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Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Sailing on Saturday with WM Nixon
When the going was good…,Sean Waddilove and Rob Dickson right in the frame on Day 4 of the Tokyo Olympic Regatta
Sailing needs the Olympics much more than the Olympics need sailing. And in Ireland in particular, sailing’s inferior position in this uneven relationship is exacerbated by the national obsession with sport in all its forms, and the often cringe-inducing neediness…
New “Sailor of the Year” Eve McMahon finding her way at speed through the spray of Lake Garda in July, en route to the World Title
Eve McMahon of Howth Yacht Club, the Golden Girl of the international ILCA Classes, is Afloat.ie “Irish Sailor of the Year” for 2021, deservedly following an honoured track set over many years by Ireland’s legends in the sport. Such elevation…
Harold Cudmore seen recently in legendary sailor Willie Jameson’s place in Portmarnock, in phone conversation with longtime sparring partner Malcolm McKeag in Lymington
The bundle of energy once known as Hurricane Harold came whirling by Dublin the other day. His daughter was having a pandemic-delayed graduation at Trinity, and Harold Cudmore’s womenfolk had fitted him into a smart suit for the occasion. It…
Irish Sailors of the Year 2021
Sailing and boating sports were more frustrated than many other activities during the highly-restricted peaks of the pandemic. For although it was universally agreed that there was nowhere more healthy and infection-free than aboard a boat out on the water…
God’s own harbour town – Kinsale provides excellent berthing, superb hospitality, great sailing, and top class sport afloat
When the Irish Squib Class signed off their 2021 season with boats from all parts of the country taking part in the successful though socially-distanced Freshwater Regatta for four national keelboat classes at Dromineer on Lough Derg in October, the…
File image of the tall ship Lady Ellen sailing
What goes around comes around. When Enda O’Coineen’s Atlantic Youth Trust revealed their interest in acquiring a classic three-masted topsail schooner from Sweden last Autumn for multiple maritime functions, of which sailing training would only be one, it set bells…
Shannon One Designs in close racing at Lough Ree Yacht Club. In 2022, the Shannon ODs are celebrating their Centenary, while the 1770-founded Lough Ree YC will be marking its pandemic-postponed Quarter Millennium+
Lough Ree Yacht Club and the Shannon One Design Association are sharing this year’s MG Motors Sailing Club of the Year Award. It’s the well-deserved honouring of a dynamic combination that provides a core contribution to the Athlone area’s reputation…
The Fireball Worlds 2022 at Lough Derg YC in August will be one of the season’s international highlights. In 1995, the event was staged in Dun Laoghaire, and the winners were John Lavery and David O’Brien of the National YC, whose boat of 26 years ago is seen here being put through her paces at Lough Ree YC in 2021 by Eoghan Duffy & Conor Paul.
(First published 11/12/2021) Four World Championships. Two Europeans. The super-staging of our defining offshore race. A major new offshore challenge. Regattas galore. A very significant Centenary. An important Golden Jubilee. At least one new One-Design class. Established OD classes finding…
The sailing weather of 2021 was decidedly mixed, and recollections will depend on the focus of each significant event. The Puppeteer 22s recall only idyllic Mediterranean weather for their Annual Championship at Howth, won by the McMahon family’s Shiggy-Shiggy for the second year running
(First published 27/11/21): The 2021 programme for Irish sailors is still in action with winter series underway at several centres, while next Wednesday a junior squad departs for Oman and the Youth Sailing Worlds which get fully underway on December…
A Classic. The Rolex Sydney-Hobart fleet leaders sweep seaward in perfect style shortly after the traditional in-harbour start.
For many years now, the annual 628-mile Rolex Sydney-Hobart Race on 26th December has played a special role in reviving the mid-winter spirits of the dark and gloomy Northern Hemisphere, with the glitzy sunlit start out of one of the…
Never happier than when afloat – Neville Maguire aged 93 heading seawards from Howth in his final boat, the Seaward 23 Two Much
Neville Maguire (1927-2021) was a devotedly local sailor whose racing was at world standard. Yet any civilised sailing enthusiast would wish to be as he was, for although Neville’s racing was important, it was only part of a lifelong love…
Eve McMahon on her way to Gold on Lake Garda. She is probably the only World Champion involved in the recent school exam programme in Ireland.
So many 50th Anniversaries in international sailing are being celebrated these days that you could be forgiven for thinking that all these major events - such as next week’s opening of the event’s Golden Jubilee celebration, and the staging of…
The AC 75 American Magic in the preliminaries for the 2021 America’s Cup at Auckland. The essence of the contemporary America’s Cup is that it should be sailed in unique boats
The 170-year-old America’s Cup is global sailing’s Sacred Mystery. To be most true to itself, it should be raced in boats - or more accurately sailing machines - that are about as different as possible from the craft used by…
Even at Barcelona, the best of the summer is long gone in November, but it still provided “an energetic variety of conditions” for the Laser Worlds 2021, and Finn Lynch (centre) emerged from melees like this to record a great scoreline
While everyone in Irish sailing and beyond shares in the joy of seeing Finn Lynch emerge so spectacularly from a performance drought to take Silver at this week’s Laser Worlds in Barcelona, it is really only those who have fully…
Tom Kneen's JPK 11.80 Sunrise winning the 2021 Fastnet Race at Cherbourg. As a loyal Royal Western YC member, he had voted in favour of retaining the traditional Fastnet finish at Plymouth, but it's possible that it was the extra distance to the Cherbourg finish which played a key role in Sunrise's clear win
Would Tom Kneen's JPK 11.80 Sunrise have still won the Rolex Fastnet Race 2021 if it had been sailed on the old course, with Plymouth rather than Cherbourg as the finish? Imponderable it may be, but it's a question of…
The hidden gem of County Clare – mixed classes racing at Cullaun SC. Despite the lateness of the season, Cullaun and the GP 14 Association hope to get together in a week's time for a championship postponed from April
October 2021 has been kind to Irish sailing in brightening our spirits, letting our crews be active with more sunshine than you'd expect, and helping to banish any thoughts of the dodgy pandemic situation ashore. Even though the Bank Holiday…

William M Nixon has been writing about sailing in Ireland and internationally for many years, with his work appearing in leading sailing publications on both sides of the Atlantic. He has been a regular sailing columnist for four decades with national newspapers in Dublin, and has had several sailing books published in Ireland, the UK, and the US. An active sailor, he has owned a number of boats ranging from a Mirror dinghy to a Contessa 35 cruiser-racer, and has been directly involved in building and campaigning two offshore racers. His cruising experience ranges from Iceland to Spain as well as the Caribbean and the Mediterranean, and he has raced three times in both the Fastnet and Round Ireland Races, in addition to sailing on two round Ireland records. A member for ten years of the Council of the Irish Yachting Association (now the Irish Sailing Association), he has been writing for, and at times editing, Ireland's national sailing magazine since its earliest version more than forty years ago