sailing In Ireland Had “Bounce-Back Year” in 2022, What Will 2023 Bring?

26th November 2022 W M Nixon

Did we really manage it? Did we really cram all those major special and routine regular sailing events into the one season of 2022? And all that despite its three main months afloat experiencing decidedly mixed weather? And also despite…

Inshore heading offshore – ISORA 2022 Champion Mojito (Vicky Cox & Peter Dunlop, PSC) powering into clear air at the start of a Dun Laoghaire-Dingle Race, with Round Ireland winner Cavatina (Ian Hickey, RCYC) close abeam

Where Are We Headed With Ireland’s Racing For “Boats-with-a-Lid”?

19th November 2022 W M Nixon

Is most “ocean racing” today really oceanic? Does “offshore racing” really involve going truly offshore? Are boats touted as being “cruiser-racers” ever really used for genuine cruising? And are sailing enthusiasts who like to think of themselves as being devoted…

Stars of the Show – the 1994-founded International Cork 1720 Sportsboats found a new lease of life in 2022, and mustered 42 boats for their European Championship within Volvo Cork Week in July

2022 – An Irish Sailing Season Like No Other

12th November 2022 W M Nixon

Sailing sport has previously been halted within personal memory, both by world wars and more locally-based hostilities. And we don’t have to go very far beyond living individual recollection to gauge how the lingering effects of Spanish Flu in 1919…

That was then……Julius Price’s classic late Victorian portrayal of a female helm adorned the walls of the snooker room in many traditional yacht clubs. Courtesy RUYC

Ireland’s Women On Water Are Doing Fine – It’s The Men Who Need Help

5th November 2022 W M Nixon

Anyone with a basic knowledge of the development of sailing in Ireland – particularly from 1890 onwards – will be aware that women sailors played an active role afloat in this country’s sailing boat sport for a long time. For…

The view eastward over modern Ringsend. At first glance it seems totally tamed, with the formerly anarchic waterfront along the banks of the River Dodder (running left to right across photo foreground) now neatly tidied, while the south bank of the Liffey is kept in order by the dual carriageway accessing the Eastlink Bridge. But a “magic maritime space” has been preserved to provide room for Poolbeg Y&BC with its marina and mooring area, while there’s waterfront access and pontoons for the thriving Stella Maris and St Patrick’s Rowing Club

Dublin Port Encourages Ringsend’s Sense Of Itself As A Historic Maritime Community

29th October 2022 W M Nixon

When the multi-talented John B Kearney (1879-1967) retired from a distinguished career in Dublin Port in 1944, he re-focused most of his attention on his parallel interest as a yacht designer and builder. It was an enduring passion that went…

“If you like your work, then work is the best fun that you can have”. 25 years on, and going stronger than ever at MGM Boats’ Silver Jubilee Celebration in Dun Laoghaire are (left to right), Ross O’Leary, John O’Kane (Belfast Lough Office), Gerry Salmon and Martin Salmon

MGM Boats: After 25 Years, Dun Laoghaire’s Top Marine Business Has Busy International Footprint

22nd October 2022 W M Nixon

For most sailors in what is Ireland’s largest and busiest pier-enclosed recreational harbour, MGM Boats of Dun Laoghaire are, first and foremost, the people who provide the essential service of one of Ireland’s largest and most versatile travel hoists. For…

The last hurrah. Ted Crosbie’s X302 No Excuse on her way to victory by one point in the Royal Cork YC IRC Winter League 2017. Just as Ted had encouraged his own father Tom to keep sailing until well into advanced old age, so Ted’s son Tom encouraged his father to keep racing until he was eighty-seven

Ted Crosbie 1931-2022

15th October 2022 W M Nixon

Ted Crosbie combined so many of the strongest threads of Cork life that he embodied an entire Munster universe of personal positivity. Family was everything to him, but so too was the unique and bustling maritime city of Cork and…