Sailing on Saturday with WM Nixon
What was it with last weekend's weather? As the pandemic restrictions against activity afloat are ever-so-gradually eased, not only was there some sort of sailing going on almost everywhere, but the mood was that of late August. Yet it was…
Let's face it, Ireland bidding to host the 37th America's Cup in 2024 – or more accurately, Cork's campaigning to stage it – has all the makings of a handy TV drama. As it has to be a national investment,…
Sailing's Developing Trends in Ireland Are Difficult to Clarify in Rapidly Accelerating Late-Season Programme
11th September 2021 W M Nixon
You might say it's unnatural. Normally at this time of year, we'll be talking of the evenings and the season closing in together to facilitate a gently easing pace. But last weekend in Cork, they seemed to have so many…
Ireland's Sailing is Healthy. It's the Shore Time That Causes Problems…
4th September 2021 W M Nixon
Let's hear it for coloured sails. On a grey day on a grey bay, every last spinnaker or asymmetric or gennaker or whatever with a splash of colour was more than welcome yesterday morning (Friday) to help bring the grimly…
Irish Yacht & Sailing Club Officers' Determined Enthusiasm Has Brought Us Through Pandemic To This Busiest Weekend
28th August 2021 W M Nixon
There's something about the last weekend of August which makes it a specially pivotal time in Irish sailing. And in this weird pandemic-emergence period, there's an extra sense of individually-tailored controlled events being added to the programme to meet immediate…
Dublin Bay Sailing Club Re-Affirms Commitment As Mitsubishi Motors "Sailing Club of the Year"
21st August 2021 W M Nixon
Dublin Bay Sailing Club is the current Mitsubishi Motors Sailing Club of the Year, and yesterday (Friday), their Commodore Ann Kirwan took over custodianship of the well-travelled ship's wheel trophy. It dates back to 1979 in a unique and informal…
Ireland's Northwest With Its Uniquely Ancient Trophy Has Played a Pivotal Role in Sailing's Story
14th August 2021 W M Nixon
The Irish weather is no respecter of history, and sailing history in particular. Apart from the fact that it regularly appears to break meteorological records with an insouciant disregard for their significance and the patient effort that our ancestors put…
Fastnet Race Memories of 50 Years Ago as Irish Interest Focuses on 11 Yachts in Sunday's 2021 Edition
7th August 2021 W M Nixon
Time was when doing the Fastnet Race seemed a natural part of sailing life. The world was young, yet we'd sufficient maturity (no sniggering at the back, please) to appreciate the full meaning of the experience as a uniquely significant…
Dun Laoghaire Sees its Harbour in a New Light with the Return of the Dublin Bay 21s
31st July 2021 W M Nixon
There's something about the way that Steve Morris and his boat-building team in Kilrush are restoring the 1903-vintage Dublin Bay 21s that speaks to people with only a vague notion of the sea and sailing. The class association circled around…
Return of Dublin Bay 21s During Olympics Shows Sailing in Ireland is a Matter of Shared Interests
24th July 2021 W M Nixon
The start of the Sailing Olympics tomorrow (Sunday) at Enoshima, fifty kilometres from central Tokyo, may seem to be the beginning of a boat event about as different as humanly possible from the staging next Friday (July 30th) of an…
The Resurgent Glen Keelboat & Why Local One Design Sailing Classes Have Never Been More Relevant
17th July 2021 W M Nixon
The cherished local One-Design classes of Ireland have never been more relevant than they are now, in these crazy times of soaring-graph numbers when local is good. The expectation of staying local, while making do with fairly modest socialising and…
In Dun Laoghaire Harbour, the Sailing Show Goes On As the Ghost of the VDLR Haunts Foggy Dublin Bay
10th July 2021 W M Nixon
It has been said here before, but it's worth saying again – on Thursday evenings in normal times in summer, the Dublin Bay Sailing Club programme is so popular that the fleet out racing would be considered a splendid turnout…
It's a serious-looking big poster that they've had newly-displayed for the past three days on Howth Yacht Club's gable wall. But then, the prospect of Rob Dickson of Howth and Sean Waddilove of Skerries representing Ireland in the Tokyo Olympics…
The National YC's Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race of Wednesday, June 9th – just two days after such things became permissible on June 7th - may have been hailed here as "a spectacular pillar event to launch the 2021 Irish…
Carmel Winkelmann of Dun Laoghaire, who has died in her 93rd year, was a universe, a force of nature, and an indefatigable and resilient optimist who carved her own unique course through Irish sailing at every level for sixty years…
When the Royal Cork Yacht Club was undergoing one of its infusions of new life and ideas during the early 1840s in order to keep up the necessary levels of vitality in a remarkable organisation which dates back to the…
